Monday, February 17, 2014

Monday, February 17, 2014

84 comments:

  1. Wow! First! I'm happy for PTI, a lot of stuff (dies) are sold out. It's been awhile since that's happened. I missed out on a few things but I'll buy them next month. Can't wait to see Betsy's stuff.

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  2. I was talking to a person who owns a small retail chain. They said that companies often limit how much inventory they have on hand for a sale, purposely, so they can plan how much the discount will cost them and cap it to keep it under their control. Hmmmmm!

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  3. well of course they do. for the 75th time, and this is from the person who is bitter at PTI, companies are in the business to make money. At least I hope so!

    All companies have to control inventory or they will fail. The failure to provide sufficient up front capital and to control inventory are two of the biggest reasons small new companies fail. Most do in the first year. Inventory is expensive in so many ways. Companies pay for it upfront. Some use borrowed money to pay for those dies and stamps, making it even more expensive. Inventory has to be opened, logged, stored. Personnel and space cost money. A lot of money.

    If you order too many bunny dies in February and are left with 300, you might sell a few in March. Maybe a couple in April. Then you are stuck with 275 bunny dies. No one is likely to buy them again until next February unless you turn them into something else through a DT group post!

    PTI will pay tax on those bunny dies when it does its end of year inventory. Someone has to be paid to count those dies. And all year long the dies are taking up expensive shelf space.

    So even I, who really doesn't like these folks, cut them slack on this issue. Do they purposely keep inventory low? I doubt. The most successful companies hit it right on the nail. The rest struggle.

    Yes, my DH owns a small company. :)

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  4. If PTI struggles with inventory control, why don't they have sales? Why don't they offer discounts when they highlight older stamp sets?
    SMH

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  5. ^^^^^ Exactly. Instead they tell us 5 international people, all at the same moment, for the first time in 7 years, decide to make a haul to resell. If they would just be honest!

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  6. It totally makes sense that international people would think of buying multiple dies when they are discounted a little. And I don't think Rick said it was for the first time ever. Maybe one or two people have done it in the past, and five or so did it when everything was on sale. If five people buy 30 dies each, that's 150 other people who can't get what they want.

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  7. I doubt that it is one person buying to resell. It is more likely a group of stampers getting together to buy the stamps & dies to offset the cost of international shipping.

    The 7% discount is peanuts. SMH

    In any case,

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  8. oh for all that is holy on this presidents day. give it up already. are you that crushed that you missed out on dies because of either PTI's incompetence in its website (rick will never admit that); or some international geniuses buying in bulk.

    are these dies that important to you that you are speculating over and over and over and over.

    someone here needs meds, time out or a life. HTH

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  9. What an idiot!

    http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&forum_id=15&thread_id=3273646

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  10. She waited two years to ask for a refund? That's over the top ridiculous.

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  11. I didn't realize they had free international shipping. Must have been before I came around.

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  12. I don't think they do have free international shipping - just discounts for certain order amounts. The person referenced in the 2 Peas link lives in Ireland, so there's something not right there in saying there should have been free shipping, unless it was sent to a shipping buddy in the US first. But yeah, 2 years is ridiculous.

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  13. Hmm, her name rings a bell, I think she had issues with a pea not sending her something she'd bought on FSOT so she invoked the power of the peas to get her her stuff. Nothing to add to the conversation, it just reminded me.

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  14. Mama Elephant has a nice friends sentiments set that was just released. But there's one that says "friends till the end". I always thought it was "til" as in "until". How do YOU spell it?

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  15. 'til.

    Till is what you do to soil ;) .

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  16. "Till death do us part" is correct.

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  17. Till looks really odd to me. I say 'til, with the apostrophe to represent the missing "un".

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  18. ^^^Maybe that's why Julie seemed to be a bitch so often....she's getting emails from jackasses like that everyday. I'd be a bitch too if that's the kind of crap my day was filled with. Two years later?? What an ass. I don't blame Julie one bit for saying sorry- can't help you.

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  19. Yes, the two-year-refund chick is out of her mind.

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  20. Waltzingmouse has peeks on on Saturday and release on the 28th.

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  21. Julie should not be a public bitch even if people ask for refunds on products 7 years old. There are ways to nicely refuse, but she never learned how to do that. EVERY company gets strange requests. It is no excuse to be rude and shoot your own company in the foot.

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  22. I hadn't been to Gina K Designs store in a long time - wow... there are a lot of hidden gems there. I think my next stamp allowance is now spoken for.

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  23. The "overcharged shipping" gal said she just wanted some opinions. Nooooo - I think it was a simple case of pot stirring. An attempt to keep the drama and revenge going. After all it is the anniversary.

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  24. I find PTI's 'have a nice day' at the end of the f-off customer reply to be more offensive than the f-off reply itself.

