Is it possible to buy very popular NC items safely?

[fiora.fae]

Never bought NC items from third-party before and need some advice from someone experienced. If I buy something very popular

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, am I risking getting reported and frozen? Obviously I won't announce the fact that "I suddenly found" such a popular item. I mean if someone looks at my customizations and asks where I got the item from because I do trade occasionally on the boards.
Please give me some tips! Thanks!

[♥ PrettySarcastic ♥]

Never bought NC items from third-party before and need some advice from someone experienced. If I buy something very popular

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, am I risking getting reported and frozen? Obviously I won't announce the fact that "I suddenly found" such a popular item. I mean if someone looks at my customizations and asks where I got the item from because I do trade occasionally on the boards.
Please give me some tips! Thanks!

There's much less heightened risk to purchasing NC items as opposed to UC pets.

Because NC items are cash items, it's much harder for the user base to know how much real life cash you have invested into NC items unless you publicize your NC purchases (don't) or keep a highly public view of all your NC trades (don't).

In your case, keep the item on your inactive pet, so if someone goes snooping they specifically are scoping out your entire user lookup of pets, and if you're asked just say you had to trade a bunch of hard-to-part with items + GBCs after a long search.

But in my limited experience, people don't do the intense scrutiny of NC trades like they do on the PC.

Also I spoilered your exact item just in case it is exactly what you were seeking.

[fiora.fae]

That's what I thought too. But I've traded a bit on the board recently so some might remember my trade list is small and doesn't have any of those rare items. If I say I didn't include them on my trade list would that be convincing enough?
Maybe I'm being paranoid though after hearing how vicious PC'ers can be over UC pets...
(And thanks for the spoiler. It's not what I'm looking for but I appreciate it. I should do that next time.)

[Malarkey]

If you only have 1-5 cap items on your pets and get a big ticket item, some may raise an eyebrow but I've rarely ever seen someone ask how they got something. If you have a wide array of items on your pets and don't go flaunting your new item, you should be fine!

[Maths]

That's what I thought too. But I've traded a bit on the board recently so some might remember my trade list is small and doesn't have any of those rare items. If I say I didn't include them on my trade list would that be convincing enough?
Maybe I'm being paranoid though after hearing how vicious PC'ers can be over UC pets...
(And thanks for the spoiler. It's not what I'm looking for but I appreciate it. I should do that next time.)

I wouldn't worry about that. TLs change a lot and often for active traders. 100% custom trades are uncommon but they happen - it's not so rare to see someone trade 5000-6000NC custom for rarer items. I guess popping up with dozen of valuable items would /maybe/ seem suspicious, but to be honest in the 10 years I've done NC trading I've never seen someone act concerned about the items of someone.

I mean there are extreme lengths I wouldn't go to, like having a 1 week account with BBoBF, Eventide, 50+ caps items, etc. But for the most part NC trading is safe and rarely dangerous!

[Foxglove]

You would be fine to buy a big popular item like that and nobody will blink an eye. As long as you're not running to all your friends going "OMG LOOK AT WHAT I JUST GOT!!!" (something that'll obviously draw attention and then stir up natural follow-up questions like "Wow! What did you trade for it? ") then you'll be fine xD

- Plenty of NC trades are done completely out of the public's eye, via DTI (Dress to Impress) and neomail. In fact, the majority of NC trades are done that way.

- Furthermore, it's possible to trade for higher tier items by offering huge NC customs (just less common these days).

- Also, tons of people will completely hide away their best items on DTI/their tradeslists because those items are so HTPW (or just simply not UFT). I for one have a TON of popular and high tier items, but my actual tradelist is pretty crappy, the reason being that my good items aren't for trade.

- People don't really keep tabs on what people traded to get X item, EXCEPT for the sole intention of updating values for various desirable NC items. Generally speaking, they care more about the # value attributed to the value of an item as opposed to the items that were actually involved (although when arranging actual trades it gets a little more nuanced than that). However, people on the NCC aren't so snoopy that they'll neomail you to ask what you traded for X item.

