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Chris-Ottawa

If I won a gift certificate for a discount on a rig and didn't need it, I would:

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So, I see these gift certificates people win at boogies for sale all the time. Every time I see one, I get this same thought. We all know skydivers are cheap bastards, but if you won something you didn't want/need, why would you try to turn a profit on it when you have the ability to help someone out in the sport. We all know those people that would be forever greatful to have 50% off a custom container, or canopy or whatever. Yes, they're still saving money, but in reality you could help them so much more by allowing them that extra cash in jump money making them better jumpers. I realize that it is the people's right to sell it, but in a sport as small as this, if it was free to you...why not pay it forward?

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to, it just shocks me when I see it, especially when people say "Rig X is $10,000 new, so this certificate is worth $5000, and I'm only asking $4,675. What a steal"

Does anyone else feel the same? How awesome would it have been to be an up and coming jumper and have someone hand you a 50% off certificate? I'm certain it happens, but probably not that often.


*Disclaimer: I don't consider myself a skydiver in need incase anyone is thinking I'm jealous. I have 2 sets of gear, one being custom ordered, and I just recieved a brand new custom Squirrel Aura (which I'm eager to jump). If I won a certificate, it is without question that I'd give it to an up and coming jumper who was prepared to buy gear, but didn't have the full amount. I'm posting because I'm purely curious how many people would do the same.
"When once you have tasted flight..."

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I'd probably just use a discount coupon for a container brand I didn't want to build an "average joe" sized rig, in black, sized for 190ish canopies and then sell it at a modest profit... Stuff like that flies off the shelf in the classifieds.
NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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The actual 'value' of those certificates varies from deal to deal, but most of them are good for about $200 or $300 off the final price.

When they say '50%' off, that's generally off the list price. There's not a dealer on earth who charges list price, most of them give you 30% or 35% off, or something like that. So when you really sit down and do the math, design your rig and price it out with all the options, using the certificate only saves you a couple hundred bucks vs just buying one through a dealer.

I'm not one to balk at saving a couple hundred bucks, but the 'value' of those certificates are just not what they appear to be. I always get a kick out of the guys trying to sell them in the classifieds here, and they ask something just shy of the 'face value'.

Unless you're in the market for a new rig, or in a position to order one anyway, I can't see any reason not to just pass it on to someone who is. The certificates are often given away as door prizes, so the winner has nothing in it besides being lucky. Easy come, easy go.

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That's actually an interesting idea, but taking a bit more risk. For whatever reason, I have less issue with that, then selling the certificate, but it's basically the same thing. I dunno, it's a weird situation, but I still believe it's awesome to pay it forward.
"When once you have tasted flight..."

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Since I don't have one yet, I'd buy a rig, lol

If I didn't need it, I'd probably sell it for a small amount, nothing like a 'face value' amount
A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

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People can "pay it forward" any number of ways if they feel the need... (free coach jumps, packing help, video debriefs, jump with the "dangerous" newbs, etc) money doesn't have to be involved to give back to the sport. It's a personal choice. Not everyone can afford to "give away" hundreds of dollars or has a closet full of gear.

I always find it laughable at the ease with which some people want to give away other people's money.
NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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The gift certificates are just a way that manufacturers get free publicity by giving them to various organizations who raffle them off. Nobody in his or her right mind pays full price for any substantial piece of skydiving gear. Do not buy a certificate, period. It's all but a scam. I won a certificate in a raffle for new gear -- 30 percent off. And when I went to use it, I called a bunch of dealers who all were very close in quotes, and they didn't even hear the words "I have a gift certificate." Nobody even asked for the "number" on it. The net price after haggling a bit would have been the same with or without it.
SCR-442, SCS-202, CCR-870, SOS-1353

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I bought my current rig with one of those 50% off vouchers. I bought the voucher here on the classifieds.

I ran the numbers against what other deals were available and the purchase price of the voucher was about half the savings obtained from using the voucher.

I won. The seller won. I didn't begrudge him one minute for that - he'd gone to a boogie and won a prize. Would suck if that was a worthless prize to them - "great I won a bit of paper. Would have preferred one of the pullups". Sure, he could have given it away but this way two people share the 'worth' of the prize.

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Quote

I'd probably just use a discount coupon for a container brand I didn't want to build an "average joe" sized rig, in black, sized for 190ish canopies and then sell it at a modest profit... Stuff like that flies off the shelf in the classifieds



Again, you're making the mistake in thinking that your final purchase price will be that much less than the price that 'joe jumper' off the street could get from a dealer without a certificate.

In order for you to make any profit, your asking price would have to be so close to the 'market price' that any buyer would just order their own new rig for $100 or $200 more, in the exact colors and sizes they want.

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Who said we're giving away hundreds of dollars, no one pays for these certificates directly? You didn't pay anything to win the prize (except maybe a boogie fee which you certainly didn't pay only to have a chance at winning), but you're profiting off of it? It was intended as a gift to someone, but the winner then turns around and profits from someone else's generosity. That's my point.

All the power to anyone who chooses to sell these, but I guees it just shows the various character traits in the world. Not that any one way is bad, it's just un-heard of for me to sell a gift that I was given for free.
"When once you have tasted flight..."

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Remster

Most of these certificates are "non-transferable".



