Hear me out before you get your torches and pitchforks. There have been very many posts on this Subreddit about the connects being way too expensive. Which is indeed true, the connects required for each job have been rising, but I always found that as a non-issue for me.
Of all the gripes I have with Upwork, connects are not one of them, IMO scams are a bigger issue. I usually spend $15 for connects each month, which is about 100. This allows me to apply to about 10 jobs or more each month , Most of the time Upwork will refund almost half the connects (for one reason or another). This of course does mean I have to be very thoughtful about the jobs I apply to.
A good target I set for myself is, of the 10 jobs I apply to, get at least 7-8 of my proposals viewed and if everything goes well get interviewed for at least 5 of them and if I prepare well for the interviews get hired for one or two jobs. At that point, the jobs I get hired for should be able to fund more connects for when I start sending proposals out again.
For me the connects price is just the cost of doing business , like taxes, I just pass the cost on to the client while negotiating. I find out that most of the time clients have no problem adding 10-$20 to their fixed price budget if they consider you the right person for the job.
This also means I have to set a minimum limit on the lowest price job I can apply for, which is $50 (In my country, this is good money for a few hours of work). The payout should cover my next round of applications just fine and leave me a fair enough sum.
I am sure your mileage may vary, but ever since I started accounting for connects in my fee for each job and being deliberate while selecting the jobs I apply to, connects haven't an issue.

I love reading these so wanted to contribute my own! I did not do super accurate tracking and I'm definitely missing all the misc costs (plus all the things I purchased and missed the return period on), but this should be the main costs. I wanted to stay between $25k - $30k and was pretty successful! First, a few detail shots and a summary of some of the things that went wrong with the day lol: Pictures!
The reason there are so few detail shots is because of RAIN and also a bit of poor planning/lateness. :( I had been looking at the forecast starting 10 days out, and there was no rain in the forecast - even when I looked at the forecast the morning of!! But of course, isn't it ~ironic~ (I know, it is not irony, but the song fits very well here) that it would start raining just 1 hour before the ceremony. Luckily we were able to get all our bridal/party/family pics done before it started raining, but we had to quickly pivot from our planned outdoor ceremony to a ceremony in the reception space. This, combined with the transportation of all our decorations being a bit late, meant that we were scrambling a bit right before the ceremony to move/set up everything and having all the guests then occupy the reception space so our photographer couldn't get too many detail shots. Also, we didn't have our photographer for getting ready pics so we couldn't really get pictures of my shoes and jewelry, his watch and accessories, etc since we were already wearing them. Overall not a big deal because honestly I'm not too concerned with photos and am more than satisfied with having photos of the people/event.
We had a total of 90 confirmed guests + 3 vendors, but 5 guests no showed on the day.
Now to costs - Mostly approximate, but comes out to somewhere around $26,000ish?
Venue fee: $4000. This included access to the venue from 1pm - 11pm (with 4 hours being for setup/photos, 5 hours of event time, and 1 hour for cleanup), all staff, tables, chairs, linens, and tableware. The venue is a restaurant that also hosts a lot of weddings which I loved because that meant everything was in-house and the staff are very experienced.
Food: $6,182.70. This included 3 appetizers for cocktail hour and an appetizer, salad, 3 sides, two mains (chicken + salmon), and 2 vegan entrees for the 2 vegans in attendance for dinner. This price includes 20% gratuity. I spent probably around $150 for dessert? I purchased a half sheet cake, 4 vegan cupcakes, and 1 gluten-free pound cake from a local bakery, and I baked a 9-inch round cake for cutting and two 9x13 cakes.
Beverages: $558 for non-alcoholic drinks (coffee, iced tea, lemonade, pink lemonade, and sodas). $2200 for open bar. Both prices include 20% gratuity, although I tipped an extra $100 on the bar tab because I was surprised it was so low lol. This was another benefit of having it in a restaurant because they had a full bar and a menu of signature drinks as well.
Florals: ~$800. I bought the pastels DIY package from Flower Moxie with a few additional a la carte flowers and also bought 100 stems from a local flower farm. This was enough for a bridal bouquet, 5 bridesmaid bouquets, 9 boutonnieres, ad 85 bud vases. Honestly I could have done even more with the flowers since I had soooo many extra flowers at the end, but story time: The flowers from Flower Moxie were supposed to arrive the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding. The plan was flower prep on Wednesday then arranging on Thursday. Well, about half of the flowers arrived on Wednesday as planned, but the other half didn't arrive until Friday at 11am due to shipping issues. Therefore we weren't able to make the bouquets until Friday, where we didn't have much time because our rehearsal was 12-1 (11:30 - 1:30 due to travel time) and our rehearsal dinner was at 7 (had to leave at 6:30 at the latest, plus needing time to get ready). This + flower arranging with sad stems since they only had ~1.5 hours to hydrate meant that we didn't have time to do anything but the absolutely necessary items. We could have made bigger bouquets, corsages, added more to the bud vases, etc. Our florals still turned out beautiful but I'm just bummed we wasted so many beautiful flowers :( (especially because we left on our honeymoon on the Wednesday following the wedding, so we composted all the extras). Even though this added extra work before the wedding, I'm glad we cut costs here.
Other decor: ~$250 for 85 bud vases, ~$200 for faux floral ground arch, $80 for votives, $200 for big mirror welcome sign.
Photographer: $2,350 for 7 hours and engagement session
DJ: $1,300 for 5 hours
Day of Coordinator: $800
Stationary: Approx. $150 for a printer, $50 paper + extra ink, $10 for invite template from Etsy, $30 for an address stamp, and $80 for postage. With this I was able to print 50 save the dates, 50 invitations, 100 programs, guest book sign, favors sign, and seating chart. I'm super glad I went the DIY route - I love how everything turned out and I needed a printer any way so it works out. The prints came out very high quality. I designed everything except the invites in Canva.
Favors: $312.50 for 125 customized chopsticks. These were a hit - even though we only had 90 guests, we only ended up with 15 extras that were the ones that I left at home because they didn't fit in the box lol. If I brought all of them, they might all have been taken.
Attire: $1,500 for ceremony dress + alterations, $40 for veil, $620 for reception dress + alterations, $250 for ceremony + reception shoes. $180 for groom's suit + alterations, ~$100 for shirt + tie + belt + socks + shoes.
Photobooth: Also DIYed this using the booth.events app. I already had an iPad, so I bought a ring light, backdrop, and Canon Selphy printer for prints. Booth.events lets you design your template. The printer prints 4x6 photos so I had a paper cutter out that let guests cut it into two photo strips. All in all probably ~$280 for everything, not including the things I already had. The photobooth was a big hit with the guests - it was used over 50 times, and all the pictures were saved on my iPad + on an online gallery for the guests. And now I have a photobooth set up I can whip out at other events!!
Guest book: Bought a cute vintage guest book off Etsy for $20 and I already had 2 instax cameras. Spent $40 for extra film which wasn't all used. I highly recommend doing a photo guest book, I got teary looking through all the pictures of the guests along with their sweet messages. I wish all the guests signed, some missed it.
Other costs: ~$900 for two nights in a bridal suite, $600 for wedding party attire, $500 for wedding party gifts, $140 for transportation.
I know I'm missing a lot but I think this is most of it. Overall everything turned out wonderfully even with the rain! I personally found the DIY stuff worth it and I enjoyed doing those things. I have more to say but at this point I've become a bit ramble-y so I'll just stop here! :p

