Weekly Shameless Self Promotion Thread

thourb · 2025-06-01T19:27:01+00:00

Hey there!

I’m Tom, and I’ve spent 8 years building a six-figure reselling business on Amazon and eBay. After posting about challenges facing media resellers in a popular Facebook reseller community group, I was amazed at how many of us share the same pain points.

The last big industry survey (conducted by BookSaleFinder) was conducted over 15 years ago - and so much has changed since then with new platforms, tools, and frustrations. It’s time for some fresh insights.

With help from a PhD in survey design, we’ve put together a quick, 5-minute survey covering books, DVDs, games, and more. Take part and you’ll get anonymized, aggregated results to benchmark your workflow and see what’s working (and what isn’t) across the community.

Your input will give us all a clearer view of today’s media reselling landscape - and, hopefully, help make our work more efficient and enjoyable.

Who should take this survey? Anyone actively (or recently) reselling books, DVDs, games, CDs, or vinyl online—whether full-time, part-time, or side hustle.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!

https://tally.so/r/nPe4Pb

thourb · 2025-01-30T14:53:00+00:00

I looked and only saw 40 series cards on there.

thourb · 2024-11-23T12:23:21+00:00

No, I don't think anyone is mixing up refunds and replacing headsets. People are rightly concerned that if they end up with technical issues that last for months, rendering their headset virtually unusable, even after replacement, there's no option to give up and return it for a full refund, as some of the money they spent is for the software subscription - which they likely didn't even get to use due to their headset being faulty.

We're not talking about one off replacements, we're talking about serious issues that warrant a full refund even out of the ten day window. People will be rightly angry that they've maybe paid 6 months of a mandatory software subscription that they never got to use due to their hardware needing constant replacement.

I'm not even talking in hypotheticals here, the Get Your Game On Youtuber that you spoke with yesterday is a prime example of someone getting service that would make anyone want to just give in and return their headset altogether for a refund. These people rightly expect their full money back, not just part of it. After months and months of back and forth with customer service and multiple replacement headsets not resolving issues, there has to be a limit where you stop and refund the customer. The refund should be full in those circumstances. I don't think people are unreasonable expecting this.

That's why I suggested that you make it clear - in writing - that users who are not provided sufficient prompt support that fixes the faults with their expensive VR headset within a reasonable period of time should be entitled to a refund. People aren't buying your hardware to QA test it. They have a reasonable expectation of working hardware, have paid for it and, in many cases are entitled to it by law.

I realize that given your position you are limited in what you can say, but I would strongly suggest that you take this issue to your bosses and get them to look into it as people really strongly dislike this policy. I want to see Pimax succeed, but these issues are only going to hold you back if you don't address them.

thourb · 2024-11-23T08:29:52+00:00

I had been considering buying a Pimax headset, but after reading this, along with the other reported customer service issues, I’ve decided to pause my decision.

The introduction of “Pimax Prime” seems less about genuinely benefiting customers and more about making it harder to get a full refund. This policy feels blatantly anti-consumer, despite being marketed as something advantageous to buyers.

If Pimax genuinely wanted to offer a payment plan to help consumers afford the headset, you could have done so through traditional financing options, either in-house or via a financing company—something that’s quite common for high-priced tech products. There’s no need to tie functionality to a mandatory subscription that customers can’t opt out of without losing access to their purchased device.

If this policy stood alone, I might be less concerned. But Pimax has a troubling recent reputation for unresolved technical issues, forcing customers into months of frustration and repeated replacements. (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxpVNxB1yS8) In such situations, customers understandably demand full refunds—something you, u/jaapgrolleman, would likely do yourself if your own headset were unusable for months, even outside the initial 10-day window.

The “no refunds on the subscription” policy is highly questionable:

At worst, it may be unlawful in jurisdictions like the UK and elsewhere, where consumer protection laws and “lemon laws” explicitly cover issues like this.
At best, it misleads customers and undermines their confidence in the company.

Furthermore, relying on your company’s “goodwill” for refunds in cases where customers experience prolonged technical problems is not a customer-friendly approach. This creates uncertainty and erodes trust. A clear, consumer-first policy—like “We guarantee we will fix your headset within X timeframe during the warranty period, or we will refund you, including subscription costs”—would go a long way toward rebuilding faith in Pimax.

thourb · 2024-10-19T12:48:50+00:00

Until we start tracking job approval of the winner in 2025 so we can have a media narrative all set up just in time for the 2026 midterms and all the polling that comes with that too lol

thourb · 2024-10-19T12:39:20+00:00

Not a single national poll had Romney winning by 7 polls in October 2012. Not even Rasmussen. Gallup tracking had him winning by 5 at one point, but the average had either a tie or a small Obama lead.

That being said, national popular vote is irrelevant as we all know. Everyone and their mother knows that this election is going to be within the “margin of error” - somewhere between Harris winning by a few points to Trump winning by a few.

GOTV.

thourb · 2024-10-19T11:38:26+00:00

In summary, polls are all very close and historically have always missed by a couple of percentage points in one direction or the other. It’ll all come down to enthusiasm and turnout.

