u/Icy_Welder7315

I found a good deal of a set of 3x Miyabi Birchwood knives (approximately 40% off retail) and I'm tempted. I know buying a set is never really a good idea but these are 3x knives that I will actually use often, i.e. Santoku, long paring knife, short paring knife.

But I'm hesitant because they are apparently very delicate/brittle from my research due to their extreme hardness. You can't use it on bones, or large hard cheese blocks, and you have to cautious with hard/large vegetables like pumpkin/squash, etc.... Any excessive lateral pressure including bending or twisting can chip or break it.

So now I feel intimidated and wondering why spend so much when it's got so many limitations?

I got LC in March 2020. In the first year or two I was thinking like many others that once I recover, I will go back to being the person that I was before I got LC.

But as more time goes on I realized that there is no going back. Because after more than 6 years, you've fundamentally changed as a person. Even a normal healthy person will not be exactly the same after 6 years.

I was 32 when I got LC, and I'm 38 now. Firstly I've naturally aged 6 years. Secondly this whole experience has made me think about life in a whole new way, regarding health, work, relationships etc.... Due to this experience I no longer look at many people the same way. People who I thought were friends are not irrelevant.

Despite being unwell there has also been a lot of personal development. For example I am now much more politically aware and I no longer see the world or certain countries the same way I did before.

So in summary a lot has changed in 6 years. Even if I magically recover tomorrow, I won't be the same person that I was prior to March 2020.

Who else feels the same?

One buyer behavior that really annoys me is when they ask for a lower price AFTER arranging pickup.

Asking if available, then agree on time/location, when it's all said and done they ask "Would you do $xx?"

This is happened a few times. I always say NO, cancel the deal, and tell them that if they want to negotiate they need to do that BEFORE wasting my time arranging pickup.

Then I immediately block.

Most of the time the rating function is already enabled at that point, so blocking them also prevents them from giving me a bad rating because I won't take a lower price.

Sometimes honestly I would have agreed to their price if they didn't muck me around first. Then the deal would have been done. But instead they try the cheeky route by trying to negotiate at the end.

Seems like a bargain.... But surely a bad idea right?

https://preview.redd.it/v49k5oaepveh1.png?width=2979&format=png&auto=webp&s=a2223be3b902261385dc96e4acc32994f5d6baa8

Just a shit-post for some giggles

I seriously feel sorry for any sucker who pays almost 1,000 euros for this set of Le Creuset ceramic non-stick. This is one of the most blatantly overpriced piece of garbage I've ever seen as far as cookware goes.

Just had a week of my time wasted by a buyer with over 90 negative feedbacks for time-wasting. This is possibly the worst feedback rating on TM that I've ever seen.

Trademe really needs to allow sellers to stipulate a minimum feedback rating to filter out buyers like this.

I see two options, neither are perfect.

Option 1 - Allow sellers to set a minimum percentage, e.g. minimum 97% positive feedback. This does however exclude buyers with less than ~30 feedbacks with 1x negative, because I'm still willing to take my chances with someone who has 20x positive and 1x negative, but not someone with 5-10x negatives out of a 100.

Option 2 - Allow sellers to stipulate a MAXIMUM number of negative feedbacks. This is also not perfect as it can block out people with a high number of feedbacks. E.g. 5-10 negatives out of a 100 is atrocious, but 10 negatives out of 1,000 total feedbacks is not so bad.

Overall I prefer option 1, and I'll set my minimum rating at 96-97%.

In the recent 2-3 months there has been a massive number of people who had serious problems with their listings being almost invisible, getting almost no views etc...

I was too heavily impacted by this. Buyers weren't seeing my listings, and I was also affected in reverse, i.e. I was not seeing other people's listings. This affected both my selling AND buying. For 2 months I bought almost nothing from FBMP.

But in the recent 2 weeks there has been signs of recovery. These days I'm only listing 1 or maximum 2 items at a time, and they are selling very fast as they should be. I also started to be able to buy a few things from the platform.

Anyone else notice signs of recovery as well?

We have a 2022 Toyota Highlander V6 model. Bought in 2023. It's got warranty until early 2027.

I'm wondering if it's worth it to get extended warranty for another 3 years or so. It will cost $1,200 or so.

