https://preview.redd.it/dcewr7oic8961.jpg?width=4031&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=303bd55fdc25b54e8d17184b1f8eb17151525249 Intro Hello, my name is Alex. I live in Italy on the Garda lake and for the last 5 years I am ambitiously devoted in creating the perfect Silverballer replica identical in every minimal detail. Since Hitman Contracts when we were first introduced with the Silverballer I felt in love with it at first sight and I always had the desire to have one or that a company could build some to be bought. But years passed and there were still no Silverballers on the market besides few fan made that resembled it a little. Till one day I had an idea to try just for fun to make one. An idea that immediately became an ambition with in mind to make it perfect like no other ever did. It all started with the Blackballer. In 2015 IO Interactive released a beta of the upcoming Hitman game. In this beta the iconic Silverballer was swapped with a different weapon that maintained most of the Silverballer’s aspects but adding a more renewed look and a different color. And so us fans named it the Blackballer. The Blackballer replica With the introduction of this gun I saw a easy way to make a real life replica and so I started looking online for an airsoft pistol that resembled it. While searching I found out there was more to add to this replica than I tough. Accessories were different compared to the game’s version, shapes also and while doing my research I started to learn about how a pistol is composed, names of the components and their functions, accessories. I spend lots of hours online looking for parts that resembled a little what the Blackballer had and most of the time if not always I couldn’t find a thing. But I did learned a lot in exchange. I decide to buy a airsoft Army R27 because it was unmarked with trademarks leaving the replica blank so I could engrave it. I then took the pistol to an engraving shop to mark it with what it was written on the gun just like in the beta and at the end I decided to put on them a pair of grips that looked like the ones on the Silverballer because I wanted to add a touch of the old style. This replica was not true to the game, similar or even close but it was the start of something bigger. https://preview.redd.it/4wz035zb2z761.jpg?width=690&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0def4c4218c17c10657416e744ca23dce6b83354 Silverballer Mark 1 Not some time later I wanted to make a Silverballer replica. I had a good knowledge now about the airsoft industry and so I started my work on a WE1911. This model looked good but there was nothing I could do on it. The material was impossible to engrave, pieces from other brands didn’t match. Eventually I ended up trying to fit them by drilling the gun. And it was then, by posting my problems that someone from IO suggested 3D printing. It was a whole new world for me and it open up a lot of opportunities and ideas. I started looking a lot into 3D printing and my first project was the medallions for the grips. I hired someone online from Russia specialized in jewelry modeling to make the 3D file. I did this by providing photos and specifications made in paint after that I paid a company in the UK to print them. At that time 3D printing was still something new, the costs were pretty high and not so many metals were available for printing. And with the success of this first print my friends, opened all the doors for me and the will to do better. https://preview.redd.it/iybo8t3g2z761.jpg?width=4128&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=050f9aec8dc232849d73a488c34a25e9257229d1 Silverballer Mark 2 Discovering the creative world of 3D printing I strongly grew the idea that if a piece is not to be found then I will create it. I let go on the first Silverballer attempt even because I drilled so many holes it became nonfunctional and moved on a new replica called Cybergun Colt series 70. I called it Silverballer Mark 2. I suspect the MKII in Hitman 2 was meant to mock me. The idea to call mine Mark 2 came from the Iron Man movies. This replica came with 2 color tones. The sides of the slide were silver polished but the rest was raw grey (top slide, bottom slide and the whole frame). I was very ok with that because it had the same tone the Ballers from Hitman 2 Silent Assassin had. My idea with this project was to make one replica that included bits from every versions starting from Codename 47. https://preview.redd.it/1c9y0ynm2z761.jpg?width=4584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a8ebc4b8d48f86cba4c9510df68ce680a4335dc 3D Printed accessories On this new model I learned everything by making lots of mistakes. I found a 3D artist not too far from my area. A girl named Sara that was for hire to make private 3D projects. Without Sara’s help I would had never reached this far. She doesn’t have a studio so we had to meet in bars or restaurants. I came with my laptop and a piece from the gun that I needed to be made in a specific way.Basically what I needed was a accessory to be build following my replica’s internal mechanism but with a different outside shape. So I let her the pieces from my gun and a USB stick with inside very specific instructions of what I want. And she deliver perfectly. Of course it was never perfect on the first try. Initially she provided pre images and there I might notice that a bar maybe should be higher, lower, in center, things like this till it reached a point I found to be perfect. And even when the project was done and printed there was something that for me was off and back again to modify it and print it again. Here I discovered the precision of printing in titanium. Very expensive but worth every cent. https://preview.redd.it/7nkz5rhq2z761.jpg?width=2750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d4d71b4402f013044f60416c8cad3a7de6466c3 https://preview.redd.it/gd7ydiwhd8961.jpg?width=948&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e7233b91b638f73ebb826b3ae97a4b6f966f71e https://preview.redd.it/sf7gqabkd8961.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79e112519704d996e4ffecd628d4c8b520acb17f https://preview.redd.it/sa9s057ld8961.jpg?width=1969&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b83bb864522f552866dc5adf731f5a044a8cfe69 https://preview.redd.it/1pl7puvmd8961.jpg?width=927&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cde37e16b0313c4434a3527f90df3f181cabc35 https://preview.redd.it/gid7eknnd8961.jpg?width=3503&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c92de2eb5c2f3cc472a472c9b60dcbb1f293a0c https://preview.redd.it/v6rmbtlod8961.jpg?width=3368&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0fbf1fc87e2273ec1242575af7d5361edc459a2 Engravings The first thing that catches the eye are for sure the markings on the Silverballer. It has the Hitman insignia and writings describing the pistol “CUSTOM SLIDE”“CALIBER 45”“STAINLESS - MADE IN U.S.A.” and the engravings on my replica are very special. They are special because with an enormous luck I found my way in a very prestige company specialized in this sector. This company is born in Gardone Val Trompia and is the same birthplace of the arms company Beretta. They make custom work for the Vatican, USA presidents and many VIP from all around the globe and I am very honored to have the most important part of my project done by them. With this new pistol, the Cybergun Colt 70 came already engraved but with it’s own factory markings. I had the idea that maybe it was possible to sand down the existing trademarks and make the ones I want recreating after the gun’s original metal finish. And Bottega Giovanelli was able to do exactly that exceeding my expectations. Not only they are masters in crafting splendid incisions but they also have a deep field of knowledge about metals and how to handle\modify their surface. A thing that will come later in hand because the 3D printed parts required some tempering on the surface appearance. https://preview.redd.it/7cwitgn4p1a61.jpg?width=3011&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=201897fdee7c0b9b56c61f7d80072cdeb99ef1f4 https://preview.redd.it/qmkdzj333z761.jpg?width=5510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47096c6df8841ca31e5dc416242c5107849f4401 Custom Silencer With this replica I wanted to truly make it stunning by adding a custom suppressor, the one from the Blackballer. I chose this one because for me personally it is very beautiful. Having this project in mind I found a small company in Czech Republic called BlackPrint CZ. These guys made an amazing and brilliant job and if you are looking too for a custom silencer for your airsoft weapon I suggest them with all my heart. https://preview.redd.it/kx9wiu873z761.jpg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=055390c9787bede829befdccfa34058dd34823f5 https://preview.redd.it/ijtqqe14d8961.jpg?width=3313&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=677a6f9c26db99e2d5618f6a8c29fec1cc7c8e52 The unique Silverballer replica During the creation of the Mark 2 I found out about another 1911 replica made by a very very professional brand. This brand is called INOKATSU a Japanese airsoft company well known to manufacture only the best accurate replicas in the airsoft market and their top jewel in my opinion is the INOKATSU Colt Serie’s 70 defined by everyone the only true replica of a Colt. They made limited editions and I am very excited to tell that I posses one. The same one that will become my biggest pride and an unique replica of the beloved Silverballer. This gun starting at a price from 900€ to 1.500€ is entirely made from heavy Stainless Steel and is now nowhere to be found unless sold used by a private possesor. While most who bought one decided for sure to keep it for collection or decoration I went beyond that idea and modified it till it took the shape of my greatest ambition. I had to start again everything from scratch including the projects made for the Mark 2 because the pieces weren’t compatible but I didn’t mind that one bit. Actually it was better this way because with the previous experience I manage to realize better and more precise accessories identical at 100% following the wallpapers from Hitman that had the Silverballer in it. During these creations I often noticed other small things that led me again back to the board. At some point I became very obsessed with the details. Even the engravings were off on the Mark 2 but I found a way to make a guide following certain points on the gun to ensure that the writings were in the same position as in the wallpapers. Not all the accessories are 3D printed. Some in fact were bought on the market and are exactly how I wanted them to be. The grips for example required a small modification on the black rubber to make it look identical. This replica is a mix from the Silverballer model in Hitman Contracts and Absolution merged into one pistol. I had to make a few compromises at the end but really just a few minor things. My replica is not yet complete and with a broken heart I had to stop due to Covid. I used to work as a night porter in Hotels for the past 10 years and now if I’m lucky I sometimes find work here and there because currently the Hotel industry is pretty much dead. So with that saying I need to be very careful on how I spend my money but my Silverballer is at it’s final stage and I can’t wait to finish it. Please let me present to youThe unique Silverballer replica some pictures are from different time laps while work in progress https://preview.redd.it/bgc470f8dfa61.jpg?width=3589&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cab6296342531fb471c3b2e062fb5a1acdc765a7 https://preview.redd.it/3af6ar3sbz761.jpg?width=3528&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fcdc161368abfe7a3aed3703b767fe4d921a3e4 https://preview.redd.it/r622filo6z761.jpg?width=3345&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ec1eda8b1854bc555b880ee94438002d8eb2108 https://preview.redd.it/yhjcsvi000861.jpg?width=3712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba13c0e58dfa3b88ffc0814d1ad528af6fb83f6a Grip medallions The logo is craved in. I first made these medallions blank, like a coin and after is all a processing of engraving the sides of the logo giving a depth effect. Once the logo is realized then black ceramic will be put inside around the symbol till it reaches a certain height staying under the symbol. Final result is the effect of the insignia emerging from the black ceramic. I had the medallions made with in mind to look just like a jewel. https://preview.redd.it/yaguv8pzc8961.jpg?width=3194&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fccbd198ab1f2217e884cbf06822ae939c5d570f I hope you enjoyed my post and thank you very much for your time reading it Alex Badea
My Big Recommendations List for the Steam Winter Sale
This has been an absolutely miserable year but finally it’s coming to an end, and even looking up now that Facebook and Google are being sued by Federal and State governments. If you played Cyberpunk I’m sure you’ll also have your fingers crossed that both companies get the sledgehammer into little pieces, with Amazon and the App Store soon to follow. Next year is up in the air right now; it could be the year XR is completely strangled by those soulless corpo’s at Facebook, or it could be the year that OpenXR, anti trust action, and consumer apathy towards VR cut their legs out from under them. Things look completely up in the air at this point. So take the holidays and enjoy VR while you still can, next year we might just be playing Valve’s Citadel while the ship goes down. Well Steam’s Winter Sale is here and it’s a great time to pick up a lot of great games, hidden gems, and so on. This is my list of games to pick up. Some of them are the best prices these games have ever had. I categorized them by price tier, and I put a few standouts in bold either because they’re a great game or a great deal, or both. Merry Christmas [I also made a hardware guide for headsets and PC components, a guide to using steamVR, a guide about how to use the Index for AR, and a master acab list of great VR games, demos, and software] The Sale ends on January 5th at 10AM PT
PAYDAY 2 (-90%, $0.99) Has a full VR mode that makes the whole game VR and lets you play with flatscreen players. It’s a lot more impressive than you would expect, especially at this price (free with the base game). It has two handed guns, full access to all the content and crossplay with non VR players, a UI on your tablet watch, etc
Half-Life 2 (-80%, $1.99) You need to use Garry's Mod to run this in VR but the whole game works.
Naked Sun (-90%, $0.59) Two hand wave shooter style game where you’re being moved through a robot city and fighting ogg enemies with guns and a shield.
Scanner Sombre (-75%, $1.49) Spelunking through echolocation and a great art style. At this price and with this concept I’d say it’s definitely something to experience in VR.
Steady (-50%, $2.49) Like the lockpicking puzzle from Alyx or those boardwalk games were you move a ring over wire without touching them together. 50 levels.
fpsVR (-20%, $3.19) This is a must have utility for SteamVR. My guide to using SteamVR explains why and how to use it.
Windlands (-90%, $1.99) the first windlands game, it’s a grappling hook style adventure exploration game.
Evolution VR (-51%, $0.49) This is like that first phase of Spore, where you’re an amoeba eating larger ones and evolving with new limbs. I consider it a steal at this price, although it’s going to become free soon according to the devs.
