Using the BST seems so incredibly common. I’ve heard from a ton of people selling or trading yoyos. So my question is, who’s out there like me who can’t sell or trade yoyos? Every yoyo I have has some kind of sentimental value to me, whether it’s my Metalhead that I waited an hour for the drop just to make sure I got it, or my Warhawks that I got every color to complete the collection, I can’t imagine getting rid of any of my yoyos. But so many people trade and sell yoyos like it’s nothing, am I crazy? Is selling or trading on the BST less common than it seems? Or are there just a lot of people who buy yoyos on a whim and decide they don’t like them? Me personally, I don’t buy very many yoyos so the few I buy are usually keepers, but I’m curious how the other folks on this forum do it.
For a different perspective I go through about 2 or 3 yoyos a week. I’ve got a case total of 12 that I limit myself too and over half of it does go to sentimental throws. My problem is that so many yoyos don’t really stand out to me. I have a select few that are absolutely phenomenal and the rest are average or worse. Add in that I also want them to look fantastic as well and it makes it even harder to find something that meets the standards I want. This leads to me grabbing a couple yoyos every week and getting rid of them almost as fast because they just didn’t fit what I wanted.
Don’t get me wrong. Most of them are still excellent yoyos and fit other peoples tastes and are their favorites but I generally set my expectations from the first throw and know whether I like it or not.
Once you get that one yoyo that’s better than all the rest you go looking for the others that exceed that one.
Yes.
One word: practice.
In the first year of my getting back into yo-yos after a very long hiatus, I couldn’t believe how much had happened in the industry – so many makers, shapes, and sizes!! There was a lot to try and so I grabbed a little of everything:
- plastic, monometal, bimetal
- stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, brass
- mini to “regular” to oversized
- narrow to wide
- splashes, graphics, solid colors
- major brands to boutiques
- dirt cheap to stupid expensive
I intentionally overbought to figure out what I liked and what I disliked; I think I had north of 50 at one point … in a year. That was enough for me to feel confident about knowing my preferences. By that point, selling the ones I disliked became super easy and it recouped necessary funds to buy more of the stuff that I knew I’d like.
All that being said, I’ve definitely sold 1 or 2 that I absolutely regret selling.
Ahhhhh ok. Sounds like there’s 2 things making the difference:
- I’ve been lucky to get really excellent yoyos right from the beginning, so I don’t have a lot of inferior throws to get rid of, and
- I can’t afford to try “the next new thing” every week.
The vast majority of my yoyos are Circle City Yoyos, which are sentimental since I made the strings for them and Bradd gave one from each run to everyone on the team, and beyond that most of my yoyos are either from giveaways or extremely good throws that I was extremely excited to buy. So I guess that’s the difference, I have to be very discerning before I buy a throw so I don’t end up with a bunch I don’t like.
I think I currently have… 18 yoyos? 5 of which are a complete collection of Warhawks because I wanted one of each colorway, and 3 are prototypes, and several others I got free so I honestly don’t have many I could trade.
It’s interesting to see how different people approach this hobby.
I have a couple of good friends on the forums who frequently sell their yo-yos.
I’m a collector. I don’t sell or trade off the yoyos I pick up…
But it’s different for me then it is for my friends. I collect only green throws, and I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment collecting. I don’t mind if one of the yos I add to my collection isn’t super high performing. I just care that it’s green lol. If I don’t like the way it plays…well at least it looks good on display with all the others!
But my friends are more into playing then into collecting. There’s not much of a point in them keeping a yo around if they don’t like it for whatever reason. Instead of letting it sit around collecting dust like I do, they’d much rather use it to try and find a different yo they’ll like playing with.
I do buy fairly often, but i do not really sell or trade any of my throws, because i too am super sentimental. I guess technically i am getting into the selling portion since I just ordered a production run, but other than this I haven’t really sold any yo-yos ever. I got a lot of yo-yos since I’ve been throwing over a decade, probably around 70. It’s definitely a lot but a lot of them have sentimental value to me. I always think about selling/trading a select few but 90% of my throws I think I will always keep.
I mainly prowl the BSTs for the B lol. I have sold exactly one yoyo because I just didn’t like it. Other than a couple I have given away, I just struggle to move others, even if I only like rather than love them. It’s part of my personality in general, though. I am a hoarder at heart.
i pretty much was in the same boat as @TheHelveticaScenario … and, my tastes had changed, and narrowed, then backpedaled and settled. like @sparhawk i’m looking here and there at a couple new things coming out (not as aggressively)… there are also a handful of vintage things i’m looking to pickup, which occasionally will show up on a bst or through word of mouth. the bst can be a great spot to ‘try’ throws you are uncertain about too.
Are you me
I’ve only sold one yoyo, and only because the person who bought it really really really wanted it and didn’t have anything to trade. I’ve traded a handful, but in every case to get something I want more and cannot hope to buy. I dislike dealing with packaging, the post office and worrying that the recipient will be unhappy with what they got. I’ve given away a lot of yoyos, basically to anyone who encounters me yoyoing and expresses any real interest. I make sure I always have good ‘give away’ yoyos on hand.
I throw at least an hour a day, but I also really enjoy collecting. My biggest problem is my collecting isn’t terribly focused, I like to collect notable, iconic or important yoyos, anything unique or innovative, cutting edge performers for their time, basically anything that makes a yoyo stand out. I’ve been working on collecting notoriously bad yoyos, which has been fun. I try to support boutique yoyo makers and the companies which give back to the yoyo community. Or anything else that catches my interest, maybe the art or the colorway. And any and all things yoyojam.
