Your strategy for managing getting event gifts? Also known as how did my inventory get so large?

[auntiemisha]

I've been gathering gifts from advents, events, hunts, etc and this season I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

What are your best strategies for managing event gifts?

For some events I just go through (when I can get in) and take all the gifts, then sort through them later.  But for some large events it seems overwhelming at times.  I still have yet to finish sorting through last years Christmas gifts.

For other events I try to be choosier and look through spreadsheets, images, videos of the gifts to only get ones I think I might truly use or at least enjoy having (looking at you musical snow globes that I rez once a year but so delightful).

But somehow this year I started decision-making twice, one time I bailed after about 10 decisions (mostly NOs), then the next day I went through again and got through 7 yeses before I realized they had all been NOs the previous day!

Maybe I should make sure to have a hot coffee or cocoa when I am deciding what to keep. And put on some nice music.

Any pointers or tips?

[Sid Nagy]

I learned over the years, that most gifts ain't worth it for me.
So I decided long time ago, that if there is no picture of the gift explaining what to expect, I simply don't take it and accept that I might miss out on a goody.
That saves a lot of inventory space and a lot of time wading through all the free not so useful for me stuff.

I went trough 4 shop 'n hop sims yesterday. I picked up zero gifts.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Alwin Alcott]

4 hours ago, auntiemisha said:

For some events I just go through  and take all the gifts,

What are your best strategies for managing event gifts?

changed the place of the two remarks from your post
A question  to the first line : why you go harvest, mostly bad looking or mediocre things when you don't even have time to sort unbox or even use ...
my tip : stop it, stay at home, save your time and haste to get all and annoyances to wait ...buy one or two nice things and have a great holiday season  

[Chic Aeon]

For Shop and Hop for example, I only take what I think I can use (or blog).  I appreciate the pictures as that cuts a lot out. I don't take makeup or gestures or eyes  as I will never use them. And usually I only take things from creators that I know and have bought from or blogged previously.  I always open things right away and sort by category. Then I pick out things I want to feature and do posts. SOMETIMES I keep things, other times not.   16 years 72K posts and that includes all the product and parts of products I have created and numerous backups.   I mostly keep "niche" items that I think might come in handy for a post in the future.      

 

If there isn't a picture of the item I often use the build menu to see what it says is inside the box. If it says "horns" or piercing" for example I just go on to the next.  I also don't pick up gifts from booths that are "not me". If I wouldn't buy anything from the merchant it is unlikely I will want their gift.  We all have different tastes.    

[Josephine Carissa]

for any event that I pick things up from I make a "folder", that way for me if I don't get around to going thru things for a while I'm still able to remember where it came from.

*SHOP&HOP XMAS 2023*

at least it keeps my inventory looking semi organized : )

 

[Dorientje Woller]

38 minutes ago, Josephine Carissa said:

for any event that I pick things up from I make a "folder", that way for me if I don't get around to going thru things for a while I'm still able to remember where it came from.

*SHOP&HOP XMAS 2023*

at least it keeps my inventory looking semi organized : )

 

Great idea, if it weren't that a lot aren't naming their gifts correctly

[LittleMe Jewell]

59 minutes ago, Josephine Carissa said:

for any event that I pick things up from I make a "folder", that way for me if I don't get around to going thru things for a while I'm still able to remember where it came from.

*SHOP&HOP XMAS 2023*

at least it keeps my inventory looking semi organized : )

 

I definitely do this -- a new folder for each event and each hunt that I pick up gifts from.  For the Christmas Advents, I have a "2023 Advent" folder and then inside are folders for each store.  This at least keeps it fairly organized until I have time to go through it.

[Rachel1206]

Folder named "2023 Christmas Shop & Hop" with sub folders "Home", "Clothing" etc and under clothing sub folders for my mesh bodies "Lara",  "LaraX", "Reborn".

And I only walk through max 2-3 regions per day. On home return I take a look and decide what to keep.

Learned to be picky with they years, else one easy drown in things, where some maybe are only used once.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Rachel1206
Spelling

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

8 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

I simply don't take it and accept that I might miss out on a goody.
That saves a lot of inventory space and a lot of time wading through all the free not so useful for me stuff.

1. You're going to miss out on a lot of gifts with potentially some good ones. I haven't seen any gift box that actually displays its content on a preview picture on that box in my entire Second Life yet.

2. That indicates that there's too many gifts to handle in SL, so each gift has become devaluated due to the sheer number. Kinda like the value of gold dropping if someone would stumble upon a gold vein the size of an asteroid.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Sid Nagy]

2 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

1. You're going to miss out on a lot of gifts with potentially some good ones. I haven't seen any gift box that actually displays its content on a preview picture on that box in my entire Second Life yet

Well there are stores enough that have at least a photo of what is inside the present next or above the box.
I don't need the 55th Christmas tree and I'm not planning to walk with Christmas lights on my head.

