Black Friday Sale 2020! Final Day!

[Hydro]

Sneaky last rewards update...

New Flair:
New Recolor:

Returning Rewards:

[amy]

✨ AND THAT'S A WRAP ✨
That last Gaia Rewards update was the last surprise of them all!!! I hope you all find something fun in the rewards shop or rediscovered an old favorite!!

I had a lot of fun (and mild stress) with this BFS but thank you to everyone who helped put this Sales Hub together and all the artists n staff who made this all possible!!!! I think my favorite set is Wheel of Fortune — but I think it's because I really like this orange!! BUT PROBABLY, Justice was actual *CHEFS KISS* and that was me when I saw it gaia_right

I almost celebrated thinking there was nothing for me to dote on at midnight, then I remembered tomorrow is December and we have an Angel Item coming our way...!

I hope you all enjoyed the 12hr block format (!?) if so then definitely let us know!! I know we hit a few bumps in the road and some stuff got shifted around, but overall I enjoyed this format! And of course, if you haven't gotten your freebie yet: go visit the sale page or check out the links in the first post!!

[dreamsk]

it amy

✨ AND THAT'S A WRAP ✨
That last Gaia Rewards update was the last surprise of them all!!! I hope you all find something fun in the rewards shop or rediscovered an old favorite!!

I had a lot of fun (and mild stress) with this BFS but thank you to everyone who helped put this Sales Hub together and all the artists n staff who made this all possible!!!! I think my favorite set is Wheel of Fortune — but I think it's because I really like this orange!! BUT PROBABLY, Justice was actual *CHEFS KISS* and that was me when I saw it gaia_right

I almost celebrated thinking there was nothing for me to dote on at midnight, then I remembered tomorrow is December and we have an Angel Item coming our way...!

I hope you all enjoyed the 12hr block format (!?) if so then definitely let us know!! I know we hit a few bumps in the road and some stuff got shifted around, but overall I enjoyed this format! And of course, if you haven't gotten your freebie yet: go visit the sale page or check out the links in the first post!!

Already thinking of 2021 angel items? rofl Something fabulous to celebrate the passing from this horrid year I hope.

Looking forward to more recolors to these items, sry seduces ninja

[Hydro]

Let's see while everything is fresh on my mind. I might have to go back and edit:

Seasonal Styles/Direct Sales:
I do very much appreciate the hint about DS, and that we got stuff day one instead of finale time...but I would've liked it to been more a more solid heads up.
Personal note: I know that you all want an element of surprise, but having the Kin be only direct sale at the end of it all at $30 kept me from putting (additional) $30 into the site because I had to choose between that and the new coupon. Advance notice = me being able to put aside more money.

12 hour schedule: YES. THIS. PERFECT. KEEP IT LIKE THIS. THIS IS GREAT.
I don't love having to deal with east coast time of 3am for me, midnight for gaia, but this was the first year I did not worry one bit about having access to the selections.

This is the first BFS that I did not "fall in love" with one item, the closest was new moon because all poses were good/usable for me. This is okay, because there are elements of the items I like and think that if you wanted to say, Trunk the heck out of it, well, I'll just pile on the suggestions cause *stars* gaia_star :

The New Moon: Stars and Headband.
Wheel of Fortune: Sword
Death: Flowery Details
Sorcerer: Stars
World: Clouds
Hermit: Star
Tower: That background...
Hanged: Flowers...Flowers....Flowers
Strength: that shoulder piece... please and thank you

Bundles: hard to review so many, but the Ossidian one was an instant buy for me. Ruffley overskirts are divine.

Rewards: Wow so much stuff. Delicate Hallowed Serenade and the Cosmic Lightbringer are my favorites.

Trunk: Veil and swords are my favorites.

Grab bag: I played ten and walked away with two of the rarer recolors. This seems to be improved from last year's grab bag recolor drops, however, my sample size is small.

Overall I feel like there was a fair amount of variety as the themed allowed. Casual wasn't completely ignored for elegant/fantasy, and while we always favor the winter colors for BFS, it does feel like the re-releases added a lot to the pool to hopefully appeal a wider net.

[mayuralover]

Yes yes, keep the 12 hour format, please! No more coordinating 2-hour time slots and creating my own schedule to wake up early or sneak a peek at work to see what items look like. rofl

I did like the past summer sale with its 6 hour rotations and items reappearing on the other half of the day (12pm-6pm and then two days later 12am-6am), but instead of repeat & rotated appearances, everything just showed up today the final day, as well. This is a great format to have, and though there may not be as many new items next time (SO MANY TAROT REPRESENTATIONS), i still think 12 hour is the best format.

