#i was trying to see where others got on the resale site or even on twitter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nickgerlich · 1 year

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Wear Oh Where

There’s a lot to be said for being the oldest child. Unless you have a same-sex cousin nearby a year or two older than you, then you’ll never have to suffer the indignity of wearing hand-me-downs. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, like being the only girl in a brood of boys, and so forth, but generally speaking, people like me were apex consumers when it came to the clothing food chain.

In other words, I played a big role in what my younger brother got to wear.

Of course, that was a long time ago, and any stigma of wearing or otherwise acquiring previously owned goods has worn off. In fact, it has become the new norm. “Gently-used” is now code for “bargain,” and we gladly buy used cars, cameras, electronics, furniture, and clothing from a variety of sources. Whether it is at Goodwill or franchised outlets like Plato’s Closet and Clothes Mentor, to CraigsList and Facebook Marketplace, to online resale shops like Poshmark and Depop we are gobbling up items that someone else took the big hit on first.

While the trend was firmly in place before the pandemic, now in its inflationary wake, we are seeing these places become more popular than ever. Competition has increased among sellers as demand has increased. If anything, it has caused prices of used items to remain steady or even higher, yet still much cheaper than buying new.

The relative ease of setting up a resale shop on Poshmark or Depop is fueling the fire. Clothing also passes through auction sites like eBay as well, where people can bid on everything from blouses and slacks to purses. Shoppers have not lost their desire to look fashionable; they’re just being fashionably frugal.

Clothing and footwear have been major contributors to the overall inflation rate in the last two years, especially since so many people have returned to their offices. Whereas the pandemic caused sales of professional clothing to sag precipitously, it’s now game-on as people try to cobble together stylish wardrobes on incomes that have not yet been adjusted for inflation.

For those who choose to set up long-term shops in these portals, the challenge is finding inventory to sell, and then making the right choices. It’s no different from any retailer, because inventory can become the bane of your existence. You must have it to make sales and profits, but it can also sink the ship if you get stuck with it.

Some sellers routinely do the garage sale circuit, peruse the changing racks of clothing at Goodwill, as well as watch for blowout sales at stores like Dillard’s. There can be golden nuggets hiding in plain sight if you know what to look for. Others buy returned items to vendors like Amazon.  

But there are other competitors in the room, notably Target and H&M, both of whom have launched partnerships with ThredUp. That’s another way of saying that resale has joined the big leagues.

In a world of fast fashion, though, one must wonder how many times some garments can change hands. If we’re talking about high-quality, higher-priced items, it might be possible for an item to have several owners over its useful life. But for garments produced in Asian sweatshops and purchased from vendors like Shein, you might be doing well to wear it and sell it once before the garment self-destructs.

Another important factor is fashion itself. Some items are timeless, like a men’s button-down collared shirt. But other items have very short shelf lives; that fashion-forward dress or shirt you buy this spring may be very dated come 2024.

All together, the resale market is consumers’ way of sending a signal to manufacturers and retailers alike: Your prices are high, and we cannot continue to just take it as if nothing has happened. Any stigmas once attached to hand-me-downs and otherwise used items is a non-starter. We’re good with it, and in fact, better off. Even my brother would agree.

Dr “Said The Man Who Hasn’t Bought A Brand New Vehicle Since 1991“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

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1ddiscourseoftheday · 3 years

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Fri 14 May ‘21

Tickets went on general sale for most of the new and larger Louis shows today, and disappeared just as quickly; most new dates, including the Wembley Arena show, sold out in minutes. Fans celebrated his success, but also begged for added/ even bigger shows as eager buyers everywhere were unable to get their hands on any tickets at all, with even Twitter (the platform itself) getting emotional and adding a sobbing emoji to the explanation of why he was trending; “louies around the world try to get their hands on a ticket for Louis Tomlinson’s rescheduled world tour, much of which is sold out.” It sure is! Italian and LATAM fans shared screenshots of the numbers of people queued ahead of them on sales sites and pointed out those numbers were enough to fill stadiums rather than just arenas; IDK if those site numbers are real, but with pretty much every tour show sold out it’s clear he can add more and sell those just fine too. There are a few gaps left in the dates and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some were left on purpose to allow them to add more dates later. His website has been updated with not only lots of new tour info, but also finally got rid of the lingering mentions of Sony entirely, nice.

The usually quiet Zayn is continuing to use his platform to be loud about the situation in Palestine: “I stand with the Palestinian people” he wrote, “My heart aches for the families who have lost loved ones. We can not stand as silent witnesses to children being orphaned and murdered and not demand for the human rights of all Palestinians! This must end. Free Palestine.” YES ZAYN!

Politically speaking I’m much less thrilled by a man in a cop uniform but as a fan there’s no question that Harry in full uniform doing high kicks and dancing around on set is QUALITY CONTENT! Filming filming filming, all day every day: today scenes with both Emma and David and featuring the police box where characters Tom and Patrick meet to snog, plus a scene that made book readers cry just to see it being filmed, two (2) cupcakes in one (1) out of character Harry hand, and video from yesterday of Harry just being his own ridiculous self yelling out the window of his of his ride at an outdoor workout class, omg. “Squat squat squat!” Harold WHY. He is in high spirits and good form these days it seems, which I can appreciate almost as much as the deeply Tumblr™ weirdness of my timeline being filled with pictures of Harry Styles ducking in and out of a Tardis for canoodling with his pretend boyfriend which are, bizarrely, not manips.

Meanwhile Niall was like “tell you that I’m promoting a new song without really promoting the new song? On it”, and sort of hinted vaguely about the upcoming collab; Anne Marie took the lead for today with a more active approach to getting it out there with a morning show appearance and a playlist ft Niall.

And today in ‘chain stores can see where the money is and they want it’, Target is running with their (supposedly) Harry and Louis scented candles and letting people know that’s a thing, and the second installment in Urban Outfitter’s limited 1D vinyls dropped today, a white vinyl 2xLP edition of Take Me Home; the first three albums never came out on vinyl originally and the others have been out of print for years so these have been a huge hit. Still not available in most regions until jacked up resales go live though, sorry :(

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chanstopher · 2 years

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I was just surfin some of the resale sites today and I’m like…I could try and get tickets for the 28th too…but my credit card is gonna be the shit out of me in 5 minutes and I just got told today I have to spend 500 to get my wisdom teeth out because now in my late 20s they decided that even though they were invited to the party they’re going to drink all the Tito’s AND casamigos, puke in the closet and smash a coffee table and need to be kicked out. Also I’m running out of people to dupe into going to Kpop concerts because none of my irl circle of friends like Kpop like my friend going with me the 29th doesn’t even know what’s going on. Also also I like kind of wanna try for TXT tickets but at this point somebody’s son needs to pay up because I’m too expensive for my own good

cndnsjs it’s so tempting to get tickets for both shows even though i cannotttt afford it, credit cards are not for the irresponsible ndjxjdnd but omg i Know i’m so mad everyone is touring at the sameeee time like i wanna see txt and tbz but svt has let it slip they’re planning a tour this year and they’re the other ult so i’m like 🙉🙉🙉 to anyone else cause i NEED to see them again more than anything in the world 😭 i wish it was like drop albums on year and tour a year where they don’t so my wallet could maybeeee take it 😭😭😭

#like every other kind of music spaces everything out why kpop gotta drown me?!?!?#drm.ask #bangchanies

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youngbloodlisk · 4 years

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Two Dresses // Ten

- Ten in a maid outfit

- female reader, also in a dress (hence the name)

- dom/sub themes

- a bit of sub ten but more dom ten

- oral, male rec

- mirror sex

- some hair pulling

- pull-out method (be smarter than a fanfiction and practice safe sex plz)

- some aftercare

@kxnkxmoon 😚

"Hey... is it too late to maybe... change our group costume plan?"

"Nooooo..." Sarcasm laces my roommate's voice "No, Halloween is just two days away and all of us have our costumes already except who? You."

"I'm sorry! It's surprisingly hard to find a maid costume. With maid costumes being trendy all of a sudden, they're sold out everywhere."

"Check a resale sight. Surely someone is trying to get rid of one... Oh, and filter by local pickup! You don't have time for shipping anymore."

"Fine..."

After a few hours of on-and-off searching through different sites, it's a page reload around 5pm that I finally find a listing.

Posted one hour ago, cheap, pickup in my area... but horrible photos. Bad angles, bad lighting, you can barely tell what the damn thing is. No description either. If the title didn't say "Maid Costume with Garters and Collar (Good Condition)", I wouldn't know that it was exactly what I was looking for.

But, that being said... it is exactly what I'm looking for... and it's here and available.

I message the seller to ease my nerves about the product before buying it.

"hey, do you have any other photos of the maid outfit?"

It's around thirty minutes later before I get a response from Mr. 1_0LeeCha.

"i can take some but i won't be home until tomorrow. work until late and im staying at a friend's house tonight to help him with something. i have a few from when i wore it at a work Halloween party last year that i can send in the meantime?"

"that would be awesome, thanks"

"sure one sec"

I wait a few minutes as the three typing dots remain on the screen, telling me that he's scrolling through his photos to send one.

My phone vibrates and I look back at my screen to see... something I did not expect to see.

A slender, fit body in a loose maid dress. The boy is on his knees in front of a mirror with his legs spread apart. The dress is pulled up to fully reveal the black lace garters on his thighs. The hand that isn't holding a phone is holding his dick through the fabric of the dress skirt. His face isn't visible in the photo, but his neck is stretched to the left to show off the black choker.

"OH NO no no no no no i'm so sorry i did not mean to send that one"

"lol it's okay, mistakes happen. to be fair it's still a pretty good photo of the dress. btw is that a wayv album behind you?? signed?? my roommate is a fan lol how did you get that?"

"it's a long story. im kinda close with Ten."

"my roommate says that's cool lol"

"haha yeah i guess. do you want the costume or do you still need more pics of it?"

"are the other pics gonna look like that one?"

"no!! fuck no i swear i wouldn't do that to you on purpose lol. btw i deep cleaned it after i took those photos dw"

"lol no worries i was just playing. i'll take it. pickup and pay in cash tomorrow?"

He agrees and sends me the address, telling me that any time works for him as it's his day off.

I get off work around 5pm the next day and set off straight from the diner towards his address, having no need to go home first.

It's a chilly, but thankfully short, walk in my classic blue waitress uniform.

