Hasbro is uniquely shitty, and has/had multiple important individuals that are former pinkertons.

Corporate doesn't just want a lot of money, they want all of the money.

Also, how easy it has to be to convince an average American that this is a good thing. That they want you to be at the center, because they care about you, or some other horseshit.

Crosshairs on people? Fine. crosshairs are on CEOs? panic.

I was just thinking about this last weekend when I heard a Run The Jewels beat on a TurboTax ad during an NFL game.

I work at a used book store. Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto is a great seller, one of the best selling titles we ever get in, in fact. As a result, we keep raising the resale price on the thing each time a new one comes in, and it keeps selling. I've never had to mark down a Communist Manifesto for sitting on the shelf for too long. It's a textbook example of supply and demand in action... and I think that Karl would kind of hate that.

Thanks! What site do you use to clean the tracker off of links?

It feels like MTG has a crossover/cash grab every other month. It's just too much.

Yeah, MTG is a flaming dumpster heap of new mechanics every other month; I got sick of it and stopped playing Arena. Then, they had their whole OGL fiasco prompt a whole lot of content makers (who, let's be real, did a lot of work for Hasbro basically for no cost to the company) to move off of 5E.

They tried everything but making a better product.

In full forensic accounting, you make/save money by getting off the "convenience" train.

Once you realize that a checkerboard costs $5 but a piece of paper and 24 pennies costs... well nothing... it starts to make more sense. Because most stuff in life, you use once then throw away or stuff into the closet and never think about again.

Breadmaking is just one great example. If I save $300 by making some bread I have to earn $300 less at work. I work less now.

Dough is a great discussion topic to explore.

Once I learned to make dough, I realized it's actually a total of 30 minutes work distributed over 4 hours. Reorganize and re-prioritizing my time made it work. Simple planning.

If I make dough, I make 2Kg so I cut it up, freeze the chunks I wont be immediately using and I have dough for as long as I need. Why make new dough every time? Batches.

It's way simpler than you guys think. Scoffing is fun, but getting off the "convenience train" was the best thing I ever did. Requires a bit of upfront adjustment and learning, but change isn't free.

edit: Another guy above was mean/joking about not having a job. Think, guys. If I save $300 on bread that's $300 I don't have to earn at work and pay taxes on. I win big for just learning to stop the bs already and take control.

What about products subsidized by advertisement to reduce the price?

Any words you use on TripAdvisor are the property of TripAdvisor.

-Lemmy, apparently. -TripAdvisor ToS

Interesting, apparently been spammy for years

On the backside of the box, there is microscopic branding for TripAdvisor on one of the cards. There is also a closeup photo of the cars that shows the TripAdvisor logo a couple of times across the board design. These could easily be missed by someone who wasn’t looking for them. The branding should have been more clear and the producer likely did mean to deceive. Always check the reviews before buying and take note of the manufacturer’s specific ID number or code for the product.

I’ve almost entirely stopped purchasing online unless I am familiar with the specific product or I have watched a thorough review of it. If you had the box in your hands, you’d be more likely to spot the branding on the back, and the side faces might have branding too.

There are fringe instances where the outward distinctions between manufactured products are so trivial that you’d really have to be in the know to differentiate between them. The only occurrence that I can think of which I’ve experienced is buying CDs that have the swear words censored vs. uncensored.

I agree that the other commenter’s analogy doesn’t make sense with the packaging/marketing context.

Damn, that's a bad look. I just assumed it was the tripadvisor edition because one existed. It sounds like this is a stealth "Amazon edition" that's different than other retail copies. I wonder what the agreements were that lead to this edition?

Yes, that's the one, unfortunately it kept being flagged as misspelled. In retrospect, portmanteaus are probably not considered real words by spellcheckers.

Sounds like a money maker. Now just as AI to it and you're set with your 2025 business model

-you won't believe this shit