My main concern is the transmission. It seems that the transmission used in this vehicle has an abnormally high rate of failure starting at around 100,000km. Currently our car has 65,000km. It seems to be a design issue. There has been lawsuits over this.

I spoke to Toyota NZ about this and they said that they have seen a few examples of this failure, but not many. They advised that they would consider it on a "case by case" basis whether to cover it or not should the failure happen outside the warranty period.

Do you think it's worth it to pay the $1,200 for peace of mind?

I got sick and incapacitated by Long Covid in 2022. Before that I had a well-paying corporate job.

Fortunately due to having occupational disability insurance, I receive a disability payment that's almost as high as the salary I previously earned. I know that I'm one of the very lucky ones.

This puts me in a good financial position and also gives me good financial security. But it is also somewhat of a "trap" that's difficult to get out of. People who are in my position often end up staying on the disability payment long term even if they recover enough to go back to work, because they may not be able to a job that pays as much. Even if they do find suitable work, the financial security won't be as good as the disability payment.

I'm nowhere near recovered yet but this is a potential dilemma that I may face in the future.

What would you do in this situation?

Yes I know that the show is for entertainment but I'm still wondering why they feed so much misinformation to the audience?

For example, Gordon always complains that the seafood should be fresh but not frozen. In reality however, the vast majority of seafood served at restaurants ARE pre-frozen. Doing so ensures that the seafood maintains its quality and quite often food safety regulations actually REQUIRE the seafood to be frozen.

Even high-end seafood restaurants will serve a lot of frozen stuff. It's also not feasible for restaurants to prepare all the seafood fresh due to time and resource constraints.

Would either of these Riyobi cordless mowers be suitable for an average sized front and back yard? Front yard maybe around 60m2 of grass, backyard is also about 60m2.

No steep hills or long/rough grass. Just regular lawn.

From my understanding the second one has mulching, but the first one doesn't. Hence the price difference. Is this correct?

I notice that the second one only has 25 minutes of battery time. Is this because of the mulching? If I don't use the mulching, will it last longer?

Which one would be your pick personally?

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/ryobi-36v-46cm-brushless-lawn-mower-4-0ah-kit-rlm36x46bl_p0154890

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/ryobi-36v-brushless-46cm-lawn-mower-4-0ah-kit-r36lmw24_p0604986

A couple of years ago I started flipping gym equipment (weights, dumbbells, benches, barbells etc....) and made a very healthy amount of side income.

Then a few people caught on to what I was doing and started doing the same thing. Now the competition for sourcing has increased significantly.

The stock on the market is also declining drastically. I'm guessing during the pandemic people bought a lot gym stuff for home use. After the lockdown years these people started selling off the equipment that they bought during that period, and now we're at the tail-end of the selling period.

I'm guessing I should expand my niche, i.e. find new categories of items to flip.

Any ideas?

I listed an item at a fair price of $120.

Buyer: Would you do $100?

Me: Ok if you can pick up before 7pm.

Buyer: Nah lol I don't work with time limits. I might come pick up tomorrow if I have time. Otherwise thanks for your time.

Immediate and very satisfying block.

For the past 3 years or so I've been flipping gym stuff, i.e. weights, dumbbells, benches etc... There was always a constant supply of good deals to be found on the second-hand market.

For the past 2 months or so there has been a massive drop-off. The supply has fallen off a cliff. There was almost nothing worth buying/flipping for a few weeks now. The stuff that do get listed are being listed at delusional prices.

I'm wondering if anybody else has noticed this? Perhaps it's to do with the Covid era. People bought a lot of gym stuff for working out at home during the lockdown years, and then sold them when the lockdown lifted. What I"m seeing now is basically the end of the period where people are selling off their gym stuff that they bought during Covid lockdowns?

Who thinks that they are being a bit delusional with their prices?

We donated some stuff yesterday, and we saw a small and very old cooking pot for $20, and a old worn-out non-stick frying pan for $15....

For those of you familiar with Rolex watches (and other brands too), you'll know that the popular models are extremely hard to get. The Rolex AD (Authorized Dealer) won't sell them to you unless you have spent a lot of money with them.

As a result, certain models have a market price that's double (or more) of the official retail price.

So let's say that I, a valued customer of the AD, gets offered a popular model. Shortly after purchase I decide that I don't want it, and flip it for a $30k profit.

Do I pay tax on the $30k profit?