- Also consider that with the NC Archives cookie, you can spend 225 NC and in a single spin get a super popular and cute HTF item (like Stunning Moon View BG, Ombre Cloud Garland, Big Doll Eyes Contacts, Amongst the Clouds Background, Sugary Jellybean Tree, Pastel Rose Tulle Dress, Crown of Flowers Spring Wig, Beautiful Green Painting Background, and TONs more) So it's def possible to legitimately build a really nice TL from scratch.


All reasons why someone with a not-super-amazing TL would also own good NC items (not that anyone on the NCC really cares or keeps track).

[Flordibel]

That's what I thought too. But I've traded a bit on the board recently so some might remember my trade list is small and doesn't have any of those rare items. If I say I didn't include them on my trade list would that be convincing enough?
Maybe I'm being paranoid though after hearing how vicious PC'ers can be over UC pets...
(And thanks for the spoiler. It's not what I'm looking for but I appreciate it. I should do that next time.)

You can always say you "had a hidden closet" or "hidden TL." Folks do that all the time. "I worked out a private trade" or "a NF was quitting."

Sometimes if I purchase a few high-ticket items at once, I'll send them to shells and wait for a while before transferring them to accounts, but - as PS said - NCCers don't typically care about how you got an item. They just want it.

Good luck!

---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

Also, tons of people will completely hide away their best items on DTI/their tradeslists because those items are so HTPW (or just simply not UFT). I for one have a TON of popular and high tier items, but my actual tradelist is pretty crappy, the reason being that my good items aren't for trade.

Mooooooood

[fiora.fae]

Thank you all. Would it be safe to have the item sent to my main then? My sides are too obviously linked to my main. Or would you recommend creating a side just for buying NC?

[Foxglove]

I find it's generally safe to just have items delivered straight to your main or side, whichever account you want the item to end up on I've seen people who do create sides/middleman accounts to preserve anonymity, but it's uncommon and not needed in my opinion.

- All NC items sent via gift boxes were, in the spirit of the game, intended to be purely gifts. Neopets itself doesn't endorse "trading values", or even "trades" really, everything is more looked at as an exchange of gifts between two people

- Even on the NCC people genuinely gift each other things ALL the time (there are even huge gifting boards where people post their wishes and receive gifts from kind strangers)

- And when trading legitimately on the NCC, it's very common for people to ask their trader to send items all over the place, be it to a side account, or to the main/side account of another person that they're trading with, or to a friend (and furthermore, people move items between their main and side accounts frequently); which explains why an account would be receiving items and not sending them out in return

^ Reasons why it's kind of hard to definitively distinguish if an NC item that was received was a gift vs. part of a trade vs. bought

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[Flordibel]

I find it's generally safe to just have items delivered straight to your main or side, whichever account you want the item to end up on I've seen people who do create sides/middleman accounts to preserve anonymity, but it's uncommon and not needed in my opinion.

- All NC items sent via gift boxes were, in the spirit of the game, intended to be purely gifts. Neopets itself doesn't endorse "trading values", or even "trades" really, everything is more looked at as an exchange of gifts between two people

- Even on the NCC people genuinely gift each other things ALL the time (there are even huge gifting boards where people post their wishes and receive gifts from kind strangers)

- And when trading legitimately on the NCC, it's very common for people to ask their trader to send items all over the place, be it to a side account, or to the main/side account of another person that they're trading with, or to a friend (and furthermore, people move items between their main and side accounts frequently); which explains why an account would be receiving items and not sending them out in return

^ Reasons why it's kind of hard to definitively distinguish if an NC item that was received was a gift vs. part of a trade vs. bought

For sure. I've had a massive trade with a user who asked me to send items to 3 or 4 different accounts.

Also keep in mind that if you're trying to send it to a "side" that you don't want to have any connection to your main, consider buying GBCs with an NC giftcard instead of linking the same credit card or PayPal that's on your main. (If you're going to do it that way - go "full cloaked" - you'd probably also want to invest in either a VPN or a static IP as well as using a different email address on that account.)

One Ck precaution would be if you DO choose to have the items sent to a side or main, clear out the sent/received private messages where you tell your seller where to send it. Heck, do that regularly anyway.