I check the address about five times before I knock on the door, to make sure I don't show up at the wrong person's door asking for a maid costume...

That would be less than ideal.

I hear someone say, "No, no! I've got it! It's for me!" behind the door before it swings open.

"Hi! Maid costume?" The slender boy, with a body I recognize a bit too well now, cocks an eyebrow.

"That's me."

"You must be freezing out here. Come on in, it's up in my room. You can just follow me."

I nod and comply, following him inside. He closes the door and leads me down the hall to the correct room.

I recognize the dresser and window from the photo, as well as the angle of the mirror leaning against the wall by his door.

He notices the way I lightly chuckle upon recognizing the scene.

"Uh- yeah..." He laughs nervously, picking up the bag with the costume in it. "That's... embarrassing..."

"Why were you taking them anyway? Personal enjoyment?"

"Uh... long story... Listen, I'm really sorry about that-"

"I'm not."

His breath hitches and he hesitates to respond, seemingly wondering if I really just said what he thinks he heard.

"H-Huh?"

"I'm not sorry you sent it. It was pretty... and pretty hot." I take the bag out of his hand.

"Oh, really?" His head cocks to the side, his confidence returning.

Suddenly, it feels as if you could cut the sexual tension with a knife.

"Really. I wouldn't have minded if you HAD sent more, in fact."

"Oh? You liked it? You liked seeing me in that costume?" He boldly locks his hands behind my neck.

"I did..." I take the dress out of the bag, dropping the bag to the floor. I straighten the dress and hold it up to his body. "Do you wanna wear it one last time before saying goodbye to it? For me?"

He leans in, only an inch away from my face.

"You're still gonna buy it when we're done with whatever we're about to do, right?"

"Does it really matter?" I meet his lips for a moment.

When I pull away, he takes the dress out of my hands. He reaches down to pick up the bag which still holds the garters and choker, presses a finger to his lips playfully, and disappears into the connected bathroom.

I look around the room while I wait.

This guy has a lot more WayV albums, as well as NCT albums, all of which I recognize from my roommate's shelf.

He has a lot of books that look worn. No telling if he reads a lot or if he just bought them used...

I spot a framed photo on one of the dressers. It looks to be him and his friends (all male) in princess/similar costumes. All of them are smiling or making a funny face.

The guy I recognize looks to be in an Alice in Wonderland costume, which makes me wonder where that costume could be.

The bathroom door opens, calling my attention and making me turn around.

There he is, in that maid dress, leaning against the doorframe. He tosses the clothes he was previously wearing into the corner of the room.

I can't help but notice the orange and gray striped underwear in the pile of clothes.

"You look even prettier in person, especially now that I can see your face. I didn't expect a boy so pretty."

"Well I didn't expect you to be so pretty either... much less wearing a 50's diner waitress outfit. That's for work, right? Or did you get all dressed up to come see me?" He playfully saunters over to me and places his hands behind my neck again, in the same way they were before he changed clothes.

"Cute. And what do you do for a living?"

"Long story." He begins to close the gap between us again.

"You seem to be full of those."

"Maybe I'll explain them all next time."

"Are you implying you already want there to be a next time? We haven't even done anything yet, tiger. Are you really that needy?"

"Are you gonna keep running your mouth or are you gonna kiss me?"

Instead of responding either way, I grab his waist and turn us both around. I push him gently, but hard enough to make him fall back onto his bed.

I quickly crawl on top of him, hungrily attaching my lips to his and straddling him.

His hands run up my thighs and under my dress, resting on my hips.

Things escalate quickly as he presses his hips up, the maid skirt falling to expose his hardening cock, and he grinds against my underwear.

"So desperate, aren't you?" I quickly comment before returning to his lips.

He hums as an agreeing response.

I grind down onto him to create more friction which causes him to moan into my mouth.

I move from his lips to his jaw and slowly down his neck to his collarbone, all while still grinding roughly against his hard dick.

Soft moans leave the boy and his breathing gets progressively faster.

His shaking hand starts tugging my underwear down, and I stop and sit up to take them off for him.

Once the blue underwear are tossed into the corner with his clothes, I resume my previous action of grinding into him. This time, however, his cock is running through my folds, making me moan.

"Oh, it feels so... so good..." He chokes out, breathlessly, grabbing onto the sheets with both hands. "Please..."

He begins to rapidly buck his hips up, matching my grinding perfectly, until his body begins to shudder and his movements become jerky.

"I'm c-cl- I'm gonna-"

"Cum for me, sweetheart." I brush his hair out of his eyes, which gloss over as a sticky substance covers our respective dresses.

He catches his breath for a moment, but his energy returns fairly quickly. Good stamina, I assume.

I slow my movement on him, but continue to seek the friction his shaft was giving me, until he firmly grasps my hips and holds me still.

I can usually keep my cool, but this action definitely shocks me... especially when I look into his dark eyes.

"And w-what do you think you're doing?"

"I sub for my own benefit, not yours."

"That's actually not very subby of you."

"Your voice is shaking. That's actually not very dominant of you... but it makes sense. Did you think telling me to put on a maid costume meant you were gonna take full control?" He scoffs, swiftly flipping us over and pinning me under him. His bare knee slides between my thighs, pushing against my wet pussy, and he holds my wrists against the mattress on either side of my head. He leans down, his lips brushing against my ear as he whispers... "You're dreaming, honey."

His knee slowly rubs against me and I can feel the garter which is falling down his leg.

The lace brushes my clit as he moves, sending a shiver down my back.

He doesn't let me enjoy it for very long, however.

He gets off of me and stands up, telling me to get up as well.

I stand slightly confused, and extremely sexually frustrated, next to the bed as I watch him pull his white desk into the center of the room.

He pulls off the falling garter, and starts to take off the other one until I quickly tell him to stop.

I bend down on my knees in front of him and carefully take the lace between my teeth.

Looking up at him, he's practically drooling watching me slowly drag the garter down his leg with my teeth.

Once it reaches his ankle, I let go and he kicks it off to the side.

Before he can even speak, I lift up his dress and wrap my lips around his tip. His knees buckle for a moment at the sudden sensation.

He leans back, grabbing onto the edge of the desk behind him for support.

I take as much of him in my mouth as I can, almost on the verge of gagging, and try to handle the last part with my hand.

I can tell he's trying to resist the urge to grab me and fuck my mouth, so I try to make it worth it with the way I suck and lick and stroke him.

When I look up at him with innocent eyes, he shudders and pulls me off of him, also pulling me to my feet in the process.

"If you keep that up, I'll cum again... and I'm not cumming again unless it's because of your wet little pussy. So, bend over the desk."

As I follow his instruction, I realize what he did.

He placed the desk in front of the mirror. The same mirror from the photo which started all of this.

He positions himself behind me, flipping my skirt up and running a slender finger over my pussy.

"So wet..." He sticks that finger in his mouth and licks it clean. "And so delicious too."

He runs his finger through my folds a few more times and sucks them clean as he lines up and pushes into me.

The stretch burns in the best way possible.

I grip the edge of the table as he starts to rock his hips.

My back arches and my eyes shut tightly, but he tells to look in the mirror.

The way the mirror is angled, I'm able to see under the table and watch him fuck me. I watch him disappear inside of me and come back out, which only makes me realize more just how big he is and how deep he's reaching.

He places one hand on my hip and the other on my shoulder before he picks up his pace and starts to fuck me harder and faster.

I can't hold back my moans, feeling him so deep and watching it all happen in that mirror.

I notice his cocky smile.

He removes his hand from my shoulder and reaches down to rub my clit, causing my legs to start shaking. My orgasm starts to approach.

"Look at you..." He smirks at me, locking eyes with me in the mirror. "So pretty and getting ruined by a boy in a maid dress. I'm sure you expected this to go differently, didn't you?"

I let out a loud guttural moan and avert my eyes to the desk right under me, my head facing down.

"Baby, I can feel you clenching. Are you getting close?"

I shakily nod my head and feel his hand leave my clit for a moment as he takes a hold of hair at the root and pulls my head up to look at the mirror again.

"Watch it. Watch yourself cum all over my pretty cock."

He lets go of my hair, clearly expecting me to remain looking in the mirror, and he starts playing with my clit again.

My toes curl and I have a hard time keeping my head up as my orgasm finally rushes through my body. I clench around his dick and he helps me ride out my high before pulling out and jerking himself until he cums on the back of my uniform.

I feel almost limp as I lay across the table. My eyes are heavy, so I simply close them. I can't see anything that happens, but I can hear and feel that he goes to the bathroom and brings back a towel to wipe the cum off my clothes.

"Can you stand?" He asks gently.

I can, and better with someone to lean on, but my legs are a little shaky.

He uses the dampened part of the towel he got to wipe at the cum on the front of my clothes, before carefully having me sit on the edge of the bed.

He helps me pull the dress off of my sweaty body, tossing it to the pile of clothes.

"Wait here." He instructs, going into his closet.

He comes back with some comfortable looking sweats and hands them to me to wear.

I slowly dress myself and watch as he quickly changes his own clothes and then takes all the soiled clothes in his arms and leaves the room.

When he returns, the clothes in his hands have been replaced with a few bottles of water.

"Here, hydrate." He smiles, handing me one of the bottles. "I tossed the clothes in the wash. I hope you can stay for a bit, but if you can't then I can come bring you your clothes once they're dry-"

I don't miss the shining glint in his eye when I cut him off with:

"No, it's okay. I can stay for a while."

We both chug a couple bottles of water each before cuddling up in his bed to talk... which quickly turns into napping.

I wake up to a darker window than when I fell asleep, and I carefully pull myself away from the man to check the clock on the nightstand.

9:00PM.

I've been here for almost four hours, and asleep for almost three of them.

Quickly, a lot of thoughts come to mind.

One of us needs to put our clothes in the dryer.

I need to go home, I can't stay the night here.

Should I wake him?

As I watch his sleeping face, calmly breathing and mouth slightly open, I can't help but smile at how adorable he looks.

Before we cuddled up together, I placed my phone on the nightstand. I slowly and quietly pick it up, opening the camera and snapping a little photo of him.

I'll ask him when he wakes up if it's okay for me to keep it.

I brush a tuft of hair out of his face, which makes me remember when I did that same thing a few hours ago.

I feel my face heat up as I think back to what we did...

Around a half hour later, he's rudely woken up by his phone ringing.

