Former Big Spenders of Gaia: What are you buying now?

[zaade]

Lost interest in Gaia.
But more-so than that, I got burned by too many bad RIGs.
No fun dumping in big money just to get trash.
New items lose their charm when they come out every day.
Old items lose their charm when you re-release them at infinitum.

Haven't bought anything from gaia in a long time cuz I haven't needed to.
They almost never put out anything i'm interested in.
And even if they do, i'm sittin' on tens of millions of plat.

The fact that the items I actually want always have zero listings ain't a good thing.
Gaia needs to cut the s**t with the RIGs and just straight-up sell items for a fixed price of either plat or GCash.
And just stop re-releasing old exclusives.

[ZorenaDeckard]

Chu-Lip Jam

Used to spend $70 a month on Gaia, but have decreased that amount now since the start of 2020. Now only do the $5 subscription and maybe buy extra GC every other month (and only if there's an extra GC coupon).

Multiple things lead to me wanting to spend a lot less on here; the subscriber amount for silver being nearly cut in half on how much GC you get, you getting a better amount of GC buying it directly than having a higher subscription, and wanting to spend less in general. The only reason I even kept a $5 subscription is because having no ads, C9 access, a slight bump in GC % if I buy some, and an angel item each month I feel is worth the $5. But I no longer think any subscription higher than $5 is worth it.

This is pretty much the same as me. I might buy the odd flair if it appeals enough and buy 10 GC if the coupon item is decent as well

[NikNook]

I stopped spending money on here because I'd rather dress up my FFXIV character and I enjoy supporting artists directly through their shop/commissions.

[XellossMChan]

The only things I REALLY want currently (even though they wouldn't look good on my avatar) are:

-Angelic Halo
-DJ Studio Headphones
-The full set of original Jacked Up items
-The full set of original Spirited items


I realize that any of these items by themselves will take a LOOOOOOOONG time to save up for and eventually purchase. But I'd rather save up for stuff I really want than spend the platinum that I have aimlessly.

[Xavior Hellzwing]

Ummm ... I ran out of things I wanted to buy. I used to spend cash to invest in things that were sure to accrue in value over time, but then everything became gambling and all about short term reselling and market manipulation. Once bitten, twice shy. And it became too much work. I buy video games now.

I did "donate" for the angelic flair, but that's because I like this website and wanted to vote my support. I will otherwise never spend real money here again, not for any kind of gambling. The best they'll get from me is buying the occasional new thing or Kin off the market, which someone ELSE bought with cash. I get my income from Lake Kindred and just assume every item I buy will be at a loss.

[Rysabi]

I figured out that I didn't need to buy the item from the shop right when it came out. I can easily quest and get it. I get my items from quests and shitposting for plat. I used to spend quite a bit on Gaia but I grew up. My money goes to bills, college, and my son now. When I get to treat myself I'd rather spend it on video games or something else.

[Umbrane Purpura]

sometimes I'll hit a rig or buy an item that suits me. I'm almost a perma paw so there's not much for me to buy anymore, though every now and again they'll make an item nice enough to drag me back to the human base for a month or so. Plus its easier to enter runway contests with a human inventory

[Hypnotic Dentist]

Hmmm I used to spend a lot on item generators, specifically the ones with tickets like the Emerald Ticket or the Golden Ticket. I just really enjoy gambling-style types of stuff including scratch cards IRL and well I would rather spend money on Gaia, getting items I can resell, rather than on scratch cards with less of a winning ratio that LV slot machines o:

I stopped buying them because they started putting in tickets that don't really interest me into the RIGs. I dont particularly have any interest in rainbow tickets and stuff.

Currently, I do still spend money on Gaia of course cause I love this place, but its less than before just because of current item trends and variety. I collect the forum flairs! I think theyre super fun. So I always buy those when new ones come out.
I occasionally buy packs of CIs and RIGs as gifts for friends and users (and cuz I love the CI/RIG splash art).

I think if Gaia released like a forum flairs CI or something, then I would definitely spend more to collect them all!