PROZE: Enlightenment (-85%, $2.99) Puzzle adventure game set in the tundra
Evil Robot Traffic Jam HD (-80%, $0.99) Tower defense
Interkosmos (-33%, $3.34) A space survival game where you’re sitting in a tiny broken space capsule and have to make it back to earth.
Neonwall (-90%, $0.99) Guide a ball through neon obstacle puzzles
Spuds Unearthed (-75%, $2.99) RTS TD type thing. I found its balance super frustrating when I tried it but it has a lot of polish and this price is great.
Squishies (-75%, $2.49) Puzzle game with nice art that looks polished
Zooma VR (-66%, $2.03) Look at the steam page, it’s basically an adaptation of that arcade game where you shoot colored balls at other colored balls to match them up and pop them.
Obstruction : VR (-68%, $3.19)
Fingers: Mini Games (-35%, $1.94) Screw around with finger physics mini games with your index controllers.
Chroma Lab (-40%, $2.99) Particle simulator that’s kind of trippy
Drone Hero (-90%, $0.99) Drone obstacle course game
Defendion (-80%, $$2.19) Laned fantasy strategy game
Bonfire (-50% $2.49) A little story where you’re crash landed on an alien planet with Ali Wong and meet cartoon aliens
Cliffstone Manor (-75%, $1.99) Difficult escape room style game
Moonshot Galaxy (-65%, $1.74) space mini golf game
Protogon VR (-80% $1.99) Combination minigolf pinball game with neon crazy graphics
Power Tools VR (-50%, $0.99) Chip away at a stone block with power tools
Race The Sun (-80%, $1.99) Endless forward obstacle racer with options VR support
SpellPunk VR (-73%, $2.96) Competitive spell casting game
Strings (-90%, $0.99) It’s a smaller, more basic game, basically a shooter with different items you use to fight enemies as you teleport around stages.
SweeperVR (-50%, $1.99) Minesweeper in 3 Dimensions
PolyCube (-50%, $2.49) complex 3D tetris
UNTITLED (-50%, $2.49) 3D surreal puzzle game
Intruders: Hide and Seek (-90%, $1.99) Gamepad horror game
WRG games bundle (-96%, $0.65) Escape room and a non VR game
Apex Construct (-75%, $4.99) This is where the energy battery puzzles come from. It's early VR but really strong on story, progression, and interactions, the combat is mostly archery
FORM (-70%, $4.44) “A surreal adventure where puzzles are built from dreams and memories”
NIGHTSTAR: Alliance (-60%, $3.99) Bullet Hell in space, but with a story and customization
Blasters of the Universe (-75%, $3.74) Bullet Hell with a lot of polish and progression and you unlike new weapon parts
FREEDIVER: Triton Down (-50%, $4.49) Drowning simulator, shorter but high quality
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (-70%, $4.49) This is one of the best VR party games, easy to play remotely or in the same room with other plays holding a printed out or mobile browser manual helping the VR player disarm a bomb.
Out of Ammo Fun Bundle (-78%, $4.48) A bit rough but still getting updates and still low poly fun. First one has multiplayer. They’re both FPS/RTS but the first one is war themed, while the second one is a zombie game.
Orb Labs (-50% $4.49) A stealth puzzle game where you use different orbs to complete puzzles around lasers, turrets, and other hazards.
Thumper (-80%, $3.99) Best selling surreal rhythm game, best with a gamepad. I definitely recommend it if you are fine with the gamepad controls.
Vetrix (-20% $4.79) Tetris inspired. It has a two layer deep grid allowing for lots of 3D shapes that you can stick into place by hand in a twist on the usual formula. It has its own 8bit tunes, special blocks, multiple modes, and a bunch of color profiles based on the gameboy’s aesthetic.
Transpose (-75%, $4.99) A game where you solve puzzles with a recording of yourself. It’s one of the best and more creative puzzle games in VR.
Operation Warcade VR (-75%, $4.99) Old but the concepts work really well. It’s like a 3D light gun game that pulls you in for some moments
Echo Grotto (-50%, $3.99) Echo Grotto is a spelunking game with stylized graphics. You pick your gear and then use a throwing based teleportation system that leaves a trail behind you.
HATCHICK (-75%, $3.74) Like Xortex from the lab, a bullet hell inside a dome
Journey For Elysium (-50%, $4.99) Greek mythology adventure game, a black and white art style
Just In Time Incorporated (-75% $3.74) You appear in slow motion to save people who have Just In Time Insurance. Super basic graphics but the gameplay is fun and for this price it’s a good buy.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin (-75%, $4.99)
Shooty Skies Overdrive (-50%, $4.99) It’s a bullet Hell with polish and a voxel style.
Portable Farm (-20%, $3.99) It’s a light farming game, but the hook is that this runs on top of other games like an overlay.
Balloonatics (-65%, $3.49) Single and multiplayer hot air balloon combat. A big update is coming.
Axegend VR (-50%, $4.99) Tower Defense mixed with some fantasy combat
Buzludzha VR (-60%, $4.79) If you like VR tourism then this is pretty good.
Carnival Games VR (-75%, $4.99) Party game style game. It crashes unless you turn off the game’s haptics in input bindings
Bandit Point (-50%, $4.99) Renaissance robot shooter where you possess different robots in combat
Downward Spiral: Horus Station (-70%, $5.99) Zero G space thriller
Flotilla 2 (-50%, $4.99) Turn based RTS in 3D between space battleships
VR Furballs - Demolition (-60%, $4.79) Angry birds style game
Townsmen VR (-50%, $4.99) This was barebone and felt like a demo, but it’s going to get a big update that scales it up into a game and should be free for anyone who owns this version.
Starblazer (-75%, $4.99) A 3D space RTS with multiplayer
Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl (-50%, $4.99) This is a classic VR RTS scaled down to a quick 1v1 RTS battle.
RuneSage (-60%, $3.99) Open world puzzle fantasy game
2945VR (-45%, $3.29) Space shoot em up
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son (-33%, $10.04) Sequel to the movie with a similar idea where you relive the same day over and over and progress
HORIZON VANGUARD (-33%, $10.04) Sega Saturn Style arcade shooter on a hoverbike. Don’t let the graphics fool you, this is a really well made puzzle game in a Sega Saturn style
Fujii (-35%, $9.74) Gardening with a weird forest spirit
Garden of the Sea (-50%, $5.99) Animal Crossing looking zen farming game by the devs behind Budget Cuts 2, early access but steady updates are coming adding features and more mechanics..
GORN (-50%, $9.99) Cartoon melee colosseum game, VR classic that has killed a thousand controllers
Contractors (-50% $9.99) smallest player base of the big shooters but full of good ideas and strong gunplay. Now has mod support, including custom maps, weapons, and modes like world war II, ninja warrior, Halo, etc
1976 - Back to midway (-50%, $7.49) Just came out, it’s a good game, already on sale. This is a good deal. This is a 2.5D shoot em up that has “immersion zones” where you take direct control in first person. It really captures the idea of stepping inside an old arcade machine really well.
Creed (-75%, $7.49) This is a pretty good multiplayer boxing game that goes for a more arcade style, Graphics are good, it’s polished, and obviously it’s licensed from the movie
Bizarre Barber (-50%, $5.99) Arcade game about cutting aliens’ hair as they come by in passing subway cars. It goes for a more surrealist vibe.
Garry's Mod (-33%, $6.69) This needs a community hack to be VR, but it works and even lets you play HL2 in VR
Cubism (-20%, $7.99) A tetronomo style puzzle where you need to figure out how to make the finished shape out of the pieces you’re given, in 3D. Feels like it’s made by Apple.
Gravity Lab (-40%, $8.99) Rube goldberg puzzler where you build machines to get the ball from the start to the finish, sci fi settings.
Pierhead Arcade Bundle (-63%, $7.48) The first one is stronger and a great little VR boardwalk with multiplayer to show off to people with high quality minigames,and with an update this week they made it so if you own both, then the games carry over into 2, which has index support and a ton of its own games too.
Prison Boss (-60%, $7.99) The best crafting game in VR, you play a prisoner who makes and sells contraband, so it’s business sim as well since you buy equipment and supplies to make various products.
Tabletop Simulator (-50%, $9.99) (4-Pack for $29.99) (Most DLC -50%,) Look, the VR support here has issues but since it’s a board game simulation all you need to do is make sure you can sit down, move around, and grab things (just make your own bindings from the desktop SteamVR settings). Since it uses the Steam workshop it’s an insane value with endless excellent quality content. The matchmaking system means you can play all kinds of games at all hours with thousands of people.
Westworld Awakening (-80%, $5.99) If you love the show this is a must have, pretty well received as just a good game overall.
Superfly (-34%, $9.89) This is a super hero sim game in VR. You can have six different types of powers with their own movement and combat mechanics around a cartoon city
Ultrawings (-50%, $7.49) Super user friendly flight sim with VR controls. I definitely recommend it. You complete missions to get money to spend on new planes across several cartoonish islands that you fly between.
Shooty Fruity (-55%, $8.99) One of the best wave shooters in my opinion, but the controls are a little broken for the Index since it doesn’t use SteamVR input.
RUSH (-60%, $7.99) Wing suit skydiving game
Climbey (-31% $6.89) A classic VR climbing game with multiplayer and steam workshop support for courses
Space Pirate Trainer (-40%, $8.99) Everyone’s favorite wave shooter, one of the first wave of room scale VR games that came out with the Vive. There’s no progression but it handles the mechanics of dodging bullets and dealing with growing waves of enemies really well with a lot of modes for your weapons.
Spectro (-50%, $7.49) Ghost hunting game that feels a bit like it’s made for kids but it’s still a good roguelike.
The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets (-50% $7.49) Cutesy puzzler abou finding a bunch of stolen pets on little floating islands you interact with.
ViSP - Virtual Space Port (-50%, $7.49) You build these blocky space stations in third person trying to hold off attacks by aliens.
A Fishermans Tale (-35%, $9.74) A recursive puzzle game where you’re a fisherman in a box messing with a fisherman in a box who has a fisherman in a box…
I Expect You To Die (-60% $9.99) A james bond style escape room game with a ton of polish and a lot of content, one of the best of the genre.
The Forest (-50%, $9.99) Port, has good co op, suniverseurvival with crafting and base building in a forest full of mutants.
The Mage's Tale (-70%, $8.99) I haven’t been able to try this one, but it’s well reviewed and has a nice art style.
2MD: VR Football (-30% $9.09) This is basically quarterbacking in VR. You throw the ball but you don’t run around with it. Also you throw with the trigger by default, for safety reasons. It’s still fun, but it’s definitely not a full football experience.
Deism (-30%, $5.59) This a god game with a low poly art style, it’s in early access with a lot of updates.
Cave Digger (-50%, $9.99) Steampunk mining game with multiple endings
The Thrill of the Fight (-20% $7.99) This is the more realistic boxing game more like a simulation, and it's good as a workout.
Carly and the Reaperman (-50%, $9.99) Escape from the Underworld (-50%, $9.99) One of the best asymmetric games, this is a co op platformer adventure where the VR player helps the gamepad player. Works with Parsec/Remote Play Together
Gun Club VR (-60% $7.99) For a gun sim, get H3. The value in this game are the missions where you have to hit cardboard targets across different themes and weapon types like WWII, modern day, zombies, or carnival style targets.
Swords of Gurrah (-30%, $6.99) Multiplayer sword fighting with a little community.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (-75%, $7.49) Port of third person game, really high quality but gamepad controls.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (-85%, $7.49) A HOTAS based WWII combat flight sim
Marble Land (-60%, $5.99) A physics base puzzle game about getting the marble to the goal
Combat Tested (-69%, $6.19) This is a mixed game, but it’s really creative with the gritty super powers you have while you try to escape from a lab full of people trying to stop you.
Blind (-75%, $6.24) You can only see by making noise (canes, throwing things, etc)
Adapt or Perish (-40%, $5.99) Evolutionary strategy game with a VR mode
Pinball FX2 VR (-60%, $5.99) Made for VR realistic pinball
Assetto Corsa (-90%, $7.93) Racing sim with optional VR
Seeking Dawn (-80%, $5.99) Not great, but super ambitious with story and alien enemies and crafting and base building and just generally more than I expected, and it actually kind of works.
Pavlov VR (-40%, $14.99) Pavlov is basically a game that set out to be Counter Strike VR and became the Garry's Mod of VR and the most creative community outside VRChat. I’ve seen and played everything from roller skate racing, a remake of the entirety of Super Mario 64, TF2 Payload, over a hundred TTT maps, some of the best Battle Royale I’ve seen in VR, Slow-mo zero G modes, SCP, LifeMod and DarkRP, five completely different kinds of zombie modes, and a lot more. It’s been a fixture of SteamVR and pretty soon they’re releasing a World War II update with character models and new guns for the USSR, USA, Germany, and UK, new maps, and multi user tanks that you use in first person. It’s as much a must have as there can be, as long as you like multiplayer shooters.
