Is your wishlist ready for Christmas?
joanna
Posts: 2,174
Disclaimer 1 (the obvious one): No one except for Daz knows what the holidays sale will look like or whether there's even going to be one. This thread's purpose is neither giving any definite answer nor is speculating on what Daz will do. It was created purely for fun, to build anticipation for the hopefully upcoming sale, and for people to share their strategies and approach when it comes to sales.
Disclaimer 2 (should be the obvious one too): If for some reason you have a very specific way you've built your wishlist and are unwilling to make any changes to it, you don't have to inform anyone how this thread is unhelpful, you aren't interested in older Daz Originals, you only have 3 new releases on your wishlist, or anything along those lines. Just scroll on to the next topic ;)
Now, onto the meat!
In the past few years I've been shopping at Daz, there was always an Advent Calendar as a part of the sale. A separate thing from a daily freebie generous PAs created, and from what I've seen the users gather over those years, it was mostly based on the users' individual wishlists.
But there were few caveats (if anyone else remembers anything else or something's incorrect, please let me know):
- the items in the calendar were Daz Originals only
- they were under a certain price point (based on their regular price)
- they were not the newest items, so the release date might have come into play as well
- the amount of eligible items on the wishlist had to be more than a few (I think at least double the amount of the calendar days, so I would aim for potentially eligible 60-100 items), so that the system could pick from them; otherwise, there would be random items in the calendar too, including very, very old ones.
So, what can you do to hopefully make your advent calendar exciting and not a disappointment?
- add older Daz Originals to your wishlist that you wouldn't mind being offered, trying to stay on the lower side of the price (I'd say it's unlikely that a pro bundle will be offered in a calendar) and picking older items rather than recent releases; it's okay to have those new items in your wishlist—they just probably won't do you any good when it comes to the calendar.
- if you usually add an item and textures addons to your wishlist, temporarily remove textures for those items you don't own yet (and maybe keep that list in a file somewhere, so you can readd them later) and any kind of addons you don't own the base product for yet. From what I've seen, the algorithm will not be taking into account that you don't own the main item yet, and having the main item in the wishlist doesn't guarantee it'll be offered in the calendar later.
This obviously doesn't guarantee anything, because it's up to Daz discretion how they will be running things, but if things stay mostly the same, it might help you avoid the "I got offered textures for V4 outfit I don't even own!" situation.
A tip for those who like to have a clean and/or lean wishlists: if you're using Daz Deals plugin, you can use custom hashtags in the comments section in each product that will allow sorting your list. So for any DOs you add, you could add tag #calendar or #decemberonly or anything in that vein, so when the sale is over, you can sort your wishlist by that hashtag and easily remove all those items that you added solely for the sale.
Another tip: last year, if I recall correctly, the requirement to get two items in the calendar was to buy something over $1 the previous day (it also counted toward the ticket discounts), and if it stays that way for this year too, the new Outlet Store and Quick Grab can be a good place to keep your streak going, but if you're in any "sales tax/VAT added" location, keep in mind that the tax amount does not count toward the thresholds, so buying a $0.99 OS item won't count, even if you're personally paying more for it (basically, the same rule as Daz coupons and tokens), so that's something to keep in mind.
Anything else? What did I miss? What did I get wrong?
And, most importantly, are you excited/hopeful for the December sales? (And aside the wishlist, is your wallet ready? I know mine is not...)
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Comments
I would not, at least for products you really want: I had at least two outfits for which I got both the base clothing and the texture pack as free choice in my advent calendar. In one case, I had the outfit before the textures pack but in the other case, it was the opposite.
Regarding where an item ended (free or for cheap), off the top of my head, I think the threshold was around $30, items under that price could end as free items, items over, I don't think they could, and I don't remember having an item over $40 in my advent calendar.
I believe (if I'm remembering last year's sale correctly) that Daz+ items were NOT included in the advent calendar selections, so make sure you have enough non+ DOs in your wishlist.
Great thread idea, joanna!
Fair point. I guess I wrote it as a reminder for those people who don't like to have textures before the original products, but anyone who doesn't mind, can definitely leave those textures in.
Yeah, I thought it was around these amounts, but I couldn't be certain, so I left it out, hoping someone like you will come and share the details :)
@joanna - thank you for the reminder, I must go and add a few options to my wishlist in case they run that offer again this year.