Sleepily, he answers the call from a phone contact named "YangX2".

"What do you want?... Well, now I am... I don't know, uh-" He turns to me. "Are you planning to stay over?"

I shake my head, trying to be as polite as I can.

"She isn't... Yeah, I know... Obviously... Oh, thanks dude... Hey, that's mine!... I don't care that you found it, it was in my pants... Fine, if you've already spent it then-... Whatever... Yeah, thanks... Bye."

He hangs up and looks at me again.

"Good news and bad news. Good news, YangYang put the clothes in the dryer for us when the washing finished, so they're dry now. Bad news, he found money in my pants and bought him and Xiaojun some snacks at the convenience store."

I laugh with him about his stolen cash, which evolves into an awkward silence.

"Well, um... I should get going. My roommate hates being alone in our apartment at night."

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll go get all your clothes for you." He gets up out of the bed and rubs his eyes as he leaves the room.

I make sure I have my phone and my bag, as well as everything that's supposed to be in the bag, while I wait.

Far too soon, he's hugging me goodbye next to the taxi he called for me.

My load is lighter by a couple monetary bills and heavier by a (clean) maid costume.

"Oh! I almost forgot..." I take out my phone and pull up the photo I took of him sleeping. "You just looked so peaceful and cute... is that okay?"

A smile lights up his face, as if somebody taking a photo of him asleep is the cutest thing anyone's ever done in his eyes.

"Yeah, absolutely."

"Good. I'll... I'll see you around..." I trail off, realizing he never even told me his name.

"Yeah, I'll see you around..." He also trails off, probably realizing that I never gave him my name either.

We share a look, however.

A look that says that some things are better left a mystery.

I get in the cab and close the door, giving the driver the address of an apartment building just a couple blocks from where I actually live.

The moment I open the door to my apartment, I'm attacked.

"Where did you go? What happened? Are you okay? I thought you just had work until 5 and then picking up the costume. So, why didn't you get home until 10pm?!"

I explain everything.

Well, not everything of course... but the general things.

"Oh my goodness... was he cute? You said he stans NCT, of course he's cute. Do you have a photo of him?"

"Yeah, actually..." I pull up the adorable sleeping boy on my phone and show her.

Her eyes about pop out.

"TEN?!"

"Huh?"

"That's Ten! That's a member of WayV!"

"Wait- what?"

I suddenly remember what he said when I asked about the signed album in the photo.

"Kinda close with Ten" my ass...

#ciiikbwork #nct ten smut #wayv ten smut #superm ten smut #nct smut #wayv smut #superm smut

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brielarsonist · 3 years

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this is so random, but do you have any recs for decent carol danvers merch or where to buy any? i think i missed the quality window by three years, bc a lot of stuff that's available seems tacky, expensive, or sold out! no pressure to answer since this is so broad, but either way, thank you for all the pretty brie gifs ❤️💙💛

you may have missed the window for brand new merch for the first movie, BUT you can honestly find a lot of stuff on Ebay and other resale sites like Mercari.

also Kohl's has a ton of graphic tees too (link here), and sometimes they have sales, so maybe check back every so often if you're patient. and of course you can always check out Etsy or Redbubble or Society6 to see what people are selling there.

I also just got this blanket for Christmas from my brother, and I think you can still find some more Captain Marvel stuff on Amazon too.

and if you still can't find anything you like, The Marvels comes out next year, so we have all that new merch to look forward to! and possibly even if Carol is in Ms Marvel this year, we might get more merch then, but who knows!

and honestly I look out for Captain Marvel merch basically anywhere I go, because marvel/disney is always trying to take our money, so sometimes new little things pop up. like around back to school time, I found a bunch of school supplies at Target with a little cartoon Carol featured on them (yeah they were tacky, but I still bought a pencil pouch lol).

good luck on your merch search! sorry if none of this was helpful, but I hope you can find something you like!

#ask #anonymous #I'll talk about captain marvel merch anytime

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chaos-and-recover · 5 years

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Let’s all hug it out and not stress about getting tickets tomorrow

Hi! I know we’re all hype as hell about My Chem being back and also anxious as fuck about the North American tour going on sale tomorrow, but let me tell you a few things, based on two decades of buying concert tickets and 14 years of selling them, including 4 at one of the arenas they’re playing on this tour.

1. There are no presales*, and that’s great for us.

Most tours these days have at least a fanclub presale, some have fanclub and LiveNation and Facebook and credit card restricted (think Amex Front-Of-The-Line or Citi card) like 4 different radio station presales. Each of these presales has an allotment of tickets, which takes away from what’s actually available by the public onsale. They also create more stress for us, and usually aren’t even all that exclusive if you know ANYTHING about the band (the passwords are so, so often just the name of the latest album or the name of their biggest song, try it for your favourite band next time, you’ll be surprised how often it works). But there aren’t any* for MCR! And that’s excellent! We’re looking at full capacities (minus various contractual holds) being available starting tomorrow.

*Not including PSL offers for certain season seat holders for whichever NHL or NBA team plays in that venue. Mine offers some premium season seat owners to purchase their seats for concerts ahead of the general public, but only premium seats, and only some, based on their season ticket contract and whether that’s grandfathered into it.

2. It won’t sell out immediately. They’ll tell you it will. Don’t believe it.

Tomorrow, once you’re in Ticketmaster and have gone through the queue, you might get a page that tells you there are no tickets available. Do not exit Ticketmaster. Refresh the page! Once you’re through the queue, you will actually have a certain number of re-directs you’re allowed before you’re kicked back into the line. No tickets available do not mean they’ve all sold, it means a) there’s a problem with the site (lol) or b) they’re all in other people’s carts. Not all of those people will complete their sales. Cards get rejected. People forget passwords (for the love of GOD log into your TM account before you do ANYTHING. Make sure your card info is up to date and that you have enough money on it. Save yourself the disappointment). Carts timeout and systems crash. Sucks for those people! Now their tickets are back out there for you.

The radio and news and social media is all gonna say “Sold out in 3 minutes!” This is a bold-faced lie. I recently bought tickets during a presale after spending about 5 minutes in the queue, completing my sale 10 minutes after the presale opened, and then hearing for DAYS about how the presale sold out in 90 seconds. Obviously the fuck it didn’t.

Speaking of the queue, I can only imagine you’re gonna get stuck in one tomorrow. If you don’t buy a lot of tickets or haven’t bought a ticket to a high-traffic show in a minute, you might not know what the queue is. It’s a virtual system for managing traffic to the Ticketmaster site so their servers aren’t overloaded. If you click Buy Tickets before noon, you’ll get sent to a virtual waiting room. At noon, the queue will open and you’ll be randomly assigned a place in line -- it literally doesn’t matter when you join the waiting room. You could get there at 11:59 and end up closer to the front of the line than someone who went on as soon as the waiting room opened (usually 1/2-1hr before on-sale). Don’t stress about it.

3. Don’t panic and fuck up your purchase

If you get tickets you want, you have like 10 minutes to complete your purchase. Doesn’t sound like a lot but, honestly, it is. Just go slow. Make sure you fill everything out properly. Better yet, if you have credit card information saved on your TM account, it’s even faster. Keep an eye on that lil clock in the corner, but take your time.

And don’t waste your money protecting your purchase, it’s almost impossible to get a refund through that if you can’t go, don’t bother. Just sell your tickets.

4. On that note, don’t buy third party

It’s possible that I’m wrong and it’ll sell out (or appear to sell out) in a matter of minutes. Don’t go running to Stubhub or Seatgeek or Viagogo or wherever else the kids are buying tickets these days. Your seats are not guaranteed. They aren’t ‘yours.’ You might get turned away at the venue because someone else came with the same tickets and already went inside, or the owner transferred them to someone else after you bought them and now yours aren’t valid. Usually, when you buy a concert ticket on a third party site, what you’re getting is a PDF that the original owner downloaded and then posted. They still have full control over the ticket and they can do that as many times as they want, or transfer it out of their account. Whoever’s name is on the account in the primary ticketing system is who owns that ticket. It won’t matter to the venue staff how much you spent or where you got it. If your name isn’t on the account they can see, they can’t help you.

You’re also gonna be paying exorbitant markups, and I very much do not recommend that. Every few years someone tries to find a way to keep scalpers from getting tickets, and it never works. The only way to stop ticket brokers and resellers is if people just stop fuckin buying from them. So don’t do it.

But if you must go third-party, insist that the seller transfers the ticket to you through Ticketmaster (or LiveNation). Do not buy from some rando on Facebook or whatever who won’t transfer it. On that note, be skeptical of randos on social media selling tickets because they “can’t go.” Check event pages for other dates, or other events in your area. I guarantee you’ll find the same names offering tickets for sale because they can’t go. Don’t buy from them.

Buy Verified Resale through Ticketmaster if you have to, but because then the ticket is transferred to you and you’re protected (you can still get turned away if the original account was flagged for fraud, but you’ll get your money back). You’ll still be paying absurd markups plus higher-than-normal Ticketmaster fees. Don’t let ‘em get you twice.

5. Be patient. “Sold out” never means sold out.

Here’s a tip that’ll come in handy for every show you go to for the rest of your life: We, as box office staff, can almost never use the phrase “sold out.” We’ll tell you there are no tickets available, but not that it’s sold out. Because it isn’t. So if you can’t get tickets tomorrow, or even just can’t get seats you’re happy with, don’t run to the third parties. Just relax, be patient, be happy for your friends who did get tickets, and then bide your time.

Tickets, sometimes entire sections worth of them, are held back from sale all the time. Some of those are for guest list, radio contests, promotions, and whatever else. If they’re not used, they’ll go up for sale, because why not get the butts in the seats? There are also production kills that are held back until the tour actually goes into production, sometimes right up until load-in when the roadies start building the set and then the promoter realizes, oh shit, that section right on the side there? It’s not actually blocked! It’s got a killer view! Let’s sell those seats!

I’ve scored some of the best seats I’ve ever had at big shows the day before.

They’re always really conservative about what gets put up for sale because it’s easier to sell them later than to find relocations for seats you sold and then realized they’re obstructed (ask me about the nightmare that was Maroon 5′s last tour some time (:)

Artist tickets probably won’t get released until, like, an hour before gates open, and I’d be surprised if many shows had any left since everyone and their uncle will come crawling out of the woodwork asking for tickets, but you never know.

tl;dr, don’t get too worked up over the on-sale tomorrow. Be patient. Be calm. We’ll get through this together, and we’ll all be able to see My Chem without lining the pockets of rich-ass ticket brokers.