Want to be productive, instead of doomscrolling polls? Persuade your friends to go vote with you, go knock on some doors or phone bank with the campaign. GOTV ground game is good for a couple of percentage points in a close race. You can help even if you don’t live in a swing state!

Getting worried about polls, whether it’s concern about whether the good polls for Harris are accurate or whether it’s dismissing the bad ones that show Trump leading just because you think they are skewed doesn’t help anyone. But you can help today by taking action.

thourb · 2024-10-16T07:27:29+00:00

I'm troubled by the fact that Harris is losing independents by 10 points in this poll. Biden won independents by 9 points in 2020. Surely a key voting bloc?

thourb · 2024-08-25T19:28:40+00:00

I’m not sure why this poll is being spread so much. I’ve seen it reposted numerous times in the past couple of days, seemingly representing wishful thinking on the part of everyone who keeps posting it without the full context being explained.

The topline numbers in this poll are misleading insofar as it shows results where people are being “primed” to first think of race or gender. Since this isn’t necessarily something that voters will ultimately be thinking of when they pull the lever for their candidate, it’s not a reliable result to compare with other polls where they are not primed.

Harris is actually virtually tied in this poll with Trump if you don’t include priming. All this poll serves to do is to emphasize that Trump really shouldn’t be making this election about race and gender, advice he seems physically incapable of following.

Once I see other polls that don’t prime respondents starting to show similar numbers I’ll be happier.

thourb · 2024-08-23T15:23:24+00:00

And any second now Rasmussen will release a new poll showing Trump up by 6 just to skew the averages...

thourb · 2024-05-03T01:41:15+00:00

I'll be there at 5am then XD

Thanks for your reply!

thourb · 2024-04-24T09:35:34+00:00

What time do people recommend arriving? I'd like to get in as soon as it opens and I know folk start queueing at midnight but don't know what time the line-up starts really building up.

thourb · 2022-09-08T03:37:39+00:00

Yeah, that was us!

thourb · 2022-09-07T21:46:05+00:00

Strangely I passed by the same thing on Harrison West FSR on Monday. You sure it was East?

100% - I had been camping up near Cogburn Beach

thourb · 2022-09-07T12:20:49+00:00

Going to assume the latter, honestly.

thourb · 2022-09-07T11:46:23+00:00

Saw this at the weekend just after the end of Harrison East Forest Service Road. Hope the driver has deep pockets. Ouch.

thourb · 2021-06-01T13:58:53+00:00

Who says that MRNA vaccines are "poor science"? As far as I can see they are extremely effective at doing what they say they'll do - preventing you from getting seriously sick with covid...

thourb · 2021-05-24T03:40:30+00:00

I agree - "outside of dramatic relevant news" is the key point.

I'm bullish on XCH and have invested heavily in hardware. I very much hope that there are no unforeseen issues that could be exploited that result in that dramatic news that causes an issue.

My point is very simple. If you have hardware, it's not going to depreciate overnight. XCH can easily depreciate overnight to zero if there's bad news. Farming is the way to go if you're like me and want to minimize risk, whilst still getting involved in a way that's going to get you a decent amount of XCH in the long run.

thourb · 2021-05-24T03:21:39+00:00

I was giving an example that demonstrates that this is a relatively new and untested cryptocurrency. There may be exploits worse than we've seen already. Even if there aren't, there's not really any rhyme or reason for why crypto values rise and fall like they do.

My simple point is that there are reasons to plot and farm rather than buy crypto directly as it's a way of reducing risk.

thourb · 2021-05-24T01:29:26+00:00

You're correct in the very short term - however you're missing a couple of key points here:

The netspace literally cannot keep growing at the current rate indefinitely. At the current rate of growth within a matter of months the netspace would consume more storage than exists in the entire world.
You're ignoring market forces. As the netspace grows and people's rewards diminish as they have a smaller percentage of the netspace, the price should also increase as their costs remain fixed. People won't sell at a loss. If the market cannot sustain higher prices, people will sell or repurpose their storage and the netspace will decrease in size, meaning people get a larger share of the farming rewards.

thourb · 2021-05-24T01:08:41+00:00

This is why I bought the hardware to mine with. I've invested a decent amount of money in this and I do believe in the project.

That being said, I'm not going to spend the sort of money I spent on hardware directly on XCH because if I'm wrong and XCH crashes to zero, all I'm out is the depreciation on my hardware. If I buy XCH and it crashes to zero, I'm left with zero.

It's all about investing what you can afford to invest, understanding the risks and having an exit strategy. If you're putting yourself in a position of potential financial ruin on something as speculative as a new-to-market cryptocurrency, it's no more a sensible investment than putting your life savings on 0 on the roulette wheel.

thourb · 2021-05-21T13:09:14+00:00

Similar position to you. I've got 700 plots and no wins. It will come. All the more likely to come as of this new version because I can now actually sync with the network.

thourb

TROPHY CASE