I feel like I'm going crazy because I must be missing why Ray-Ban is charging $282 with nothing in the shopping bag. If I add a pair of sunglasses to my shopping cart they cost whatever they cost plus an extra $282. I only noticed this because when I was checking out the price was exorbitant.
I've not had this issue before. I trued logging out and back in and clearing cookies, but this feels super shady at the moment.
https://preview.redd.it/297ainsjsl5d1.png?width=1589&format=png&auto=webp&s=7557a6a2a9bff9390fdc7046ab4d74866eb5c949
Here is with a sunglass 😡
https://preview.redd.it/pdqfyeebtl5d1.png?width=474&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e25809d71203be603b05ab536baee1ce9d154e9

So hear me out if you want a house wall and we assume that your house is going to be 10 meters by 10 meters by 3 meters.
So it is 300 cubic meters or 300'000'000 cubic centimeters.
A game boy is 9 cm by 14.8 cm by 3.2 cm so it is 426.24 cubic centimeters.
If we devide 300'000'000 by 426.24 we will get 703'828.829 gameboys.
Now acording to various sources gameboy price at launch was 89 dollars so multiplying 703'828.829 gameboys by 89 we will get 62'640'765,8 dollars.
Also inflation rate of dollar from 1989 to 2024 was 152.9% the 62'640'765.8 is now 158'394'248.67 dollars.
In conclusion: don't build house with walls made from gameboys, because it will cost you the entire Nauru economy.
Sources - Wikipedia, usinflationcalculator.com

• Legion 5 Pro 16ARH7H Laptop (Lenovo) - Type 82RG
• 16" QHD+ (2560 x 1600, WQXGA+) 16:10, 165Hz, 500-nits, 100% sRGB, Anti-glare, IPS Display; DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision, FreeSync, G-SYNC, Low Blue Light, High Gaming Performance
• AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (8C / 16T, 3.3 / 4.9GHz, 4MB L2 / 16MB L3)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB GDDR6, Boost Clock 1485MHz, TGP 150W
  • TimeSpy Graphics score of 12,047 puts it just above the median TimeSpy score for a 4070 equipped laptop per https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-4070-Laptop-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.675690.0.html
• 32GB DDR5
• 2X 1TB NVME SSD (2TB total storage)
• 17 months of On-Site Warranty Remaining (October 2025)
  • I can EITHER extend the warranty through to Oct 28th, 2026 (extra year)
  • OR add accidental damage warranty through to the current 17 month remaining warranty.
  • Either of these is included in my asking price
• Zero scratches or dents or appearances of wear (use external KB + Mouse). This laptop pretty much never leaves my desk. Works perfectly.
• Timestamp and pics https://imgur.com/a/legion-5-pro-3070-ti-32gb-r9-6900hx-dZquONS
• Original 300w Power Brick, also have a spare Lenovo 240w brick for an extra $30.

Prefer local cash to CA, 94523, but will also ship at according to actual shipping costs. Asking $1000. Comment before PM.

A bull case and information for America’s budget commercial carrier -

1. The fleet - Airbus planes, not Boeing. These planes are fuel efficient and unavailable/backordered until 2030
   
2. The customer - more people are on a budget and will look to a more cost effective air travel alternate.
   
3. Net loss of ~ 1 cent per seat per mile. We are that close to being out of the red and a profitable quarter. Breaking the consecutive losses will result in bullish sentiment and increased share price (speculation).
   