[Visionary Blend]

ngl I wasn't rly around for this sale until I was summoned for velvetine, but looking back this was a decent sale

my one major criticism is the fact that Gaia should take into account that they have no refund system and think abt that for good reason: people pre-emptively buy gc thinking a release will be via gc and then it's direct buy. that s**t ain't cool and now the user can potentially be out money. i'd like there to be some sort of system or symbol saying an item will be gc only or direct buy before it proper screws someone over.


aside from that thank u for waking up and realizing how great velvetine is and giving her justice, keep up the momentum so i'll actually spend money on gaia thank u

[Rude]

Yes, love the 12hr format. A lot less stressful.

On the other hand, grab bags make the whole sale almost trivial, especially the last day. Knowing this, I didnt buy anything until today. But i was antsy the whole sale just itching to use the new items; that in and of itself was a bit maddening sweatdrop

[ozmalu]

Thank you staff and everyone else who helped with this thread! A lot of great items this year, hope everyone got what they wanted. Yes keep the 12hr format!

[dreamsk]

Visionary Blend

my one major criticism is the fact that Gaia should take into account that they have no refund system and think abt that for good reason: people pre-emptively buy gc thinking a release will be via gc and then it's direct buy. that s**t ain't cool and now the user can potentially be out money. i'd like there to be some sort of system or symbol saying an item will be gc only or direct buy before it proper screws someone over.

What are you actually suggesting here? The promo page had a direct buy tab, although I'm not sure if it was properly up to date or not since they didn't have the last day until...the last day. Having s**t organized should have happened, thats for sure. Now I don't understand why users would buy gc preemptively not even knowing anything about the sale. I don't really think that kind of mentality should be rewarded, especially when it's going to cost Gaia paypal tax to reverse the sale ( Gaia is never going to do refunds for real life cash for this reason ) . Eat the gc and use it at a later date, it is highly unlikely that there will be NO items someone would want to buy eventually. Or B) why not just buy gc when you can confirm what shop its going in for what amount? There's always direct buys with sales and rigs, don't set yourself up for failure when you don't have to. It was user error, and while Gaia didn't help by being vauge, Gaia certainly didn't put peoples credit cards into the paypal machine.

Assumptions makes an a** out of you and me!

[Moonracer]

First have to thank everyone who made this thread possible, it is absolutely wonderful and VERY appreciated to be able to go to one place to see the items as they come and so on. Thank you, everyone who made this thread possible you are very appreciated by this Gaian.

Now onto other matters...

The 12hr time slot this go 'round...very appreciated. I loved not having to stay up to check on what is to come, and make sure I'm up or can slip off to a computer to be able to get something at a certain time.

I also liked the fact that the last day many of the things that were offered came back 'round so if we had to hold off, for whatever reason, we could have another chance at it. So I liked that aspect too.

Alot of wonderful items and a fair amount of differences to go around. Nice way to re-release some old items or once that weren't many out there or none for quite some time. Good use of the Rewards too.

*sighs* Now onto the cons of this sale. Having the schedule finally appear at the beginning of the sale...I think needs to be changed for the simple fact of a bit of warning. Not everyone, especially during this time can just pop out the cash or find away to get it so they can purchase items. A heads up, even the smallest amount of a warning like noon the day before would be something I think we could all appreciated.

The next thing I must address is the Kindred item. I don't mind the direct buy of it but again a bit of warning...though to be honest I already assumed because of the Halloween sale. Others however have heard of that old saying about assuming something, even if Gaia throws that saying out the window as you often times can assume with them. That though aside I am very upset with how Kindred's are being handled. I would have loved the Major & Minor kindred, I have no interest in the flairs so it would have been a waste for me. Not to mention I would have to make a choice either direct buy that item with only one thing I want or buy GC where I could get a number. Obviously I'm going for the more for my buck idea. However, it's not a bad idea the flairs are cute just...I have the one flair I like so I'm good. Do your bundle of that, but also put the egg just the Kindred egg in a shop whether C9 or the CS. I'd prefer the CS, but I could understand C9. That way for those who only want the egg they can get it without having to deal with stuff they don't want.

Other then that I don't really have any complainants the sale for the most part was handled well a few bumps but nice. Fairly well rounded items with a bit of everything in colors to common to not been used in awhile. The re-release of some old items that were hard to get/find very nicely done. Just a tiny bit of ironing and this could be jammin' on all cylinders.

Thank you, to all the hard working Gaians, especially the artists that made these items possible and all those that put this sale together as well as this thread. Good job everyone.

[Akai Papillon]

Thank you to everyone that ran the thread! These sales threads are always my lifeline and they always seem super stressful to work on. ;w;

The 12 hour blocks, these are WAY better than the chopped up schedule for me! My job keeps me working for really long shifts, and 12 hours is a lot easier to factor for than 4 hours and hoping nothing drops at like, 4AM.

