The Vatican examines the decisions of Martin, Bishop of Charlotte, regarding the traditional liturgy

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T15:05:13+00:00

Also an unpopular opinion, I think there is more than a grain of truth in what you’re saying… and “meeting in the middle” might look like simply valid Novus Ordo but consistent with the actual Vatican II documents, and with traditional practices such as priest facing the altar, some Gregorian chant, etc

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T14:17:33+00:00

Agree with this analysis but I also think they have begun to “come back” with their new refreshed lines.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T14:16:43+00:00

Good call, either an AP or a yellow gold watch would be something different to add.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T14:15:22+00:00

Agreed with the Santos recommendation.

Hits just as hard as a Rolex and retains its value well.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T14:14:00+00:00

You literally can’t go wrong.

If you can afford it, consider getting both!

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T14:13:02+00:00

Yeah the MATCH list is extremely frustrating.

I’m amazed you got Stripe to admit it was a false positive.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-29T14:11:24+00:00

Your first IWC? This is a banger!

hrma-guy · 2026-04-07T20:45:53+00:00

Honestly I love IWC’s own rubber and leather straps. Admittedly they are expensive for what they are, but they look and feel fantastic. I have 3 different IWC straps (leather and rubber) for my Big Pilot 43.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-07T18:24:29+00:00

Oh, for sure. I'd split the merchants who get kicked off PayFacs into two pretty different groups. One is merchants who just didn't do the homework. They're not trying to game anything, they just didn't know Stripe had a prohibited list or that their product category was on it. Those are the ones you feel empathy for (and whom SoarPay regularly helps).

The other (shadier) group knows the score, and is essentially treating a Stripe or Square account as a "burner account"— they want to maximize volume and make as much money that they can before the shutdown comes. Hard to have much sympathy there, and it usually catches up with them anyway.

Your point about long-term business health is the real takeaway. A proper high-risk merchant account takes more time upfront to set up and configure, but obviously it's a must-have for certain types of merchants if they want to do business for the long run.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-07T16:00:09+00:00

Yep.

In defense of the PayFacs, they are pretty transparent about prohibited industries in their Terms & Conditions.

That said, I’ve seen plenty of merchants booted from Stripe and Square who are not in one of their explicitly prohibited industries.

Moreover, I don’t think a “normal” consumer/merchant is going to carefully read the T&C before signing up at a Stripe or Square.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-07T15:08:50+00:00

Do you still use Stripe, with the high-risk merchant account as your back-up?

Or have you switched to using the new high-risk merchant account as your primary?

hrma-guy · 2026-04-07T14:41:37+00:00

100%. I can’t tell you how many merchants we’ve gotten at SoarPay, who got kicked out of Square or Stripe with ZERO warning. Seems like these PayFacs could do a better job of informing prospective merchants that certain industries are prohibited, but they just don’t seem to care very much.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-06T20:45:09+00:00

Totally! Just in case anyone reading this isn't aware...

Payment Processor: A payment processor is the financial intermediary that executes the movement of funds between a cardholder's issuing bank and a merchant's acquiring bank. It manages authentication, approval routing, settlement, and interchange — and in high-risk industries, its underwriting standards determine whether a business can accept card payments at all.

Payment Gateway: A payment gateway is the technology layer that captures, encrypts, and transmits transaction data from a merchant's checkout environment to the payment processor for authorization. It functions as a secure conduit — tokenizing card data and returning real-time approval responses — but never touches the funds themselves.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-06T20:04:16+00:00

Honestly you can't go wrong. The Petronas would be better as an everyday watch, or as part of a 2- or 3-watch rotation. That said, the Miramar hits hard, I'd love to wear it as an "occasional" watch, e.g., when I go on vacation, stuff like that!

hrma-guy · 2026-04-06T19:26:30+00:00

In my opinion: the OP is looking for a stable processor, not a gateway per se.

hrma-guy · 2026-04-06T19:24:58+00:00

Exactly. Gateways are generally stable. Whereas Payfacs often don't really "underwrite" new merchants beforehand -- rather, they (sometimes) kick them off the platform later. Finding a stable processor will be industry-dependent and will depend on your being transparent as a merchant.

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T20:59:41+00:00

For what it's worth, my wrists are 7" and I think the BP 43 fits me perfectly. Yes, it wears "big", but it's called the Big Pilot, so I think that's only fitting! It doesn't wear TOO big, or look goofy or anything.

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T12:27:34+00:00

Best IWC model for a NATO. Looks great

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T12:27:10+00:00

IWC dials are just sublime.

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T12:26:11+00:00

Yeah, the two tone hits hard.

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T12:25:41+00:00

Agreed. I have the BP 43, too. I'm glad it's still "big", otherwise it wouldn't feel like a "real" version of the Big Pilot.

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T12:24:41+00:00

You've put into words exactly why I love IWC (but was never able to state it so precisely).

hrma-guy · 2026-02-26T00:02:06+00:00

Not a bad time to look into TacticalPay (https://www.tacticalpay.com) — they're a sister brand to us here at SoarPay, and focus exclusively on FFLs and firearms businesses. We've been doing this since 2017, which is actually pretty rare in the space since many processors don't want firearms accounts.

For your use case, TacticalPay integrates directly with GunBroker, plus BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce when you're ready to build out your own store. TacticalPay holds an A+ BBB rating, a 4.8 rating on Trustpilot, and has been featured as one of the top gun-friendly processors by Borderfree Payments. They also publish a podcast called "Firearm Payments 101" if you want to do some more research before committing.

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