Ding Anxiety

Gym Kirk has a great idea… but the irony is that the dinged up beater that you carry around will become your favourite yoyo. :wink: Assuming you enjoy its play characteristics in general, that is.

Well, dings mostly happen when we’re careless. I’ve had a close few shaves when I was lazy about my throw and had my hand too low - Shutter went into the carpet. Another time I misjudged, and sent it crashing into my tiled bathroom floor (no, I wasn’t on the toilet; yes, I was brushing my teeth and yoyoing).

To me, it’s a lesson in being conscious of how the yoyo is moving etc. Control the yoyo well and just be aware of your surroundings; like Greg says, it feels so good to throw anytime, anywhere.

True enough, it’ll hurt to damage a more expensive throw especially if you’re not earning your keep or if you’re at university etc. Gym Kirk’s answer to that is great! Just use one yoyo as an EDC tank. :slight_smile:

I let my Shutter and ONEstar take turns but am inclined to bring out my ONEstar more often, just in case someone asks to try!

Dings are just love marks! Although sometimes I worry the tree alike of a particular Yoyo would go down due to damage, but if your not gonna plan on selling or trading it, I wouldn’t worry. Plus yoyos are used more when dinged up

You’re always picking on me, Greg! You give off a supporting, pleasant demeanor, but we all know what you’re hiding underneath. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m actually one of those people that throws indoors to avoid dings. At $80-$150 for a yoyo, I want to keep it as close to its original condition for as long as I can. Plus it makes it easier to offer as a trade on the BST board if it’s undamaged. But when it comes to my 3 favorite yoyos to throw (Genesis, Burnside & Skywalker), I purchased multiples - one to play indoors all the time and one to play anywhere. And if anything serious happens like it rolling down the cement steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I have Mullicabob on speed dial. ;D

MikeEff’s got the best of both worlds. :wink:

I need to get me a Skywalker…

This is what happened to me:

I used to be extremely afraid of dinging my throws, only using plastics outside. I got a brand new 888x for my 13th birthday a few years back, and it was “my precious”. I of course, near the end of the day of buying it, dinged it, right on the concrete.

I was devastated.

I even almost bought a YYF Counter attack since the metal was inside the plastic. But I ended up canceling that order before it could ship.

To this day I still have that blue 888x, and it has marks from all over the place. One mark was from hitting my cast, another from a friend I teach piano to using it, and another from this cool class I used to take with some friends years back.

I still use that 888x. ;D Dings show love! Don’t be afraid to get them!

Mullicabob made me this one. Sparkly… ;D

^^ Oo, nice!

Whelp, my yoyo came apart while I was playing. Heard the tell-tale sound of the halves coming loose and caught both before they really flew apart, but the axle scratched up the ano as I was doing so.

My Shutter is officially ding’d… and I feel great! I think I’ve officially graduated from the babying phase of yoyo ownership. Take care of your yoyo, but don’t go crazy over it. ;D

Really feelin’ this!

I don’t mind dings on flat surface, I got upset if it causes sharp marks, even after sanding them down they’re still “concaved” thus still sharp in some instance.

My biggest ‘fear’ is singing somebody elses’ Yoyo. I am careful with any Yoyo I throw. But I refuse to be afraid to have fun with Any Yoyo over any type of surface.

If I borrow a Yoyo that I have never tried; I’ve never gotten over the concern of possibly smacking the Yoyo into ‘whatever’.

‘Oops, sorry about’.

Just don’t look forward to having to tell anybody that I had an accident with ‘their’ Yoyo.

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Well, you can always join the world of doubles like me. That’s the best of both worlds, in my eyes. One to play, and one to admire in it’s original state as long as I want. Of course, that applies to the ones I like best.

I always say in these threads, it’s your money and your yo-yo, so you do with it whatever you want. Play wherever you want to play (or not), whatever makes you happy. Don’t cave in to anyone else’s standards.

I never consider anyone’s opinion about what I do with my stuff, an opinion that really matters. If people want to beat their stuff to heck, that’s their prerogative. It’s just not my style, even with the few that get the little marks on them, I don’t try to run them into the ground.