Vertigo Remastered (-40%, $14.99) A 19 year old genius kid who worked at Valve and Cloudhead games made this on his own. It feels like a scaled down Alyx with nice physics, creative weapons and tools, and great personality across a campaign.
Paper Beast (-30%, $13.99) One of the standout PSVR games. You’re in a surreal papercraft desert with dynamic and lifelike paper animals. It has a story and then a smaller sandbox mode. It’s a surreal style experience that works well in VR.
Jet Island (-35%, $12.99) take on a huge open world with an island of enemies on your hoverboard
Falcon Age (-35%, $12.99) You play a young falconer who uses her whip and bird to fight off colonizing robots that are strip mining her planet. It’s a pretty high quality game and semi open world.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency (-50%, $14.99) VR stealth with a portal style teleport gun and a bow. It’s well written and has a lot of polish. Sequel to one of the standout classics of early VR.
Superhot VR (-40% $14.99) This is the game that sold me on VR. It’s basically the Matrix, where time moves when you move. It’s actually not a port of the original superhot, which is why the sequel isn’t coming to VR. I think it’s slightly overrated, there isn’t a ton of content, it just seems more concise than the marketing conveys
Gadgeteer (-20% $11.99) Even more rube goldberg puzzler, but more of a dominos style of gameplay.
Ironwolf VR (-30%, $13.99) Submarine simulator, has destroyer mode now too with coop and some competitive multiplayer. I definitely recommend this as a co op experience.
Hotel RnR (-40% $11.99) You’re a dead rocker who makes a deal with the devil to destroy hotel rooms
Duck Season (-35%, $12.99) Make someone else play this without explaining it to them. Tell them it’s just Duck Hunt.
Down the Rabbit Hole (-40%, $11.99) Third person Alyx in Wonderland game with player choice
3dSen VR (-40%, $11.99) 3D NES emulator that makes them feel like a totally new experience.
The Wizards Bundle (-68%, $15.92) The first one is an okay wave shooter, the second is more of an adventure game with great graphics and more variety.
Thief Simulator VR (-27%, $14.59) A semi open world game where you go around stealing people’s phones, jewelry, and cars.
Vox Machinae (-45%, $13.74) If you like Mech games this is basically a must buy, you control it by hand with all the bits and bobs of the cockpit and the graphics look really good. VR and flatscreen with crossplay multiplayer.
Yupitergrad (-15% $12.74) A grappling hook adventure game set aboard a collapsing soviet space station
Windlands 2 (-60%, $11.99) This is a grappling hook style game with somewhat basic graphics but large worlds and big enemies. Some people have called it the best spiderman game in VR.
Hello Puppets (-30%, $13.99) Cartoon horror with weird humor, your hand is an evil puppet
Moss (-50% $14.99) A third person platformer adventure game about a little mouse
Skytropolis (-55%, $11.24) A vertical citybuilder, which is a rare genre in VR. It’s from 2017 and doesn’t get updates any more but it does work and it’s not a bad game in the genre.
Pixel Ripped 1995 (-30%, $13.99) A love letter to 16 bit gaming. You play video games inside the game and have to avoid getting caught playing in the middle of the night, etc.
ModBox (-25% $11.24) This is a sandbox game creator with steam workshop support. IT has a lot of potential and supports asymmetric play, VR multiplayer, and creation inside and outside of VR.
New Retro Arcade: Neon (-35%, $12.99) This is kind of buggy, and you need to use the unofficial arcade builder, but as a social VR experience for friends it can be pretty cool. Roms aren’t shared online unless the other people are on parsec or something, but a few activities like movies, the built in games, and bowling are actually multiplayer. The arcade is persistent for you and your friends even if you’re doing different things in different rooms.
Phasmophobia (-10%, $12.59) The big new co op horror multiplayer game, but this one also supports VR
Synth Rider (-40% $14.99) This is the closest Beat Saber style game to the original, with a smoother style of gameplay. But the maps feel unbalanced, like every difficulty or gameplay setting is the exact same map just being automatically tweaked. This can make it feel unfair or constricting.
Into the Radius (-30%, $20.99) Basically Stalker VR, kill enemies and complete missions for cash as you progress
Mini Motor Racing X (-50%, $19.99) Racing game that you control with your actual hands which is great but the tracks can be pretty small and with lots of tight turns since it’s a micro car game. Also has a rocket league mode which is fun.
Stride (-25%, $14.99) Basically mirror’s edge in VR. You run and jump and wall run across different environments, with some combat and stealth too. There are two modes out now and another one coming soon with a story.
BattleGroupVR (-30% $17.49) This is probably the most polished RTS in VR, made by one dev but it’s right up there with final assault and works better in singleplayer. Multiplayer is being tested right now. It’s a space real time RTS where you’re on the bridge of one of your ships and you can command the others in holograms, see the battle in third person, and the graphics are great. There’s a story and campaign too
Until You Fall (-20%, $19.99) This is basically Infinity Blade in VR. It does melee by having lines appear in the air and you need to line up your sword with them to block enemy attacks, with some later enemies requiring you to duck off to the side to dodge attacks. It’s a roguelike so you fight through as many enemies you can, small stage by stage, until you die and spend the money you earned on new weapons and abilities.
STAR WARS™: Squadrons (-40%, $23.99) As an experience, Squadrons is exactly what you expect. It’s really immersive and really feels like being in a star wars dogfight
The Talos Principle VR (-60%, $15.99) Croteam are the devs of the classic Serious Sam series, and when the Vive came out they went all in and converted all their games over to VR, including their puzzle game Talos Principle. It was one of the higher quality experiences back then and it still holds up.
Tales Of Glory (-40%, $17.99) First person medieval war RTS. It’s been in early access for a long time but the dev has put in a ton of work and made it a pretty unique experience with some of the best medieval combat outside Blade and Sorcery combined with strategy and base capture.
Universe Sandbox (-33%, $19.99) Just got an update redoing the entire VR UI side of the game.
Automata Break (-15%, $16.99) An asymmetric tower defense game you can play with a friend or alone.
Skyrim VR (-67%, $19.79) Good port, works better than Fallout4VR with a big modding scene. This price is a bit higher than it has been in the past.
Ragnarock (-15%, $16.99) Rhythm game where you beat the drums on a viking ship to metal and celtic rock. This seems like the best beat saber style game I’ve seen alongside Synth Riders, and the music is distinct.
Industrial Petting (-15% $16.99) You farm alien pets to sell them back on earth. It’s an industrial production kind of game, with multiplayer support and VFlatscreen modes
In Death (-50%, $14.99) Roguelike archery game set in Purgatory. Price feels a little steep when it stopped getting updates on PC in early 2019.
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (-30%, $10.49) Basically Angry Birds in 3D. You can shoot in room scale and teleport to different spots to get a better angle. There's a fair amount of content too.
Arizona Sunshine (-63%, $14.79) The first big co op zombie game. It shows it's age but it's still popular and has some DLC. I would recommend this one only on sale and mostly if you're planning on playing co op.
L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files (-50%, $14.99) I think the cases are taken from the original game, but it's LA Noire in VR. There's driving, shooting, interrogations, looking for clues, everything from the original game. Seven cases.
Half-Life: Alyx (-25%, $44.99) The best looking VR game and one of the best games of this generation.
Boneworks (20%, $23.99) This game is a must buy, but do not get it if you’re new. This is a game where pushing on a wall with your hand pushes the camera back. It will make you sick if you don’t have VR legs. The combat, melee, physics puzzles, are all extremely strong and it has an 11 hour campaign, along with arena, zombies, and sandbox modes. Another content update is also coming soon.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (-20%, $31.99) This is a great game. It’s less Left for Dead and more realistic in the sense that tension is very high and both humans and zombies are threats. There’s light crafting, upgrades, and collecting supplies, complete with physics and a faction systems and multiple paths to go down.
Vacation Simulator (-20% $23.99) The best minigame collection game with the games integrated into three worlds with a lot to do, across multiple settings with progression and a basic story. Super immersive.
No Man's Sky (-50%, $29.99) All new updates apply to VR too. Performance is spotty but the entire massive experience is carried over into VR, and there’s multiplayer too.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades ($19.99) This game isn’t on sale but it’s getting an advent calender with daily updates until christmas. This is basically the ultimate “labor of love” game in VR. Detailed physics simulation of lots of guns, big recommendation for those with any interest in sandbox, has game modes like Take and Hold and Team Fortress, single player only.
Pistol Whip (-20%, $19.99) This doesn’t go on sale as often. I would say it’s the first rhythm game that can actually go toe to toe with Beat Saber. It doesn’t have custom maps, but it gets regular content updates and just got a set of five campaign levels.
VTOL VR (-15% $25.49) This is the most advanced made for VR flight sim with full VR controls, tons of customization, and a bunch of modern fighter planes. It’s a community favorite and it’s even getting multiplayer soon.
AGOS - A Game Of Space (-33%, $20.09) This got a super mixed reaction. It’s basically a third person satellite simulator. If you like the movement method you’ll like the game, otherwise you probably won’t. Watch some gameplay on youtube.
Sairento (-35%, $19.79) This is like a ninja version of Superhot. I didn't enjoy it too much but many people like it. It has a lot of different weapons and you can do things like bounce off walls up to an enemy and cutting their head off with a katana.
Gnomes & Goblins (-35%, $19.49) This got a mixed reaction. Basically it’s a game where you visit a community of gnomes and has two parts. In the first part you go on a little adventure meeting the gnomes and hanging out with them. But the rest of the game is doing activities and collecting artifacts around their town to fill your house.
Disassembly VR (-30%, $20.99) Destruction and deconstruction physics sandbox simulator, just added melee combat.
Also worth taking a look at, over at Fanatical they’re doing a “make your own bundle.” 2 games for $6.99, 3 games for $9.99, 5 games for $14.99
Cosmic Trip - A very polished VR base capture RTS in first person where you build and manage drones and mine for crystals on an alien planet.
Sprint Vector - Basically a footrace game you play by swinging your arms, set on an alien gameshow.
Polybius - A trippy tunnel shooter with surreal pixel graphics, based on the haunted arcade game.
Rainbow Reactor- Kind of like a sac toss arcade puzzle game.
Conductor - An escape room style adventure game with a physics gun.
Battlewake - This was a really hyped game that kind of flopped. Basically it looks really great graphically but the gameplay loop feels really repetitive and kind of shallow. For co op at this price it's a good buy.
Raw Data - Early polished VR wave shooter, but it shows its age. It has multiplayer but the index support is pretty bad.
Dungeons & Treasure VR - A small voxel fantasy roguelike with multiplayer support.
Assuming you're reading this because you would like to wear rings and currently don't, here's a quick FAQ.
Materials?
Most common precious metals used in jewelry are silver, gold, platium and variations thereof. You will rarely find pure metal jewelry, reason being that 100% silvegold is actually soft and will warp and become damaged with little effort. The most common alloys for jewelry are:
Stainless Steel: what your kitchen cutlery is made of. Marketed as a cheap alternative to silver.
Sterling Silver / .925 silver: 92.5% pure silver mixed with another metal, commonly copper.
Yellow Gold: (usually) an alloy of gold and some other material, preserving the yellow colour of the gold.
Rose Gold: An alloy of gold, copper and some white metal e.g. silver. The copper gives the metal a rosy tint.
White Gold: An alloy of gold and a white metal e.g. silver. Personally I don't see the appeal when silver is 1/10th the price.
Karats?
When buying jewelry it's important to know what the precious metal content is (or whether it's made of precious metal at all) as this plays a huge part in the quality of the jewelry and how much you should expect to pay. Sterling silver is the benchmark for quality silver. Sometimes referred to as .925 silver, sterling silver is 92.5% silver by weight. The vast majority of silver jewelry is made of sterling silver - anything new that doesn't specify the quality (.925 / sterling, .999 / fine / pure) is of dubious quality and should be avoided. Gold content is measured in karats. The scale goes from 0 to 24, with 1 karat being 1 part gold to 23 parts other material. Therefore, 16K gold is 50% pure gold and 24K gold is pure gold. The karat rating for white gold or rose gold is the same - 18K gold and 18K white gold contain the same amount of gold but the gold is alloyed with different materials to change the colour of the resulting alloy. Metal alloys are generally much harder and resistant to wear. A higher percentage of pure precious metal is not necessarily better or more desirable.
Plating?
