General

I should find out in at least 48 hours how my interview went and if they'll offer me a job or not and then I'll go from there whether or not I can participate.

HybridCRoW wrote:

I hope you are able to make it! Good luck with the job

I'm In.

In!

Count Me in Frank been waiting to bless my santa this year.

HEHEHATE wrote:

Since this will be your first, I strongly urge you to read up on the rules (both mine and Johns).

Happy to see that Gold star of yours, congrats!

Frank wrote:

Did @John posts the normal one yet?

HEHEHATE wrote:

Nope not yet

im down for this again

I’d like to be part of this one this time ☺️

Sign me up.

Im in

Keep them coming guys the more the merrier

I'm just going to go ahead and tag the active members who participated during the summer or last winter to see who else would like in. If you can think of someone else who would be interested feel free to let them know

@Boss @Dsbaum454 @frozyre @gameremporium @Gypsy @John @Kommie @nonamesleft @ryanflucas @Steelpen2

I'm in.

Hi, everyone! I am in!

Everyone who followed the sign-up procedure, check your icons.

@Frank appreciate the tag. I've been spending like crazy lately, but still might be able to do this. I'll be running right up against the window to sign-up to see if I can make it work.

Sent you a PM, it was a lot of fun last time I joined.

Everyone should be signed up!

Damn, I can't believe this is the 12th Secret Santa I've hosted. These years have really flown by.

I'm in

@Frank appreciate the tag. I would like to participate but you made this Gold Star level again. Last year it was only Bronze Star.

Steelpen2 wrote:

Ah that's true. Last year for the Holiday I lowered it to Bronze, and then this summer automatically changed it back to Gold out of habbit. I'm sorry about that Geoff.

I'd offer to change the rules, but with only 6 days left of signups, I don't feel that's very fair. Unless others feel like it's okay!

@Frank im cool with lowering to silver

@frank I’m cool with it as well!

Silver is fine.

Good to me. Silver is fine.

@Steelpen2 I'm changing it to Sliver. Make sure to send me your list and address to sign up!

I think we should delay the deadline for more people (including silver members) to join.

So far I haven't gotten any job offers. I had gotten to the final interview for one job but 3 days later the recruiting team gave me a cookie cutter "no" email.

I guess I will not be attending this one this time unless I by chance find out if I can get my old job back before then.

Dsbaum454 wrote:

I don't think a delay is necessary. I know when John hosts the regular exchange, sign-ups are typically much shorter. There's still 5 whole days for any other silver stars to sign up.

Almost forgot about this. I'm in if you'll have me.

KamenRIderVulcan wrote:

Just make sure to sign up

Frank wrote:
Just sent you the PM

Was John not doing the other SS?

sinnie wrote:

I thought he was.

I'm in

So far I'm still awaiting want lists from @Dsbaum454 @gameremporium @Heavyd814life @Kevster @ryanflucas @Shadowrunner @Tad

Please make sure to get those in soon, and not wait until the last second. Next year having your want list with your address will be required to sign up, just to prevent delays.

I'll get mine updated in a couple hours

I’ll have mine to you by the end of the day @Frank

I'm pretty happy with my wanted list now, added some more stuff and I'll probably add a couple more but I'm pretty much good to go.

Bostonitalian88 wrote:


I feel like the group should decide or frank alone since it's his event he's running. Wasn't really here for the stuff regarding Mike as it was before my time, but he's been a wonderful trader with me and issues if at all were resolved quickly. As long as the qualifications are meet I see no reason not to other than just harboring a grudge. My vote is yes, but i ultimately believe it's franks or the groups call here over anonymous up or down votes through members that may or may not be participating.

Sent a list sorry Ive been in and out of the hospital for the last month kidney issues

Bostonitalian88 wrote:

Never had an issue, its the holiday season lets us link hands and sing songs of joy

I feel like the guy that got the used candle and $1 dvds should have extra voting power.

HEHEHATE wrote:

I decided to let the community vote. I voted my opinion in his post.

In a situation like this, I felt it needed to be a community decision. I do it for you guys, so I want you to have a say.

Gypsy wrote:

I believe that was @Mattman2

Think you are right about that, it's been awhile. I realize that suggestion might read a little gruffly but I don't think it's unreasonable. If he is okay with it and BI promises to not do something like that again then sure but there were multiple instances of lets say odd behavior in community threads including the "give a steal get a steal" thread.

I always support Bostonitalian88. We literally have over 80 completed trades. I contacted and told him to use the wanted list. He should contact his partner if he is unsure about something.