Last year the rule that was stated was: "Customers who have purchased recently will receive free advent options" - but didn't specify how recent. I missed one day several times and still got offered an Advent Calendar freebie the next day.
Each day (for qualfying customers) there were two options - a free product and one offered for $2.99. You could pick one or the other.
The highest base price I was offered as a free gift last year was $24.95 (on several occasions)
I can't remember what the highest or lowest for the alternative $2.99 offer was, because I never bought any of those.
ETA: Last year there was also a Punch Card thing going too, and you DID need to buy something every day to build up your punches, which gave you a %age off your cart the following day.
Thanks for the reminder! I picked up a gift card at the recent GC sale but I have only a handful of new releases in my wishlist. It seems prudent to perhaps do a little wishlist review...
Adding to previous commentators, IIRC, last year you needed a critical mass of DOs that were not + items, under a reasonable base price amount. I got freebies dating at least to G8 and probably G8.1. They may be up to older G9 items by now.
I still personally opt for wishlisting everything I might possibly have an interest in, because it widens the selection during wishlist sales (which can also lead to some surprise stacking). The advent calendar was fun last year and hopefully it comes back. I tend to collect freebies just in case, so I don't mind taking texture packs or other old stuff as freebies if the paid option isn't it.
Great thread idea @joanna. I also enjoy the Advent Calendar as well as the PA gifts.* November is when I start adding to my WL for this.
My tips:
A) While bundles are way out of the historical price range for the Advent Calendar, component items often aren't. So if you have (older) DO bundles in WL, also WL the individual items in the likely price range. Now that Daz discounts bundles when you already own pieces, this will save you more when you buy the bundle later. I can confirm from experience that it's the same significant discount regardless of what price you paid for the already-owned item/s. Yes, even if they were freebies or from QG/Outlet; the store only knows it's in your Product Library.
B) Keep your QG/Outlet items in your WL even if they leave the selections before you buy them through December. I suspect they might show up in people's calendar offerings.
C) The algorithm doesn't seem to take into account how long an item was in the WL. Two or 3 times last December I added an item and it showed up as my Advent option a few days later - one the very next day! So if you come across things you like while browsing, WL them, even into December.
*Maybe that's when the elusive Cute Critter gift will return. A girl can dream
Thanks everyone for the responses and additional tips!
Sorry I missed your response the first time around. It's a good point about the Daz+ and one I completely missed!
Thanks for the numbers. I think the highest I got was $29.99, but I might be remembering it wrong. Also, I did opt for some $2.99 items as I wanted them more than the freebies :D
Yup. And if you didn't buy for one day, you lost all the punches and started building up from 0.
Yes, I think it had to be around 60-100 of qualifying DOs, but I don't think anyone knew the exact numbers. I just remember reports from people who added about that many saying it improved their calendar options.
I'm the same (my WL is about 3600 items after I trimmed it down some and after the last two months of sales). With Daz Deals' tag system, it's easy to sort the wishlist, so I keep anything I'm even remotely interested in, and in the previous years I got some items that I always passed on during sales but wouldn't mind having.
And I wouldn't mind if some G9 items made it into the pool. :D
Great point about the bundles! Since the "pay only for the items you don't own" is new, this strategy wasn't there in the previous year, but now can be a good way to complete or at least partially complete the bundles.
Also good point!
Yup. Last time, people added items to the WL a few days into December and got them in the calendar. I mostly made this thread so that, IF there is a calendar this year, they don't miss out on those few days. I was sad seeing people getting ancient items of no interest to them on offer when I always opened my calendar to find two interesting items.
Fingers crossed. Who would think that from all the stackers nobody cared about the one that everyone seems to want disappeared all too soon. (I have the critters, but I would love for everyone to be able to get them.
I think last year a GC purchase of $1 would trigger the "bought something" qualification, yes?
And also, I seem to remember that the day the calendar went into effect, it was already calculating from the previous couple days. So people who want to plan/participate might want to make some sort of presumably qualifying purchase on Sunday of next weekend.
I definitely need to go through my WL and both make sure I have enough stuff and make sure I won't have a Charlie Brown "...I got a rock..." moment if that's what I'm offered.
For fluffing out a sparse WL, of course everyone's definition of usefulness varies, but I like to go for shaders. Even if I only use them one time three years from now, it'd still be more useful than a skimpwear texture.