4. Snort interest at ~25%
   
5. Oil / jet fuel price reduction will result in more profits ( trump elected etc speculation).
   
6. This is my yolo play - in at $4.50. Will ride to the bottom.
   

Godspeed and good luck.

I moved recently and have had two really bad experiences at a lash place in my area. My thoughts on just ditching lashes entirely are a combination of retention/glue issues and cost at other salons.
I lost 30 lashes today and only 2-3 had a natural lash on them. I got this set on Wednesday. Every time I brush and even immediately after my appointment, I lose fans. With my prior lash person, it was extremely rare to lose one without a lash. I’m having this same thing happen with 3 different techs where the glue doesn’t hold up like I’m used to. That or they are placing fans on too small of lashes and they’re falling off without the baby lash.
There are other salons but the price point is really high even though I moved OUT of a large city. $165 for a 1.5 hour fill. I used to pay $75 in the city for 1 hour-1.25 hours. I’ve always done volume.
Has anyone scraped extensions and been happy? Any tips, serums, or ways to make the transition not shocking? I’m sure I’m gonna feel ugly and naked for a bit. Also not stoked to relearn strips again. I remember glue getting stuck and pulling out natural lashes some times.

Everyone is always looking for that next big thing. Roaring Kitty posted about GME a year or two before the initial breakout happened. I posted about 2.5 years ago about $ELTP going CFP. So, why is $ELTP, positioned for a squeeze?
First and foremost, there are known agitators on the Ihub boards - two of which have openly admitted to shorting the stock and bragging that they can do it from outside the United States. They have infiltrated the moderator spots, just like the in GME where those in naked shorting positions were placing employees in locations to create horrible customer service experiences. For GME, the goal was to drive customers away, and it sounded crazy when first posited, but, like many conspiracy theories over the last few years, it was eventually shown to be true. For $ELTP, the main moderator deletes many positive posts, restricts posting of those in long positions or outright bans their accounts. He will send you messages bragging about the fact that you can't do anything about it. Hubris is always the last step before downfall.
I watched this stock for 3.5 years before I bought a single share. Ironically, the antics of these agitators helped clue me in on this potentially being a good stock. Once the company turned a profit - clearly amazing news for a company on the OTC, the most astounding thing happened. All the naysayers and agitators whipped themselves up in to this religious fervor. Accounts with similar names but that hadn't posted in 10 years suddenly started spam posting negative stuff about a stock...that just had incredibly positive news? That's odd. The more positive news that came out the more they started banning people and spamming negative posts. And the more I saw this, the more shares I accumulated. Then last year, $ELTP popped over 600% from it's low. It was like swatting a bee hive. The agitators went full tilt.
So, how can we profit, and how can we make these guys feel the pain? There are about 400 million shares held by execs/employees etc. that I don't think are moving. That leaves about 600 million shares. The people who have borrowed shares (hard to tell the amount since this is outside of the US and most likely outside of our ability to purvey) are going to be in an increasingly tough position if we can start accumulating all of the shares. At 10,000 people, we would need to each accumulate 60,000 shares - a cost of around $10k at current prices. 10,000 people - that's all and we can drive this thing through the roof. The best part? The CEO has stated that he expects a buyout within 2 to 2.5 years. So, we have our exit. Preferably, it would be by Pfizer (they lost a manufacturing plant in a hurricane last year and could use $ELTP manufacturing capacity) so we could swap shares instead of paying the capital gains.
I've posted my position before on here when discussing this company so that I was as transparent as possible. Going forward though, I will personally commit to $15,000 a month in purchases. I continue to say this stock is worth $1.60 ish on the low side and $10 on the high side. At 17 cents, each share would be one more little soldier fighting for my retirement.
If this gets over 2,000 likes, I'll assume I've got soldiers marching with me, and I start my $15k buy per month which I will post screenshots of every month.

I've been reading threads in this sub for a week or so, and was hoping someone could take the time and explain the role of a realtor, and what place they have in the modern housing market. I am genuinely asking and curious, and mean no disrespect by this question.
For some background, we bought our first house without using a realtor. This was during covid, when things were crazy busy. We found the house on zillow, contacted the selling agent, submitted an offer for what we were willing to pay (less than asking), scheduled things for an inspection, appraisal and our own closing appointment.
We also sold the house without a realtor, besides using one to list it on the MLS for us for a flat fee which was extremely cheap. We handled the staging of the house, hired a photographer, scheduled all of the showings and talked with the title company all by ourselves. All in, it cost us roughly $2,000 to sell the place. We arranged for a move-out clean for the sellers as well, which was an additional cost but felt like a nice thing to do.
We also just put in another offer on a home, again less than asking price and got accepted.
I am familiar with the process, and honestly it isn't that hard to do. The title company will do the bulk of the work for you, and as long as you are responsive on either side, it was a very smooth process.
Again, I'm asking as someone who has done this without a realtor, and I'm genuinely asking because everyone is shocked when we tell them we did it without an agent. When a prospective client asks, especially after the recent lawsuits, how do you justify the 10-15,000 cost for your services? Especially on the buyer side, when all of the information that you need is available via Redfin, trulia , zillow and other sites?