I like to keep my things looking nice, always have, and always will. It has nothing to do with me selling a yo-yo later, because that rarely happens anyway. But, when someone like MikeEff goes to unload his things, people who like nice looking things like myself, might provide him an easy sale. I like to buy things from people who have a reputation for being “careful.”

So, it’s your stuff, and you have a right to treat it how you want. I’m more like you, generally careful with my things too. I also agree with Yoyodoc, to the extent that I am extremely careful when someone entrusts me with their property, and I treat it with a higher standard than my own property.

I’ve never really cared about dings personally since I don’t sell or trade my yoyos.

If you’re an active B/S/T-er then I can understand you being very cautious, as even a single ding is a loss of money to you. Nobody wants to make a big loss on every yoyo they sell so I can see why people treat them like they’re made of glass.

Since I don’t ever plan on selling any of mine however, I really don’t mind how bruised and beaten they get. As long as it doesn’t induce a stupid amount of wobble then I’ll take a ding or two in my stride.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer not to ding any of them… but it’s not the end of the world if I do. I just think of them as “well loved”… ;D

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the fear of dings betrays the fear of transiency (or death if you want to extend it). it’s the most natural thing in the world to be afraid of. we tend to be repulsed by the feeling/sight/experience of a yo-yo that has tasted the concrete because we associate a little of ourselves with the toy (the money we spent or could get, the time taken to acquire it, how pretty and new it used to be and how much we liked the color). to mar it feels like marring a part of ourselves.

but natural or not, i think that mindset is the most important thing in our little obsession to move beyond. i totally understand calling yourself a collector or investor, in which case you’re kind of keeping yo-yo’s pretty for posterity or an eventual buyer. but if you’re a player i think it’s valuable to play with abandon. i think it’s valuable to detach from the stuff (and from your self) and throw to suit the moment. sometimes that will be in your room over carpet and sometimes it will be out in the hard, sharp world. sometimes you will make the sketchy trick and sometimes you will miss it. it’s not about breaking stuff on purpose. it’s about being willing to accept the fact that a life lived joyfully will have scars to show for it.

the dings will happen. the heavy ones will sand out and your yo-yo will tell part of your story - the part that says ‘the experience was worth more to me than the object’.

be brave, and throw hard.

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Yes

You got that right. :smiley:

If a signature could be this long, I would make this my signature.

The only time I really mind dings is when I’m planning on trading or selling a Yoyo or when the dings actually hurt on grinds or te dings are so sharp it’s unbearable

Thought I’d throw this in there: when it comes to BST, I dread the “pristine condition” resellers for the most part. There is DEFINITELY a target consumer who is not me-- a consumer who wants an item in new condition but they can’t find it in the stores anymore (model/colourway).

But as for me, as soon as I see “Mint!” I think, “drat… there goes an opportunity for me to play a yoyo I’m interested in, in order to satisfy my curiosity without paying new prices.” I love buying new… and when I do, I’m glad to support the companies and stores that are supplying me the new product. But when I buy used, I want a used item that comes at a heavily reduced price so that I can satisfy my “PLAY ALL THE YOYOS!” curiosity.

All that to say (and I don’t think I’m alone), the label “mint condition” isn’t usually a selling point because it usually means a high (and sometimes so high that it’s unjustified) price tag.

Along the same lines, if I buy some near-beater for $50, I can usually turn around and sell it for $50. I don’t… I have a weird personal code that always makes me price things lower than when I bought them, no matter how insane the original deal was… but I could. Could even price it to cover the cost of shipping, for a total break-even scenario with my curiosity satisfied!

The same can rarely be said for babying a brand-new yoyo (ie. keeping it in new condition) and then eventually re-selling. You’re almost always going to take a loss. And that’s also fine-- the benefit is that you spent some time with a brand-new yoyo (if you’re a big fan of that look/feel, this is enough of a benefit in and of itself!), essentially paid “rent” on it, and got to move it along. But you’ve taken a loss for that privelege.

All that to say the ‘more than gently used’ market is actually a safer investment than the new and mint condition market.

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I have two shutters that I’ve designated as throws for outside that I beat up when i was first learning (they still work perfectly although I’ve had to sand the one down quite a bit). I had anxiety at first when I didn’t have better alternatives but now I just enjoy myself wherever with those and keep my other babies inside. :slight_smile: