When You Wish.

[tablesaw]

I generally neglect my wish lists. It's probably because I tend to gift-shop kind of holistically. I vaguely wander around likely stores until I find something interesting. Then I put it back and wander some more. And eventually I find a few things, and I debate between them. But then I put all of those back and go back to that one thing that I saw a while ago that still resonates with me.

So wish lists never do much for me. I don't tend to think, "Person X wants A, B, and C, so I'll get him B."

But last year, I was forcefully reminded that not everyone is like this. Especially one person who is important to me, viz. my father. Last year, he went out to shop and thought he could slavishly follow my Amazon.com wish list. He was wrong. In fact, he was so thrown that he gave me a gift that he'd already given me. After Christmas, he grabbed my correct wish list, and got me some nifty stuff.

So, with that in mind, and after a friend mentioned that her wish list was already together, I set down to revise mine.

Amazon has done some nice upgrades. Most helpful is the ability to edit one's wish list in "compact mode" which has one hundred entries to a page and easy drop-down menus to change most attributes. This made it pretty easy to delete the thirty or so items that I now have. There's also a new feature for "priority." I had issues with it at first, but after a while, and after some personal redefinition, I managed to get that in check.

My wish list is at http://amazon.com/gp/registry/23IUI0GKIQK6T, and here's a guide to what the priorities mean to me. In general, anything rated 1-3 would make a good gift, no matter who you are. More specifically:

1. Ones are real must-haves. If I had been shopping earlier today and seen these items, I would have bought them. If I don't receive them for Christmas/birthday, I'll be purchasing them on my own very soon.
   
2. Twos are things that I want, but am not ready to buy. These are the kinds of things that I see when shopping and make me think, "Ooh, I really want that." But I usually find something else that's more important, or desired. If I don't receive them as gifts, they are probably the things I'll buy with gift certificates. Chances are that I'll own them one way or another by next holiday season.
   
3. Threes are the the bulk of my list. These are things that I would kind of like, but aren't really main priorities when I go shopping. There are a lot of works by the same author, singer, series, etc. There are things I will buy for myself eventually. There are things I will probably never buy for myself. But all of them are things that, were I shopping for a gift for myself, I'd think would be good gifts.
   
4. Fours are an odd bunch. Items that are rated fours might be ones that I put on my wish list last year, but have thought better of. It's not that I don't want it any more, but I certainly want it less than I did then. Fours are also items that I saw while blipping around Yahoo that looked kind of interesting, but I don't really no anything about. Basically, if I were gift-shopping for me, I wouldn't get them. But I do kind of want them, and if you think it'd make a good gift or if you think I'd like it more than I think I will, you should go with your gut. These are items I do not expect to buy for myself.
   
5. Fives are an even odder bunch. I didn't quite understand why Amazon would have a rating listed as "Don't Buy This For Me." So I'm using it for two reasons. First, I have the Nintendo DS and Gameboy SP on my wish list. I also listed some games to go with them. Obviously, if I don't get the game-playing device, the games won't be very useful, so they're rated five. The other fives are my collection of Dover Thrift Editions. See, I like giving cheap gifts to people I only barely know at Christmastime, but often, people's Amazon wish lists are filled with things that are out of my price range, and I wish that they something for under $5. So, I did the same for myself. But since a list of dozens of cheap books don't help people like my dad, I'm hiding them at the end of the list.

My Amazon wish list has over three hundred items (though about seventy-five are Dover Thrift Editions). Why so many? Well, I certainly don't demand or expect to receive all of them. But I know there are a lot of people who use these lists, and having a large one means there's more of a chance for surprise. When I see a DVD-shaped present from my father, I can be pretty sure that it will be something on my wish list. So I don't want to think that it's one of five DVDs I asked for. I like knowing that it could be any one of dozens. He knows it's a safe gift because I've indicated I wanted it, and it lets him be more creative in his choice.

I've also got a list of board games at Board Game Geek. There's a Wish List and a list of Wanted Games. What's the difference? Well, you can kind of imagine the Wish List as games with an Amazon Wish List rating of 1-3, while the Wanted Games contains Amazon Wish List ratings of 1-4. The "4"s are games I only kind of want, games I used to own as a kid and would like for sentimental reasons, and games that are out of production and are probably more trouble than they're worth for gift shoppers.

A friend has just said to me: "You know, I don't believe I have met anyone who liked Christmas this much." It's something I hear a lot. I do like Christmas a good deal, though normally I wait until after Thanksgiving to talk about it. In fact, you won't hear about it again until I go retail door-busting on Friday.

MonNYTX: 3:35. 2D is completely wrong.
52.3°F

Comments

Christmas!!!!!

[valancy17.livejournal.com]

I love Christmastime! I'm convinced it's a separate and distinct season from Winter and Autumn. I love the "Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men" attitude that seems to take people over at this time of year. I bought my first present (for my dad) in July. :)

Your post has reminded me that I sent out the URL for my wish lists for my birthday, being very careful to remove anything the parents would consider shocking beforehand and then I added that stuff back on afterwards. Time for me to prune the wish lists again. I think I only sent them the Amazon and ThinkGeek ones, which has lots of fun stuff I don't actually expect to get.

My tree's going up this upcoming weekend. We're going with a fake tree this year, but I adore that some of the ornaments from my childhood are so infused with the scent of live pine trees over the years that they still retain the scent. *sigh*

Rating 5

[katre50.livejournal.com]

I have two uses for my wish list. One is "Stuff I wish People Would Buy Me". The other is "Stuff I am looking at and haven't decided on yet but don't want to lose." If I remember to mark the latter as rating 5, all is good. If I don't, then, well, my mother buys me a copy of the USB Spec for christmas. You make the call.

[duchez.livejournal.com]

I feel odd using wish lists because I don't like asking for things from people. I really use my wishlist for "These are things I want, and will get for myself someday when I can justify the purchase."

but i think Amazon did a great thing with this concept.