Hi! When I started out/learned to trade up to rares I used the Rim method! It’s where you trade stuff for rims/rares and then trade those for clothing betas. After that, you trade the clothing betas for den betas! It might take a while but it’s how i was able to get an orange long and my first couple good rares. That’s my way of trading up! But i don’t really know any other good ways. Hope this helps!

At the state the game is in now more often then not I go through some adventures and trade away the items I get for at least a few rims or at most a few clothing betas. Return of the phantoms is a good adventure but for how much trouble you go through to not be guaranteed a rim, it'd likely be more valuable to do adventures with den item prizes. Additionally, the seasonal adventures always gain a bunch of worth (depends but still) due to some people not having the time to have been able to do it while it was there. I wish you the best of luck!

Also I'd recommend going to fashion shows and giveaways to gain worth!

You can try the rim to cb to den beta method but nowadays members don't like cbs or rims (some still do but its hard to come by) I think the most reliable method is to collect certain adventure items in bulk (eg. stone circles and boombseed trees) for den betas. Same thing goes for certain seasonal items (usually nature items)

I hate to say it but membership rlly makes it easier to gain worth nowadays (some ppl sell stuff for cheaper in dims). If you have time you can get 600 sapphs on ajpw to get a month membership, then buy a my shop and sell crafting crystals for 5 sapphs each to get a constant income of sapphs (what i do at least). You can also sell items but i dont bother since i have no clue abt worth and demand in ajpw. Another method is to cross trade ajpw items to ajc (assuming you know worth conversions and whatnot).