Plated jewelry is made from a material coated with a very thin layer of the specified metal. Plated metal is much cheaper than pure metal or an alloy. The material beneath the plating is usually copper, nickel, brass or silver. Jewelry from fast-fashion stores like H&M are generally made of copper or nickel plated with silver or gold. Vermeil is a restricted term for a specific kind of plating. Whilst plating can be done to any metal with any plate thickness, vermeil is always silver plated with a layer of gold at least 2.5 microns thick. Be cautious with plated jewelry. The price makes it very attractive but there are down-sides:
The plating has a tendency to rub off over time, ruining the appearance of your formerly-gold/silver jewelry.
The exposed metal may cause side effects:
Some people are allergic to nickel and will develop a rash.
Copper has a tendency to turn your skin green for a few days.
What should I buy?
Only buy pieces that speak to you. Think of jewelry like a tattoo. It's expensive, you're likely to keep it for a long time and wear it regardless of the rest of your outfit. If you're not sure whether you like a given piece your money would be better spent on something else. If you're not comfortable wearing it that's a lot of money left sat on your dresser.
Start simple. When making a big change in your wardrobe it's good to take it easy. Try a few small, simple pieces first e.g. a couple of stacking bands or a plain signet ring.
More is more. A single piece of jewelry will stand out in a bad way. The consenus from the jewelry thread was that it takes a few pieces to appear intentional and blend into an outfit. The sweet spot is 3-5 pieces total - less if you're wearing only one type, e.g. max. 3 rings, more if you're mixing it up e.g. 2 rings, a bracelet and a chain.
Sterling silver is king. IMO stainless steel does not look good in real life. It may look exactly like silver in the photos but trust me, when you place it side-by-side with silver it looks cheap. Stainless steel is duller, has a gray-tone and brushed-metal surface. It's a hardy material that's very resistant to scratches and wear. Sterling silver on the other hand is much brighter, can be polished smooth or oxidized to add detail and develops a patina over time. Gold is nice but it's very expensive. Mixing metals is hard to pull off so if you buy gold you may feel limited in terms of choice and price when buying future pieces.
Feel free to ignore this advice. If you want gold jewelry, go for it. If you want to wear more rings than you have fingers don't let me stop you. There are no rules - this is just advice for those who are dipping their toes into jewelry for the first time.
Sizing?
It can be difficult to size jewelry, particulary if you're doing it yourself. Here's some methods you can use ordered by ease/accuracy:
Use a ring sizer at home. Nowadays they make plastic ring sizers and many online brands will ship you one for free or low-cost. IMO this is the best way to take your ring size but watch a guide or two on YouTube to make sure you get it right.
Use a cloth tape measure. Take a measurement of your finger in mm using a flexible tape measure and use a size chart to convert to your desired scale.
Use your existing rings as a guide. If you know the size of your current rings (or you're sizing for a friend or partner who knows theirs) you're pretty set. I bought a thumb ring for my girlfriend for Christmas and compared her current thumb ring to one of mine to get an idea of size. When it turned up it was slightly smaller than expected but still fit.
Have a professional jeweler size you. You can ask a jeweler to measure your fingers in-store though you may be uncomfortable doing this if you don't intend to purchase anything. Alternatively, try some pieces on and note what size they are if they're a good fit.
Go to the showroom and let them measure you or try the pieces in-store. The most accurate if you're buying a specific brand. Obviously only an option if you live or travel nearby.
Pay to have the ring resized. If the ring is too large any jeweler will be able to resize it for you. It's more difficult/expensive to size a ring up, especially if it has details the whole way round. If in either doubt size up, make sure they have a good returns policy or don't buy.
Sizing Tips
Remember that each of your fingers is a different ring size. The fingers on your dominant hand will be thicker than the fingers on your non-dominant hand. The size of your fingers changes depending on the temperature so rings that are loose when it's warm may fall off when it's cold or vice-versa. When measuring at home take a few measurements in different rooms, inside / outside or at different times of day to get an accurate measurement. If you're not fussed about which finger the ring will sit on, measure a few candidate fingers of similar size (±1) and order a ring in the size between. If the ring arrives and it's too large / small then wear it on the larger / smaller finger.
Where to buy?
Online: I buy most of my jewelry online. Most designers have an instagram presence and online store. Check the tagged photos on their instagram accounts for inspiration. The more mass-produced brands will have sales on holidays e.g. Christmas or Black Friday.
Independent retailers: Your city may have an area with lots of independent designers / craftspeople / markets - you're likely to find a lot of unique pieces here and physical locations for the designers listed below.
Thrift: You may have some luck at thrift stores or second-hand / charity / pawn shops. In some cities there are second-hand stores that only sell jewelry.
Grailed et al.: The more popular brands (e.g. The Great Frog) will appear on places like grailed or eBay.
On the high street: You're unlikely to find men's jewelry in high street retail / department stores. Most of the jewelry is very delicate and targeted toward women or married couples (wedding bands). The stuff you do find will be relatively inoffensive bands and signet rings.
Designers
So you want a ring but you don't know where to look. Great! See the gallery for general inspo and check out the list of designers below. I've tried to categorize the list to make it easier to find the kind of rings you're interested in. If you have suggestions for more designers please let me know in the comments. Most designers will produce other types of jewelry e.g. chains, bracelets, necklaces, pendants in a similar style.
Simple Rings
Small-to-medium size rings with plain or very simple designs. Stacking bands, signet rings, rings with a single motif like a chain, feather, nail etc.
Silver-plated brass rings with unique designs offering a cheap entry point into jewelry. Occasionally do sterling-silver variants of popular designs. Bit of a weird "community" drop-based Instagram presence.
Huge. Impractical. Outrageously large, really, gigantic. Some of the most unique jewelry I've seen, for better or worse.
Natural Rings
Various-sized rings with designs or textures inspired by nature. Think flowing water, rock formations, gemstones, emphasis on natural wear and tear. The counterpoint to industrial's man-made aesthetic.
Not a designer per se, but a reseller of other designers similar to ssense. Grungy, big industrial/nature inspired rings. A good place to follow to get inspiration; stocks many of the designers on this list.
.999 fine silver / gold rings in simple designs. Due to the softness of fine / pure metals the ring will tarnish and warp creating a unique, highly personal piece of jewelry.
"Inspired by the elements, the human body, rock and roll, techno music, a theatrical lifestyle and deep personal emotions. Her designs feature unique organic forms of .925 silver, in heavily textured freehand surfaces. Each piece bares luxurious weight and significant stature."
Wild sci-fi designs often contrasting clean, melting chrome-like sections with heavily oxidized, distressed parts. Distribution outside Japan extremely limited.
Biker Rings
Big fuck-off rings for letting everyone know you ride a Harley Davidson, play in a rock band and do a lot of drugs.
Detailed, medium-sized rings under various themes - western, nautical, nature. I find a lot of their designs to be tacky but they have some simpler pieces I've considered purchasing.
Lots of unique designs, although some of them seem to be lifted from The Silver Stone or vice-versa (particularly the goat and branch rings). Not sure what to think but I grabbed this from the streetwear list.
Big rings made of marble with some silver / gold elements. Design inspired by the macabre - lots of skulls, skeletons and dead things. Infamous for their dick ring. I have yet to any of their pieces pulled off outside of their lookbooks. Please share any everyday fits you find with me so I can justify buying one of their pieces.
A bit of a bizarre one. While most designers focus on traditional jewelry, Good Art makes a lot of... things. Chapstick caps, AirPod cases, corkscrews and smoking pipes.
Probably the most famous jewelry designer in the world. You may be tempted to write them off as over-priced and over-hyped but (as a biased Tiffany-bracelet owner) I have to admit that the quality is incredibly high. Their silver pieces are rhodium-plated and there is a noticeable difference in the durability and brightness of my Tiffany bracelet vs. other silver jewelry I own. Edit: I can't actually find any evidence that their silver is rhodium-plated. It's important to do your research before buying things!
Big rings inspired by Asia. Lots of small stones and inlays. One of the more successful designers with physical locations in tons of major cities / malls.
I suppose you might consider these to be rings for classic menswear. Signet rings with marble or some other opaque stone, elegant bands. Some outrageously intricate signets with fuckton of stones and sky-high prices to match.
All sorts of vintage jewelry from across the spectrum.
Custom Signet Rings
Signet rings were traditionally engraved with a design and worn on the pinky finger. You would use the signet to stamp and seal letters with your personal insignia in wax.
I really hope you're still reading because Castro Smith does some incredible work. Hand-engraved, incredibly detailed signet rings in multiple tones. Ready-to-order one-of-a-kind pieces and the opportunity to order bespoke.
Thanks to danhakimi and everyone else who left nice comments in the jewelry thread and encouraging me to make this post. Note: my only qualifications for creating this post are owning a few rings, enjoying wearing them and having access to Google. Please read the comments and take everything with a pinch of salt. Thanks x
Quarantine date ideas and phone games to play with your girlfriend or boyfriend
Continuation to LDR Activities you can do with your partner. Quarantine dates
Go to supercook.com which lets you put any ingredients that you have in your house. Once your boyfriend or girlfriend have selected all the ingredients, you basically look through this list of all the dishes that you can make and you can each select one. Both of you select a recipe, make it together and then see who has the better dish.
Get a shot glass and your favorite alcohol. Find a list on Google to ask your girlfriend or boyfriend. Once you find the list, you take turns asking questions. And if you don't want to answer it, you take a shot.
Pick an event or a date night. Look through your closer together and find a matching outfit, and make matching outfits together.
Get a Chrome extension called Scener. Click on the extension in the Google Chrome bar and follow prompts. Create a private theatre and choose a streaming service, and if you want to video chat, you can enable your camera. Pick something to watch and share the invite link with your girlfriend or boyfriend.
Pick a category (e.g. Jewelry) and budget (e.g. 15 dollars), Set a time limit (e.g. 5 minutes). Find an item within the time limit. You can basically browse Amazon or any shops over the Internet and find a gift to find them under 5 minutes, with the same category and budget.
Play phone games together: Brawl Stars (arena game where you can team up with your significant other), Spaceteam (a puzzle game that requires a ton of communication), QuizUp (has quizzes on a ton of different topics)
Go to drunkpirate.co.uk. Add players. Drink if the card tells you to. Preferable to do this over video chat.
Pick a song you like and give it to your boyfriend/girlfriend. Go on Spotify to search the song and make a playlist out of it. Go to the playlist and add some of the recommended songs. At the end, you should have a playlist for each other with the music that they like.
skribbl.io - one person draws and everyone else guesses
Go to Spotify. Click the device icon on the bottom left. Click "Start Session". Send an invite. Once they get the same invite, they'll be on the same listening session as you. So you can listen to the same music or Podcast together.
Get the Google Chrome extension "Scener". Go to Netflix and search "Black Mirror Bandersnatch". This is essentially an interactive movie that you and your girlfriend/boyfriend can watch together.
Best phone games to play with your girlfriend or boyfriend (all online)
Spaceteam - A puzzle game that you can play with your boyfriend/girlfriend or up to 7 other people. The whole point of this game is to try to get out of the space shuttle alive, so you get instructions and then you have to give to the other player playing the game. You have to give the instructions in a certain time limit. Play the game until you damage the ship completely or pass through all the levels.
Bunch - You can play a bunch of different games with your boyfriend/girlfriend all while videochatting with them
Hi all So I've been selling on Etsy for 4 years and I'm doing pretty well with it. I thought I'd give some hints and tips that have helped me over the years:
A LOT of people think that Etsy is one business, so they don't realise that one bad seller doesn't mean we all are. My experiences from a customer side of things are about 50:50. The better Etsy does, the better we do. So your success helps my success, and vica versa (hence me giving out free advice!). It's so important for buyers (and you may be a buyer too) to leave reviews, ESPECIALLY if they are bad! If customer see negative reviews, they would likely not purchase from that shop, and so are more likely to have a positive experience with someone else, and then return back to Etsy. Reviews are the best way to influence the market. Not every hobby could / should be a business- it is in our best interests to have good sellers on Etsy. Leaving honest reviews will help to make the website a better place for us all. The 'bad' sellers should either improve their service/products, or should cease to trade. That way, customers would start to trust Etsy more. It's sellers like these who massively reduce the reputation of Etsy (since most people don't know Etsy it's made up of different sellers). If you are a seller yourself, you're doing yourself a disservice by not reviewing.
