Need help figuring out how to best spend NC

[siniri]

My friend gave me a $10 NC gift card last Christmas, and so I now have 1450 NC to spend (150 of which expires in November). I have a beach-themed gallery because I love everything beach-related, but I missed out on the summer shop this year (I just redeemed the gift card today -- I meant to do it during the summer sale this year so I could use some this sale and finish it off at next year's sale... oops).

 

I'm completely overwhelmed by everything going on in the Mall. I do have a couple of free Shenanigift plays, a couple of gift boxes (and some gift box capsules, bought when they were on sale), a huebrew potion, and 1 FQ cookie (but my battle pet is on a quest/lab hiatus while I bring her HP to 3x level, and she's already 50 over the current max boosts, so I'm not sure I need to spend NC on training for her...).

 

I already spent the rest of my free NC game tokens (with some horrible luck -- I think I have two pairs of those hideous seashell tights, which makes me scared of the Wonderclaw beach machine).

 

There are a number of lovely retired beachy items that I didn't discover until they were gone. I have done NC trading a few times, quite a while ago, using free gift boxes (I think the most recent was for MME7, so quite a while ago). In terms of things to trade, it's mostly whatever I got free (I have just about every free item since the mall opened; some unopened, but mostly opened), plus a few things from the various games that I didn't particularly care for (or from opening a few gift box capsules). I noticed there's a NC archive cookie, so I could get some items from there... plus I guess I could buy more capsules. (Although I'm not completely clear on how the various games/wheels/archive cookies work, in terms of getting to pick a prize from a pool vs. randomly getting one...)

 

So... what's the best use of my NC? Should I try to trade for the old items I'm interested in? Wait for next year's summer shop and assume there will be enough things I like there? Do something completely different? If you had 150 NC to spend by mid-November, what would you buy?

 

Finally, do you have any beach/island/water- themed NC items to recommend?

 

(To get an idea of my taste, see this outfit. I'm a bit picky about things looking realistic -- I don't like backgrounds that have the sun rise from the same spot where it sets, or waves that defy the laws of physics... In addition to beach-themed items, I like really versatile items, like the cover of darkness foreground -- things that can create various light/dark effects.)

[maku]

For the 150NC that will expire next month, I'd buy one of those retiring halloween capsules as opening one might give you 2 retired halloween items (which may or may not be expensive NCwise. It's a gamble so be very careful of it). Another option would be to buy a faerie quest cookie. During the previous years, the NC mall had a black friday sale (which happens every november but I am not sure which day), you could wait until then and buy a GBC at a discount price of either 50% or 25%. Also, the NC mall sometimes have FQCs for sale for 50NC only. If you can hold the 150NC (assuming it won't expire yet) you can wait for those 50% FQCs. Those are the possible options (imo) are the best. But honestly, if I had 150 NC which will expire in the next hour, I'd either buy a retiring halloween capsule (and cross my fingers and toes) or Harvest Apple Foreground (because it will retire soon, it's pretty, and I can foresee that it will be valued at 2-3+ in the future)

 

As for the rest of your NC, save it for the halloween event tickets or the christmas event.

 

I dunno know exactly what type of islandy/beachy(lol) items you like but I have a TL here: http://items.jellyneo.net/mywishes/maku_side1/ if you want to look xD

[WhiteWolf]

A Faerie Quest Fortune Cookie is always a good way to spend 100 NC, and it helps your pets.

[siniri]

Thanks for the suggestions. Since my battle pet is already beyond the max boosts, I'm not sure how much a FQ cookie is really worth to me at this point (even with the refresh-quest boon -- her HP is plenty for the 1P plot-battling I do). I'm also a bit leery of gambling after my horrible luck with the random-NC generators (gift box capsules, various game tokens... I always seem to get unpopular, ugly stuff), but I see your point about buying things likely to inflate (so I can trade). And catching things during sales (I spent most of my on-hand NC during the GBC sale).

 

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll take a look at your trading list. Do you know of any current guides for approximate values of retired items? I guess I should start by seeing what I really want vs. how much NC/boxes/tradables I have, and then figure out how to optimize my trading for them.

 

P.S. I just did Expellibox and won -- so I now have 1600 NC! Woohoo!