Everyone deserves a second chance or even a third I suppose. It’s kind of a douche move tho, to short change your fellow GTZ’er when everyone else is being super considerate and generous towards their partner. With that said I’m ok with allowing Mike to participate.

Want list incoming later tonight.

While I may not be participating this time, I have been part of both HR and regular SS for a number of years and felt I should put my vote in.

I was there when the incident happened. I also vaguely remember there were issues with other events not related to HR SS or regular SS and that there were multiple chances given to do right and each time was blown.

I believe in giving second chances, but the saying goes "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." I'm going to vote no for this.

In the spirit of the holidays and the fact that people deserve a chance at redemption, I’m cool with BostonItalian88 taking part if the community wants him to. We’ve since buried the hatchet as it were and I feel like I doubt that as publicly documented as things were, it’d be stupid to fail to give a decent gift this time. With that being said I can totally see why people still wouldn’t want him to take part.

Long story short, I’m cool with it if y’all are.

EDIT: I mean… what I mean to say is, much like Han Solo,”I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

FYI - I just suspended Bostonitalian88 for creating another account in order to the post he made above.

Sigh… zebra can’t change his stripes. Maybe we dodged a bullet.

yea anyone who bombed on a previous one need not apply.... glad bill caught that.

bill wrote:

This thread is truly the gift that keeps on giving. The fact that people were like "yeah sure why not" in the first place was a fudging riot, this is just the saltbae on top

bill wrote:

Thank you for letting us know Bill...

Yeah that's it, he gets no more chances. I tried to do what was right, and give the community a vote. Looks like he made that decision all by himself.

bill wrote:

I'm shocked

This has to be like the 10th shady thing this dude has done. Glad you don't have to deal with the headache @Frank

He messaged me privately asking for my support. Anyone else get one of those?

Everything that happened is unfortunate, but it is what it is. Hopefully, he's learned by now, when you are offered chances, don't try to manipulate the votes in your favor.

DMing people "asking for support" would have been enough on its own to throw the votes out the window. Don't take advantage of people's kindness!

I thought offering him the vote was the fairest thing to do. I hate that everyone isn't able to participate and follow the rules. This exchange was never meant to be exclusive in any capacity.

With all that said, thank you to everyone who has signed up and sent their lists. I've got all but one list in the spreadsheet, ready to go.

Hopefully, if anyone else signs up, they can provide their address and wants posthaste!

ryanflucas wrote:

Yeah same here, told me 4 times to make sure I plused his message. I probably should have known when he was super desperate for me to hit the plus.

I wonder how many people read that and hit the minus?

I unfiltered him just to neg the post.

Come on guys, you can neg if you like, no hard feelings, hit plus hit plus ffs hit plus. YES people hit plus, I'm in baby. But just in case, better make a dummy account to plus myself

What a fudging nincompoop. Course, after what he did and how many people were like "Ehhh let's see what happens", in a premium SS group, I'm not sure how much better some of y'all are either, to be fair. He woulda lit y'all asses up again, candle with NO wax, TWO Ghost CDs and a tootsie roll with a note that just said "GOTCHA, dog~"

A candle with no wax is just a stick.

Ugh I had no idea he messaged and I was like sure why not. My apologies

I miss Donlad. He would have asked for pulses.

Tad wrote:

If you don't pulse, that's a shoveling.

2 more days to sign up!

Gypsy wrote:

Cult of the flathead shuval!

Sorry, guys. I will have to withdraw from this year’s secret Santa due to money reasons.

I am in!

I'll likely be closing the sign-ups at midnight or tomorrow morning.

I would like to participate!

And with that, I'm going to close sign ups. I'll be getting partners assigned and sent out this afternoon.

Partners have all been sent out. Let the fun begin

gameremporium wrote:

That message was from the 9th...

I thought we were going by GameTZ wanted lists.

Tad wrote:

It's always left up to the person to decide if they want to type up a list, or send a GTZ want list. Lots of people do one, the other, or a combination of both.

I never update my list here anymore. Easier to just type it out for things like this.

Have fun all. Sorry I couldn't make this one.

Already got many good ideas for my partner.

Games acquired. Well purchased. Waiting for one part and I'll ship it all off together.

I got what I assume is all of mine this morning. I got God of War gifted on Steam. I wanted to replay this on the Steam Deck before diving into the new one so this is great. I also got a $10 Amazon gift card which will be promptly spent on a new book. Thank you SS!

Just sent my SS gifts😁 It is in 2 parts.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I will likely be out of town this weekend until December 5th. Please try to limit messaging me as an in-between as I won't be able to respond the way that I normally do.