We live in one of the most competitive and short supply real estate markets, with one of the highest cost of living areas, in one of the most desireable areas of the USA.
After renting our condo for 5 years, our landlord has offered to sell the place to us, without real estate agents being involved. We would, of course, have a real estate attorney look over the purchase contract before agreeing to anything.
The thing is, her listing price to us is around 80-100k more than what we're seeing online for similar upstairs units. Our condo is a ground level unit, but has not been updated since she purchased it, which was around 30 years ago. The appliances, and carpeting in the bedrooms, are very old..we suspect it will all need to be replaced relatively soon. There are other problems with the condo that we are already aware of; minor intermittent electrical issues in one of the bedrooms, one of the toilets doesnt have good pressure, and the bathtub faucet doesnt work. Theres also an outdoor shower that wont work without water leaking from the base of the hose spigot that runs to the outdoor shower. We've never had it formally inspected; these are just what we know from living here for 5 years. We understand there could, and likely will, be more issues found during a formal inspection.
The other thing is, the condo is a ground level corner unit. It has a huge yard. We absolutely love living here. We just got a dog and the yard is huge (both space-wise and huge in terms of how much stress it alleviates from our lives, and our dog loves it), plus it adds a ton of extra space to the unit. It is borderline impossible finding a yard in the area that we live that we can afford. And again, we live in an extremely competitive real estate area in a very desireable area WITHIN this region. It is not uncommon for friends of ours to lose homes they were about to go to closing for because an outside buyer paid a full cash offer, plus higher than asking.
We have a lot of ideas, but i am curious if anyone has any advice or has been in this situation because we cannot afford it at her asking price with the current mortgage rates. Ideally, the most manageable thing would be 80k below her asking, but we could probably make 40k below her asking work...would just be really tight until we could refi when rates go down in a few years..curious if anyone has any negotiation strategies or has been in our shoes.
TIA

Hey, I’ve come upon a bit of an issue that I could need some advice on. Essentially my 3 friends and I will be renting an apartment together, the 4 bedrooms in the apartment have a size of 1 pretty big (probably around 13m^2), 2 decently sized bedrooms, where one is a little larger than the other, and 1 kind of small room (around 8m^2). After viewing the apartment we decided to sign a contract for it, since it is a really nice apartment, and we set prices for each of the rooms. Initially I decided I’d go for one of the middle rooms since they were nice and not too expensive (we’re students so we generally don’t have too much money), my one friend was really set on the biggest room and was willing to pay the higher price for it, while the two others had the same preference as me, so all of us would’ve liked not to have the smallest room. The 3 of us with the same preference are moving from an apartment we shared and when we decided the rooms for that apartment we also had about the same preferences so we used a spin the wheel RNG website to decide who gets to pick rooms first (although this time the rooms were all decided to cost the same). At that time I got the short end of the stick and got the left over room. This time again since we can’t decide between us, we figure RNG will be fair so we do it again, sadly for me I again get the left over room that the other 2 don’t pick. I of course think this is unfortunate, but not the end of the world. The problem I guess you could call it comes today, when I find out that due to let’s say good circumstances at their work (which I won’t get into), my parents surprise me by telling me they’ll be giving me a nice amount of money each month. This of course is very nice and I’m super grateful, but it completely changes the room preference I would have, since I no longer feel like the higher price of the bigger and nicer rooms would be too much, and rather I’d be compelled to say I now favor the bigger rooms in the apartment. But at this point we’ve already decided that the 1 friend gets the biggest room for the highest price and that the other two get priority pick for rooms. Does anyone have any advice on how I could try to get perhaps on of the middle rooms? I have already suggested paying a higher price than what was previously decided for the rooms, in a way such that I would perhaps pay the person who swaps room with me a little per month such that their rent is lower, mine is higher and the 2 others stay unchanged. I feel like this is fair in the sense that it doesn’t affect the rent of the 2 others from what we had already decided. At the same time though it feels a little weird that I’d have to (if for example the friend with first pick takes the second largest room, which it seems he will) pay more for a smaller room than he does for a slightly larger one. At this point I regret that we decided so fast and spun for the rooms. Then again hindsight is a bitch and there was really no way for me to know my parents would do something so nice. It could also be that even if I knew about the extra money we would’ve ended up spinning for rooms and I would’ve gotten last pick, but yeah… I’m just a little unsure what to do, I don’t want to be annoying to my friends either, I mean we all did decide on this together, and I’m not about to get into arguments about rent when we still have to live with each other for a year… I guess it’s also worth mentioning that the guy with the second pick for room wasn’t exactly sure if he’d choose the smallest or second smallest (since friend with first pick in all likelihood will pick second largest) due to the lower pricing of the smallest room but that in turn means that it could be I’d get the second smallest without paying extra too, so offering to pay more could just mean being taken advantage of by paying more than necessary. At this point I think I just need some outside perspective.

This week’s vintage batch features European FPs from the 1930s-50s, most of which are piston fillers. Nibs range from a springy to Wet Noodle, including one dip-pen nib retrofit. As always, all are fully restored and ready to write.
 
ALBUM & TIMESTAMP
 
Pastable link: https://imgur.com/a/QtB5ctS
 
Condition (n.b.): All pens listed below have been disassembled, cleaned and restored with new sacs installed in the last couple weeks and seals installed in the last couple years. Each of these pens is guaranteed to fill and write as designed without leaks or other problems. Nibs have been adjusted when necessary to ensure that all lay down a smooth and consistent line.
THESE PENS HAVE NO CRACKS (except #3), CHIPS, PERSONALIZATIONS, LOOSE OR MISSING PARTS, BENT NIBS, MISALIGNED TINES, BROKEN/WORN OFF TIPPING, OR THREADING ISSUES.
 