Is the opposite response okay? I may or may not wind up with this changing my options, but even if not, it's an interesting and potentally useful look into things and if not now that knowelge will probably be useful later. Thank you!
In the years prior to the last year, yes. Last year, I think, Daz did away with that rule. I remember someone in the sales discussion thread purchasing the $1 GC to test, and it didn't count. I think I purchased one too, for the same reason. So I would assume it probably won't count this year either and look at $1.99 QG/OS items as the cheapest options instead.
Ah, yes! Forgot to mention about it. Not sure if it was the calendar, but definitely for the punch tickets!
I know what you mean by the year going by quickly. There was March, then May and June, the September. I'm not sure if I even noticed October, and November's almost gone.
Thankfully for me, I don't have any real Christmas preparations. It's just my husband and I, and we don't care for decorations, pick gift for each other together, and we make fun experiments in the kitchen food for Christmas meals. When we feel like it. His family is half the States away, and my family is half the world away, so no family obligations either. Even his company's Christmas Party probably won't be a thing, because we'd have to drive 5h one day to get there.
You're welcome! The disclaimer was mostly to keep the discussion fun and limit any "I don't do things this way, so tailor the advice to work for me!" comments that sometimes seep into this otherwise wonderful forum.
Shaders, in my book, are an excellent choice. And there's never enough of them. Just a few days ago, I was going through 4 or 5 different leather sets I own to find one shader that would work perfectly for what I had already, making the piece of a kitbashed outfit look like it was a part of it. Same for stone or wood shaders. There's no "already have wood/stone shaders" for me.
Thanks for this explanation of how the DAZ advent calendar works, and how to prepare for it. I'm going to give it a try this year.
You're welcome!
Just keep in mind that there are no guarantees as Daz might always change things around. I'm sure that like last year, everyone will be discussing it and figuring it out in the sales thread as December rolls it, but it doesn't hurt to prepare according to what's potentially the best practices.
This. I blinked and it's winter again.
This is actually super helpful. I had only four things on my WL, but I'll throw a few more on there, maybe some texture sets for outfits I already own, and maybe I'll get them.
Ha, the better question is: "Is my wallet ready for christmas?"
Yup, covered this one too xD
Just making sure: are all of them Daz Originals? Because as said above, only DO were available in the previous years' calendars (and only under $30 base price according to user reports, some also above), so the size of your overall list doesn't matter. For example, I have nearly 3.6 products on my wishlist, only 619 are DO's, and out of them, probably only half will qualify.
But if yes to the above then, yeah, you're probably set up well :)
joanna, we have been having late summer weather and I have to look at my flatmate's work schedule (he is working Black Friday) to remember there is Thanksgiving this coming Thursday. Christmas I bought his gift months ago. And I can't even eat all the foods I love.
But wishlisting DAZ, well I am back up to five pages, yes some are DOs, but not all. This reminder is a great idea and I thank you. Last year I think I had 1 item show up that I had wishlisted. None of the other items were things I would look at. Total bust.
I did get a Gift Card the other day when there was a 20% off for a one-time purchase with no qualifiers.
Does anyone remember how old the DOs needed to be last year?
I'm not sure what the date cutoff was, but I did get some solid G8 stuff. (Harder to tell offhand with props and environments, I'd have to look things up.)
Looking at my last year order, the most recent free item's SKU is sligthly over 83000, the most recent paid item's SKU is slightly under 87000.
I think I saw a couple of early Genesis 9 products, but I didn't get any of them so I could be misrembering.
My thoughts exactly.
In fact, my wishlist is right now at the other side of the spectrum.
It's empty.
I think, I have every available item here I needed. I'm done.
I'm ALWAYS ready for Christmas!!! :)
Wish List gets checked regularly and, OMG!!! These PAs and Daz 3D themselves are always treating my wanting eyes with amazing new assets that come directly out of my imagination, it seems!
Kudos, Joanna!
As always, thanks for the heads up! :)
A thought... maybe as you peruse the free selection today, toss anything you're considering on your WL if it isn't there already. They might be a decent guess for advent calendar fodder, as Daz has shown they're willing to offer them in a free gift selection. (Just a theory, of course, but...)
I noticed that the free items are restricted to G8.1 and below unless they are props/environments. Some of those I don't remember seeing, which is weird. Not sure if I just blanked them out.