If you need to let your partner know something or want to send them tracking, the easiest way is through an anonymous subtime transfer.

Frank wrote:


Happy Thanksgiving.

As I am pretty active on the site feel free to use me as a middleman if you want to communicate with your partner anonymously.

Boss wrote:

Sounds good to me, I appreciate that!

I'm considering freezing my account while I'm away.

Happy Thanksgiving all! I spent half of today playing my God of War (amazing to re-live it) and cooking/enjoying my babies. Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Bostonitalian88 and I have our own High Roller Secret Santa. He has his gift from me. It is Shining Force 2 cib for the Genesis. I should get his gift tomorrow. I hope it is good!

Thanks for sharing.

uhhh

Dsbaum454 wrote:

If you wanted to drop out because your buddy wasn't voted in to participate, you should have just been honest instead of lying about finances. I don't care that you resigned, but the fact that you felt the need to lie about it is what is not cool David.

I agree. Since he felt the need to drop out and lie about it because we wouldn't give Boston A 4th or 5th or however many chances it would be this time along with bill notifying us he was trying to sway the votes in his favor w/ a fake account, I vote David should not be a part of the HR or Regular SS from now on.

HybridCRoW wrote:

2nd. Any sort of sketch behavior should lose any benefits this community has to offer, imo.

I joined this Secret Santa on November 10. I agreed to trade with Bostonitalian88 on November 14. I withdrew from this Secret Santa on November 19. I didn't lie about not having the money. I could only afford one.

Dsbaum454 wrote:

What I don’t understand is why you’d even post telling us about your Secret Santa with Boston. Do you think anyone here gives a flying fudge? I’m just so confused. It’s like you’re rubbing it in our face that you withdrew from this Secret Santa so you could do one with your weird, sketchy friend. The whole thing is just super weird.

Heavyd814life wrote:

This ^^^

Alright let’s get back on track… was gone much of the day today, but came home to package 2 of 2 from my Secret Santa. Package 1 of 2 is due to arrive Monday!

Super cool gifts. Check this out:
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This seriously made my day. The cd is intriguing to be honest. Never really indulged in video game music before… this may lead to a new hobby!?! Also super excited to get Jax and Daxter, Brilliant Diamond and Majoras Mask. MM - I’ve always kind of been luke warm to the idea of timed quests (I don’t know what to call it), at best I’ve maybe spent 30 mins on this game multiple times on 64 “back in the day.” It’s one of those games that’s always in the back of my mind.

Thanks Santa this was such a Fun gift to experience!

I have that Rikki cd. I love that song.

Shadowrunner wrote:

It's a beautiful song!

loztdogs wrote:

I hope part 1 blows you mind.

Presents ordered will try to ship next week

KamenRIderVulcan wrote:

Seriously?!? I’m already super satisfied! I appreciate all the effort! I hope your SS is as generous as you have been. I’ll I can say is thank you!

Frank wrote:

Between migraines and yesterday's emergency vet visit, I had to cancel my trip.

I'll be around if anyone needs a middle man.

Is there no regular Secret Santa this year?

Steelpen2 wrote:

Doesn't look like John ever got around to it.

i know he talked about it a few months back, maybe hes to busy right now?

Waiting on delivery of two items. usps has been so slow… I’m hopeful I’ll be able to ship to my partner later this week.

loztdogs wrote:
I shipped thru Amazon for my SS I tried to find stuff locally but the stores were OOS. But it will get to them in 2 packages sadly instead of one.

Well, my last package was supposed to deliver today but sadly just grabbed the mail and it’s not there Looking at tracking it seems to be perpetually stuck in PA.

loztdogs wrote:
Well maybe you'll get it this week for your SS😃

Thank you so much Santa for your card and Star Ocean and Tactics Ogre Reborn for the PS5. Also you have excellent handwriting!

Package sent!

lol I think I know who my Santa is now.

*CALLS press CONFERENCE*

*i AM sANTA*

This is hilarious 😂 of course we all know Santa is really Tim "the tool-man" Taylor!

Got the last part of my gift today. Shout out to my Santa @KamenRIderVulcan ! Thanks for the great gifts; couldn’t be happier!

In case you missed it:

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Very nice! I need to check out Jak and Daxter sometime, never played any of them but I love stuff like Ratchet and Clank

Got a message from my SS saying my gift IA on the way. Can't wait.

My gift has been sent

KamenRIderVulcan wrote:
It's not me but can't wait to see what you got buddy😃

I'm always excited to see what everyone gets. That's part of the fun

I received and snapped pics of all the cool stuff. Didn’t get a chance to upload them yet, coming soon though!