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  25. The PTI anniversary came and went with very little bang. I used to know so many people who got really excited about the anniversary activities and the new anniversary set. Now, I don't even know what was in the release. I think it's telling that a bunch of cheap dies are sold out, but all the stamps are in stock.

    I think I'll take my extra $ and buy some Winnie & Walter, Hero Arts, and new Tim Holtz stuff:) Yay!!!

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  26. I think two years is too long to expect a refund, but the OP has a point about the PTI website. It's been up for what, two years? And it's still a mess. It's hard to navigate, the search function doesn't work well, and check out takes forever during release time. I know a lot of people dislike SC because of similar customer service issues, but they totally nailed their website. It's pretty, the forum and gallery are great, and it's easy to navigate. PTI should take notes!

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  27. 1048. I believe Bon Jovi has a song that implies that exact thing. One of my favs!

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  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. Bon Jovi has it right!

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  30. I am 10:48 a.m. What Bon Jovi song is it?

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  31. February 17, 2014 at 10:32 PM,

    The problem with Gina K is that the gems are hidden.
    Great customer service, but the stamp designs don't appeal to me unfortunately.

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  32. Bon Jovi's song is "Have a nice day"

    "when the world gets in my face, I say HAVE A NICE DAY"

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  33. Donna C - Grow a pair and stand by your statements. Posting and deleting makes you look like an ass. If you are too dumb to post anon, then you should probably stay off this blog.

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  34. Who is Donna C?

    In any case, give her a break. She forgot to change to Anonymous. The rest of us post anonymously.

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  35. Oh, goodness. What is so horrible about posting anon. 99% of people do here. Someone forgets and you skewer them. Why does she have to 'stand by statments" when you don't. What does it have to do with being dumb to now and then forget to change out the post to anon. 6:09, your "pair" need a little adjusting.

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  36. ^^^^^^^^ LOLOL! Right on the money!

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  37. Imagine an anonymous poster telling someone to stand by their posts. Ludicrous!

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  38. Yes, 6:53 - I completely agree.

    I feel badly for Donna because I don't think I've ever posted without having that nanosecond of ... oh my gosh did I remember to change to Anonymous?! And I'd do the exact same thing if I were her no matter how innocuous my comment may have been. And that's because there are people here who will be cruel for the sake of being cruel, and they are never worse than when they can call someone by name.

    I've also discovered that I cannot post here from my phone anymore - I have no idea why. But it's probably better because that's where I'm most likely to mess up switching to Anonymous.

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  39. oops, sorry, meant to say
    stand by her posts.

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  40. 6:50, 6:53 and 7:03, I should have said.

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  41. Donna is a very nice person who used to post on the other smack blog under her own name. She wasn't the only one. And generally, they were punished by the cruel cowards who criticized them for every comment. As 7:29 said, there are some here who will rake you over the coals if they can call you by name. I suppose you could say revealing your identity makes you more vulnerable here and there are nasty people who think it gives them some sort of power over you. Pretty pathetic.

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  42. I just scrolled through the category of "clear stamp sets" in the GKD store and saw quite a few that I really liked. The styles are kind of all over the place but I was pleasantly surprised by some of them. Worth hunting for. At least there's some variety.

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  43. I should add that I liked enough of them that the cost became prohibitive and I need to pare down my list a bit. There are some that are $23.95 and they seem overpriced to me, for example Bold Blooms. I expect a lot of stamps for $23.95.

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  44. Maybe the woman who posted on Two Peas about her shipping charge issue will get on there and tell everyone how SHE is the one who screwed up when placing her order and it did not qualify for free shipping. Maybe she won't. Maybe she'll just let everyone think that Julie is a bitch, instead of admitting she is the one who screwed up. You never can tell if people will admit when they are wrong.

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  45. I'm in need of a navy ink, dye ink preferably, any recommendations?

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  46. There is no free shipping for internationals. There is a $10 discount if you spend over $100 or a $20 discount if you spend over $200. You still get charged the full shipping, but PTI takes $10 or $20 off your total.

    Stop with the over-analysis of every word that 2Peas poster wrote. She is from Ireland and they use different expressions over there.

    Who cares really? It was two years ago. SMH

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  47. I believe, that at one time, for a short time, shipping was free for internationals with orders over $100.

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  48. Not for the last 3 1/2 years in any case.

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  49. I'm international and there has never been free shipping for us. Only the $10 or $20 discount off orders over $100 or $200.

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  50. Navy inks - Color Theory Studio Calico deja blue, Memento navy (not sure the name but it can be a bit splotchy), Hero Arts mid tone navy blue, Jenni Bowlin spiced tin ...

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  51. ^^You forgot PTI Enchanted Evening ;)

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  52. this week Silhouette free shape is a feather

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  53. Thanks for the input on the navy ink.