Line Widths and Writing Samples: To provide buyers with as much information as possible, I have adopted the following line width standards: XXF (.1-.2mm); XF (approx .3mm); F (approx .4mm); M (approx .6mm); B (approx .8mm). Nib flexibility is determined by variation (max line width under pressure) and softness (amount of pressure). Flexibility designations based on variation generally run as follows for an XF/F nib: Semi-Flex (approx. 1mm); Flex (1.2-1.9mm); Superflex (2mm+). All line width measurements are taken with a digital caliper but should be considered approximations providing a general guide. Width may vary slightly depending on type of ink and paper used as well as amount of pressure applied. All writing samples are on Rhodia dot paper using Waterman Serenity Blue.
 
 
1. 1950s Pelikan 400 (Tortoise, celluloid, GPT, piston filler, 14k KM [F/M Ball] nib). This standard-sized model measures 4 15/16” capped. I assume that the Pelikan pen company requires no introduction here :) This is an example of one of Pelikan’s most celebrated vintage pens in tortoiseshell celluloid with transparent striations for viewing the ink level. Classic gold-plated cap band and Pelikan-beak clip. Two-chick Pelikan logo stamped in captop (see DETAIL PHOTO). This pen is a piston filler: to fill simply rotate the blind cap counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submerse the nib, and rotate the piston clockwise until it comes to a stop. Blind cap is stamped KM, corresponding to the ‘M’ marking on the 14k Pelikan nib. The ‘’K’ is for ‘Kugel’ (‘ball), designating this nib as a ball nib, the tipping finished to give it a wider sweet spot for smooth writing at a wide range of angles. Though I wouldn’t call it a flex nib, it does have a springiness and buttery smoothness that’s quite nice. It lays down a smooth and consistent F/M line by the standards above (see WRITING SAMPLE). Condition: fine [C]. I’d describe this pen as more of a user. It’s been fully restored with a new seal and is guaranteed to fill smoothly to factory capacity without leaks. However, there’s an issue with the piston while unscrewing the blind cap all the way that makes the blind cap want to lift up and disengage when the piston is close to fully extended. The solution to this is simple enough: apply a little downward pressure to the piston when unscrewing the blind cap to extend the piston and it works just as it should every time (100% reliable). This has been factored into the price all the same. Barrel transparency is near mint with light yellow coloration and no staining (see DETAIL PHOTO). Gold-plated trim shows brassing to the bottom of the clip and a sliver around the bottom edge of the cap band as well as some nicks to the top edge of the clip tassie. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes – scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprints are deep and fully legible. A chance to own one of these with superb clarity at less than half the price they fetch on merchant websites. Price: $190
 
2. 1939-44 Pelikan 100 Wartime (green Binde, celluloid, NPT, piston filler, chromium nickel [CN] steel Oblique F/M-XF Flex nib). This standard-sized model measures 4 5/8” capped. During the material restrictions of WWII, Pelikan made several, short-lived changes to the 100. In place of 14k nibs they implemented Chromium-Nickel steel nibs marked CN. The gold-plated clip was supplanted by nickel-plated (so-called "reverse trim"). And the gold-plated cap bands gave way to no cap bands at all, the cap being either smooth or milled with decorative bands like this example. This wartime model is 100% original and correct, having all these features, including the original nib. It is made of celluloid with a vibrant green marble Binde. Pelikan two-chick logo stamped on the cap top (see DETAIL PHOTO). Barrel underneath is a transparent green for viewing the ink level. This pen is a piston filler: to fill simply rotate the blind cap counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submerse the nib, and rotate the piston clockwise until it comes to a stop. The Pelikan CN nib is a Left-Foot Oblique (iridium is ground in a shape like your left foot viewed from above). Under normal pressure it lays down a smooth and consistent F/M on the cross-strokes and XF line on the down-strokes. And the line widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.9mm) under moderate pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE). Versatile variation and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it a great choice for shaded writing and expressive styles. And the tipping was smoothed by Rick Propas when this pen was restored, making it just as buttery smooth as a Pelikan 14k nib. Condition: near mint [B+]. This pen comes from my personal collection and is the result of hunting the best example I could find. Wartime 100s are rare and this one, which resembles an artifact from a time-capsule, took me decades to track down. Nickel-plated trim is pristine with no brassing or other notable wear. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other noteworthy blemishes. Barrel clarity is superb with no discernible darkening or staining (see DETAIL PHOTO). Manufacturer imprints on the captop are factory deep and even contain most of their original green fill. The only hiccup is that despite being restored 2 years ago by Rick Propas and only being filled 1-2 times since, this pen only fills to half capacity. And this despite the piston operating as smooth as they come. I’ve regreased the pen, but it hasn’t seemed to make a difference. Because this pen is more off a collector-oriented find, I’ve decided to list it anyway. You’d be hard pressed to find another example of this rare piece of Pelikan history in better cosmetic condition. Price: $450
 