I hope everyone gets there packages safe and sound!

Want to thank my Secret Santa! Got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection for PS5 and a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Thank you SO MUCH. Made my weekend! 😁

Mattman2 wrote:

That's awesome hope you have a Merry Christmas

Actually my receive was another exchange I’m in. Exciting surprises!

Woohoo! Got my gift today! I got FFX and X2 remastered (been wanting to get physicals of some of my favorite rpgs) and I got Renovation Collection for my Evercade! This was my most wanted Evercade game and I'm about to play some El Viento, I used to rent it all the time and haven't played it since I was a kid.

Thanks a ton @Kevster you nailed it!

Tad wrote:

Man the SS this year is just awome! ( in the voice of the miz!)

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Can't wait till my partner gets theirs, I think they'll be pretty happy.

Tad wrote:

Same here

I got my gift today! The Last of Us remake. I'm going to playthrough this over the weekend. Thanks Santa

Shadowrunner wrote:

I love Last of Us!

You're welcome buddy, I'm happy to host!

I love all these games! Thank you so much SS and for the hand written Christmas card! P.S. I knew Tim "the toolman" Taylor was Santa!

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gameremporium wrote:
They were out of Binford Tools, so games will have to do!

The wait for my end is killing me. So excited.

KamenRIderVulcan wrote:

Can't wait to see what you got either bud 😀

I received my package from my Secret Santa. It was very thoughtful and diverse. This is among the best Secret Santa gifts I have ever received. Thank you so much!

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12/18 happy children.

Got my gift in the mail yesterday. It's the CrossCode Steelbook Edition for the Switch. You're awesome, Santa! Thank you so much

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BluesideL wrote:

Did you do an unboxing video?

loztdogs wrote:

I did not. No one requested it from me.

BluesideL wrote:

I was just kidding… cause you know mystery box and all.

loztdogs wrote:

I figured as much. 😅 Were you my Secret Santa?

BluesideL wrote:

Maybe

Glad to see everyone's having fun again.

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Partner you are El Madman Absluto. This is a kit I've had my eye on for a while but I could never find it in stock anywhere.

When you finish putting it together (it looks like it'd take quite some time though), post pics of the completed build.

I had a really rough day today, so this really couldn't have come on a better day.

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Thank you so much, Santa! I am blown away by your kindness. I can't wait to finally play through Twin Snakes.

I'm super tempted to find a repro Super Mario 64 for the repro box. I don't know why repro N64 stuff fascinates me.

Frank wrote:


Nice. If you're wiling to wait a few weeks Aliexpress has the cheapest repro N64 stuff available.

The N64 repro stuff fascinates me as well. I can tell the difference with the boxes but some carts are done very well. The gameplay differences for some games are also interesting.

Nice haul! Thanks for hosting again @Frank

I received mine about a week or 2 ago. I will open it on Christmas, just an FYI!

got all my gifts in, i love everything i got!, heres some pictures, the card was a nice touch

Nice!

Haven't watched Overlord before, but I really enjoyed Bofuri and Re:Zero.

I received two gifts, I'll have a photo in the morning. Got in late and they were a cool surprise!

Thanks Santa!!!

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I'm sooo glad everyone got there SS packages! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas 🎅

My last item came in today's mail: Turtles Cowabunga Collection for Switch. Thanks Santa!!!

I received a while back and have been so swamped with ups its not even funny. Thank you santa for mixing a bit of new and old onto my want list and gifting me Secret of Mana for PS4 Sealed and Persona 5 Royal for ps4 sealed. Now i have a reason to give these persona games a go I've heard such good recommendations on.

Glad that everything arrived safe and sound. Happy this event went smoothly and equally thrilled that the person who recieved my gifts were overzealous with them.

Thanks to all active participants who let frank avoid a lot of headaches and not only sent/received, but did so in a more than timely manner. Thanks to all mail carriers for working in often times unbearable conditions to deliver these items to our doors.Thanks to Bill for giving us a platform to allow an event like this to happen.

Looking forward to the next one and remember. It's 100 times more rewarding to ever give than it is to receive.

Much appreciated everyone

Persona 5 Royal is my all time favorite game. You're in for a real treat.

Sorry for the late post, but I had a lot going on over the holidays. From family visiting and my gmail getting hacked, it was very eventful. Anyway, here is what I received -

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I have been wanting play all of these games. I am a big Far Cry, boxing-game, and racing fan! Thanks Santa!