Neopets Wearables: Guide to Customizing your Neopets on a Budget!

Customization on a Budget
Tips, Tricks, Items and Pics to make the most out of your Neopoint

Ahh... Customization. The word can make neo-veterans sick or NC mall fanatics cheer. But whether you refuse the dress up your pets or have all the latest NC mall outfits, the importance of customizing your pets is often underestimated. With the implementation of the NC mall, pet re-draws and continuous new wearables, customization is becoming an aspect of Neopets you can't ignore. Its priority with most users is already comparable to avatar collecting, trophies, earning neopoints, and so on... So when you stumble across an account with four teary-eyed and naked (or poorly dressed) pets, it significantly lowers the account's credibility and appeal.
...But by adding some cheap and well-though-out items to your pets, you can increase an account's credibility and appeal; potentially making a ABing shell appear more legit, reviving higher offers on pets/accounts for sale (Things that are more aesthetically pleasing can sell faster and even for more than they could have initially), and the list goes on.

BASICS

BACKGROUNDS: Backgrounds are the most important aspect of NP customization because, unlike the majority of other items, they are not overwhelmingly hideous. Backgrounds also fill the majority of the customization space, and a nice background can make a world of difference. When choosing a background, avoid patterned backgrounds and backgrounds that won't "fit" with other aspects well. Seek out a fair amount of detail, dark shades, rich colors, and low contrast.

(click spoiler for cheap, handsome backgrounds)

Waiting for Restock Background
~350 NP

Gormball Field Background
~ 500 NP

Buzzer Hive Background
~1,000 NP

Inside the Wishing Well Background
~1,000 NP

Ice Caves Background
~1,600 NP

Birthday in the Park Background
~2,000 NP

Fungus Cave Background
~2,300 NP

Piles of Apples Background
~2,500 NP

Underwater Net Background
~4,800 NP

Maths Nightmare Background
~5,000 NP

Moltara City Background
~5,000 NP

Brightvale Books Background
~5,500 NP

Field of Grass Background
~6,000 NP

Snowy Igloo Garage Sale Background
~6,000 NP

Cornucopia Background
~8,300 NP

Perfectly Flat Rock Quarry Background
~8,800 NP

Fancy Kitchen Background
~9,500 NP

Winter Landscape Background
~10,000 NP

FOREGROUNDS/GARLANDS: Foregrounds and garlands can take a normal neopoint background and enhance it almost to the point of neocash. Just remember, choose a foreground or garland that goes well with the other items or the background you chose!!

(click spoiler for cheap foregrounds and garlands)

Holiday Ghost Marshmallow Garland
~500 NP

Neovian Lamp Cut Out
~600 NP

Festival of Neggs Garland
~1,300 NP

Kelp Holiday Garland
~1,500 NP

Caution Tape Garland
~2,000 NP

Dangerous Waters Cut Out
~3,000 NP

Jungle Flower Garland Cut Out
~3,100 NP

Stately Tree Foreground
~4,000 NP

Snowball Fortress Foreground
~8,500 NP

Ice Garland
~10,000 NP

Tour of Mystery Garland
~10,000 NP

CLOTHS AND ACCESSORIES: Unlike the previous two, neopoint accessories DO NOT look great with abundant detail. When choosing these items, be sure to stick to a theme and keep an eye out for bold, simple, and clean items.
Also, there are many pet-specific clothes and accessories that look great and are often very inexpensive. Customizing a certain species? Search it! (See item database link below)

SOME SIMPLE IDEAS

COLOR
Customizing by color or tone are great ways to keep your pets simple yet aesthetically pleasing--Unfortunately, this is the cheapest and quickest method and it shows. There are not many bold and bright single color items of one color, so to maintain the full effect, I suggest that if you do one pet on the account using this method, remain consistent and do ALL your pets the same way.

In addition to the examples, colors can also be used is more than one shade or tone. Two other nice methods to use are using clothing items to contrast a rare pet's color, or try combinations of 2 other colors.

THEME
Theme-based customizations are often faster to create, cheaper, and more professional-looking than color based pets. Simply choose a theme (in my case, I chose snow and farmer) and scroll through the item database, keeping an eye out for items that may enhance your pet's customization

PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
Lastly, remember to play to your strengths! When choosing a customization theme or color, think about what would enhance your pet. For example; the ashia above was customized with light blue tones, creating contrast with the ashia's dark blue tones, but still complementing the color.
Every account comes with a FREE NC gift from the NC mall. (simply go to the NC mall front page to claim it) The chances of you receiving a background are fairly high, and NC background quality trumps neopoint backgrounds' tenfold. If you can, use your NC items.

HELPFUL TOOLS

Dress to Impress
Dress to Impress is a great website to plan customization! Basically it acts like the normal neopets closet, but it's filled with every wearable item and pet; allowing you to create a flash preview of your idea! It's easy to navigate: Simply select the color and species of the pet you want to preview, and then you can search items you want to try on!
Link: http://impress.openneo.net/

Jellyneo's Item Database
Jellyneo's Item Database is truly amazing: Looking for a cheap clothing item? Click the link below! Its filter will display all wearable non-NC items sorted by price! Looking for a specific color/species/item type? Just enter the phrase into the search box on the left! The parameters I set up will automatically be reintegrated into the search. (example: if you search 'background', it will show you all wearable non-NC items sorted by price with the word background in them.)
Link: http://items.jellyneo.net/index.php?...ems=75&ncoff=1

FREE ITEMS! (including wearables)
Burger King Canada Codes are still active, and 24 nice wearables are available from redeeming the codes.
YOUR COUNTRY MUST BE SET TO THE U.S. OR CANADA. If not, you may temporarily change it to redeem the codes if you want. Each code can be used UP TO EIGHT TIMES!! So if you don't get the item you're after the first time, try, try again. Just click the spoiler below for a list of the codes and items.
REDEEM CODES HERE: http://www.neopets.com/bk/?country_code=CA

(Click me! ... well, not me. But click they guy below me!)

Altador Code - A967