I got everything I particularly wanted bar for me eyeing up Reserved Strength and debating whether I should grab it or wait and see if it'll drop even lower on the MP. I'm also considering a copy of The New Moon, but I feel like I would probably get more use out of the coupon recolor... so I'll just stare long and hard at the MP while I think about it! Hahaha... /nervous sweating

I will say that while I did expect the kindred to be direct sale, I kind of wish it didn't only come bundled with the flairs. Plus, the bundle wasn't even in the schedule until pretty late into the sale, so I'm sure that felt pretty bad for anyone that didn't make the bold assumption that there would be a direct sale kin.

Also! It was... even more expensive than the previous direct sale kin, and while I understand that's probably because it came with an extra flair and has stronger stats (if I remember correctly) plus I believe more poses for the drop, it would be... I dunno, nice? To have all the direct sale items up at the start of the sale to budget around. Between knowing about the grab bags and not knowing how much the kin might cost, I feel like I really skipped most of the sale instead of being excited for new items as they were released tbh.

[singood]

12 hour blocks were great, i didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night or stay up extremely late just to get a sale item. thank you for that :^)

also i loved the theme of the items and their names!
-the sorcerer
-the new moon
-the fool
-justice
-the hermit
-death

all very tarot card-esque, obviously since the whole thing was called arcane ascension, but i'm just sayin' i really enjoyed the items and the overall theme. Maybe too much since i'm now broke af lmao

[Princess Kunzite]

dreamsk

Visionary Blend

my one major criticism is the fact that Gaia should take into account that they have no refund system and think abt that for good reason: people pre-emptively buy gc thinking a release will be via gc and then it's direct buy. that s**t ain't cool and now the user can potentially be out money. i'd like there to be some sort of system or symbol saying an item will be gc only or direct buy before it proper screws someone over.

What are you actually suggesting here? The promo page had a direct buy tab, although I'm not sure if it was properly up to date or not since they didn't have the last day until...the last day. Having s**t organized should have happened, thats for sure. Now I don't understand why users would buy gc preemptively not even knowing anything about the sale. I don't really think that kind of mentality should be rewarded, especially when it's going to cost Gaia paypal tax to reverse the sale ( Gaia is never going to do refunds for real life cash for this reason ) . Eat the gc and use it at a later date, it is highly unlikely that there will be NO items someone would want to buy eventually. Or B) why not just buy gc when you can confirm what shop its going in for what amount? There's always direct buys with sales and rigs, don't set yourself up for failure when you don't have to. It was user error, and while Gaia didn't help by being vauge, Gaia certainly didn't put peoples credit cards into the paypal machine.

Assumptions makes an a** out of you and me!

I think the big issue actually lies in the fact that we aren't given the schedule for the sale at least 24 hours in advance. There's nothing wrong with buying GC ahead of time for the sale; I know some people that start saving up in early October, at the latest, for the BFS. That's been something done for years not only during BFS, but the summer sale as well. It's a good idea, given how extensive these sales are and how pricy they can be between all of the different releases we get, and how these sales are notorious for ticket sales/bundles with tickets, like what we had this year.

Direct buys in sales like this is still a fairly new concept. It's not something that is entirely a habit for people to factor in because it's only started to be a major system over the past year or so. But also, people have been very adamant with opposition to direct buys in these sales, largely because no one is given enough notice. People that either have saved up GC for weeks/months for the sale or people that can only have a certain budget to spend on Gaia basically get screwed over because they hadn't been told well ahead of time that some items are only direct buy. So now people with saved up GC have to fight the MP or trades to get those items, and people with specific budgets are forced to choose between getting a lot more GC for their money with the bonuses and the like or spending part of their funds strictly on one or two items. And it sucks for the consumers for this reason.

Let's just use this sale for an example: the schedule was found out probably about 30 minutes before the sale actually went into effect. When you looked at that schedule at first, the direct buy items were NOT on the schedule under the direct buy tab. They weren't under any tab except for "all". So it gave NO hints as to what they were being categorized as. This is where the suggestion of having a proper symbol on the items would also help, because we've all learned that the schedule system we have right now has been bugged all sale. But guess what happened at midnight? Sale started, and that was the first time people were learning about the direct buy items. Schedule was fixed shortly after the sale started to reflect this, which then just rubbed more salt onto the wound, as it were. So again, people were pissed off to find out about the direct buy items at such a short notice.

Gaia isn't going to give refunds for GC bought ahead for these sales, and yes, people can just use it for something else down the line. However, what Gaia should try and do is give us the schedule earlier than waiting until the sale begins so we can properly budget and not waste our money and/or be screwed out of buying things we'd like because they categorized them into a different purchase system. 24 hours notice, at the very minimum, can make a WORLD of difference for consumers, as well as for morale for the sale overall.

[+[Skarekrow]+]

So happy I managed to snag Cat Tower. The castle background will be fun to play with and it matches so well with the background in Her Obsession