Is it worth buying them? I've been on this site for 10 years and I've never even bought one of those things once. Is it worth it to have one around?

My personal opinion.

Most R99s aren't worth that much these days and the random events are very rare.

You need the Repellent as well as the Trap to ensure you get the item every time (unless that's been changed). It will take you a very long time to get your sP back let alone make a profit.

Well, if you want the achievements for capturing lizards and/or taking their items, you need at least the trap. If you're not interested in the achievements, maybe?

With both the trap and spray, you're guaranteed to get whatever item the lizard shows up with in an RE, but because it's an RE there's no guarantee of how often you'll see a lizard, much less the chance that the item it's carrying is actually valuable. Depending on how often you're around and your luck with the RNG, it could take a while to make back the cost of the item/s

you get a limited amount of Random Events, they're time locked so you can't get too many at any one time, no matter how frantically you refresh.

Before you get either or both of these items, the number of REs you get that are "lizards coming by and taunting you neener neener neener" will be a larger part of your REs. That is to say, once the lizard minions see your trap/spray there in your Inventory, they will be much less likely to stop by.

It's true that the way that Subeta is set up a r99 item is way the heck worth less than anything r85-r98. That said, I still think they pay for themselves in terms of snagged goods. It's not even like the amount of sP that they cost is a big deal nowadays even if they don't (twelve years ago they were seriously pricey and site features giving out r99s were less common). This is like two days' worth of questing.

Even if you don't think you will get your money's-worth from buying them, reducing the amount of lizard-based REs will increase your odds of getting an RE that you do want.

In terms of peace of mind, I'd say yes. Not only do you get the lizard events less often, but you know when you do get them, you'll get the item. I've had both locked in my inventory for a while now and the lizard events don't bother me as they once did. Before, I always felt like I was missing out on something.

If they don't bother you now, they may not be worth it. I can't say how much I've gotten from the items, as I haven't kept track, so I don't know if they have paid for themselves in that manner or not.

Edited "more" to be "less"

I don't remember the last time I ever saw one of those events. I've had both locked in my inventory for years now. Never knew that decreased the chances of the events! o-o"

I've had like 5 lizard events in the last few days and all the lizards have been swiping basically worthless items (worth less than 100k) so I was like.... it's so pricy for the trap but these items are basically chump change. XD

Having less lizard minions might be worth the expense though...

Well, there is a tiered achievement so yeah. I got lucky and got a 4M beanbag that I managed to sell, but I keep them because achievement.

It's more of a peace of mind thing, definitely, but then I got a last week so :D Kind of depends on how much spare cash you have to be throwing around, I don't consider 5 mil to be much of a deal, easy enough to make back in several days you know?

Yes and no.

I'm still trying to nab the minions themselves for the achievement but they're zippy little creeps and avoid me every time.

I was wondering this myself too and I got both the items. They've not paid back themselves but I like to get a free random more expensive item every now and then, just for the surprise element :) If you do a few days of questing and selling you can easily make up the money lost by buying both the trap and spray.

you might have the wrong item in your Inventory. Only one of the two allows capture of the Minions themselves,
It's been so long I've forgotten which, I think it's the trap? You can't have both in Inventory because then you get the item instead and have no chance of getting a Minion.

The spray is 25 percent and the trap is fifty percent pretty high odds so finding out whether or not you have the right item should be figure-outable.

yes it's a snarky RE that way Without the LIzard Minions thinking that they have a chance to mess with you, you wouldn't notice them slithering sneakily around and therefore you (and apparently every single one of your pets) fail at your spot check for the rare item in the first place and walk right on by it. :) Subeta used to be more like that.