OK, bear with me. Most of you get me by now. Not exactly one to mince words, but not exactly one to go cheap on them either. This is kinda getting into a weird area, even for me.
Been doing some buying via BST, building up my collection. Still got a list I want to “check them off”, so this will be going on for quite some time. Also been buying new as well.
Let’s just look at new yoyos. Out of the box or package, I don’t get any issues. Clean slate. Made in the factory, probably barely if even handled by human hands except to put them into a box to send them to their new home: mine. Hopefully a loving home, which mine is, to yoyos for sure.
Now let’s look at BST purchased yoyos, because today something very very odd happened. Let me leave the seller’s name out because the product was in far better shape than he described. So first let me go to other BST acquired purchases:
Most have been metals, some have been plastics. But they all seem to come from people who really enjoyed these items. They seem to want to be played. Even the ones with a few nicks and scratches just seem to have this feeling that they were enjoyed and played with. The scratches and dings weren’t from abuse, just from a yoyo getting to be a yoyo. Then, as some of you may have read elsewhere, I had a custom FHZ done up by XminusmikeX, which was painted, silicone recessed on both sides and given shmoove rings. This plays fantastic, and it was apparent that the person doing the work LOVES what he does and knew it was going to a good home. It almost seemed like the yoyo was excited about it as it wanted to spring from the package and let it’s new handler give it a first throw.
Yes, I know, I’m giving humanistic qualities to inanimate objects. But get this, people notice when I do sound, it seems like i am one with the gear and my gear loves to perform. Some engineers who have used my rig have asked if I’ve had mods done to any of my gear, because it behaves far better than the same items in their rig. I say no, it’s just off the shelf items, nothing unusual. I guess gear knows when it’s loved.
So, this Beysick arrives today. Now,this is a small bearing yoyo, not my typical C bearing. But, I have a Sharp and I like that. So, while my Sharp is out getting silicone recesses, why not get a Beysick. I’ve heard good things about it from any people, and I got it for a fair price on BST. The previous owner mentioned some damage and claimed to not really like this yoyo and the yoyo had seen some abuse, like hitting a fan and stuff like that. Now, I also got an Avalanche in the mail today from another seller, and that one just practically said “put me together and throw me!”, where-as the Beysick seemed a bit, well, nervous. Both items were well packed, but the Beysick seemed to want to slide into the box and hide, while the Avalanche just seemed to want to get assembled again and ready to go.
So, I put the Beysick together. Drop the bearing in, it’s a loose seat, no big deal, I’ve seen that sort of thing before. I throw it, it is a bad first throw. But, I do that sometimes. I’m new, I screw up. I wind it back up, throw again, still bad. It’s like it was not wanting to be abused as I took out the Avalanche and gave that a fast toss(already was throwing it earlier) and all was good. So, back on my finger went the Beysick. It started to cooperate a bit, but it didn’t want to bind back. It’s like it didn’t trust me yet or something. Front style tricks, it did fine of what I know(not much, again, I’m new), but didn’t really want to come back to me. Time to do side style tricks. Trapeze… no good, but sometimes I kinda gotta get back into it, so try again, try again, try again, land it. Reverse it and it caught too soon and starting coming back at me as if it was attacking me. This had some agro in it. My big trick is double or nothing at the moment, which after the trapeze mount, it’s flipped and bound back to me is how I exit the tricks from the trapeze mount. Probably something you all do and better than me. I don’t know if it was a small bearing thing or what, but once I reverse the trapeze, it just seems like it’s trying to attack me. But it also took forever to land the double or nothing, which is unusual for me now because it’s really coming along nicely on almost everything else I own.
I just got frustrated. Perhaps I finally found a yoyo I didn’t like. But how am I going to sell a yoyo that may be emotionally disturbed? I mean, it needs stability in more than one way.
So, I put the yoyo down on my desk in front of my computer keyboard and had a conversation with it. I told it where it was, I introduced it to some of the other metals I had in the room that I like and surrounded it with them. I guess sort of a “yoyo intervention”. I placed the computer keyboard in my lap and hit the YYE IRC channel and the YYE forums and stayed there for a couple of hours while my kids napped. Ah, thank goodness for small kids, they nap a LOT!
SO, I left this Beysick surrounded by a MMN, TFL Delorean, the custom FHZ, a glownasty, a BVM(shark vs shark)a gnarwal, a Peak, Coli Prototype, and of course my DM2. A combination of new and old. I left it there for a couple of hours while I was on YYE. There were plenty of other yoyos very nearby, some in their packaging, but all have been thrown and aren’t going away. Plus, my YYE medium bag was in the room with my Code 1, Speeder 2 and 54 still in it(the DM2 was the 4th one in the bag). I also have my “yoyo case” downstairs full of other yoyos, but they were probably too far away to have been influential.
I don’t know if it was me or something I did, but after I came back to try this yoyo, it seemed to play differently. It actually seemed to want to be thrown now. Landed a double or nothing on the first try, which for me is really good. Bind returns come back a bit snappy, but the response still looks fresh. These weren’t so angry like before, but more like just a new response. It seemed like I exorcized the yoyo or something.
Or, maybe I’m just over-tired and I should get some sleep and its my brain malfunctioning due to lack of sleep. Or maybe I am crazy. But get this:
The gnarwal I have has two different color halves. I bought it because it was a good price and I figured I could just have it stripped and polished Similarly, the BVM, shark vs shark, except the halves match each other. Again, could get it blasted and polished. After playing them, it seemed like I would be possibly disrespecting the yoyo by doing this. Both these came with an aura of being well loved and played, and I was concerned that some of that spiritual energy might be stripped away by having the ano stripped. The yoyos were “born” that way, they should be allowed to be that way. I’ve abandoned the idea of having anything done to change them. My kids say they are ugly, but then again, I got pugs, so beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What can I say, they grew on me.
Yeah, I should get some sleep. I’m talking like some tree-hugging hippy who gets all deep and philosophical when taking mind altering substances. Do keep in mind I don’t use drugs, don’t drink and don’t smoke, so I’m stone cold TIRED. But has it occurred to anyone that perhaps a yoyo is more than just a yoyo?