3. 1930s Luxor Visible 5907 (red and translucent web celluloid, NPT, piston filler, 14k Two-Tone XF Super-Flex nib). At 4 7/8" capped, this pen roughly the same length as a Pelikan. Luxor was a German brand of the Hebborn pen company, founded in 1925 by former Kaweco employee Heinrich Hebborn and located in Heidelberg until relocating to Cologne sometime before 1937. In Richard Binder's words: "The company produced pens of high quality, and it was known universally by the name of its signature brand, Luxor, with designs inspired by the aesthetic of ancient Egypt. Sub-brands included Sphinx, Visible, and Grandvisible" (source). The company is credited with having designed the first telescopic piston mechanism, which Montblanc would famously incorporate into its own designs. Despite their high quality, there weren't very many of these pens made and Luxors are especially scarce finds in the US today. This Visible model is made of a stunning red and translucent web celluloid similar to that which Wahl-Eversharp used for the Doric. Unlike the Doric, however, the entire barrel is translucent to show the ink level and piston operation. The cap is also translucent! The celluloid pattern is complemented by nickel-plated clip in an elegant Egyptian motif and triple cap bands with one wider, knurled band. This piston filler holds far more ink than cartridges, converters, and lever fillers of the same size. It is filled by removing the blind cap to reveal the turning knob (see fillers photo), rotating the knob counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submersing the nib, then rotating the knob clockwise until the piston is fully retracted. The pen is equipped with a beautiful 14k two-tone Luxor nib stamped with the pyramidal Luxor trademark. The nib is a Super-Flexible writer, laying down a smooth and consistent XF line that widens to a 4B+ (approx 2.3mm capped) under light pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE). Thin hairlines, strong snap-back and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it a great choice for calligraphic writing styles such as Copperplate and Spencerian. Condition: excellent+ [B+] aside from a hairline crack in the shank of the nib. The crack can be seen in the photos. It has no effect on the nibs performance or how it writes. And there’s no reason to think it’ll worsen unless the nib and feed are removed and re-installed (something that is only done on vintage pens for repair, not flushing). I’m happy to offer a one-year guarantee (no-questions return for refund) that this crack won’t get any longer. Nickel-plated furniture is remarkably clean, showing no brassing or other notable wear aside from a small spot of brassing on the bottom terminus of the clip. Red color is of an even shade across the cap and barrel. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes – scarcely even any miscroscratches. Barrel clarity is excellent but slightly ambered in comparison to the cap's (see DETAIL PHOTO). Manufacturer imprint on the cap is deep and fully legible. An uncommon and uncommonly eye-catching pen that also happens to be a lovely writer. *Price: $290
 
4. 1940s-50s Oversized Stylomine 303 Retrofit (black, celluloid, NPT, accordion filler converted to twist filler, 14k XXF Needlepoint Wet Noodle nib). This oversized pen is massive, having a thick girth that doesn’t fit all the way into the slots of the slotter box and a capped length of 5 3/8.” Stylomine was a Parisian pen company founded shortly after World War I. Streamlined profile, clip, and font of the imprint exude the aesthetics of midcentury design. This pen is made of black celluloid with tapered ends. Nickel-plated trim in a deluxe configuration includes cool spring-loaded clip with a hallmark ‘Y Z’ on the right side. I wasn’t able to track this down, but it’s possible the clip is either sterling silver or silver-plated. In 1940 the company patented an innovative FP filling system comprised of a rubber sac shaped into a bellows and attached to a glass ink cartridge at the end of the barrel (see fillers photo). Referred to as an accordion filler today, the pen was designed to be filled by removing the blindcap and depressing the glass ink cartridge several times until the cartridge fills with ink. Since accordion sacs are no longer being made, I followed David Nishimura’s advice and restored this pen using a standard tubular sac trimmed at both ends. This essentially converted it into a twist filler so that instead of depressing the glass cartridge one twists it a little over 1 full turn to fill the sac as well as 1/3 to 1/2 of the glass cartridge. Thanks to the size of the pen, this retrofitted solution still allows it to hold about as much ink as a typical lever filler (e.g. Waterman 52). This pen came to me nibless. But I was able to find a serendipitous match in a massive 14k, iridium tipped E.S. Johnson #4 nib stamped ‘303’. This number matches the Stylomine model number on the barrel! Like all my dip pen nib retrofits, the nib and feed were modified to guarantee factory fit, flow, and performance, delivering the best of both centuries. That nib yields Flexible variation with Wet Noodle softness, laying down a smooth and consistent XXF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.8mm) under minimal pressure – i.e. anything more than grazing the page (see WRITING SAMPLE). Don’t be fooled by the max line width. Needlepoint hairlines, effortless variation, surgically responsive snap-back, and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it an ideal choice for calligraphic writing styles such as Copperplate and Spencerian. Condition: excellent+ [B+]. Nickel-plated trim shows no brassing or other notable flaws. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes – scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on barrel is deep and fully legible with ‘Made in France’ slightly weakened. Price: $340
 