Upselling. There are SO many ways to upsell and there aren't many products that are un-upsellable (made that up)- if you sell hair clip holders, offer to send out a pack of 6 clips for £1, if you sell mugs, offer to send a matching coaster for £3. Each upsell opportunity should be listed in multiple places:
As a variation on the product- make sure you do this right in the 'edit variations' section and the costs are correctly input
As a separate listing. To some extent, the more listings, the better. My next point is also based on this
If you offer variations, list each option as it's own listing, and have a variation section on each of them. I sell a book available in pink, blue and orange cover. I have three listings (one per colour), and on each listing I have three colours. It seems OTT but Etsy doesn't make it easy for customers to stay on your shop- Etsy direct them to your competitors. So by only offering variations as individual listings, you may be missing opportunities to sell.
Write your descriptions as though customers can't see your photos. Take your photos as though your customers can't read. So measurements need to be listed in cm and inches, and photos should have other props next to them so it's easier for customers to see how big the item is.
Delivery- and dealing with late delivery- three things:
Do a shop announcement saying there are delays at the moment due to x reason. Tell customers to order by x day to get delivery in time for Xmas / thanksgiving or whatever.
Increase your production time on each order.
Increase the estimated delivery dates on your delivery profiles.
If you manually mark the order as dispatched by Royal Mail (and I'm guessing other couriers), Etsy calculates the delivery date and tells the customer that date (which is rarely met!)- as a workaround, when you are manually marking orders as dispatched, put the courier down as 'Other' and then type in Royal Mail
I send things 2nd class, or international standard, by default. There are options for customers to upgrade themselves. I have some higher priced items (£40+) that I only send tracked, and my delivery profile is adjusted accordingly for that.
Calculating delivery costs:
I've worked out how much I charge customers for P&P for my items, then worked out how much I pay Royal Mail. I did this - for qty 1 and qty 2 items - for the different weighted items within the same delivery profile - for standard shipping and upgraded shipping - for the UK, EU and US
I then worked out my profit / loss on the delivery charges- also accounting for Etsy taking a percentage of the shipping fee I charge customers used conditional formatting to show me (in red) where I'm paying out more than I'm charging. The whole 'how much do you want to charge for an additional item if someone buys 2' has lost me a fair bit of money with delivery fees.
This doesn't consider the cost of packaging and the time spent packaging orders, so I think I was probably losing money on most of my delivery fees
Pick your battles- I am ALL about principles. I want to refuse to refund people who kick up a fuss, who threaten to take me to court, etc., but it's not worth it. It's not worth the aggro of trying to please *some* customers. Most customers appreciate honesty and good communication, if they aren't pleased with this then it's a lost cause. Just refund and move on. If (or when!) they leave a bad review, write the response to them, but you aren't trying to actually 'win' the argument with them, you are writing it thinking about the other customers who are reading them. I was once given a 1* review because Etsy gave them inaccurate estimated delivery dates. Instead of responding having a go at the customer or Etsy, I responded:
We apologise for the delays on behalf of Royal Mail/other couriers. Your order was dispatched within 1 day, however COVID-19 has severely disrupted many essential services, including postal services worldwide. With many postal workers self-isolating, branch closures, and increased demand, the service is incredibly overstretched. As a small business, we are very concerned that customers’ orders are being delayed by this impact, meaning they are having to wait far longer than normal for their order to be delivered. I am sure you can appreciate that these delays due to COVID-19 are sadly beyond our control. Please contact us if your order doesn’t arrive within a reasonable time after normal service has resumed, and we will work to resolve this. We hope you keep safe during these challenging times.
Make things easier for yourself, and for them.
Don't bother including the packaging slip in the package- if they ask you about it, just say you are being considerate of the environment. I've never sent these in my orders and I've never had anyone ask for it.
Streamlining all processes- can you make some things in advance, make things in bulk, package things into boxes ready for when the orders come in, organise your work area so there is a 'production line' sort of process. I have streamlined my postal situation! I used to buy postage online and drop it off at the post office (before I learned they didn't get any profit from it), then I set up a drop and go account with the post office- with an automated topping up (once there was £40 or less on the account, it automatically topped up by £100). This meant I could cut the queue, drop my parcels on the shelf at the post office, and then I'd collect the receipt the next time I went in. I now have an online business account with Royal Mail and have daily postal collections, which is amazing!
Saved Replies. I have a few saved replies (saved on Etsy), that I use when customers ask a certain question. This means I spend less time replying to the more routine questions. Saved replies below. Feel free to copy them!
Coronavirus Delay
Hi there! :) Thanks for your message The package should have been with you within 5-7 working days, but I have checked with my courier and it can take up to 20 working days (however there are a lot of delays with the postal systems at the moment- apparently it's the same demand as the postal service around Christmas but 25% staff off sick!. As your order only includes standard shipping, I'm afraid I don't have tracking info on your package. I have had a lot of delays on post so I'm confident it's not just your package, but I know that doesn't help the situation :() If it isn't there after 20 working days, feel free to drop me another message and I'll be happy to send out a replacement :) Thank you, and I'm so sorry I'm unable to offer more help!
Where is my order? International
Hi there! :) Thanks for your message The package should be with you within 5-7 working days, but I have checked with my courier and it can take up to 20 working days (it's usually there much sooner!. As your order only includes standard shipping, I'm afraid I don't have tracking info on your package. I'm happy to send you proof of postage if you like?) If it isn't there after 20 working days, feel free to drop me another message and I'll be happy to send out a replacement :) Thank you, and I'm so sorry I'm unable to offer more help!
Where is my order? UK 2nd class
Hi there! :) Thanks for your message The package should be with you within 2-3 working days, but I have checked with my courier and it can take up to 13 working days (it's usually there much sooner!. As your order only includes standard shipping, I'm afraid I don't have tracking info on your order. I'm happy to send you proof of postage if you like?) If it isn't there after 13 working days, feel free to drop me another message and I'll be happy to send out a replacement :) Thank you, and I'm so sorry I'm unable to offer more help!
Ask for honest feedback- it is against the rules (I believe) to ask for a *positive* review but asking for a review and any constructive criticism isn't. I have a recurring task set up on my To Do list to ask for reviews from all orders placed 2-3 weeks ago. So on 22nd December, I would ask for reviews from all orders placed between 1st and 8th December.
When there are known shipping problems, I don't ask for reviews (so I'm not asking for reviews now until the middle of Jan). I also don't ask for reviews from customers who seemed awkward, or where the order was to a country that I'm not familiar with.
Message I use to ask for reviews:
Hi xxx, Sorry for bothering you, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your recent order with me, I really hope you love the product and the service provided. If you have a spare minute or two, I would be so grateful if you could leave a review on my Etsy for your purchase. It really helps little shops like mine grow. Thanks so much!
Organisation- I have an app called ToDoIst- I've paid for the premium account because its SO good. I have created a standard 'new product launch' project which I duplicate for each time I bring out a new product. Tasks include:
Send product to photographer
Pay photographer
Work out accurate costs and calculate what I need to charge
Create draft description for Etsy
Create draft description for Wix (my own website)
Get photos back from photographer
Publish listing on Etsy
Publish listing on Wix
Make shop announcement on Etsy - new product
Advertise on Facebook
Advertise on Instagram
LOG all of the customer requests and messages about products you don't sell. Tally them up- voila! your new product launch pipeline! I added a different version of one of my products this month, because someone asked me if it would be possible. It was one of my best sellers! These customer messages are amazing market research, and free!
Make cost savings wherever you can- I recently signed up with an account for one of my suppliers and it's given me a 10% saving on those costs. This should help to offset the Royal Mail increase in costs!
Don't put all your eggs in one basket- consider opening an amazon account, eBay, Wix, or dropshipping. I found a blogger who blogs about my sort of products, and she recently started selling her own items. She approached me about dropshipping and it's going really well. She takes 20% commission but it's sales that I wouldn't get if it wasn't for her, so why not? (this is the same way I think about Etsy Ads btw)
Gift wrap- I made some boxes that house my products perfectly and I use this as gift wrap. It's a simple way of offering gift wrapping without needing to worry about how perfect my wrapping is!
Proper photos- this was a GAME CHANGER for me. I tried taking my own photos, tried and tried again. I was rubbish. It would have cost so much money and time to actually get to the level I needed to be at, it was cheaper to use a professional photographer. If you can't afford a pro, there are facebook groups 'lets collab- product photography' or something like that, where you send your products to them (for free) and in exchange they send you product photos. Be SUPER careful with these though, and super detailed about what you want, how many photos you want, and get a contract if possible (there are template contracts on that fb group)
Sell internationally- make sure you will make a profit on them, and put the shipping costs as high as they need to be. The worst that happens is that you get no international sales, but it's worth it just in case they want to!
Full time or part time? I set myself a few goals to hit before giving up my job. It didn't go fully as planned but I'm happy how it ended up:
Try going part time first, see if the extra time equates to extra sales.
Work out how much it costs you to run your household (or your portion of the household) for 1 month- are you making that amount, consistently (account for seasonal trends, December is a busy month for me so when I looked into this, I took an average of a few months, not just looking at December)
Don't have all your eggs in one basket- website, dropshipping, etc.
Keywords- tags and titles. I need to figure out myself how to nail this, but I know it's important. To see which are your worst performing listings:
Look at all listings (in stats- past 30 days), paste into google sheets / excel and work out conversion rate- (number of orders as a percentage of number of views)- change things on these listings.
You can also find 'SEO listing revisions' available online to buy. I brought this from JustAddJewelry and found it useful :)
Shop Local This Christmas! (r/NorthernIreland's list of local shops and businesses)
Thanks for all the awards! And shout out to u/davidc535 who mapped a lot of these on Google maps. Also, this ran on too long, more places in the comments.