#lining the pockets of LN/TM is another matter #one I don't have a solution to unfortunately #my chemical romance #mcr #mcrxx

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siodium · 4 years

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REVIEW: BURIED STARS ☆

came across this korean mystery vn and i knew i had to get it bc someone commented that it had a similar feel to danganronpa/zero escape O: seems like i have a type

i usually don’t prefer to get digital copies of games but there was really no choice... i heard the physical copy is sold out in korea and resales are going for 200 USD ain’t nobody got money for that

i don’t think anyone i know is gonna purchase this game and play for themselves and i can’t share the game either bc it’s a digital copy sooo i’m gonna write a review~ please enjoy!!

basically the plot goes as such: the survival reality tv show Buried Stars was about to commence the finals of its current season with the remaining five contestants when the building suddenly collapses. most of the audience and staff members were safely evacuated except for seven ppl (the five contestants and two staff members) who are trapped in the wreckage with just their smartwatches that connects them to the outside world via calls (problematic bc they can only call a restricted number of ppl and the signal inside is shit) and phater (bootleg twitter). after trying to make some calls, everyone was then told that the rescue team would take around six hours to break into the collapsed building to get them out.

ok so they just have to wait it out... in an unstable building that can come down at any moment. cool.

then!!! they find the producer’s dead body, seemingly a victim to the falling debris!! they’re down to six survivors now.

despite the circumstances, voting is still ongoing and some rando on phater claims that the contestant in the last place will die as if the atmosphere wasn’t bad enough.

this is your smartwatch interface!! most of the functions are pretty useless with regards to the actual gameplay but it’s just fun to play around with them i guess

for e.g. you can change the background and ringtone but they don’t affect anything

there’s this feature that keeps track of changes that occur when you pick certain conversation topics during communication rounds and it’s really useful for replays!! too bad it doesn’t keep track of sanity changes in mc

this is the mc!! even though he looks like he would be a tsundere punk he’s actually very soft?? kinda like saihara but with a bit more spine

AND THIS IS MY BEST BOI GYU-HYUK

i lowkey ship them bc of their interactions alsjdkasjs jUST LOOK AT THIS

i was expecting there to be a lot of mysteries but given the circumstances i guess it makes sense to not have that many... there’s no murder mystery if it happened in an accident site and looked like an accident you see

a lot of conversation topics focus on the character’s backstory and stuff so you get to learn more about the characters while waiting for rescue (one of the goals of this game is actually to collect characters’ profiles!)

bonding through a shared traumatic experience sounds reasonable

did i mention that the cutscenes are fully voiced (either in korean or japanese depending on your preference)?? i played it in korean for my first gameplay for ~Optimal Experience~ but i switched to japanese in subsequent plays bc i wanted to be able to understand what the characters were saying without reading the text

the only thing that throws me off is that characters are given japanese names in the japanese dub but the in-game text still uses their korean names??? why

my boi gyu-hyuk is voiced by takuya eguchi and hyesung is voiced by shimono hiro (i actually doubted my ears at first bc hyesung sounds angry 24/7 and i only know shimono’s derpy zenitsu and troll ouma voices sweats;;) wOW 👍👍👍

the first ending is the same for everyone even if you picked the best options

they call it a “normal end” but tbh it’s a bad end bc everyone dies and nothing is resolved

after you clear the game for the first time you will get to replay from the start but your options will change so you can proceed towards other routes!! yay

oh yeah in case anyone is wondering this game is rated T and bodies are shown in the form of a silhouette with non-explicit close-ups during investigation so if you can’t handle graphic stuff it’s not too bad

warning: from here on there will be spoilers for the true ending and other endings!! stop scrolling if you have even the slightest intention to play the game

collected all the endings after 30ish hours of gameplay!! i wanted to strive for 100% completion in achievements but i’m not sure how to get some stuff... might go back and try other options in the future

in the true route you receive help from this random phater user plughole aND I JUST LOVE THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HIM AND DO-YOON LMAO

idk if anyone tried to guess who the real culprit is but it turned out to be

my boi gyu-hyuk......

he had his reasons (not trying to say he did no wrong) and it’s just unfortunate that things turned out this way

while playing, i thought to myself... if there was one person i would glue do-yoon to throughout the entire game it would be gyu-hyuk... bc i was certain he wouldn’t hurt do-yoon

i was right tho... even in some routes where do-yoon catches him in the act, gyu-hyuk didn’t try to silence him

CRYING

i don’t know much about korean law but he has THREE murder charges on him whicH SOUNDS LIKE DEATH SENTENCE

i’m sad bc there’s no way to save my boi even in his best ending

plughole visits you in the hospital in the true ending!! he is also a troll irl it seems

he was kinda sus in the beginning but i really hoped that he was a Good Guy to keep do-yoon sane in the wreckage

and i’m glad he was

do-yoon looks super baby in his hospital clothes

he was not kidding when he said that his actions were bc of his sister (who is a hardcore fan of do-yoon) lmao

aaa the girls are doing great after their treatment!! they visit do-yoon too!!

yeah i also want to know why do-yoon is the only one still hospitalised with all those bandages when everyone else is fine but i guess maybe he got injured when he protected gyu-hyuk from falling debris at the start of the game

...

if you don’t find out the true culprit of the murders gyu-hyuk goes free and he visits you every day in the hospital aND SAYS STUFF LIKE THIS

ugh it hurts me

...

there’s also a joke ending (when you pick the “i’m the attacker” option lmao) which i appreciate a lot!! something to lighten the tense mood is what i crave for in games like this

somehow i feel like it’s even scarier than the usual atmosphere bc of how ooc everyone acts

BUT YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S REALLY SCARY?

there’s a horror route that you can enter by using the “laboratory” conversation topic on everyone and expressing how much it creeps you out

and the entire game shifts in genre to actual horror (like with paranormal activities)

IT WAS REALLY SCARY AND THERE WERE HANDS EVERYWHERE AND EVERYONE WAS ACTING WEIRD ASLJELKASJ i had my eyes closed half the time and i regret playing on my monitor

i didn’t take many screenshots bc as i mentioned my eyes were not looking at the screen for most part but i hope that you can kinda understand where i’m coming from with these two screenshots

...

the game is actually split into two major routes (A and B) which differ in who gets saved and who dies

you can only start on the B route after you get the true ending which is in the A route

unfortunately there is no route where everyone (even if you exclude the producer bc she dies before do-yoon regains consciousness at the start of the game) survives TT

if hyesung and seil survive then gyu-hyuk kills himself and leaves a note but do-yoon tears it up so we don’t know what he wrote

overall a solid mystery vn with beautiful graphics and enough routes to keep you occupied for many hours!! i highly recommend following a walkthrough bc it’s not an easy game if you want to collect all the possible endings and achievements

cuz there are minor changes to the epilogue depending on how close you are with the characters

i actually don’t play a lot of VNs but i feel like all VNs need the route map thingy in AI: the somnium files

my only gripe about this game is prob the derpy translations which usually isn’t a big issue (imo at least) but for a game priced this high?? i expected better

anyway that’s all from me!! thanks for reading til the end hahah i wanted to write a srs review but i just ended up simping for gyu-hyuk

#log #this is peak c*vid content

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homeremodelingatlanta7b · 4 years

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Determining a Kitchen Remodeling Budget

Basement remodeling atlanta

It is very important to find out a financial budget for virtually any do it yourself project, and kitchen remodeling isn't exception.

A thing of caution: I spent hrs researching kitchen remodeling cost and budgeting online to accumulate data with this article. I ran into a few websites that gave size pricing for kitchen remodeling. Although I commiserate using look for an easy approach to determine remodeling pricing, this kind of advice just isn't based in reality. Remodeling jobs normally are so specific to the conditions of the building and tastes from the homeowner that no square footage pricing is ever going to starting point. I additionally encountered many sites that didn't offer you any real information about establishing a budget but basically interpreted Hanley Wood's Remodeling Cost vs. Value report that's published annually. You happen to be far better off going to the Cost vs. Value report on the web and evaluating the final results yourself.

home remodeling marietta

Like other things in this world a kitchen remodel will cost more than you thought it would and the sky's the limit about what it can cost determined by your preferences. You can find multiple factors that go into determining a remodeling budget.

There are numerous places online you can check out help you establish a basic budget number to start with. Our recommendation is Remodeling Magazine's Cost vs. Value Report which is released by region and major city each year. The truly nice thing about this report would it be provides description from the "average" project to help you gauge in case your kitchen remodel is going to fall above or below the benchmark. Furthermore, i find their average pricing to be an exact reflection in the pricing for our company, so by recommending to clients before I even talk to them that they can investigate this report they are prone to begin a realistic budget we could work within to present them an incredible kitchen.

Custom Hutch designed with Semi-Custom Cabinets

While Remodeling Magazine's report is quite helpful, it is a very one size fits all method of establishing a budget. Continue reading if you want to try to hone your numbers a little.

Escape a pad and paper and jot down several notes about each factor along the way through their list:

Factor 1 Home Value- Consider not merely how you feel your home is worth, but also the price of similar homes where you live that curently have updates. The best site to check home values is zillow.com, simply enter your address and you also have an interactive map with home along with other information listed right on the map. Pay attention to which homes are of similar size to yours, happen to be purchased recently, but have a higher value, then peek in their windows to determine exactly what the house looks like. Ok, seriously, I became only kidding. Should you not know them perhaps it's time to meet the neighbors and ask for a simple tour.

Factor 2 Wow! - It is everything to use your primary goal and motivations. Write down each motivational factor which can be crucial that you you in the kitchen remodel. Here are several possible examples: Kitchen is falling apart. You want to cook and the layout doesn't suit you. You love to entertain and want to start living rooms like a place to gather. You need a kitchen that wows your guests. You get able to sell your own home and also the kitchen is really a sticking point with buyers... Now that you have your list, determine what motivations are most important and relist them in motivational order. Imagining your financial allowance beginning in "the middle" pay attention to which factors might move the budget up or down...i.e. attempting to remodel to encourage sales might slowly move the budget down, remodeling to wow guest might max it...etc.