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  54. Love the Silhouette weekly free file!

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  55. Just looking around over at SCS. This woman whose sig line says she founded TAC and is now with CTMH is asking what tools people should have for starting out in stamping and scrapping. Wouldn't you think she'd have a clue about this? I think I saw another thread where she was fishing around. Either just working the board for exposure or she's not too bright.

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  56. Saw that too and thought it was odd.

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  57. I like A Muse navy ink.

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  58. I like Fresh Ink Navy from Impress.

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  59. what company is TAC? I know what CTMH is.

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  60. The Angel Company - another SU/CTMH/Amuse type of business. They closed ... what? ... two? three years ago?

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  61. Hobby Lobby Loses

    Symposium: Congress answered this question: Corporations are covered
    Posted: 19 Feb 2014 08:27 AM PST
    The following contribution to our contraceptive mandate symposium comes from Douglas Laycock, the Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School. Professor Laycock also submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Christian Legal Society, et al., in support of the non-Government parties.

    The threshold issue in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius is whether any plaintiff’s free exercise of religion is substantially burdened within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

    I

    On that issue, the government’s argument is a shell game. Only the individuals have religious-liberty rights; only the corporations are regulated. And more: Even the individuals have no rights when they act or refuse to act as directors, officers, or managers of the corporation. Not only are the individuals separate persons from the corporation, but the individuals are divided into additional separate persons, depending on the capacity in which they act. This is formalism in the extreme.

    Whatever one thinks about the corporations, the individual plaintiffs are clearly exercising their religion. The government appears to believe that these individuals forfeited their religious-liberty rights with respect to the business when they incorporated the business, and therefore forfeited any right not to pay for emergency contraception and IUDs when the business grew to more than fifty employees.

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  62. Any Simon Says Stamp code for $5 off?

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  63. The owner of the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, under fire because his stores did not carry Hanukkah merchandise and because of a reported employee’s remark that offended many Jews, has apologized and announced that some stores will begin to carry Jewish holiday items.

    In back-to-back statements Oct. 3 and 4, company president Steve Green said Hobby Lobby is sorry for comments “that may have offended anyone, especially our Jewish customers and friends,” and that it will carry Jewish-themed items in New York and New Jersey by early November “to test the market.”

    That’s in time for Hanukkah, which begins this year on Nov. 27.

    The company credited “overwhelming demand in the Northeast” for its decision and added: “We appreciate the feedback we’ve received from our customers, and we hope these products will meet their needs.”

    Some have long taken issue with Hobby Lobby’s wide choice of Christmas items but lack of any Hanukkah merchandise, even in areas with a significant number of Jews. The apology and the merchandising decision are likely to gratify some within the Jewish community and elsewhere who wondered whether Green’s conservative Christianity translated into a disregard for Jewish customers.

    Suspicions heightened this week after a report that a Hobby Lobby employee in the company’s Marlboro, N.J., store responded “we don’t cater to you people,” when asked if the store carried bar mitzvah cards.

    Several publications, including Religion News Service, wrote about the controversy, stirring a heated online debate in which reactions ranged from cries of anti-Semitism to cries that Green is being demonized for his strong Christian faith.

    On Oct. 4, the Anti-Defamation League, a national group that counters anti-Semitism, accepted Hobby Lobby’s apology, and strongly defended the company.

    “ADL firmly believes that the religious views of a business owner cannot be a basis to infringe upon the legal rights of others, but a store choosing not to carry Hanukkah items does not violate anyone’s rights,” read the statement, which was released before the announcement about the merchandising decision.

    “Moreover, we have no reason to believe that Hobby Lobby has refused to stock Hanukkah items because of hostility to Jews or anti-Semitism,” the ADL statement continued.

    In Hobby Lobby’s apology, Green outlined his connections to the Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel.

    “Our family has a deep respect for the Jewish faith and those who hold its traditions dear,” read the statement.

    “We’re proud contributors to Yad Vashem, (Israel’s official Holocaust museum) as well as to other museums and synagogues in Israel and the United States.”


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  64. An Oklahoma school district is debating a proposal that would create a Bible class for Mustang High School students.

    School officials stress that the class would be an elective, but even so, there are clear reasons to be concerned. The proposal is based on curriculum designed by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green, infamous for his ongoing legal battle against the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.

    As reported by KOCO 5 News, the curriculum focuses exclusively on the Bible. Students would take intros to the Old and New Testament and sit through units that purportedly examine the Bible’s influence on society. Green introduced the curriculum to the school board at the invitation of its superintendent, Sean McDaniel.

    Green promised McDaniel and the rest of the board that the class would be taught from a historical, nonsectarian perspective. If that’s really the case, the class could meet constitutional standards, but his past and his connections to fringe figures on the Religious Right should give officials pause.