Dustie Roo sell prints of floral arrangements that are really beautiful (From u/hm8g10) Noop designs have some really great Northern Irish themed prints (From u/hm8g10) Camlake Canvas - Fermanagh based artist with some amazing stuff. Also takes commission - painted our doggo and it was brilliant. Aly Harte also does prints and paintings (From u/hm8g10) I love Doghouse Gallery in Comber and Kingfisher Gallery in Killyleagh for local art, prints, jewellery, decorations etc. (From u/isotala) John Robinson Art - Belfast. He does the art on Boundary Brewing cans, based in Belfast. (From u/TunaFish88) Le Petit Pois Gallery abstract paintings and prints (From u/redditor930530) A Work of Heart bespoke and personalised prints based in Tandragee (From u/redditor930530) Armagh Damsons - Does commissions of your favourite landscape, cityscape, your home, your pet, whatever really. From u/tartanbornandred Horner Gallery - Castledawson, @ liamhornerart (instagram) and has a gallery in Castledawson, has lots of original landscape paintings and prints- also does Seamus Heaney themed work. From u/Carbsandmayo Studio Cole is a Scottish artist living locally and makes custom abstract paintings and prints. (From u/TheTyphoonteabag) Terry Bradley Art galleries - Belfast and Bangor. Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) One of Ireland's best known artists, recognised worldwide. (From u/SCOdoubleT16) Kaela Elliot Gifts - Derry. Derry based, hand designed cards, prints, mugs. Takes custom orders. (From u/pettydavis) Born and Bred (from u/oldfilmjanitor) - This site actually looks amazing. Based in Belfast they've a pile of really great gifts, all sourced from local artists and designers. little heart -Belfast. Personalised paintings, greetings cards /tree decorations, &some cute gifts on the website. Has some Harry Potter things, Disney ornaments, and teddy’s she sells in her store in queens arcade. Always get compliments when I buy people a gift from there. u/Mearbhail
Bath / Body / Candle Gifts
Mermaid Cove - Richmond Centre, Derry. (bath, body and home products...bath bombs, soaps, wax melts, all cruelty free & vegan, owner is an absolutely lovely woman!) Hex Bomb - Belfast. (Another Northern Irish bath bomb company, though I believe are Belfast based) Bubba's Meltys (And a wax melt company) The Scented Scullery - Lurgan is fantastic. From u/RiverPondlife Serenity Beauty - Maybe not local crafts but let's face it,the beauty industry is dying here and I know for a fact the owner of this place goes above and beyond for her clients. She has her own skin care range if you're thinking of gifts for the missus. From u/RiverPondlife Plumpy Balms - Plumpy is a beautiful little Vegan brand with the greatest lip balms. Check out their Lemon Pop - it's a miracle cold sore treatment. They also do tinted lip balms and face and body balms too. (From u/eimcca80) Sweet Scentsations - Derry and Belfast. They sell hand made wax melts. Bearded Candle Makers - Belfast. Candle from Bearded Candle Makers just arrived, not only is the packaging really nicely done (including a handwritten note on a postcard), the candle smells unreal. Highly recommend. (From u/Crimsai and u/hm8g10) Legenderry Candle Co. - Derry. Handmade soya wax melts, candles and other scented products (car air fresheners, reed diffusers, etc.) (From u/djfrfc) Belfast Beard Company - Been using their stuff for years, the lads running it are all great. From u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In Plumpy Balms - Beautiful little Vegan brand with the greatest lip balms. Check out their Lemon Pop - it's a miracle cold sore treatment. They also do tinted lip balms and face and body balms too. u/eimcca80
Book Shops
No Alibis probably best known local book shop. Books Papers Scissors also in Belfast Little Acorns Bookstore in Derry (girl who runs this place seems like a legend!) Bookends in Bangor Bridge Books in Dromore The Secret Bookshop - in Carrick. It’s a lovely wee place that’s just opened this year and can order the books in for you if they don’t have it in stock. From u/kittenmish (Comic stores in 'Games / Nerdy stuff / Models category)
Harland Homesyle - Etsy store from u/PM-me-Gophers &his wife, selling handcrafted herbs &spices. Perfect smaller gifts for friends / stocking fillers. Update: Now with expanded range, including two Christmas specific offerings (Winter Spice and a Mulled Wine Mix). https://www.rockadoodledo.com/products/ - Redditor u/rockadoodledobelfast sells some amazing hot sauces online and at St. George's Market. Started out years ago by giving away samples to 50 redditors for feedback! Erne Larder Preserves - Fermanagh. For delicious jams& chutneys (From u/fermango) Layer Cake - Lisburn. does great cupcakes. It was the one place that made me actually venture to Lisburn when I’d be back home for a visit) (From u/ambivert1902) Mike’s Fancy Cheeses - Belfast. Locally sourced and produced. Has a wee shop in Belfast and also does deliveries including breads etc. Great idea for social distancing Xmas pressie (From u/RedLouStar) Ebron's Enterprise - Portadown. (family run bakery - flipping delicious and Christmas range coming out soon!) (From u/redditor930530) HollieBerrie cakes and treat boxes (From u/redditor930530) Lily Pink Bakery incredible cakes and currently doing treat boxes too! (From u/redditor930530) Nearynógs do all things chocolate, based in Newry but have stockists all over. (From u/Louthgirl) Enrich & Endure make gorgeous linen aprons and have also started making face coverings. Online shop but you've probably seen their aprons in your favourite café (From u/Louthgirl) 387 Ormeau Road (that's the cafe name & address) does great food and it's all vegan friendly. Brownies, cake slices, hot food, independent soft drinks and coffee blends, and groceries. They even post what they have available on their FB page, with the ability to reserve items u/Irockz The Nutmeg - lovely health food store on Lombard Street in Belfast. Stocks all sorts of healthy, organic, &vegan things, from supplements to frozen food to crisps to chocolate to homemade sandwiches and sausage rolls. LocalBoxNI.com - Deliver all kinds of local food - nice cheeses, breads, meats, hampers etc. They're delivering food right up to Christmas Eve and are run by reddit u/justin344. MooToYou - Deliver to Belfast area and surrounding, food is sourced from local suppliers. From u/mlmxp Two Sisters - Belfast. Independent Belfast based food shop, also selling arts & crafts and good coffee. Highly recommended! (From u/chrissedoff55) Madame Macs - Redditor u/PsychopathicMunchkin makes incredibly good French macarons. Definitely worth a wee purchase! (me) graze2u - Derry. Grazing platters & artisan foods, delivered in and around Derry. Burren Balsamics Armagh - really good flavoured balsamic vinegar, I like the Armagh Apple Ristretto Coffee Roasters Banbridge - really high quality coffee Hannan Meats Moira - for the turkey. Can be ordered in advance (this &2above from u/fjleish)
UseLess Shop (Society Street in Derry....environmentally friendly shop, sells reusable items, restock of grains/pasta) Whiskey Woodcraft for handmade gifts from Irish whiskey barrels (Personal note - this is class). From u/fermango
Games / Nerdy stuff / Models
Replay Games in Bangor from u/mangokid555 Angry Cherry (Foyle Street, Derry....comics/geeky shop, also sell the likes of Nemises Now/Alchemy England) Modeller's Corner - Enniskillen. From u/Scrabo - Radio Controlled Cars/Aircraft, Plastic Model Kits (Airfix etc), Model Railway, Collectors Models, Terrain and Paint, Board Games and puzzles. Small family run business. Coffee and Heroes - Belfast, Smithfield Market. Huge range of comics & comic related goodness. If they don't have it they can usually source it quite quickly for you, well worth a visit :) From u/CaptainGurrash Comic Book Guys - Belfast. Great comic book shop in Belfast. Great selection of comics, gifts, tshirts etc. Would be a great addition to the games/nerdy stuff category. From u/DogLor Football Fortunes - Football management tabletop and computer game you can play with friends and family, created by u/Creative-Ad3337 On Table Top - Coleraine. Table top based company in Coleraine that does miniatures etc. (From u/Old_Gregg97)
Cool Discs - Derry for CD's / Vinyl (mostly vinyl cause who the fuck buys CD's anymore) (From u/CMadden1) Voodoo Soup - Across from Smithfield Market. Does a mad variety of CDs & Vinyl for good prices (£3 a pop for almost every CD (From u/Irockz) Matchetts - Belfast. Well known local instrument store. (From u/made-in-china-)
PhotomonkeyNI - Personalised photo gifts, custom framing, photo printing, t-shirts, photo canvas Any thing image orientated. Even does cine and video to DVD (From u/HarrysDa)
Sports Wear
Topping Leisure - Comber. Always recommend. Website not great, but the kind of place you visit. Only shop here(and maybe all of Ireland) which will custom fit, heat molded ski boots. From u/SomewhatIrishfellow Galibier - Craigavon. Pretty niche but Galibier sells premium cycling clothes. I was gifted one of their coats and it's by far the best one I have. (From u/rocketship92) See the rest of the list here.
What happens when it is all one big "efficient company?" An insane claim, by the way. There is no reason to think merging all those companies would lead to something efficient, unless you have the absolutely mindblowing belief that government agencies can run these private companies with more success. Can you imagine going to the DMV to ship a package? Can you imagine being told it will cost $500 to ship the package, and then realizing there is no competition available?
"Can you imagine allowing the government to be as corrupt as businesses are?!? (remember insulin?) That would be bad!" Yeah no shit - that's why it's called "Policy and Regulation" you fucking ignoramus. The exact thing you're advocating against. "But competition means that consumers can go to company that has the lowest prices - meaning, the company that has the least amount of costs vs profit. Would a regulated, subsidized, non-profit monopolistic business model not provide that for the cheapest physically possible, orrrrr.....?!?! BRUH
[Them] Even if your service starts off in the best way possible in every single way: you get some messiah like selfless person with 180iq to run the operation, and somehow, they manage to combine all these companies into single effective business, and all for minimal pay.
"Minimal pay" and "Adequate pay" are two totally different things. Raising the minimum wage won't raise the price of a burger unless the CEO's choose to take a profit/pay cut.
Let's just say you get that done. What happens after that person retires?!@?!??! What are the odds you can find another one, and another after that, and another after that, who are all incorruptible, greedless, perfect people?
This knuckle-dragger really can't wrap their head around prohibitive policy that cuts down on negative actions, nor the concept that changing the focus in society from "profit" to "purpose" would severely cut down on the average person's corruption. We live in a society that glorifies having more money than you can physically spend - and it purpetuates the people like you who see that as an excuse to exploit others just because you can.
Why on earth would it be better to have one person take on the management duties of all these companies?
Still can't wrap his head around anything other than social hierarchies.. "WhOs GoNnA bE tHe BoSs?!" Unless you're asking how they would make it efficient - which of course anyone with half a brain cell would know 1 person managing absolutely everything would be basically impossible - thought it doesn't suprise me you jump to that conclusion with the content of the arguments... You break it up by region, district and subcategorize parts of the company for national, local, or other ranges. You prioritize parts of the business to go from manufactures to retailers, others for deliveries at home - all the "profits" going to adequately paying the employees, research to further streamline and automate the service (as well as help drive costs down further), and back into the economy through a UBI.
[Them] To be perfectly blunt, I must imagine, and I say this in the politest way possible, that you do not have the faintest clue what it takes to manage a business. It is well outside the scope of this post for me to teach you, but suffice to say it is not such an easy and laid back task, and I think it would be of immense value to your personal development to get some experience.
Imagine saying that to a person that manged 3 headshops across 2 states for several years, generating over a combined 250k every single year. The owner lived in Cali - I live in CT. I had to order new products based on what inventory we had left, profits we had the previous month and projected sales, I had to organize discounts and sales to move old product, manage the schedules and payroll to be sent out, work with the local authorities when it came to signage, zoning and other issues; I had to advertise for the business online (as part of my job description) and submit all of our cost/revenue/profit sheets for each store. I had to be on call whenever the store was open in order to approve discounts asked by my sales teams. If I missed emails - even if I wasn't working - I'd get screamed at - all for $14/hr plus a small percentage of commission on certain items. The kicker? They had stupid shady business practices. I'm talking they've been sued for wage garnishment multiple times, class action lawsuits, copyright infringement. You see, they secretly owned the glass company that made 75% of their stock. They paid illegal immigrants roughly $10/hr (one of the owners flat out admitted this to me) to copy competitors items exactly. Producing a product that was literally a knock-off of the main retailer (the quality was shit too), but for a fraction of the price. Literally. So a certain pipe would retail for say, $1,000. Well, it only cost them about $100 to make it at the end of the day - transportation cost them roughly $25 (depending on how many they ship at once), bringing that total to $125 to put it on our shelf. I sell that item for $1,000 - and make $50 commission (if i passed the sales amount required for the day - If we didn't make enough to cover store costs including my pay, I didn't make commission regardless of the item sold). So for that entire process - the person who made it got roughly $50 for their labor - the materials cost roughly $50 - the concept for the good itself was stolen - I received roughly $64 for the sale (which is fucking insulting to the person who made it) - sales tax is paid by the customer - meaning that there's $811 left over for the owner to take as profit. AH yes - but he's the 20% of the equation - so he deserves the 80% of the profits - right?! That's how that works?!? That's his reward for the risk of paying workers the absolute minimum required by law (and sometimes lower than that), stealing copyrighted material, and exploiting labor - right?! That's what profits are for - legal battles! I could go into more detail about more fucked-up shit that company did, but something tells me all of these "best self interest" practices are giving you business ideas because you have no comprehension on morality.
[Me] All this with the added focus that we need to make the resources we utilize as renewable as possible, and the jobs we perform as automated as possible. [Them] And politicans will do a better job of that, if they are in control of every businesses decisions, in your mind? That seems to be the central point of your argument.
Look at him go trying to make me a communist - as again, the only industries I think the government should control are the ones vital to life. Housing, Education, Healthcare, Sustenance, (and at this point) distribution of goods and access to the internet. The internet goes hand-in-hand with education specifically. There should be free and easy access to a reputable educational source. Wikipedia leaves a lot to be desired - due to lack of funding and regulation.
[Them] That the Chosen People will come and lead the way to Efficient Businesses and Lack of Greed. It makes absolutely no sense and seems like a religious cult.
Literally your argument for capitalism - except you expect people whose sole motivator is profit to make the best decisions - where I want adequately educated people saying "No - fuck your profits, this secondary effect is too detrimental for it to be okay." Like you know - the active destruction of our ecosystems and people dying because they can't afford to pay for a drug that only costs $7 to produce.
[Me] Well for one, some people choose to live that way. Some people just prefer "off the grid" living. [Them] Way to avoid the question. Do you suppose the people making less than $1 a day farming would be happy to take your resources, or would they reject them? Would they accept the contents of your wallet, your bank account, your cell phone, and your clothes and amenities and technological comforts? Your laptop and jewelry? I bet they would, regardless of their "preference for off grid living." A very yuppie thing to say in regards to people subsistence farming, by the way.
Jesus fucking christ this dude should be dead with how many times he's hit himself in the face with the point. Not to mention he's changing his stance on this issue AGAIN. Remember, this was the original question that I was answering:
How, exactly, do you "fix" the lives of the BILLIONS of people who scratch out a living subsistence farming?
So in the intial question - he frames subsistence farming as a bad thing - and now in his reply, he's going to turn right around and try and make me seem like the bad guy in the scenario for wanting to "fix the issues". Not to mention that me pointing out the nuance that some people literally choose to do this is apparently "Avoiding the question" even though I answered this ages ago with verticle farming. Then he comes to this jewel:
Do you suppose the people making less than $1 a day farming would be happy to take your resources...I bet they would, regardless of their "preference for off grid living." A very yuppie thing to say in regards to people subsistence farming, by the way.
