synecdochic_decants | (no subject)

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info: guess the $$

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Also, I just realized I forgot to post the results of the "guess how much we paid the Lab in 2015" contest!

The total amount I paid to the Lab in 2015 for all decant orders (minus my personal orders -- which I do separately from decant circle orders -- and minus anything paid to the Trading Post) was $18,602.50. (Jesus Christ.) Winner was

tellitslant with a guess of $18,588; first runner-up was

wyomingnot with a guess of $18,346 and second runner-up was

miella with a guess of $18,345.

We didn't get any freebie bottles with Yules, and it was a huge-ass order, so I'm not sure if they're doing free bottles anymroe or not! If they are, and we get some with Lupers, I'll email you three and let you pick from them. (Since none of you seem to be in the Lupers circle, I will ask you to pay shipping.) If not, once I update the leftovers list, I'll let you pick anything listed for under $12.

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(Jesus Christ.)

Looking at the uptick in dollar amounts from 2014 to 2015 -- no WONDER you were/are getting burnt out. That's a difference of like 7k.

Yeah, and there have been more large updates this year, more closely packed together, and with more scents in them. (Like, I would not be as burned out if updates were 30 scents per release instead of 60-80 scents per release!)

I will tell you, I am so glad I'd heard too many horror stories of decanters getting sent tax forms by PayPal and so was super careful to save every single one of my receipts. We were like $150 over the threshhold for mandatory tax reporting (which is $20k or payments from 200 unique individuals) and now I have to do yet another complicated thing on my taxes, sigh, but it will actually wind up saving me a bit of money since I did take a loss on decanting for the year and now I get to take it as a business loss and deduct it. (Well, my accountant does, because fuck no I do not do my own taxes with all the complicated shit we have -- Dreamwidth's income, property rental income, home office deductions, self-employment taxes, self-employment health care deductions, and a few other miscellaneous sourcs of income we have means that our taxes are way more complicated than I could ever deal with myself.)

1) YAY ACCOUNTANT

2) Yay your getting a deduction out of so much hard work and planning! I mean, I know you do it for us and for the love of BPAL, but it's still neat you get a lagniappe.

Also, DAYYYUM there were a lot of updates. I actually had to skip some regular updates I've ordered from for years because I wanted in on Crimson Peak and a few others so much. It'd be great if they were a tiny bit more spaced out....

Yeah, I know! I really think this year was too packed, but I think BPAL is relying too much on the Pokemon gotta-catch-'em-all mentality and thinks that if they slow down their releases or release fewer things in their LE updates, their business will suffer.

(But we all know by now what I think about the Lab's business sense. If I were them, I'd be doing things a lot differently, let's just say.)

I really think this year was too packed, but I think BPAL is relying too much on the Pokemon gotta-catch-'em-all mentality and thinks that if they slow down their releases or release fewer things in their LE updates, their business will suffer.

Yeah, I think that's always been the thinking behind the LEs, except when it was just three or four of them a year plus a couple of special surprises, I could at least sort of handle those. But the LEs have had so many sub-LEs included and then there was stuff like OLLA and Crimson Peak and those are deliberately in such limited quantities and and....etc. What makes me nervous is if this much attention gets paid to the LEs, the GC might start to fade away, and from experience I know that it's a lot easier to find LEs on ebay or forums than discontinued GCs.

(But we all know by now what I think about the Lab's business sense. If I were them, I'd be doing things a lot differently, let's just say.)

It would be run AWESOMELY, is what. (I mean, this sounds sappy but just look at DW -- I started blogging regularly just about ten years ago on LJ, and was heartbroken when it started dying, but I know now I've got this permanent home on DW and that means a huge amount to me. And I have plenty of friends who feel the same way.)

And yeah, I hear you on the "nervous about the GC and feeling overwhelmed by LE releases". I feel like BPAL has conditioned its customers to always chase after the new shiny, and that's never a good thing, because that means you have to keep releasing the new shiny.

Aww, that makes me so happy. (That you feel secure here on DW, I mean.) We are not ever going to get rich and we're never going to be all bells-and-whistles Web 2.0 shiny, but we can damn well keep the place running!

YES, I remember wayyyy back when, not when DW started but pretty close, you guys said something like "we want long-term and sustainable rather than trying to make something huge that would generate a huge buyout, because we don't want that," and it was just so great to hear. And it's even more important now in the age of 2.0, //clutches DW frankly

And yeah, I hear you on the "nervous about the GC and feeling overwhelmed by LE releases". I feel like BPAL has conditioned its customers to always chase after the new shiny, and that's never a good thing, because that means you have to keep releasing the new shiny.

Yeah, kind of like how huge buyouts mean services have to start trying to generate huge amounts of revenue.... :-/

MY LIFE'S GOAL IS TO NEVER HAVE TO TALK ABOUT OUR INCREDIBLE JOURNEY.

OMG SO MANY NAMES I RECOGNIZE //lights candle for MOG

I know, right? IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. (There's actually a really perverse incentive for it in the way Silicon Valley operates.)

OMG, apparently it went from $11,299 to $18,602.50??? My guess was $13,5001 -- not even close! Wow.

....also I bet a lot of this uptick is 'whoah here's an awesome reliable decanter who is rock solid' -- I've had only good experiences with BPAL forum decanters, but synecdochic runs this ship like a Swiss watch. /mixed metaphors

Aww, thank you. I've been feeling guilty lately that circles have been taking longer to get out the door, but the past few months have been really fucking rough.

I've actually stopped even putting pointers for my circles up on sinandsalvation lately because I haven't wanted to deal with circles being too big, so all the new people signing up has been a lovely compliment -- it means people have been telling their friends to come order from me, and that's always nice to know!

people have been telling their friends to come order from me, and that's always nice to know!

LOLdude at least one of those was me, as in, "If you're gonna to order decants at all..." /o\

Well, thank you for the recommendation! I almost feel as though I should offer some kind of loyalty/referral program or something. :D

I actually found you recently because you got into an argument with a mod on the bpal decants forum, and your responses convinced me to order from you instead!

Ha, that's awesome. I'm glad that my stubborn insistence on ACTUAL REALITY INSTEAD OF THEIR MADE UP BULLSHIT appealed to you ;)

Yeah, I guessed somewhere over 13k and was way off too! I guess I didn't notice all the LEs BPAL was packing in last year.

Yeah, I think even the regular LE lines had a lot of new limited scents, the sub-LEs or whatever they get called -- so there weren't just a lot of new LEs period, but more LEs on the regular updates. I think.

oh, yeah, lupers. ...i still have that tab open to decide. whoops.

(also, you are crazy, but we know that and love you for it. :) )

A few of the scents have waitlists, but there's still a bunch of open slots in most of them!

Dang. That's a lot of smelly stuff. ;)

And dang, first runner-up. For a number I pulled out of thin air. Cool. :)

Uhm wow,haha. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, with all the releases, but wow still. I hope this year is more chill, release-wise. I'd be more inclined to just buy a bottle or two instead of fussing over what to get decants of if there were fewer scents and/or longer availability.

Thanks so much for being such a great decanter though! Glad I came over.

Oh! Cool! Ha, I was just thinking about this the other day and regretting not making a guess, so uh... bad memory, good guesstimate skills? LOL at self.

...I wasn't going to sign up for Lupers but dangit, now I want to. :P

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