5. 1930s Big Ben (grey shell, celluloid, NPT, piston filler, 14k XF Flex nib). This standard-sized model measures 5 1/16” capped. Big Ben was a trademark of the Benzion Trading Company of Copenhagen, Denmark. The company was founded in 1933 by Niels Benzion, who had worked for the Wahl-Eversharp. A pen of cosmopolitan origins, the Big Ben has a piston-filler patented in England (hence the cap imprint) while the pen was made in collaboration with H. Hebborn & of Heidelberg, Germany. That is why this pen so closely resembles the Luxor above. This particular example is made of celluloid in a grey shell pattern resembling that of a 2nd-gen Eversharp Doric complemented by nickel-plated clip in an elegant Egyptian motif and triple cap bands with one wider, knurled band, and decorative bands at the ends of the cap and barrel. This piston filler holds far more ink than cartridges, converters, and lever fillers of the same size. It is filled by removing the blind cap to reveal the turning knob (see fillers photo), rotating the knob counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submersing the nib, then rotating the knob clockwise until the piston is fully retracted. Big Bens came with two different 14k nibs depending on when they were made and for what market: a nib stamped ‘Big Ben’ in cursive font; and a nib stamped ‘1st Quality’ in the same distinctive font. This pen is equipped with the latter. That nib is a Flexible writer, laying down a smooth and consistent XF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.9mm) under moderate pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE). Thin hairlines, strong, snap-back, and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it an excellent choice for expressive and shaded writing. Condition: excellent [B]. Barrel transparency is superb with no staining and a yellow coloration (see DETAIL PHOTO). Nickel-plated trim is clean with no brassing or other notable wear aside from a tiny spot at the bottom terminus of the clip visible under a loupe, a couple spots on the lower cap band that have lost some of their original luster, and thinning of the plating on the blind cap’s thin decorative band. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes - scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on cap is deep and fully legible. Price: $330
 
6. 1930s Orion Everlasting 552 in Box with Papers (Black and Bronze, celluloid, GPT, lever filler, 14k XXF/XF Flex nib). This standard-sized model measures 5 1/4” capped. Orion was Danish company (located in Copenhagen) that imported quality pen parts from Germany and England and assemble the pens in Denmark. In 1933 they changed their name to Miller Pen Co., a writing instrument importer that exists to this day. This pen comes in its original factory box with exquisite paperwork (see DETAIL PHOTO). It’s made of the same black and Bronze celluloid Conklin used for the Endura, complemented by gold-plated trim with elegant, Art Deco clip stamped ‘Orion’. Flexible 14k Orion #2 nib lays down a smooth and consistent XXF/XF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.8mm) under moderate pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE. )). Thin hairlines, strong, snap-back, and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it another excellent choice for expressive and shaded writing. Condition: excellent [B]. The only noteworthy flaw on this pen is brassing to the center of the clip over the Orion trademark. Trim is otherwise pristine with no noteworthy flaws. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes - scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on barrel is deep and fully legible. Price: $240
 
 
 
Shipping: Pens purchased on the weekend are mailed on Tuesday. Otherwise they are mailed within 2 business days of payment. All pens that do not come with their original boxes are packaged in PVC or thick plastic tubes to protect them in transit. To CONUS locations the following shipping options are available:

• USPS First-Class with tracking for $5 Due to the delivery delays that continue under postmaster general DeJoy, I strongly recommend that the Priority shipping option be chosen. All packages will include full insurance (covered by me). Rest assured that a full refund is guaranteed (issued through Paypal) in the event of a lost parcel and you will not have to wait until I receive a reimbursement from the USPS.
  
• USPS Priority with tracking for $9
  

International Customers: Please contact me for shipping quote if located abroad (delivery confirmation required). (Note: due to the issues stated above, my international shipping options are currently limited. PM for more info). Please do not ask me to commit mail fraud by altering the declared value of a pen for customs. Not only am I registered as a business but shipping insurance is based on declared value.
New York Customers: For tax purposes, I am now required to add an 8% sales tax on any sale made in the state of NY. If your shipping address is in NY state, please let me know before payment to receive an adjusted total. Discounted shipping is included for NY State residents to help defray the extra cost.
Ordering: Pens are placed on hold for the first person to reply to the thread and PM me with firm request to purchase (no chat DMs please). A request with the words “I'd like to purchase [pen number]” would be best to avoid confusion), to which I’ll reply with payment details. Please note that a message inquiring into a price discount does not suffice to place a pen on hold. If I haven't received Paypal payment within 24 hrs after a hold is placed, then pen(s) may become available to the next person.
Payment, & Guarantee: Payment by Paypal only. All pens are guaranteed to be in the condition in which I've described them. If I've missed something objectionable or the filling mechanism is not fully functional, the buyer may contact me up to 7 days after receiving the pen for a full refund (issued once I receive the pen back in the same condition as sold). Buyer must ship the return no later than 2 weeks after it was delivered to receive a refund. I've sold pens online for over a decade. Please check my past listings here as well as on the classifieds and historical sales forums on FPN (username: Estragon) and FPGeeks (popcod) for some of my previous offerings.
 