"Don't you think impoverished people would want the extra resources you have available?! You're such a yuppie for thinking that they wouldn't want to not be impoverished despite choosing to be self-sufficient outside of society because it creates impoverishment to the point of death!" Like these fucking conservative thunder-cunts can't wrap their heads around the things they say. By his mentality - owners should distribute their resources to the lower classes because workers could use them to not be impoverished despite "choosing" the job they have. Seriously, what the fuck kind of example is this?! "How do you fix the lives of billions who SCRATCH OUT A LIVING subsistence farming?" "HOW DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON THEM FOR BEING IN THAT POSITION!1!! THEY'RE CAPITALISTS!!!1!!1" Bruh. You really need to think about the things you say before you say them.
[Me] If the world prioritized ensuring undeveloped countries had the infrastructure and ability to contribute to the world economy - the long term benefits [Them] This is a statement that means nothing. "The world" is not an entity, unless you are specifically pushing for the creation of a one world government.
Is he really so stupid that he couldn't see this disclaimer:
Also - these sorts of things would have to be implemented worldwide.
AND that he can't wrap his head around the fact that producers in every single country in the world are contributing to the issues we're facing? Seriously. No dude - I'm only going to try and implement this in America - because the pollution from the rest of the world doesn't fucking matter. Dipshit.
[Me] With the focus on producing food wherever its needed (hydroponic facilities and proper farming techniques) [Them] As we go further in the post your arrogance seems to grow as your thoughts flow more freely. I imagine it is largely coming from your professors, but it is not enviable. How much farming have you done, I wonder, to know exactly which techniques are 'proper' and which are not? You seem to have all the answers, and it all seems so simple. Where can I vote to, quote, "do things properly"? Who would want to do them improperly, after all!
Translation: "These damn universities are indoctrinating people to the left!1!!11!" You're a truly stupid motherfucker if you can't ulitlize google to do some research on a few things before hand. Verticle farming is incredibly more efficient than other types of farming in several ways - and that's all capitalists care about right? Efficiency? Cost reductions? While it does have its downsides, Water efficiency is 100%, if the power is from sustainable sources the GHG are 20% of those of typical greehouses, and the yields are also more efficient. The only thing that needs to catch up is our power sources and the lighting tech - and it will be hands-down the most efficienct and best way to grow crops. Further improving our lighting tech will also increase the efficiency of our everyday lighting in society, and the power improvements will always better society when we stop dumping stupid amounts of pollution. Additionally, current improvements in automation will make it so that costs are incredibly minimal. Imagine being so stupid that you just want to let the market innovate and dictate society - and not those actually aducated in their respective fields. Yes - a scientist should have the final say over production of resources - not a farmer that's only looking to maximize his profits. That's how we ended up in the dust bowl. For as much as you tell me to think of examples in history to support your narrative - you sure do seem to ignore it.
[Me] coupled with focus on redistributing resources and wealth where it is needed, [Them] I'm going to engage directly with your language for a moment. I, too, think redistributing wealth and resources where it is needed is a vital and ongoing function. However, I think it happens naturally in a free market,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Look at him pivot again. Think back to his "underserving lotter winner" comment here, as well as the pareto principle. 20% of people generate 80% of the income. "The free market naturally redistributes income!" - currently in the worst state of wealth inequality in history due to the free market we currently have. I swear - conservatives and capitalists suffer from the worst kinds of Dunning-Kruger effects.
[Them] and I think unnatural distribution of resources through politicians will simply result in cronyism and corruption, as we have now. Which politican are you so confident in to redistribute wealth and resources "where it is needed?" How can one person, or even a team of people, possibly know whether it is smarter to use a community's money to build a chemical plant to produce medicines or a new surgery wing on the hospital, or a new farm instead?
Simple. Education, you know - the thing you lack?
[Them] How will you determine which will have more benefit? Perhaps hours of public testimony? Consulting with other bureaucrats? Will you listen to the testimony of the hungry, and compare that to the testimony of those needing surgery? Will you compare them to those that lack medicine? How will you make this choice?
Imagine being so fucking stupid that you think society with capabilities to launch a fucking car into space - would have to choose between feeding the hungry and caring for the sick - because.... what? They both aren't a priority? If healthcare was universal it would cost America less overall, anyone who says otherwise is a brainwashed knuckle-dragger. Don't even get me started on our educational system.
[Them] If it sounds impossibly complicated, it is. In reality, the politician and the bureaucrats are swayed by all the listed factors, and most often they will pick the solution that benefits them and their family and friends the most. Perhaps their brother owns the contracting company that will build the hospital, so they pick that option.
"Politicians are corrupt - businesses that charge hundreds of dollars for life saving medication and lie to the public in order to increase profits are not."
[Them] The alternative though, does not rely on the incorruptibility of a man, or even a group of men. The alternative relies simply on competition and market distribution of resources to those that provide the most goods and services to the public.
Here's another fallacy: the market decides the distribution of resources.. Please tell me more about how the market stages coups. And about how the "invisible hand of the market" creates artificial scarcities.
[Them] In a free market, any or all or none of those things could be built, depending on the decisions of individuals. Those individuals can take risks with their own personal lives, time, and savings, and because they are personally involved they have a strong motivator to be efficient and to please consumers.
LOLOLOL "a strong motivator to be efficient and please consumers!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes lobbying the government to have them lie about nutrition is about about "pleasing the consumer" - and planned obsolecense is also about "pleasing the consumer". Stop pretending to have any sort of redeemable values.
[Them] Politicians have no such risk. By the time the project is even finished, they may be out of office, or have collected their greasy bribes and kickbacks all the same.
"Politicians have no risk because they can get away with sleazy practices just like the rich who I mentioned earlier avoid taxes becasue they can!" HMMMM, it's almost as if we should address the problem of corruption - and not its symptoms. The source of this problem is societies incessant need to continue prioritizing profits over purpose.
[Them] Your hatred for business owners is replaced by a religious faith in politicians, which is entirely misplaced. It's nice to have something to believe in, but I plead with you, please, consider that you have fallen for a scheme even worse. What if I'm right? What if history backs me up, and every single time this has been tried, it's been a disaster?
"Please- please! Look at history and know (except modern day Europe - don't look there) that this never works! The US will stage a coup, impose sanctions, and cripple your economy before it ever gets off the ground! Besides, the politicians we have now are corrupt and are allowed to be because we don't have policies to restrict them - you can't just give them the power to choose - they'll abuse it and hurt me - the owner who deserves 80% of the profit despite doing less than 20% of the work!!" Bruh - you put policies in place to stop the actions that enable corruption and greed. "They're just going to get kickbacks from the businesses that only care about profits to try and sway their choices!! We should just give the power to the businesses that already prove they give no fucks about anything other than profits - and have even less restrictions!" You aren't a knuckle-dragger, you're an elbow-dragger. Holy shit.
5/7 [Me] we need to stop holding countries at gunpoint and forcing them to sell us resources for pennies on the dollar. [Them] Instead we'll just hold entire populations are gunpoint and tell them exactly how to live their lives, right? Which factories to open, which to close, which people can be successful, which cannot. How many farms to have, and how many chemical plants. How many factories, and how many schools. We will dictate every single aspect of their economy, and if any of them with enough money to make themselves heard or do something about it choose to argue, well, we will send the communist re-education squad over with some AKs to teach them to stop being greedy.
Again - this dude is having flashbacks of the cold war and can't handle his triggered fear.
[Me] And we can argue for days about whether we should focus our efforts "here" or around the world, yatta yatta. [Them] I was really amazed reading through this, because at so many times you are so close to a real epiphany moment. Yatta yatta indeed. You don't think it a rather important point to have locked down, exactly where all these redistributed resources will be spent?
Imagine being so thick headed that you think the needs of the world will be constant and fixed, not fluid and everchanging. "The free market naturally distributes resources where they're needed!" Please tell me more about how Africa is super developed and advanced - and how companies are making efforts to invest in sustainably solving the problems that they are facing.
[Them] Do you imagine yourself part of some special educated club that can discuss these things while the plebes just go along for the ride? Who determines whether the billions of people who live on less than $2 a day are more worthy than you of some redistributed wealth? If it is you, why is that fair?
Why should 2,153 people be allowed to aquire more wealth than 4.6 BILLION people combined? I think that's a better question - you really think that's indicitive of the free market "naturally redistributing wealth"? If you do I got a bridge to sell you.
[Them] Why should you get any money? You have so much compared to them. Following your logic, should we not liquidate 90% of the wealth of the Western countries and redistribute it to the developing countries? It is of course, "better for the world," as you say.
Imagine not understanding what the difference between equality and equity is, and also not understanding what UBI is, and trying to preach to people about the viabilities of economic systems. And also purposefully twisting my comment which explicitly says:
[Me] If the world prioritized ensuring undeveloped countries had the infrastructure and ability to contribute to the world economy - the long term benefits after doing so would surpass the initial costs of enabling it.
Yet he hears "redistribution of weath" and again - ignorantly thinks of the USSR.
Quarantine date ideas and phone games to play with your SO. A repost of what I've written in r/LongDistance that couples in this sub might find useful.
Continuation to LDR Activities you can do with your partner. Quarantine dates
Go to supercook.com which lets you put any ingredients that you have in your house. Once your boyfriend or girlfriend have selected all the ingredients, you basically look through this list of all the dishes that you can make and you can each select one. Both of you select a recipe, make it together and then see who has the better dish.
Get a shot glass and your favorite alcohol. Find a list on Google to ask your girlfriend or boyfriend. Once you find the list, you take turns asking questions. And if you don't want to answer it, you take a shot.
Pick an event or a date night. Look through your closer together and find a matching outfit, and make matching outfits together.
Get a Chrome extension called Scener. Click on the extension in the Google Chrome bar and follow prompts. Create a private theatre and choose a streaming service, and if you want to video chat, you can enable your camera. Pick something to watch and share the invite link with your girlfriend or boyfriend.
Pick a category (e.g. Jewelry) and budget (e.g. 15 dollars), Set a time limit (e.g. 5 minutes). Find an item within the time limit. You can basically browse Amazon or any shops over the Internet and find a gift to find them under 5 minutes, with the same category and budget.
Play phone games together: Brawl Stars (arena game where you can team up with your significant other), Spaceteam (a puzzle game that requires a ton of communication), QuizUp (has quizzes on a ton of different topics)
Go to drunkpirate.co.uk. Add players. Drink if the card tells you to. Preferable to do this over video chat.
Pick a song you like and give it to your boyfriend/girlfriend. Go on Spotify to search the song and make a playlist out of it. Go to the playlist and add some of the recommended songs. At the end, you should have a playlist for each other with the music that they like.
skribbl.io - one person draws and everyone else guesses
Go to Spotify. Click the device icon on the bottom left. Click "Start Session". Send an invite. Once they get the same invite, they'll be on the same listening session as you. So you can listen to the same music or Podcast together.
Get the Google Chrome extension "Scener". Go to Netflix and search "Black Mirror Bandersnatch". This is essentially an interactive movie that you and your girlfriend/boyfriend can watch together.
Best phone games to play with your girlfriend or boyfriend (all online)
Spaceteam - A puzzle game that you can play with your boyfriend/girlfriend or up to 7 other people. The whole point of this game is to try to get out of the space shuttle alive, so you get instructions and then you have to give to the other player playing the game. You have to give the instructions in a certain time limit. Play the game until you damage the ship completely or pass through all the levels.
Bunch - You can play a bunch of different games with your boyfriend/girlfriend all while videochatting with them
Budget and Recap! 10/10/2020 West Point, NY downsized but glad we still had a celebration!
First of all Weddit thanks for all the input and help and ideas. It was great to have a place of sanity to go while we were planning this day for the last 2.5 years! Our wedding was incredible and while it wasn't the day we had originally wanted, it was perfect. I am so grateful that we were able to have our closest friends and closest family there. As we navigated our options with postponing we realized that it wasn't really an option for us. Due to my husband's job if we didn't have our celebration in October, it wasn't going to happen until at least fall 2022. We'd already been engaged for 2 years and we were both ready to move on. While postponing is the right option for some couples, we realized that there are a million reasons to celebrate so we wanted to do something this year and we can throw a huge party with everyone we love for an anniversary, birthday, big life celebration, or just because we want to. I know that having a wedding at all right now is a controversial topic. I really don't want to have the conversation with anyone about the precautions we took. Among other things, every single person that attended had to have a negative test within 24 hrs. We did not invite friends/family that would have to travel and the one bridesmaid (bff) that did travel came in with us 3 weeks early so that we could all quarantine and test multiple times. We also had ample mask wearing, sanitizer, distancing of all seating, and everything was outside. Post wedding everyone tested again and everyone was negative.I do not want to engage with anyone on if it was the right thing to do. THE BASICS Date: October 10, 2020 Guests: originally planning for 225, ended up with about 50 once we cut the list down. There were a lot of family and friends that weren't invited to our smaller celebration. Venue: The Historic Thayer Hotel at West Point Pictures:https://imgur.com/a/DpcLVeX What went not so right:
I super sprained my ankle on the way to the venue on Friday. We were picking up lunch in the town next to the hotel and I stepped of a curb wrong. I ended up with 2 grade 3 (the worst!) ankle sprains on the inside and outside of my ankle, with significant bone bruising. This was determined at my MRI the Tuesday after the wedding. Thanks to the hotel for having a wheelchair for the rehearsal, my physical therapist for being the best and facetiming me literally hours before the rehearsal, my aunt for getting multiple boots for me on her way up, and the most amazing friends I was able to walk down the aisle and overall have an amazing night.