In other news: Shop'n hop sims visited and still not one gift taken. But what is worse: merchandise is totally boring for guys (as expected).

2 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

2. That indicates that there's too many gifts to handle in SL, so each gift has become devaluated due to the sheer number. Kinda like the value of gold dropping if someone would stumble upon a gold vein the size of an asteroid.

This is not only happening with gifts.
There is so many stuff out there one can buy. It is not for nothing that clothing goes extremer and extremer. If one wants to stand out as a clothing shop, there is little hope if you come up with a fatpack of regular traditional jeans or a traditional skirt or blouse. Most oldbies have several truckloads full of that kind of stuff in their inventory already. We are spoiled in SL.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Ceka Cianci]

I think I'm just going to open them as I go if I do get any of those this year..

I still have so much of that stuff in a folder from last year to go through.. I know I'll be just as lazy with them  in the coming year if I don't just open them as I go and decide right then and there to keep them or not..

Really, I'll probably just go for the bigger fish this year.. hehehe

[Bree Giffen]

I usually create a demo folder for each event I go to. This is useful to remember items I might want in the future. I also use it to figure out when I received the demo and what event the store appears at.

Gifts end up in a folder inside the demo event folder. This is a problem as I forget about gifts at every event. I usually find gifts through the inventory search though. 

[steeljane42]

5 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

2. That indicates that there's too many gifts to handle in SL, so each gift has become devaluated due to the sheer number. Kinda like the value of gold dropping if someone would stumble upon a gold vein the size of an asteroid.

It's difficult to calculate the actual value of gifts, and virtual things in general. If someone has a bit of a shopping budget for SL and don't try to maintain 10 accounts with it, then chances are most of those gifts will be absolutely worthless to them as they have better things to work with already. And if someone needs those SL freebies to outfit themselves and/or at least their alts to save the money, then those gifts might be actually valuable to them.

I, personally, don't bother with gifts with the rare few exceptions. If it's anniversary round of some big event then I may take a look inside the gift boxes from some stores that I know make some good things, but even those most often choose to just throw in some earrings, choker or special event edition/color for the said event, all of which I don't need even for free. Exceptions over the years were heads by Lelutka, few things by my favorite stores that are actually some use to me, and giftcards/credits from stores I shop at anyway.

I certainly don't have any time or desire to go through entire shop and hop to first collect, then unpack, and finally delete things I wouldn't use anyway. I'm rather happy that LL started to post a stores list for those shop and hops with direct slurls a while ago, it makes checking it much easier as I usually just hop between 5-6, maybe 10 stores to check what they have there and call it done.

[Teagan Tobias]

 

I haven’t been to a sales event for a very long time. I have an older avatar and fewer and fewer stores are supporting it, still some are but not enough at events to make it worth my time going there.

I don’t build, I don’t have all that many textures so my 100k inventory is mostly clothing and I can probably out last Second Life with plenty of things to wear without buying anything new. But I still go shopping, I like new things, but shopping events are just a waist of my time.

[Stephanie Misfit]

My inventory is massive, absolutely overflowing. For this reason, I very rarely take freebies from stores or events, unless it is something that matches a purchase I have made from the same store. I have made an exception this year though for one advent calendar.

You know, I probably would not be so against collecting freebies if it was not for all the other crap that comes in the packages along with the gift. Landmarks, notecards, unpacking scripts, hold animations. If you take a heap of freebies your inventory will soon be overflowing with many things you don't need, often including the gift itself. I don't need antlers, or coffee mugs, or earrings, you know the usual sort of stuff that merchants offer up as gifts whether it is representative of their usual products or not.

 

[Evangeline Arcadia]

What I've started doing is to set up a dedicated folder for the event that I go to, so if I pick up a gift I put it straight in there. Then I can easily find it and unpack later at my leisure. Keeps things nice and organised. Then when I unpack an item, if I like it it'll go in the relevant category folder I already have set up (e.g. Clothing>Dresses>Christmas Dresses, or Household>Rugs), If I'm not sure about it I'll leave it in the folder, and if I dislike it I'll trash it.

I've also over time started to be more judicial about what freebies I pick up. It's great if there's an image showing what the gift is,  so I can decide if it's something I really like.  Otherwise I'll just get it and decide later.

I appreciate the generosity from a lot of creators. There have definately been times where a freebie has introduced me to a creator I wasn't aware of before, and prompted me to buy something from their store because of the quality of the gift. I've got some awesome things over time, and those creators stand out to me, especially if it's something I think is really generous or high quality (like a fatpack item of quality clothing, rather than a single colour item).  So it can be a good marketing tool.