But I never spent money to vend or resell items/GaiaCash. I always bought things to get for myself or to gift to friends on here or users during themed events C:

[perlerose]

Rysabi

I figured out that I didn't need to buy the item from the shop right when it came out. I can easily quest and get it. I get my items from quests and shitposting for plat. I used to spend quite a bit on Gaia but I grew up. My money goes to bills, college, and my son now. When I get to treat myself I'd rather spend it on video games or something else.

Same here - I realised that if I just waited a bit, that item I would've spent 1000GC on would be available in the MP for a reasonable amount of gold. I also noticed that I bought the items I wanted but then... didn't wear them because my inventory is so huge that making a new avatar takes several hours, which I usually don't feel like doing right after an item release. Stuff just accumulated and I forgot what I had.

I'm currently in the process of building my dream house, so that's where most of the funds are going, but if I see something I really love (esp. limited quantity items) I'll cave and spend some GC to get it at release.

[Suwushi]

i was spending like 25 a week or more for awhile. i stopped for a while when no items really looked special to me. with a loss of a lot of my favorite artists. when bandis stopped making the angel items.

the new items have been better for me latley, but im just not interested in spending money on here unless im working towards a ticket.

[Six Mekhane]

I use to spend money on tickets

for the amount of time you wait for a ticket, there is no point in buying them anymore. there is also slot of favoritism in the ticket community and I really can't deal with that anymore.

also they just generally don't make items I like anymore. not as much variety. the few times I want something from the shop I can buy a cash card for gold and get my item.

now I buy videos games and was able to actually save up for an ipad sweatdrop

[Gentlemanly Swindler]

I used to be a massive whale going all the way back to 2004 and donation items, but there are so many rigs and so many items released every day I realised it's really detrimental to spend real money on Gaia.

The items you want will be re-released soon, spammed in dozens of RIGs, and dirt cheap on the MP.

And since almost everything is a RIG, you don't even get any value for the items you don't want in RIGs unless you can find an impatient sucker looking to buy ASAP before the price collapses.

The market is like a game of hot potato. Toss around the hot new item until it's in 50 RIGs and hope you aren't the user holding it when the market tanks. It's not like it was where you could buy a donation item, then wait for it to accrue value over time. Or get a tier item and hold on to it (though they re released a lot of those 'will never be released again' Items anyhow, never trust Gaia) because there aren't tiers and exclusives anymore.

Gaia's current release scheme is only profitable to users who seek to actively manipulate the market and screw over other users, and despite my name, I'm not inclined to do so.

[Blowqueen]

Bills and that pesky adobe photoshop subscription

[VKiera]

Honesty, I got bored on Gaia mostly, the friends I had left and moved on, the part of the community I was most active in faded away (the old zOMG fam) so I had less reason to be on and less reason to spend. I went inactive on the site for over a year in 2015-2016. Back when I used to play all time time I would spend a least 25 bucks a month if not more, though I was never a whale. I did buy one recolor ticket right before the old management departed, but after all that I slowly left Gaia.

And then my father died suddenly in 2016,.

And Gaia was an old familiar friend I could come back to.

I still don't spend much, the style of items isn't quite to my taste most days, but I do have the 5 dollar sub and I occasionally buy more. I like Gaia, I'm fond of it, but that's honestly due to nostalgia more than anything else these days.

[Ami Satomora]

NikNook

I stopped spending money on here because I'd rather dress up my FFXIV character and I enjoy supporting artists directly through their shop/commissions.

GOD IF THIS ISN'T ME FOR LIKE THE PAST YEAR.

I don't claim to ever be a big spender. But once I had a good enough job and disposable income I spent a bit more money towards Gaia. But I would say the past year or two it's really trickled down as well as spending all the time on here tbh. I still get the occasional bout of GC and I still pay the very minimal for angel sub because I don't like ads/captcha. But once I saw that the majority of the items from RIGs/direct are stuff I don't really get into or what I do like is so low costing in the MP I can just buy it myself or it's released in such a way that it's too much effort to acquire it I just go eh. But other than that my money's been going to stuff that makes me happy like XIV and netflix. I still pop on here to keep updated on things but it's vastly different than like 5 years ago.