    A compulsive collector of Biblical artifacts, Green has dedicated much of his personal fortune to the promotion of Bible education. And it’s evident that he prefers a sectarian approach to the subject. In 2012, he decried the Bible’s declining influence in an interview with The Christian Post.

    “In some cases in America, I believe the Bible has become commonplace and it's not necessarily read and known as it has been in the past. I think we probably have the most ignorant population we’ve ever had because we don’t teach it in our schools like we used to,” he said.

    Green also partners with our favorite Christian “historian,” David Barton, to run full-page newspaper ads promoting the exhausted myth that America is a “Christian nation.” This is disturbing on its own, but Green also has strong ties to Bill Gothard, the leader of an extremist Christian fundamentalist sect roiling with allegations of child abuse.

    Gothard’s religious empire includes a homeschool curriculum popular with fundamentalist families, and a nationwide network of training centers and youth programs that exclusively rely on Gothard’s teachings.

    Among his more controversial beliefs: Gothard thinks he can determine a person’s character simply by staring into their eyes, that disease has spiritual causes and that men are the sovereign rulers of the household. His books provide detailed instructions on how women ought to stand, in addition to diagrams of the appropriate length of men’s pants and illustrations of suitable female hairstyles.

    In 2002, Green, acting through his family trust, purchased and then leased a vacant college campus to Gothard’s ministry. A year later, Green, this time acting through Hobby Lobby itself, purchased a shuttered hospital in Little Rock, Ark., and donated it to Gothard for the purposes of building a local training center.

    These weren’t mere business transactions, either. The website of one of Gothard’s many ministries features video of Steve Green describing Hobby Lobby’s “desire to share Christ and Disciple others.” And in a review of Gothard’s book, The Amazing Way, David Green, father of Steve Green and founder of Hobby Lobby, wrote that, “Through the example and teachings of Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles, we have benefited both as a family and in our business. It is as we take those lessons from God s Word that Bill clearly articulates that we live the full life that God intends.”
    Objective courses about the Bible are permissible in public schools, but Sunday School lessons are a different matter entirely. Green’s past statements and Religious Right connections indicate that he’s actually trying to promote a specific perspective on the Bible: his own.

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  65. 4 large russet potatoes or 4 large yukon gold potatoes
    1 large onion, sliced thin
    4 tablespoons butter (or more if required)
    2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
    1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/4 teaspoon black pepper
    Directions:

    1
    Peel and slice potatoes about 1/8 inch thick or thinner.
    2
    Slice onion thinly.
    3
    In a large frying pan on medium-high heat, melt butter, add olive oil.
    4
    Add sliced potatoes and onions, cover and fry for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, turn the potatoes and onions over so they do not break apart. If potatoes appear too dry, add some additional butter.
    5
    Sprinkle with granulated garlic powder, dried dill weed, salt and pepper and continue to fry with cover removed for another 5 minutes or until potatoes begin to turn slightly brown; turning occasionally.
    6
    Serve hot with your meal.
    7
    Note: You may use 2 or 3 large garlic cloves (chopped small), instead of granulated garlic powder. Add to the potatoes after the first 10 minutes of cooking time.

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  66. Thank you for the early potato post. I think. Lol.
    I was wondering if anyone knows where else I can find/buy flourishes blossoms stamps. I checked their website, googled too but I couldn't find any more of the floral/blossoms sets. I was wondering if anyone knew of any online store that might not have been listed? Please? Thanks!

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  67. There are still some florals on the site and it says that they have a serious buyer so you may be able to buy them again. I think the discount is up to 50% now.

    And dear Hobby Lobby/current events poster, we know where to go to find that information, we don't need it spoonfed to us here. I don't come here for that and I doubt many others do.

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  68. Here are a few... http://www.iheartpapers.com/category.php?category_id=398

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  69. Stampin Up! Bermuda Bay ink is a dead ringer for Tropical Teal.

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  70. ^^^^ Thanks for this. I was thinking Taken With Teal.

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  71. Rick is up to his old tricks and purging forum members!

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  72. How do you know? I have not posted there in 2 years.

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  73. Just because you don't care doesn't mean others of us don't.

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  74. So you care about the tease 9:37 posted? Wouldn't you like the details?

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  75. If you can't log into the forum with your own login ID but can log in with someone else's id, then that tells me rick is throwing a tantrum?

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  76. By "someone else's" I mean a friends I'd.

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  77. Whatever happened to monkey ass?

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  78. Thank you for the flourishes replies. I have checked out the shopping link but they don't have the sets I am looking for.

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  79. I hope the sets become available again when the new owners take over.

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  80. 9:37. If you want to stir things up with your story why don't you give details on what led to someone getting banned? It is difficult to discuss your claim without details.

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