Factor 3 Did someone say AGA? - List any "must haves" for a kitchen remodel to become worth the cost to you personally. Possible examples: granite counters, a tropical with an extra sink, an extra dishwasher, an advert quality gas range, etc.

Factor 4 Longevity- Determine to the best of what you can do the length of time you intend on owning the home.

Factor 5 Size Matters- Determine what amount of your property your kitchen encompasses. A sampling well over 100 modern home floorplans of 1000 to 3000 square feet homes revealed the average kitchen size to be 7% from the home's sq footage. If your kitchen is greater or smaller than this average you might need to decrease or increase your allowance accordingly.

Factor 6 Layout- should you may have learned you're going to want the sink moved, hawaiian isle sink added, an enclosed wall moved plus an exterior door added, you will want to add money on your budget well past such a basic facelift would cost.

Tricky layout: the decorative column conceals a sound wrapped drain pipe

Factor 7 Funding- Determine the maximum amount money you could manage to spend. If you're financing your project you are able to calculate such a lender will likely lend you. Lenders are interested in a personal debt to income ratio(DTI) of.36 or less. Your DTI is established by taking all of your monthly debt obligations (credit card payments, automobile financing, mortgage, etc.) and dividing from your monthly income. To discover your maximum safe monthly debt multiply.36 times your monthly income. Now subtract your existing monthly debt out of this number and you've got a monthly budget maximum. Here is a connect to a calculator that will perform the math for you personally: mortgage calculator

Putting it All Together

The key to managing your finances are choosing the amount of your home's value you should use being a budget guideline. While researching this article I discovered recommendations to make use of percentages starting from 10% to 25% of home value. For any kitchen remodel of any substance that features new flooring, appliances, cabinets, sink/faucet, lighting and bringing electric approximately code I have discovered anything below 15% to become very dubious number. I guess on a million dollar house 10% will be a workable budget, but on the 200k house a 20k affordability is marginal at the best for the complete kitchen remodel.

If resale value is very important for your requirements it is wise to keept the cost of your home renovation project within 20% of the present worth of your home. Staying within this range insures that the majority of the brand new kitchen's price is recouped in increased home value immediately, and the remaining cost must be recouped within 5 years because your home appreciates.

Ok, let's put into practice one example. Remember, there is no exact formula here. We have been simply doing good to become as informed as you possibly can and create a wise decision about how exactly much to spend on the kitchen remodel.

For the example let's use the house. It's a 50's cape cod with a modest square footage of 1500.

Factor 1 value: Zillow provides me with an estimated price of $167,500, however, I notice zillow hasn't yet updated and taken into account the single homes which are recently integrated the sector behind us with a starting expense of $270k. Zillow also has our square footage listed at under 1200. Looks like the previous owner did a bit remodeling with no permit. I am going to base my budget with a expense of 180k which is similar to other houses locally which might be exactly the same size.

Factor 2 Goals: My family and i want to entertain guests. To create a kitchen remodel worthwhile for all of us we must lose an interior wall to spread out up the kitchen and dining nook on the family area. I am going to add 1% to plan for this.

Factor 3 Most important items: As being a former chef two most important items for me personally are a new oven as well as a really nice propane range(no gas main service here), preferably an advertisement range modified for your kitchen at home (real commercial ranges lack insulation throughout the oven, critical for home safety). I am going to add another 1% to my budget to make certain there's enough money to acquire me my range and propane installation.

Factor 4 Longevity: We plan to be in the house at the very least 4 years. Generally of thumb it will take Five years for most remodeling to achieve and recoup all of its cost. Because we will probably be at least Five years I'm not gonna penalize the budget, consider there's a good chance we'll move right around Five years That's not me gonna increase it like I might whenever we were staying considerably longer.

Factor 5 Size Kitchen: The kitchen at home is approximately 140SquareFeet(SF). That's over 9% of the SF of your home, 2% excellent. Obviously this kitchen is going to require some extra material and cabinets. I'll in the budget 1% with this, I am hoping it's enough.

Factor 6 Layout: We are going to customize the layout of our kitchen pretty extensively. We currently use a cooktop peninsula. The product range will probably use a differnet wall as well as the dishwasher will move to the peninsula, though organic beef ditch the peninsula, slowly move the fridge and add hawaiian isle instead. About the only stuff that won't move may be the sink. I will add another 1% to my budget, again hoping $1800 (1% individuals 180k value) is enough to cover the electrical and plumbing changes.

In my base I am going to use 20%. Because i mentioned earlier on, you'll find gonna be people who will argue with me on that, but going lower often doesn't leave you with workable budget numbers for full blown kitchen remodels. I'm adding 4% according to my factors in the above list. I adjusted my zillow.com estimated home value to 180k depending on the comparable size and value of other homes around me. This provides me a working budget of 24% x 180k= $43,200 When I match it up to the Cost Vs. Value report I see that in the centre Atlantic Region an important Kitchen Renovation is $59, 098. It looks like my budget could be bit low, especially since i have really would really like granite countertops along with the Cost Vs. Value specs necessitate laminate tops. Conversely the kitchen at home is really a lot small compared to their 200SF benchmark, i really think I'll opt for my budget number and discover what my contractor can perform personally because budget.

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colourpopme · 4 years

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Finally completed my Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Collection!!!

New Post has been published on Colourpop Swatch Gallery

Finally completed my Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Collection!!!

EVERY SUPER SHOCK SHADOW

How this came to be….

That one time Colourpop decided to help me get closer to completing my collection…

In late 2017 I decided to start trying to collect all of the super shocks that Colourpop had released and swatch them because you couldn’t always find swatches of discontinued shades. I started slowly buying existing shades on the colourpop site, stalking sales here on Facebook, resale apps like mercari, and even did some swapping on swapidu when it was still going. A lot of shades I barely paid anything for, some I paid retail, some I spent way more than what the sss retailed for, I even got a random package from Colourpop after posting my ISO list on Instagram in the summer of 2018. They messaged me asking for my address and the next day I had an overnight package from Colourpop with a handwritten note from Laura, and about 30 super shock shadows. A lot that were no longer for sale. Even 3 extremely hard to find shades. I even got about 3 or 4 master copies of those shades.

Untitled – The Hideous Tie Dye.

By November 2018 I was down to only needing 3 super shock shadows to complete my collection. Including one shade, that I think only a handful even exist, an unnamed (hideous) tie dye. At this point I figured I’d never get it so I didn’t count it anymore but come February of 2019 my friend ended up coming across one and she sold it to me for a decent price!

MEET UP

December of 2019 one (juicer) of the last two shades I needed popped up on mercari for cheap and I missed it by like 3 minutes. Omg I was salty for like weeks after that. 😂 In the middle of January 2020 the other shade (meet up) I needed popped up in a dirt cheap lot of Poshmark. I was able to snatch that up quick.

JUICER

Every day, multiple times a day, for almost three years I have been stalking the resale apps looking for these super Shock shadows. I was beginning to think I would never complete my sss collection. A couple of weeks ago a friend in the UK, who I have helped with building her collection, messaged me asking if I still needed juicer. Turns out she’s getting married next year and has decided to start selling her makeup collection off. She had juicer and she knew I still needed it. I helped her a bit as she got her sales post ready to sell off her collection. Letting her know what I thought certain shades are worth, sending some UK people I knew who were collecting, etc. and in return she sent me juicer. 💛💛💛💛 It arrived yesterday and now my super shock shadow collection is now complete.

I took every single shade out and took a photo of them all. All 410 super shocks. Though after I took the photo I realized there is a double in the photo somewhere. Not sure where 😂 there are 411 pictures. I actually have doubles of a few shades and I thought I got them all out but apparently not. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Also, I have swatched every single one and you can view alllllllll the swatches here: Super Shock Shadow Swatches! I also post Colourpop swatched every time I get my purchases from the Colourpop releases (no, not on PR.) and they are available to see on here my site as well.

#collection #colourpop #complete #MY collection #super shock shadows

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 6 years

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today was the first day actually bringing Hazy to dog training and it went...okay? but it was still stressful for both of us and I’m still overwhelmed by how much I don’t know and the homework I need to do and how I can scale what I’m learning to environments where she goes from zero to YELL too fast for me to catch her at the beginning. also I’m tired because I did everything right and got to bed at a good time and spent almost 9 hours in bed but also woke up early for no reason. and now I need to do lots of things but my brain’s just like “nope, we did one thing today already, we’re closed now, literally anything else is overwhelming”

but just aside from all the things I need to do at some point that keep getting put off (various projects, reorganizing my room, finally listing stuff on eBay so I can get rid of it, buying the last computer parts I need to upgrade, organizing my goddamn backups so I can upgrade when I get the parts, organizing my goddamn files in general because nearly everything I’ve written in the last 3+ years is a mess, saving stuff I might want from Tumblr, working on Alaska Gothic, going through my books, unfucking my Tumblr description, unfucking iTunes, finishing and posting stuff in my drafts folder, putting nice stickers on my planner and new netbook, figuring out an inventory solution for the ludicrous amount of Funko figures I have for parts and/or resale, finding a goddamn therapist so that maybe I can get my brain to function better, etc. etc. etc.), I should really

read today’s dog-training handout so I at least know what the homework is

work with Hazy on...something...?? fuck me I don’t know, I guess I need to work on reliably capturing her attention when I say her name, and probably also “leave it,” but did I mention I don’t fucking know what I’m doing

figure out a journal method for her reactions to stuff, which I should have started a week ago and didn’t because I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to do it, so I guess I need to experiment with the apps/sites I found

also, find more/better treats, because what I used today was gross

call my legislators about *gestures vaguely at everything but especially the bullshit national emergency declaration*

call or write to my state legislators about Dunleavy’s bullshit budget proposal

call the dealership where I got my car to see if I have any remaining free oil changes, because they confused me

email CNN to ask why the fuck they’re paying so much attention to Howard Schultz

fucking...write a quick post about Stuff I DId In 2018, it’s the middle of February, this is ridiculous (but there were a lot of firsts in 2018 so that’s why I still want to write it down)

take silly action figure photos

send the thing to the life insurance company!! it’s worth $50!! just fucking do it!!!

put together the cat tree, or anyway see if it’s going to work because if not I should try to return it and order a different one

semi-related: try to figure out ways to get my cat to drink more water, because urinalysis shows he does not have kidney issues like the vet thought he might based on his blood work but also he’s probably somewhat dehydrated

type notebooks!! for fuck’s sake!!! there’s at least one fic I think is fairly close to being done but I don’t know because it’s not all in one place! and several others that I can’t really work on for basically the same reason! and then maybe I could even write something!

finish my Avengers Academy custom figures. for fuck’s sake.

buy Nendoroid Loki because fuck it (also, try not to be too irritated with myself for not buying the PS4 Spider-Man bundle when it was $200 during the holidays, which is at least $100 less than what it’s going for now, and I keep finding free PS4 games I’d like to try but can’t--honestly the smart thing would be to wait for the PS5 and get that on sale since I think then I could get rid of my PS3, but that’s gonna be a while and I’m annoyed at Past Me again for not jumping on a really good deal, but anyway if I buy Nendoroid Loki now I can at least not be mad at Past Me about that in the future)

probably something else I’m forgetting, because my brain is even more like a sieve lately than usual

and I have the energy and motivation for hmmmm none of those things, I just want to cuddle Hazy and do nothing difficult and play games

#for future reference #bad adult

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blogsteveclark12 · 3 years

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12 Things to Buy Used If You Want to Save Money

1) Clothes

Buying used clothes in one of the easiest ways to save money. I’ve found thrift and second-hand stores to be great for finding casual weekend wear and business casual clothes.