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OTHER OPEN LISTINGS

• Superflex Pilot 53R Koi
  
• Vintage Montegrappa Extra Edacoto
  
• Waterman Nurse’s Sets
  
• Off-Catalogue Sheaffer Stubby Balance Lifetime
  
• Psychedelic Bayard Excselsior
  
• Waterman Taperite Citation
  
• Conklin Enduras, Nozac
  

Hi all, I am currently in the process of upgrading my computer which is about 5 years old so it needs it. I am keeping my case as well as my storage and RAM, otherwise everything else is new. I'm not future-proofing it or going high-end parts as I simply do not have the budget and am slow on work at the moment. (Am a freelancer.) So cost-effectiveness goes a long way for me.
Here's the parts I have for my build as of right now: CPU: Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Motherboard: MSI MAG B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard Memory: 16GB DDR4 PSU: 600W
So all I have left is the GPU. I was considering between these three: RTX 3060 RTX 3060 Ti RTX 4060
I was going to go for the 4060 initially, but I've heard some lackluster reviews on it compared to the 3060 Ti, that it wasn't as much of an upgrade for the price. I was only considering the 3060 for the VRAM, as I might want to play at higher resolutions in the future. (I'm 1080p atm, but I would like 1440p or even 4K which I know many people recommend at least 12GB VRAM for that.)
What I use my rig for: I game, but not often AAA titles or anything; the last really graphically intense game I played was Baldur's Gate 3. I also am a graphic designer and illustrator, so I use a lot of graphically intensive software for image editing as well as digital painting. I also occasionally work in 3D, mostly just to edit models and the like - I don't do scene rendering for animations or anything.
I need to preface I live in Canada, so price for GPUs isn't as competitve here as the US, and this is all in CAD. A 4060 brand new is about $400, whereas a 3060 is about $390 - the same. 3060 Ti's are a lot more expensive for whatever reason, and I'm finding them new as low as $600 and up to $1,000 in some cases - but I can buy them used from eBay for about the same price as the other two.
I've only done prebuilds in the past. This is my first build so any advice would be appreciated, speak to me like I'm dumb because I probably am when it comes to this stuff. :)

The recent post about the cost of academy or select teams grabbed my attention because I'm about to try something that feels a little radical and I'm not sure how it's going to go.
After eight years of coaching my oldest son's team in rec, I'm taking the core of the group and reforming as a select team. The experimental part is that I'm going to run the team "at cost" and dramatically undercut the price of virtually every other club out there.
I'm charging my families a flat rate of a few hundred dollars per year (barely more than what rec costs), all inclusive. I'm cutting out all the discretionary extras and removing any profit margin. I'll be doing it for free, just like I was in rec.
I'd like to think I can attract some good, dedicated talent over time by offering a select experience at an outlying low cost, but another part of me wonders if most soccer families don't actually care about the cost as much as they say. Will they all still prefer bigger and more expensive clubs for the status?
The other rub is that I don't have the same coaching resume as a lot of the professionals. I have no playing experience to speak of and don't have a credible-sounding foreign accent :D. I know the game well and I've worked very hard to educate myself and learn how to be a real coach, even going so far as to get my D license this summer, but I've still got a lot to prove at the next level.
I'm optimistic and feel good about what I'm doing, but time will tell how viable it is.

Hey guys!
I bought the black/blue Vapor 15 Elite AG in March (3 months ago) and they started to crack. The crack is really small right now but I can see it becoming a bigger issue if I use it for like 10 more sessions.
Sadly I read about the cracking after making the purchase, but I heard Nike is pretty consistent to issue a refund.
I bought them for 182 euros because it was on sale (still is today) but the issue is that my size EU 44 (US 10) is not in stock. Only the new pink colorway has my size, but it costs the full price 259 euros.
My question is can I request for a replacement from the new colorway (since they don’t have my size in black) and not pay the difference, so basically do a 1 on 1 exchange, or will they just give me back my 182 as a voucher that I can use? Because if you think about it I’ve already spent the 182 and I even if I get refunded the full amount, I don’t want to spend almost 80 more euros just to get the same size in a newer colorway.

Post got removed because it was 'Financial Advice'. This is fucking Sarcasm. It's a parody of markets. Hey Mods - The following is a joke, just like our financial markets:
S/ (Sarcasm)
Parody. Not financial advice. Anything said or done is On your own as a non-deliquent folk. Just opinions. (Does this suffice that I'm not giving financial advice and am being sarcastic?)
(Entertainment parody) Plan for this week!
Alright Ladies and Gentlemen and Apes of all colors, sizes and nationalities. Here's our collusion plan for the next 2 weeks! We can do it if we work together:

• Let Blockbuster (BLIAQ) run up or crash! Or both!
• Wake up at 4 am and Sell all our shares, again, for the 952 day now. We have been doing so good at this that it almost is like we are a multi-conglomerate company with conflicting interests to the stock rising! Well done.
• Keep the chart as aggressively close to all other manipulated stocks. Especially GME. We need to be so close in transactions and charting that it will require billions or dollars and complex algorithms. Sort of like a Market Maker has.
• We need to only buy on Dark Pools, and only sell on Live exchanges. This will display a Buy-Sell ratio that is positive in the 'buy', but will cause a price drop.
• If we all sell strategically at 0.01 price increments down, while shorting it, we can effectively make the chart look somewhat natural (note that we have to do this to 100+ other stocks at the same time. Charts need to all correlate to each other)
• Let's all make orders that are just under the bid price, then cancel right before it's executed, and do again at a lower amount. Rinse and repeat
• On days of massive drops, we need to submit articles to Motely Fool, Benzinga, Seeking Alpha, and all other companies owned by MSM about how "_____" Movie caused the flop. Even though it costed AMC nothing to produce the movie, people need to think that's what made investors sell.
• We need to keep people dumb enough to believe that what happens to the business affects the stock, and not it just being a game by market makers, hedge funds, and broker dealers. So make sure to talk about debt, or the CEO or some shit.
• We need to pick fights with everyone who owns other manipulated stocks. If we are all fighting with each other, we can't fight the real problem!
• Streaming services have went from $8 a month with everything on Netflix, to $100 a month plus from multiple providers, to show nothing of interest. Don't talk about this. Instead, talk about how tickets at AMC increased by $4. Still under the rate of inflation. Don't compare this to McDonalds or Starbucks or any other companies that have raised prices tenfold in comparison to AMC

Now, get out there and give it 110%
This post is Sarcasm This is not financial advice
And also, I love popcorn. I also love pictures. These are opinions of mine.