Yep, and some manufacturers are more specific than others. UPT (for one) asks the event organizers to tell them who won each certificate. I won one of their certs in 2012, thought about it for a while, did the math, and realized that 1) the discount wasn't that significant in the long run, and 2) it definitely wasn't enough for me to justify shelling out for a new container. I had friends who were buying UPT containers at the time, but the cert was non-transferable so I couldn't give it away to anyone. So I let it expire and then put it in my recycle bin (hey, I live in the Bay Area!).

A few years ago I won a free Cypres 4- or 8-year service. Didn't indicate that it was non-transferable. Neither I nor my SO owns a Cypres, so I asked around to my friends to find someone who had a service coming up and sold it to one for about half of what a service would cost (and with the stipulation that if he had ANY trouble using it, we'd reverse the deal). Could I have given it away? Sure, and it would have gotten me some good karma, but I didn't in that case. But I feel like I've done lots of good karma stuff to help newer jumpers, and will continue to, so I'm not losing any sleep over that one.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Now you're putting words in my mouth. I'm not up in a bunch, you're saying I am. I asked question to see how many other people would do similar to me. I even contexted it to say that people can do whatever they want.

I'm guessing you're probably the guy selling one in the classifieds and this is killing your business. Sorry bud, no harm intended.

If you read nothing but this, here it is: winning something for FREE and turning it for a profit...I personally consider lame/cheap.
"When once you have tasted flight..."

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I think it's a dick move to sell something you didn't pay for and have no intention of using.

A buddy of mine won a 30% off mirage coupon, he wasn't going to use it, and I bought a windblade off him so he gave me the coupon along with it.

I'm not using the coupon, so I posted it on the FB gear page and gave it away. I saw 2 other people selling similar coupons around the same time.

Dick move to sell something you didn't pay for and won't use. Never good to play close to the karma line in skydiving. Maybe giving that 30% coupon away means I get to walk away from a poor decision sometime in my jumping career. I like to stack my karma on the good side.

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To no one in particular but you can't say these guys don't always have something invested. I see people buy 100 dollars worth of tickets and they win all kinds of stuff. Some they have no use for and can't sell and some they can sell. They see an opportunity to make their money back but they sometimes lose their as off and just get goggles and pull up cords for that money.

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I've won 2 things from raffles where I usually put in 100 bucks.

1st thing I won was a reserve handle and 2nd thing I won was a 15 or 25% off a tony suit coupon

Had a buddy cutaway and she lost her handle. I gave her mine. I gave the coupon to another person who planned on ordering a suit. I thought about selling the coupon but it wasn't worth what I put in to get it.

When I was buying new gear I saw a couple people post % discounts off rigs, but since it was off retail price it didn't make much sense to buy that to save only a minimal amount. The only way the are really good if you win them or receive them for free.

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I agree with most on here that say they are not as good of a deal as they seem sometimes. I was part of a group that won a certificate for 50% off...but upon further inspection, it really wasn't much of a deal.

50% off retail (as noted, almost no dealers sell at full MSRP)
50% off only the base price; options were excluded. On this particular piece of gear, the options work out to about half the cost of the total sale price.
We would have all had to put our orders in at the same time.

It worked out, that it would have saved us maybe 150-200 bucks max, on a $3000 dollar piece of kit, compared to what our cost would have been going through a good dealer. For the retailer, it would have been great for them if 4-5 of us would have made the purchase. I think they would have made more per person with the "50%" off than they would have if they sold it through a vendor.

If you really wanted that piece of equipment, the few bucks you save might be worth it. But I think a lot of us were thinking, fuck, for 50% off a 3000-3500 piece of gear, we'd jump on it even if we didn't need it and sell our other gear. The deal wasn't nearly so good once we read the fine print.

YMMV, but the ones I have seen are not as good as they sound. So be cautious if you pay someone for one of these.

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Chris-Ottawa


*Disclaimer: I don't consider myself a skydiver in need incase anyone is thinking I'm jealous. I have 2 sets of gear, one being custom ordered, and I just recieved a brand new custom Squirrel Aura (which I'm eager to jump). If I won a certificate, it is without question that I'd give it to an up and coming jumper who was prepared to buy gear, but didn't have the full amount.



It's funny that you thought you were giving the impression of a jealous needy jumper, because before I got down to that part of your post, I was thinking "relatively well-off jumper who can afford new gear, criticising those who might need the money pretty badly". Your disclaimer telling us about all of your great gear showed that was true. I can also afford new gear. I just bought all of my first rig brand new, but a lot of people are not in that position, and a few hundred dollars is a windfall for them.

I have no problem with selling something like this. Another commenter wrote that it's a "dick move" to sell something you didn't pay for and won't use, but I'd bet he'd do it depending on what it was. So if y'all had won the PD 500-ticket raffle from last year, you'd have just sold it for the $35 you used to buy the ticket? Or would you attempt to get nearly-full value for the brand new rig/altis/jumpsuit that you didn't need? Don't try to tell me that because you paid $35 for that many thousands of dollars worth of gear, that it then becomes something you paid for and can sell for many times what you paid. I won't buy that reasoning.

"So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

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I don't have any problem with people selling them even if they won or didn't pay for them. I think the problem is people usually try to sell them for much more than they are really worth...and end up screwing over (unintentionally) someone who was looking for a break on gear.

I saw one the other day where someone wanted like 800 bucks for a 50% off certificate. That certificate was probably really going to save someone maybe 250 bucks.

If the price is realistic to what the actual value is, that's fine. But as I noted above in cases like mine the real value can be as low as 5 or 10% on a 50% off certificate.

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