I can’t tell you how many Banana Republic and J. Crew items I see every time I browse the racks. Some people might think that only old, worn, unfashionable clothes are found second-hand but that’s not true.

Related items worth buying second-hand:

Designer clothes and purses – Designer clothes are expensive. Let someone else pay the bulk of the cost by buying them retail first. Then you can save by buying second-hand. Just be sure to read up on the difference between counterfeit and authentic products to ensure you get the real thing.

School uniforms – Some schools that require uniforms (e.g., Catholic schools with plaid skirts), have programs for parents to sell their children’s old uniforms. Many children will outgrow their clothes while they’re still in good condition.

2) Wedding dresses

Most women wear their wedding dress for one day and maybe only a few hours at that, so it might not make sense to spend a few thousand on a dress.

You can get one for much less than retail if you’re open to wearing a used one. Most sellers are willing to negotiate too because they really want to sell, so negotiations favor the buyer.

Take a good look at the website’s and seller’s return policies before purchasing. Many times there are no refunds.

Ask lots of questions and ask for more pictures if needed. If you can, try on the style in a store first to be sure it’s the one and then buy it second-hand.

3) Jewelry

Fine jewelry is another area where resale prices are often much lower than retail. You can even buy an affordable engagement ring second-hand.

If you’re a fan of vintage or antique pieces, you can find beautiful pieces in styles that aren’t even made anymore. Shop at local jewelers, estate sales, and online for the best finds.

4) Baby items

Babies grow quickly and often outgrow their clothes and toys before they’ve gotten much or any use. I’ve seen lots of children and baby clothes still with tags on them at the thrift stores.

And it’s not just clothes too. Toys like play mats are quickly outgrown too. Check out online parent groups for listings.

5) Toys & Games

Having stepped into the houses of friends and family with young children recently, I’ve been blown away by the number of toys they have. Livings rooms and bedrooms full of toys, more than the children can reasonably play with. Those toys and games end up as donations to the thrift store or offered at garage sales.

My favorite thing to buy is puzzles, but I’ve seen plenty of games like Operation and Chutes and Ladders on shelves too.

I avoid plush animals because goodness knows what’s on them. Anything that looks in good condition and can be wiped down with sanitizer wipes is fair game

6) Books & Textbooks

Anyone who has been in school and had to buy their own books knows that textbooks are expensive. I remember having to budget several hundred dollars each semester in college just to be sure I bought all the books I needed.

I bought second-hand where I could, rented, and even borrowed a few. I didn’t matter if a book was a slightly older version as long as I could get the same information and do the homework.

If you need the book in your profession, it might be worth buying a new copy to keep. Otherwise, go second-hand and sell it when you’re done using it.

For other books, try the public library. You can borrow books for free or buy used books there for cheap. I borrow everything and only buy a book when I know I’m going to read it over and over again.

7) Furniture

If you’ve tried to furnish a home with furniture bought at retail, you know how expensive it can be. Thankfully, some people barely use the furniture they buy.

Maybe they decide to redecorate or they are moving and have to sell. I once came across computer chairs from an office that was closing.

Another easy way to get second-hand furniture is to ask friends and family for whatever extra they have. I’ve always tried to get furniture with fabric like sofas from people I know.

If you’re getting furniture from strangers, take a look at the item and make sure the person’s place is clean. You can’t be too careful about bedbugs and pet dander.

8) Bicycles

Like with many of the other items on this list, bikes are expensive new and depreciate in value once out the door. Many people buy bikes with the intention to ride them for exercise or fun and don’t use them much at all.

My partner got his used bike on Craigslist and loves it. I got mine as a hand-me-down from family. Unless you’re a serious bike enthusiast, a used one may work just fine for you.

As sad as this sounds, bikes are a major target for thieves in San Francisco. Save yourself the headache of being a more obvious target and having a new bike stolen by getting one that’s second-hand. If you want to save even more money, try biking instead of driving to work or for running errands.

9) Cars

We’ve all heard that cars depreciate significantly once off the lot and most of all in their first year. Buying a used car makes sense then, especially one that’s been well-maintained. Just make sure to do your research by checking a car’s value and having it inspected before purchasing.

10) Kitchen items

There are a lot of kitchen gadgets out there that people don’t use. The mixer that was a wedding gift but now sits at the back of the cabinet. Or the blender or crock pot that goes unused. My nearby Goodwill is full of plates and cups. Sometimes are pretty and come in full sets too.

11) Seasonal decorations

Seasonal decorations are just that, seasonal. How much do you want to spend on things that are on display for about 4 months of the year (or packed away for the other 8)? And while decorations are pretty, they don’t do much but sit around the house and look pretty.

So when I want to decorate my place, I shop thrift stores or ask family for items they’ve collected but don’t use anymore. It’s easy to replace decorations yearly too when they cost only a few dollars.

12) Athletic gear & workout equipment

Many of those items were still in good condition by the time we stopped playing a sport or outgrew the equipment. We’ve also known people with treadmills and stationary bikes that went unused.

Some final tips:

Do your research before purchasing. Sometimes second-hand isn’t cheaper than new.

Negotiate on price. Buying second-hand usually favors the buyer unless it’s a hot item. A potential buyer can always walk away if the price is not right, but a lot of sellers will agree to a lower price because they want to get rid of an item.

If you’re meeting someone in person off Craigslist or a similar site, meet in the daytime in a public place.

The more specific you are about something that you want, the longer you’ll have to wait for it. There may be a lot of black dresses out there, but you’ll have to wait or search more to find a fit-and-flare black dress with a waist tie and lace detail in your exact size.

If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.

Nowadays, when I come across something I want, my first thought is whether or not it’s available and worth it to buy second-hand. I’m always happy when I do buy something used and it perfectly fits my needs.

I’ve saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years by buying second-hand items. I can’t wait to save more in the future by doing the same and hope you do too! Check out the thrift store in panama City Beach, FL if you want to purchase gently used items.

#thrift stores #secondhand #thrifting #shopping

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deardragonbook · 3 years

Text

How much did it cost me to self-publish my book on KDP?

So, you thought self-publishing on Amazon was free?

You’d technically be correct actually.

At least if you have a vast array of talents.

But, that wasn’t my case and statistically speaking, it probably isn’t yours. So let’s get into it.

There are six parts of your book that could cost you money: writing, editing, formatting, cover design, publishing costs and advertising.

I wrote the book myself, so that part was completely free (other than years of time, obliviously).

I was very lucky to have people close to me for beta reading so I didn’t have to pay anybody, I gave PDF copies to the younger readers and printed some copies on standard A4 paper for my family, this would have cost perhaps 1 euro between paper and ink. Add an extra 1 euro to this budget on post-its over a series of drafts.

So far so good, formatting, again, I did this myself. You could pay somebody to do this and if you have money to spare, well, it’s tedious work, but it’s pretty easy. Amazon has several pages dedicated to explaining how to do this with several programs and other than being a bit fiddly it’s easy enough.

Cover design. Okay, this is where the money goes. At least for me. I considered designing my own cover as I’ve said before, but a cover really is going to be a big selling point so unless you’re really confident in your abilities I have to recommend you commission a profesional. In my case, I went to fiver which is a site I’ve spent a lot of time on as a seller but never bought anything on. I commissioned Banana Art Studios and it cost me a total of 104,95 euros (applying a coupon). I think this is super cheap for the amazing cover I got! But it is the most expensive step, so be prepared for that!

Publishing costs, well, like I said at the beginning, technically free... but, if like me as well as an ebook you are offering a paperback, I have to recommend buy at least one proof copy! A proof copy is basically just a printed copy that says no resale and allows you to check everything looks good. I had to buy two, the first copy my name was out of frame and the margins were too big, the second looked a lot more like I wanted it to, I also took the opportunity to order a different type of cover (glossy instead of mate) and different page colours (cream instead of white). Just to see which I preferred. Good thing I did because I ultimately went with glossy and cream coloured paper! They only charge you printing cost plus delivery (yes, even if you have prime), which came to about 13 euros each proof, so 26 euros for the two.

Once you’ve pressed publish, you can order author copies at the same price, I ordered ten of these to give to me beta readers so this can be considered extra editing costs, 60 euros in total.

Advertising, this again is another costly part of self-publishing, nobody else is going to sell your book! And platforms are hard to build, I still don’t know how to do that. But I do know a thing or two about marketing, right now I’m still adding up data and testing different sites, I’ll get back to you with more information later. But for now the most cost-effective site for me has been Pinterest, I’ve started of with a 10 euro budget and plan to increase once I’ve sold a couple more copies. I also used some ad credit Facebook gave me for free, but in twelve hours it pulled of less than Pinterest did in it’s first five minutes. So take that as you will.

Let’s add this up (rounded up for simplicity sake):

Writing....................0€

Editing....................62€

Formating..............0€

Cover Design..........105€

Publishing Costs.....26€

Advertising.............10€ (so far)

Total.......................203€

Is that a lot? Is that a little? Well, probably depends on who you are and your financial capacity. But to put that number into perspective let’s see how many copies I have to sell to make that money back!

I sell my copies at about 5,99$ for Ebook and 14,99$ for Paperback. This results in royalties approximately 3€ per copy.