After many years in SL you can amass a lot of stuff,  both bought and free. I've recently been going through and organising stuff I hadn't before - I didn't realise how many of certain items I had, or duplicates.   I'd recommend to anyone starting out in SL to straight away set up folders and subfolders for categories of items so you can go back and find them easily. Get organised from the start.

With the awesome new image preview function for inventory, my mission over the coming year (and I've already started), is to go through everything in my inventory and add preview images to the item top level folder, or trash it if I've not or will never use it (I have lots that I don't use or even like much). Yeah... will probably take me a year to do that lol. 😰

 

 

[Lysistrata Szapira]

I used the FabFree Shop & Hop spreadsheet this year.  A link can be found here: https://fabfree.wordpress.com/2023/11/30/woah-the-fabfree-holiday-shop-hop-guide-is-here/ .  It contains links to photos of each item and a link to the store at Shop & Hop. Woo, it saves so much time. I know which stores are always guaranteed to put out gifts I actually want, and generally, I find something to purchase at those stores. The rest I can ignore.

Usually every year before Advent season starts, I will go in and do a purge from last year's Christmas/advent gifts. I'll try on all the clothing items or look at the photos and dump things that I wouldn't consider wearing again.  So now I have to pick over my 2022 Advent clothing and decor. 

I try to be pickier about what I do grab. I will usually click on the gift box and select edit, and actually look at what it contains if there are no photos on the gift box. That way I'll know if it's a type of gift I have no interest in (I do not need any more chokers, for example.  If anything is named with "sexy" in the name, I know I don't want it. Most of the time I don't want gift tattoos either.).  I also don't go to events where the styles are not my type, as I prefer original mesh over templates. 

With Advent gifts, again, after years of being in SL, I know which stores are going to offer things I can use.  I know which stores have things I will never wear because it's not my style.  Sometimes I will give a new (to me) store a chance, but more often than not, it's not my style. 

Maitreya LaraX threw a monkey wrench into the mix a bit. While I have the Legacy body, I don't use it, but now I'm saving Legacy clothing in case a store gift doesn't come in a LaraX rigging (it seems that Legacy fits LaraX more often than it doesn't). 

Like some of the others above, I will be working on the item preview feature now that Firestorm has it. It will be time consuming. 

 

[Chery Amore]

56 minutes ago, Lysistrata Szapira said:

I used the FabFree Shop & Hop spreadsheet this year.  A link can be found here: https://fabfree.wordpress.com/2023/11/30/woah-the-fabfree-holiday-shop-hop-guide-is-here/ .  It contains links to photos of each item and a link to the store at Shop & Hop. Woo, it saves so much time. I know which stores are always guaranteed to put out gifts I actually want, and generally, I find something to purchase at those stores. The rest I can ignore.

Usually every year before Advent season starts, I will go in and do a purge from last year's Christmas/advent gifts. I'll try on all the clothing items or look at the photos and dump things that I wouldn't consider wearing again.  So now I have to pick over my 2022 Advent clothing and decor. 

I try to be pickier about what I do grab. I will usually click on the gift box and select edit, and actually look at what it contains if there are no photos on the gift box. That way I'll know if it's a type of gift I have no interest in (I do not need any more chokers, for example.  If anything is named with "sexy" in the name, I know I don't want it. Most of the time I don't want gift tattoos either.).  I also don't go to events where the styles are not my type, as I prefer original mesh over templates. 

With Advent gifts, again, after years of being in SL, I know which stores are going to offer things I can use.  I know which stores have things I will never wear because it's not my style.  Sometimes I will give a new (to me) store a chance, but more often than not, it's not my style. 

Maitreya LaraX threw a monkey wrench into the mix a bit. While I have the Legacy body, I don't use it, but now I'm saving Legacy clothing in case a store gift doesn't come in a LaraX rigging (it seems that Legacy fits LaraX more often than it doesn't). 

Like some of the others above, I will be working on the item preview feature now that Firestorm has it. It will be time consuming. 

 

I loved that spreadsheet. I saved so much time and I'm done with Shop and Hop other than actual shopping the sales. I think I got maybe 4 gifts that I plan to keep so not as much clutter as normal. Then of course the store credits!

I also try to be very picky about what I get. For Advent stuff I'm opening immediately and tossing it or sorting it right away into my main folders if I can.. if not it goes into a Dec '23 folder that has subfolders. I stopped going to anywhere for Advent except for places that offer clothing, shoes, makeup, nails and other main wearables.

I'm doing really great this year about my process I think I'm able to let things go a little easier than in the past. I just got a new body and that shopping high is a great fuel for sorting all the gifts and through the clothing I already had. Not so much for furniture, decor, poses, animations ect.. -  but in they go to the Dec '23 folder to worry about later if I happen to get them.  At least it's been labeled. I guess my resolution will be to sort through those folders next year.