The flowers. They were all kinds of wrong. No one else would know that but me, but instead of a bouquet with lots of flowers the greenery to flower ratio was completely wrong. The colors were wrong (way more white than burgundy) and overall the flowers were just not what I wanted. When we went for the final she didn't have a mock up done and if I were to do this again I would insist there was a mockup so that I'd know I was getting what I wanted. There were also no cake flowers provided. I would not recommend this florist (PM me if you need details)
the cake. While it tasted fine and none of our guests knew it was also all kinds of wrong. 4 days before the wedding the owner of the bakery called me and tried to completely change our cake. We were meant to have a full buttercream cake with the bottom tier burgundy ombre and flowers on the cake. This was what we got instead There was fondant and it looked like an episode of "nailed it". Our Maitre'd also said that the overall quality of the cake was terrible (this was their preferred vendor and apparently quality has been declining) and I honestly felt like we were scammed between the tasting and presentation and what we ended up with. I would never recommend anyone get a cake from Sweet Grace bakery in NJ.
Some key family members weren't able to be there. My husband's aunt and uncle, who was supposed to be our second officiant, couldn't be there due to a medical issue (unrelated to COVID) and he was very much missed. A dear friend was also unable to come be a bridesmaid in the wedding due to the pandemic. She moved abroad and was going to come back to the states, see family and quarantine, but given current restrictions, she was nervous about being able to get back to her home so she wasn't able to be there.
What went right:
literally everything else.
I walked down the aisle to "Storybook Love" from the princess bride. The ceremony made me cry. My husband's vows were the most romantic and I felt like our ceremony was a perfect blend of us. We are an interfaith couple and we wrote our ceremony with the help of our officiant, my aunt. We used both a reading from the bible and followed many cultural jewish traditions. More than one person told me that they loved how we did a modern secular reading of the seven blessings and we had descriptions of all of the rituals and traditions in our program. If anyone wants a link to the rituals and traditions in a jew-ish wedding i'm happy to pass along.
Streaming was amazing. We hired someone my mom found (PM for info, he was seriously great) to set up streaming for our ceremony. The stream was high quality, our website worked well, putting the program online and making a virtual guestbook were great touches. It was streamed through youtube live and it was so nice that it auto records so that we could see it right away! I'd recommend kudoboard for anyone that is doing a virtual ceremony. We loved reading all of the notes and I had the board printed to put with our untraditional guestbook
the food! Omg the food. We had a cocktail hour with individually plated apps, a 5 course dinner, dessert, and a farewell station. Our venue also wrapped up all of the food my husband and I couldn't eat and it was just delicious. Food, photo, and overall vibe were the top things for us and we definitely achieved it.
photo and video-- i'm obsessed with our photographer, PM me for the details because I didn't ask about posting. Our videographer was also amazing and he actually stuck around for like 20 min after his scheduled end time so he could see us attempt to cut the cake with a sword. I would highly recommend both
My veil and makeup! My veil was made by the incredible Morgan from Cicada bridal in Seattle and Makeup was perfect. Our makeup artist (PM for details) did a great job of keeping us on a schedule and overall made the morning vibe perfect. She stood up for me when I needed it the day of the wedding as well. Those two things really made me feel like my look came together and my bridesmaids all loved their looks.
Mismatched bridesmaid dressed. Honestly I'm just obsessed with the burgundy to blush look and i'd do this again in a heartbeat. I am so glad that everyone picked their own dresses. I gave all bridesmaids $100 to get a dress.
the band! everyone had a great time and they did a really good job reading the room on when it was time to eat vs when some people wanted to dance. They never called everyone to the dance floor and we had an amazing night. Even my aunt who had been beyond a hermit for the last 8 months felt safe during some of the slow songs to dance with my uncle, away from everyone.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN I am doing my best to break down the budget as detailed as possible. We got married in a HCOL area and our original budget reflects the plan for a more traditional Jewish wedding, where parents were allowed to invite friends. It was important to us that everyone was there with us, our whole proverbial community and we knew there would be a premium paid for that. Once we downsized and added streaming I know there were ways to do it for less, but the quality of the virtual experience was important to us. I don't regret for one second what we spent on things, and we could've easily spent more. I am putting this budget breakdown in because the two in my budget range that I saw when I was planning made me feel more sane. I really do not appreciate the budget shaming that often happens on this sub. It was hard planning in such a HCOL area where the national averages are not representative, so I do hope this can help anyone who is looking for what things really cost for a wedding of this size in and around NYC One thing to note is that we got engaged in June 2018 and while we spent a lot of money, a lot of it was spread out over nearly 2.5 years. Day to day, the amount spent on the wedding didn't impact our budget and we did not go into any debt. My parents contributed a set amount to the wedding and my fiancé's parents covered the rehearsal dinner. I am not including my engagement ring or the honeymoon in this because I have a rough idea of how much my husband spent on my ring, but I've never asked for sure and our honeymoon is not going to happen until the world opens up. We are planning on taking 2 big trips to double celebrate our honeymoon (and because since we're waiting, why not?) to Japan and then to South Africa and Namibia. totals: all totals include gratuities initial budget: 80k planned budget pre-covid: 100k Total spent (including things that were not really in the budget) ~50k Breakdown: ****Ceremony and Reception: ****
Venue and Catering:$14,005.18 This included the fee for the ceremony ($1500), AV setup (hardwired internet), breakfast/lunch the day of, all wedding food, open bar, matire'd fee, gratuities/taxes, all linens, china, table setup, staff, cake, etc. this also includes the cost for the bride and groom's hotel room for 1 night as it was comped the other night.
Officiants:$600, we had my aunt officiate and did the legal bits in a count house months earlier so she did this for free but we paid for her hotel room (2 nights) as a thank you so
Ceremony Streaming:$750. This was a last minute cost and while we both think it was a bit high, the streaming was perfect and paying to not have that stress was incredible. I'd highly recommend the guy who did our streaming as he set everything up well and we got so many compliments on the stream.
Ceremony/Cocktail Hour Music:$700 this included a flute/violin duet for a prelude and ceremony and then a jazz trio for cocktail hour. They were great.
Flowers:$3,906.76 . We are in discussions with the florist that we did not get the things we asked for and are looking for a refund in some part of this. Our original estimate pre covid was aver $5,000 for flowers to give some context. we had 7 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 brides bouquet, 7 table centerpieces, chuppah rental and florals, and placecard table flowers.
Cocktail Hour Decor:~50. I am so glad I did this myself since our flowers generally sucked and they wanted to charge me $35 per bud vase. I thrifted bud vases and bought some from a bride on reddit, then I got 2 old atlases from half price books, some floral wire, and then tiny black rocks from amazon. Overall this DIY cost me like $50 and it was perfect. Also in this cost are some cool votive candles I bought from amazon.
Photography:$6,000. incredible would 100% recommend. PM me for the name. This included 10 hrs of shooting, over 800 photos, and an album
Videography:$2,000 incredible would 100% recommend. PM me for the name. This included a full day of shooting, all raw footage, a ~5 min highlight video and a full ceremony video.
Sabers for Saber Arch:$100 donation to the West Point Hostess Office
Photo Booth:$350 total.$250 deposit lost due to covid. Once we moved everything outside we didn't have a good place for the photo booth or to run electricity to it. So we cancelled that and instead spent $100 on a big cutout frame we hung from the ceiling. Originally the photobooth was going to be another $400 so I'm just counting it was coming out ahead.
Tents and dance floor rental:~$3,500 this was an additional cost that we took on as a covid precaution and it was perfect. This includes rentals (2 tents with walls that we ended up keeping up), having tent heaters on standby (they weren't needed), and the dance floor. My mom did a great job working with the venue and the rental organization to get a great setup and flow with the tents.
Party Entertainment:$8,500 this includes 10 musicians and live continuous music for the entire party. Also includes their travel fee and they MC'd our entire reception. They were wonderful!
****Appearances ****
Gown/Alterations:$1400 for the gown, $895 for alterations - I felt incredible and I hope some of the photos I posted help any bride who is size conscious to know that even at my heaviest I felt amazing and your size shouldn't stop you from having an amazing time.
Bridal Hair and Makeup:Hair $300, Makeup $325, bridesmaids/moms - hair $100-$150 depending on style, $125 for makeup. Both services were optional for bridesmaids and my mom decided the week of the wedding to help subsidize the cost for all bridesmaids who elected to have the services.
Bridal Accessories:$610 Veil ($500), party earrings ($45), ceremony earrings ($0), and party headpiece ($65). All other jewelry (hat, diamond necklace, diamond bracelet, other rings) were all family pieces
Bridesmaids Dresses:$600 - $100 per bridesmaid. Note: this wasn't necessary for groomsmen because they were all in uniforms, except my brother and my dad covered his tux
Groom's outfit:~80, $70 for a special uniform belt for his saber an then $10 on socks with our cat's face on them
Wedding Rings:$1850 for both rings, his was from Costco, mine was made from diamonds I got at an estate sale by a local. jeweler. I am obsessed with my ring. there was an additional cost to polish/dip our rings and watches and jewelry but I'm not counting it in this budget because it's regular maintenance.
****Gifts and things people kept****
Stationary:~ 350 + invitations this includes: save the dates ($175), invites, thank you notes, & invitations to our virtual celebration (honestly I don't know my mom just paid directly to the invitation lady), ceremony programs ($70), menus ($30), place cards ($30),
Wedding Party Gifts:~$550 for 6 bridesmaids, 5 groomsmen and 2 jr groomsmen. bridesmaids got a zip up for getting ready, a makeup case and a faux fur shawl in case they were cold. Groomsmen got a yeti bottle opener and a six pack of their favorite beer. Not including the gifts we gave when we asked them to be in the wedding
Welcome gifts and Bathroom Basket:~$300, 25 bags we included 2 new mexico soaps, costco snacks and drinks in a canvas bag. the bathroom basket stuff was all free and leftover things we used from my cousin's bat mitzvah
Favors:$241.51 we had the cutest little globes we filled with gummy bears! The shipping on the gummy bears was dumb but weddings make you do dumb things.
Flip Flops :$30 for 30 pairs of flip flops. My mom bought the baskets from Marshalls, not sure how much they were but assuming under $20 each. We ended up selling the ones we didn't use.
****Misc****
Wedding insurance:$636.00 this includes the liability insurance required by our venue and full cancellation insurance in case my husband was unexpectedly deployed. We didn't want to take any chances with this and losing deposits/full amounts, even though in the contracts we ensured there were military clauses throughout. This was purchased in 2019 and gave us incredible piece of mind as we opted for full full coverage.
Misc Decor and things:$500 This includes: photo frames (we did pics of us in the tub as kids on the bathroom doors) and a photo table, placecard holders, ribbons so we could do a socially distanced hora, a Mr. and Mrs sign for our table, alcohol for our suite afterparty, chargers for the tables, kudoboard (unlimited), website domain
****Not counted in this budget **** Dance Lessons:~$600 This money would've been super well spent if I hadn't hurt myself. we still did dance a bit but it wasn't what we planned. One day we can use those skills. I actually had a great time at the dance lessons and I'd 100% do it again. Pre Marital Counseling:~$500 very much money well spent. We did 4 sessions with a counselor online in the weeks before the wedding. We both felt like we got some great tools and it was a fantastic outlet for conversations we needed to have. I liked that it was virtual which made it accessible and I feel like we could go back to that counselor if we ever needed it. Ketubah:~400, this was a Hanukkah gift in 2019 Smashing Glasses:~200 this was a gift from my aunt who officiated the wedding. Engagement Ring Honeymoon Post-Wedding Brunch - My parents paid for this, it was casual Wedding Shoes:~$400, I bought these incredible something bleu shoes Navy kitten heels and then glitter keds for the party. I ended up in a boot and a sneaker so womp. But luckily both pairs of these shoes aren't very "bridal" and i'm definitely planning on wearing the glitter keds to the next tech conference I go to. I don't consider these "wedding budget" things because I'll wear them other times as well. Rehearsal dinner - MIL paid for this I'm glad I can post this and happy to talk to any other brides/grooms who are in the midst of planning!
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