So to make my money back I have to sell approximately 70 copies.

And I’m not going to lie, that’s a pretty scary number. As of this moment I’ve sold three copies, which is amazing, I’m super happy to have sold any, because I’m not going to lie even thought I’m proud of my book, the scariest thing is will I sell even one?

From what I’ve found online, and let’s be honest, this isn’t really trustworthy information, most KDP authors won’t sell much. Most will sell next to nothing.

Do I expect to make this money back?

Maybe, over the entire life-span of the book. But then you have to keep in mind taxes and other stuff.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is, if you wrote a book, and querying isn’t going anywhere because the marketplace is over-saturated and you perhaps don’t fit the molde, and you really want to publish it, go ahead! It’s not that expensive and you can cut down on some of the costs I previously mentioned. But you should be prepared to lose money.

I’m three days into this experience, I may make my money back, I may even make money, I’ll keep you all updated for sure! But I’m being realistic and not holding high expectations.

I think the best way to help someone understand the difficulty of self-publishing and amazon specifically, is how little sales it takes to be a top seller. I’ve seen many authors proudly announce being best-sellers when only selling a couple of copies a day, what does this mean? It means most aren’t selling any.

And that’s a reality you just need to be prepared for!

Remember your first social media post? Bet nobody saw it! The same might happen to your book, it hurts more because it can take years to write, but that’s the reality of it. So, if you’re going in for money, maybe don’t.

If you love writing with a passion and it’s not about the money but the book, then do! Self-publish! Whether I make my money back or not, just holding this book that I worked for years on in my hands is an experience I wouldn’t swap for the world.

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orbemnews · 3 years

Link

How NFTs are fueling a digital art boom Written by Oscar Holland, CNN This article was updated following the auction of Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 days,” which sold for $69.3 million. When graphic designer Mike Winkelmann started producing a drawing a day in 2007, he was simply looking for a way to improve his art skills. At best, the resulting “Everydays” project would help him promote his freelance work, which includes creating concert visuals for the likes of Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. But selling the digital images was not on his mind. This week, a compilation of over 13 years’ worth of the artworks, collectively titled “Everydays: The First 5000 days,” sold for $69.3 million via Christie’s, putting Winkelmann’s name among some of the art market’s most valuable living artists. A multi-million-dollar auction for Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 days” closed this week at $69.3 million. Credit: Beeple/Christies “It’s a bit surreal, because (digital imagery) wasn’t really something that I pictured, in my lifetime, being able to sell,” said Winkelman, who goes by the name Beeple, in a video call from his home in South Carolina ahead of the sale. “So it (has) come out of nowhere. But at the same time, I also really feel like this is going to be the next chapter of art history.” Virtual art has been created, and talked about, for years. But now, thanks to endorsement from celebrities as diverse as Elon Musk, Lindsey Lohan and Steve Aoki, online buzz in art and cryptocurrency circles, and, perhaps most importantly, blockchain technology, it has not only entered the mainstream — it is generating huge sums of money for digital artists and online collectors. Beeple’s latest sale comes just weeks after his animated work “Crossroad,” which imagined Donald Trump’s naked, graffiti-strewn body slumped on the ground, was purchased online for $6.6 million. Elsewhere, a digital animation of the “Nyan Cat” meme — a flying cat with a Pop Tart for a body — earned its creator Christopher Torres almost $600,000 in a virtual auction. The musician Grimes meanwhile made $6.3 million in under 20 minutes selling a range of collectible digital artworks. At the center of this explosion in transactions are non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Acting like virtual signatures, they address concerns that digital art’s value is diminished by the ease with which it can be copied or lost. While an oil painting can only be displayed in one place and has a definitive owner, a digital image, video or gif can be infinitely duplicated and enjoyed on screens around the world for free. This has often posed problems for prospective collectors, who don’t know how to price digital art and fear it will lose resale value. But now, NFTs are offering two things that the physical art market has always depended on: scarcity and authenticity. The rise of ‘non-fungible’ tokens NFTs are built on blockchain technology, which — just as it does with Bitcoin — offers a secure record of transactions. This digital ledger serves as incorruptible proof of ownership, meaning that “original” artworks and their owners can always be identified via the blockchain, even if an image or video is widely replicated. A “fungible” asset is one that is that can be replaced with another identical one of the same value, such as a dollar bill, while non-fungible ones, like NFTs, are tied to unique goods and are not mutually interchangeable. Like bitcoins, the tokens can be kept in a virtual wallet. They can then be sold or traded, often gaining value in the secondary market. This makes NFT artworks similar to physical ones — or any other real-world asset, according to Duncan Cock Foster, co-founder of Nifty Gateway, the platform behind Beeple’s and Grimes’ recent multi-million-dollar sales. “We have systems for collecting paintings, and we have systems for collecting sculptures. But until now, people hadn’t figured out a good way to collect digital art — and NFTs allow you to do that,” Cock Foster said on a video call, adding that buying tokens is easier and “a lot more accessible” than traditional art collecting. Related video: Just how much has the internet changed art? On Nifty Gateway, artists set the number of editions for any single artwork by deciding how many accompanying tokens will be made available. This can range from one-offs, where a piece is sold to a single collector, to open-edition “drops,” where tokens are made available for a limited period of time. The sale of Grimes’ “WarNymph” collection, for instance, allowed up to 9,999 purchases of various artworks within a seven-minute window. Several of the creations were listed for just $20 per token, some of which are now selling for thousands of dollars. By connecting artists directly to collectors, NFTs effectively cut out galleries and other traditional gatekeepers. While Cock Foster would not disclose the size of Nifty Gateway’s cut, he claims it is “far less” than what a gallery would usually take. For Beeple, this represents a “democratization” of the art market. “Now I have direct access to my audience,” he said. “I don’t have to go through an intermediary.” And there’s another benefit for digital artists: They can continue making money on their work, even after it has been sold. NFTs can allow creators to receive a cut on all future transactions — on Nifty Gateway, this is typically set at 10% — breaking with the centuries-old model whereby artists do not directly benefit when sold works grow in value over their lifetimes. (For instance, when a David Hockney painting sold for $90.3 million in 2018, setting an auction record for a living artist, the British artist didn’t receive a single cent from the sale. His dealer had sold it for just $18,000 in 1972.) One of digital images that Beeple produced daily from 2007. Credit: Beeple/Christies So, while Beeple made less than $67,000 when he originally sold his “Crossroad” animation, he pocketed a further $660,000 when the initial buyer sold it on. “The royalties are definitely something that make this much more sustainable and equitable for all parties,” the designer said. New breed of collector The collector behind the $6.6 million “Crossroad” sale, Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, said that supporting creators is one of the unique benefits of investing in NFTs. While there is money to be made, and plenty of speculation happening in the crypto art market, the 32-year-old said that collecting digital works is about more than money. “I try to look into the life and career of the creators. I like to get in contact with them and meet them … for me, it’s important to see consistency and thoughtfulness about everything outside the art as well,” said Rodriguez-Fraile on the phone, adding that he is drawn to works that are “masterfully executed.” Beyond “Crossroad,” Rodriguez-Fraile said he has collected hundreds — perhaps thousands — of NFT artworks, selling only a handful so far. Beeple’s art often plays with pop culture icons in grotesque and unexpected ways. Credit: Beeple/Christies While the Miami-based collector was previously interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, were it not for NFTs, he said he would not be involved in buying art. His experience, like Beeple’s, suggests that the tokens are empowering a new breed of artists and collectors rather than taking a slice of the existing art market. “The analogy I like to make is Uber,” Cock Foster said. “When they were trying to make a forecast for Uber’s market size, they looked at the amount of money people spent on black cars (private car services). But because it’s so much easier to call an Uber than it is to call a black car, the actual market ended up being much larger than that. I really think we’re seeing something similar with NFTs. “They are lowering the barriers to collecting significantly,” added Cock Foster, whose platform operates under the ambitious tagline, “We will not rest until 1 billion people are collecting NFTs.” Future prospects Nifty Gateway may be a long way from its goal of 1 billion collectors, but the platform’s growth nonetheless reflects exploding interest in crypto art. In March 2020, the site recorded monthly transactions of $30,000; last month, this figure was up to $75 million, according to Cock Foster. This jump broadly coincides with another major force in the art world: Covid-19. With galleries and auction houses shuttered around the world — and people spending more time browsing the web or shopping online — NFTs have offered a new outlet for art enthusiasts. According to Beeple, this is why interest in the tokens has skyrocketed in recent months, even though the technology has been available since 2017. “You keep hearing that Covid has pushed things 10 years forward, and I think this honestly is a big part of it,” he said. “Everybody was sitting at home over the last year — so while I think this was inevitable, it really got accelerated.” The use of NFTs is now stretching far beyond the art world. DJ and musician Deadmau5 has used the tokens to sell digital merchandise, while the new Kings of Leon album is being released as an NFT. Nike is even reported to have registered a patent for tokenized shoes, branded “CryptoKicks.” This rapid growth has led to fears of an NFT bubble — one that may burst when the world emerges from pandemic-era restrictions. While collector Rodriguez-Fraile believes that “NFTs are here to stay,” he accepted that “we might be going through a period of hype … and I think the general ecosystem might slow down a bit when it comes to pricing.” For Cock Foster, however, the return to normality presents opportunities rather than threats — not least because galleries offer ways to experience digital art beyond a computer screen. “Digital art is very, very immersive,” he said, adding that displaying art is still important to online collectors. “So, I think we can build some really cool physical experiences.” This article was updated to reflect the final amount generated by Grimes’ NFT drop. Source link Orbem News #Art #boom #Digital #fueling #NFTs

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cryptoevent · 4 years

Text

Erik Voorhees – Cointelegraph Magazine

We felt like we were doing God’s work, says Eric Voorhees, a pioneer of cryptocurrency payments, who recalls how he tried to convert non-believers in the early days of Bitcoin.

The man whose SatoshiDice gaming platform was once responsible for half of all Bitcoin transactions is now a top government cryptologist and the CEO of the ShapeShift exchange.

He recalls that Bitcoin was considered a hoax at the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas in 2012. At the time, he was working for BitInstant, one of the first Bitcoin exchanges, and they had a booth next to PayPal.

I remember the PayPal people giggling nearby. Some may have heard of Bitcoin. If they had heard of it at all, it was a complete hoax – a stupid internet scam or something. It was a totally unproductive conference.

