When recommending BPAL to newbies...

[urbantravels]

A thought I had. I'm a bit of a newbie myself. It took me a while on these forums to realize that people talk about limited editions from years ago in the same breath with GC oils.

 

When you're talking to a newbie and making recommendations, I really think it would be courteous to say which recommendations are GC and which are old LEs which would have to be purchased or swapped on the secondary market and which may be difficult to find or inflated in price. Searching out and collecting past LEs is its own thing and has its own kind of fun, but I don't think it's the starting place for most people, and it could be very frustrating for a newbie to try and find all these recommendations without realizing that they're far less accessible than GCs.

 

We could also explain that GC means "general catalog" (available all the time barring supply problems and the occasional discontinuation) and LE means "limited edition" (available directly from BPAL for a limited time, and after that on a treasure-hunt basis if you can find someone who is reselling or swapping it.) This may be on a FAQ somewhere but it took me a while to sort it out.

[ladymeag]

I try to only recommend GC to new folks seeking recommendations and might mention past LE if they mention something in specific that sounds perfect but I mention it's past-LE and might require hunting down. I figure finding a few good GC scents is the gateway to seeking out LE updates.

[Monday]

On the subject of abbreviations: click!

Unfortunately some notes and combination of notes are only found in limited editions. Most limited editions aren't that difficult to find and I always say if something is hard to find.

[Numanoid]

I am with you Urban....when I recommend, I try to let it be known what is a GC and an LE scent!! It can be confusing to a newbie. I remember when I first joined the forum, I was here for months before I found out about the Trading Post and being able to find goodies there.....so I get where you are coming from!!

[Andalei]

I often do recommend both GC and LE, but I always try and distinguish which are GC and which are LE. Personally, I find BPAL's LEs to be much better than the majority of the GC, and they're usually easy to find on the sales forum. I try to stay away from recommending stuff like Banshee Beat and Gothabilly though, because that's not nice.

[holborne]

Frankly, I don't think I've ever seen anyone making a recommendation for a LE without mentioning that it's a LE. Maybe it's happened once or twice that I've seen, but it certainly seems to be the convention to make a note that it might require hunting down. Certainly I don't think it happens so often that it's an occasion for a lecture about courtesy.