I avoid whatever seems super trendy, currently that would be anything antiyo and early clyw. And rose gold. I hate rose gold.
My preferences seem to vary every time I pick up a yoyo, sometimes I only love organics, sometimes I want ultimate performance, sometimes undersized or oversized, etc. I really cannot state any preference for a certain range of specifications or play qualities. When I’ve tried to limit myself to some specs that I think I prefer, I rapidly get bored. A big part of the fun for me is mastering tricks on a large variety of yoyos. I’ll love a yoyo as much for its quirks as I will for its performance.
“Green=love” Lol name checks out.
I feel that, for sure. Especially as I’m a relative newbie, only been in the scene for about a year and a half, so I don’t have like a refined style or anything yet. That’s part of why I feel so lucky to have gotten in with Circle City, Bradd has made a variety of throws ranging from an organic with matador spikes, to a comp beast V bi-metal with a D bearing, just crazy unique throws every time. If I’m ever asked “what’s your favorite yoyo?” my response is usually “The Warhawk, but also depends on what I want to do.” The Rain City Metalhead is a grind and fingerspin machine, while the Circle City Muse is the most fun, organic throw I’ve ever felt, and the Lowkey Woodland is a really fun responsive, but I also have a Warbird set up responsive… They’re all different and I love them all too much!
100% agree with this. The ones I regret selling are the ones from back when I originally quit. but when I got back into it I overbought and played a lot and then sold and traded my way through a ton of variety like above. I now know more about yoyo physics in general from playing so many. same with string etc. and now I have a collection I’m happy with and when new stuff comes out I’ll be excited and have the funds to grab it.
I think it’s just a difference between a collector and a person with a collection. It’s herd mentality to never want to give up something. You go to the store and you are getting a teddy bear and you touch the first one you like but keep searching then end up going back to the first one bc you have a “connection” with it. It’s part of human nature. It’s as real or not real as you enact it to be. Nothing wrong with it either way at least not in the yoyo sense
Exactly this! If I find myself picking other yoyos over a certain yoyo to play for so long. then I realize its time for that one to go. Some play different some are fast and some are floaty etc so I’ll keep different ones for different moods but I really just like collecting pretty ones that play the way I want them to. Everything else is experimentation to find the next one that gives that first throw thrill
I think that’s part of it for me, yoyo is the latest in a long string of hobbies and I’ve overbought in other stuff before, so by the time I discovered yoyo I couldn’t afford to overbuy then sell the rejects. I have several hobbies, so I have to prioritize yoyos, video games, begleri, books, speedcubes… So a throw that looks interesting but might not be for me usually ranks lower than a throw I know I’ll love, or the Borderlands collection on Switch, or a new Kindle book, or…
Edit: on a related note, if anyone wants to buy some speedcubes I have a few spare… 
If I had every yo-yo I ever bought, I’d have an epic collection from the 90’s to the present. From original early 90’s Tom Khun yo-yos to the original Duncan Freehand 1’s, to every first run of all the General YO’s, etc, etc… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t regret selling a number of the yo-yo’s I’ve owned. For some, and for myself at times, buying and selling/trading can also be a way to try out different styles of yo-yos that otherwise might not be an affordable option.
My last collection of yo-yo’s, which I just sold, I owned for a number of years. The oldest being the 3YO3 bassline which I purchased at yoyoexpert when the first run was still in stock. The newest was the A-RT x G2 Life and the re-release of the Gen Yo 5 Star. My main reason for selling these was because I unfortunately needed the extra money. I would have kept them otherwise, or possibly traded them to try out something different. In any case, I’m sure I will own more yo-yo’s in the not too distant future.
I’m a bit of a minimalist, and I often feel that less can be more. Having one or two yo-yo’s that I really enjoy can feel more fulfilling than having a full case to chose from. I go back and forth with that notion however, and I do enjoy and can appreciate owning a variety of yo-yos that play differently from one another. I also like to practice ‘non-attachment’ based on the Buddhist concept that attachment is the root of all suffering (a nice perspective and good way of not regretting losing or letting go of material possessions).
I get this. My music gear comes first so I understand
I often think that I’m not a collector, and I’m more interested in playing. I think there’s no way I can play all these yoyos, especially when I tend to stick with a few for while at a time.
Then I’m either just too lazy to go through the process of putting them up, or don’t know how to value them.
What often happens though, is I’ll pick one up I’m thinking I could let go, and then of course I end up really enjoying it. Then I decide I just can’t get rid of it!
I have so many Spinworthys that I have thought i might sell a couple, but they are all so different and unique and good. I think whatever other yoyos I sell, I’ll never sell any of those.
Bst is great, especially to get hard to find yoyos. It does take some communication and research on the character of the person you’re dealing with. Having said that, I usually just buy what I want new.
I usually am quite happy with any yoyo and tend to give yoyos away to friends and kids rather than trying to trade or sell.
To add to this, it’s difficult to gauge how much you like a throw until you try it for yourself. The specs and shape may be similar to what you like but the yoyo can play completely different from what you were expecting. The different ways weight is distributed in each yoyo can massively change how it plays and feels.
Furthermore, trying a yoyo before you buy is usually difficult, especially since brick and mortar yoyo stores are few and far between and for most of us international folks it’s usually impossible, we just take a gamble on the specs and hope we like it once we play with it. Yoyo clubs and reviews help but the newest yoyos that you are interested in may sell out extremely quickly don’t give you the luxury of time to research. In addition, there are some yoyos that simply have no coverage at all in terms of reviews and people owning them because they were just obscure. So that’s why so many people just buy on a whim then decide if they like it afterwards.