History has not been kind to sinners and cheaters, many of whom have since repented. In 2020, eight years after the conference, Paypal finally made its appearance, allowing users to buy and sell encrypted products, and will soon be added as a payment method at 29 million merchants.

Voorhees spread the gospel of Satoshi during the conference with Charlie Shrem and Roger Wehr. Shrem is the founder of BitInstant, who is considered a martyr by some after serving two years in prison in a case involving the resale of bitcoin by a user of the Silk Road marketplace on darknet. Ver was perhaps the biggest believer of all, earning him the nickname Bitcoin Jesus for his charismatic promotion of currency.

When it came to conversion, Roger was the best. He was a real maniac, Voorhees said, laughing.

Even for Charlie and me, who were very much for this shared feeling, it was quite overwhelming and simply unrelenting.

Everyone who works in a startup feels like they’re changing the world, that they have a huge mission, and of course every company tries to reinforce that, he says, a CEO himself. But for Bitcoiners, Voorhees explains, it’s really about changing the world, on a fundamental level. It’s about changing the institution of money itself – that’s a very big task.

Vorhees explains that he sees Bitcoin as nothing less than a revolution:

It’s not just better unemployment insurance for the money people used to have. It’s a different kind of money that changes the government, that changes the culture, that changes social and economic relations at a very deep level. That’s why it took him so long to catch up, to get recognition, because he’s trying to get into such an established institution.

The year is 2012. @ErikVoorhees @rogerkver and I decided to pool our money for our first #Money2020 event. We told them we wanted the best possible stand, but that we needed to be next to @PayPal’s stand to be able to show the world OUR financial system!

Welcome, paypal! pic.twitter.com/5BzvQDfvFb

– Charlie Shrem (@CharlieShrem) October 21, 2020

Roots Library

Voorhees, now 35, spent his childhood in the mountains of Colorado in the early 1990s before moving to the University of Puget Sound, near Seattle, in 2003. He studied economics and international affairs, but he doesn’t really feel like he’s studied either one.

Throughout my studies in economics, I took courses on the history of economic thought, but I never learned anything about the Austrians, he says, referring to the Austrian School of Economics. The Austrians, often ignored by Keynesian economists, are obsessed with things like hard currency and deciphering non-refundable money. That’s why they’ve been adopted by goldbugs and the Bitcoin community, who, after all, often call them digital gold.

Fresh out of college, Voorhees headed to Dubai in 2008 to embark on an adventure where anyone with a college degree could find a job right away because the company was growing so fast.

He worked as a salesman at a brokerage firm and watched from afar as the world he thought he knew began to shrink under the weight of the global financial crisis. Dubai did not feel the effects until six months later, he recalls, describing the intervening period as very strange, during which Dubai experienced a huge economic boom while the rest of the Western world collapsed.

It was from this desolate oasis, untouched by the global drought, that the business and economics graduate, I think, really began to understand money on a very fundamental level. For Voorhees, the story of the money is simple: Money appears as a commodity not infrequently shrouded in disorder. It used to be gold and now it’s already a lot of money, but it could be something else if silver was more useful and efficient.

Following this realization, Voorhees had a very strong aversion to fiat money and government control of money, because as a proponent of the market economy, he believed that no government should determine the price or distribution of a good. Money was in fact the most important commodity of all, so the most important thing is that it not be centrally planned. Even in a so-called capitalist economy, he says.

A capitalist economy with a government-run monetary system seemed totally unethical to me, but I had no other answer or solution than to return to the gold standard, which seemed somewhat anachronistic to me.

After two years abroad, Voorhees returned to Colorado and soon moved to New Hampshire to join the Free State Project, an organized political migration he describes as a multi-day effort to bring 20,000 radical libertarians to a small jurisdiction [New Hampshire] to exert, he hopes, undue influence on the political structure. It was there that Voorhees, along with other radical libertarian political activists, stumbled upon Bitcoin in 2011.

At that point I was completely sold and a year later I left New Hampshire and moved to New York to join Charlie Shrem at BitInstant. He’s taking over the marketing department there as employee number three.

Around the same time, Charlie Shrem, Roger Wehr and Eric Voorhees – all of whom would go on to become cryptography greats – raised their money to set up a Bitcoin booth at the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas. We needed to be near the PayPal booth to show the world our financial system, Schrem explains. Vorhees says they were unable to convert anyone to Bitcoin at the conference, despite their best efforts.

Belief in false profit

Vorhees admits he was a Bitcoin maximalist, a proponent of the one true currency who rejected all fake coins. I was a maximalist. When I got into Bitcoin, that was obviously the only room, he says.

When the other pieces came out, I rejected them, made fun of them, and generally hated them because I felt they were a distraction from an important project.

Although he tried to focus on Satoshi’s vision, new projects began to bother him, and he realized that many of them were doing things that Bitcoin didn’t or couldn’t do. By mid-2014, the transformation was in full swing.

My whole state of mind began to change. One of the most important aspects of Bitcoin is that it is decentralized. And that seemed to me the antithesis of a decentralized digital economy where there’s just one chain – you know, one code base, one chain, one set of economic rules. It seemed very appropriate that you get multiple different digital assets, and that was actually part of the decentralization, part of the merit of Bitcoin was that Bitcoin was not the only thing that existed.

He mitigates this by adding the usual warnings – most tokens are rubbish, many are scams, most will fail. Only a minority is interesting, but a minority is much more than one.

People at ETH… …are trying to keep these Bitcoin Maxis for Ethereum out of Binanka.

– Eric Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) February 19, 2021

He still feels sympathy for his short-sighted maximalist colleagues, whom he sees as victims of the human tendency towards tribalism, which manifests itself in various ways: Of course, it manifests itself in religion. And it has expressed itself through cryptography, and some of the people – their conscience – has been warped into a complete endorsement of one flag and a complete mockery of all others.

It’s a group psychology phenomenon, and I don’t know how it will stop, but I think it’s really detrimental to the growth of decentralized digital finance in general.

Satoshi Dice Set

Just one year after his discovery of Bitcoin, Voorhees launched the Bitcoin-based game site SatoshiDice in 2012, which has taken the young cryptophile community by storm.

On Reddit, this guy wrote that he had created a mechanism similar to that of a casino where dice are rolled and the user picks up or loses their coins according to the result of the dice. I tried it and there was magic in it right away… so I started working on it.

It was revolutionary because it allowed anyone in the world to place a bet by sending a Bitcoin transaction, no matter where they were from or how their local laws regulated online gambling.

Moreover, the player didn’t have to trust SatoshiDice because it was clearly fair, meaning it worked as a transparent machine where all the odds and inner workings were there for all to see. Governments around the world have various gaming regulatory and oversight bodies, but the SatoshiDice feature can make these bodies redundant, impotent, or both.

SatoshiDice has shown you what the odds are. It was transparent and you could prove that the rules were right.

The simple, reliable and flawless nature of SatoshiDice has made this platform a great success. A few months after its launch, the game was responsible for nearly half of Bitcoin transactions.

SatoshiDice conducted an unofficial IPO on the MPEx, a type of Bitcoin exchange where unlisted Bitcoin companies offered shares and paid dividends in BTC. They ushered in the ICO boom a few years later and drew similar attention from regulators for securities law violations.

While the casino was winning tons of money, it was also losing momentum because Voorhees felt that his job as head of the world’s largest Bitcoin casino was distracting him from his great calling, which was to preach the good word of Satoshi. Despite continued growth, he reluctantly sold the company in 2013 for 126,315 BTC, then worth $12 million. That would be a nice $6.25 billion today.

System-related disputes

Mr. Voorhees’ peace of mind did not last long, as the SEC soon sought him out for a public offering of unregistered securities. Voorhees thought this was unfair after seeing his investors make exponential profits. He eventually got in the saddle for $50,000.

They’ve been miserable for nine months. If I didn’t already despise the government, I do so even more after this event. That was real nonsense.

Its fundamental value is that people should be free to communicate with each other voluntarily, and that no government agency has the right to interfere. In his worldview, institutions and governments exist only to limit people’s power over money, whereas cryptography gives people full economic power to conduct transactions any way they want, and no one can stop it. According to Voorhees, these two forces will inevitably collide.

Voorhees’ company, Shapeshift, allows users to exchange cryptocurrencies without identity verification. That hasn’t always been the case – in 2018, Voorhees says his company is subject to the same rules as traditional banks and has therefore had to implement identity verification (Know Your Customer, or KYC) procedures, making anonymous transactions impossible. It was absolutely pathetic. Our customers didn’t like it. I hated it.

But by 2020, decentralized exchanges (DEX), which allow users to trade without depositing their money with a third party, will gain ground, allowing Shapeshift to refocus its activities on its libertarian values. All KYCs were abolished and the platform became a gateway that allowed users to trade on different DEXs. With Satoshi Dice, I learned that economic relationships require nothing more than a public key to send a transaction, and that everything else can be based on that, he says.

Voorhees says his opposition to KYC is not about ideology, but about protecting users from things like identity theft.

Identity theft is a $30 billion to $40 billion a year problem in the United States alone. It is more expensive than all forms of theft combined. It’s a big problem, and cryptography is the answer. But to what extent is he bound by this principle? It would classify as theft the government’s access to user data to tax financial transactions not reported by customers. Yes, it’s true. Taxes are absolute theft, he answers unequivocally.

WSJ examined.

The spirit of ShapeShift has proven controversial among advocates of the rules and regulations surrounding traditional funding. An investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that users of Shapeshift laundered $9 million through the platform. However, an analysis by a third intelligence firm, CipherBlade, found that the investigation was flawed because it suggested that the funds were illegal, even after they passed through four different hands, resulting in an inflated $9 million. Understandably, Voorhees, who is normally calm and composed, was deeply affected by this situation.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal calling us money launderers, even though according to their own figures we would be much better [at fighting money laundering] than all those big banks they keep writing about.

There is a noticeable tremor in his voice. The struggle is personal.

We spend our last moments comparing attitudes towards money in different societies. In the Scandinavian countries, for example, all taxes are public. Voorhees finds this troubling, adding that many people feel guilty about having money, when ethically he believes wealth creation is a good thing for society.

I want people who become very rich to be able to be proud of that above all else, provided they do so ethically and use those resources as they see fit. I think that’s the way the economy develops, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

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