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At some point in your life some relative or friend has given you a birthday or Christmas gift that was very transparently bought for themselves and not you, just so you could say you didn't want it and they could take it back as their own and leave you with nothing. It sucks rear end. My mother has a history of giving me gifts she very obviously wants for herself (fur coats, cameo necklaces, expensive brooches, a whole loving piano etc.) But recently my best friend had his 45th birthday, and his fiance, who is a huge Dave Grohl fan, gave him Dave Grohl's autobiography as a birthday present, and it got me thinking about just how often this happens to people. So tell me your 'Homer Bowling Ball' experiences.
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Nov 29, 2021 01:15
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:23 |
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Navaash posted:Our dad did this to us for Christmas in 2000. We had a 75 MHz Compaq Pentium computer in the house from 1995. For Christmas in 1997 there was a gigantic box under the tree and we all wondered what it was. This just reminded me of one birthday in my late teens when my eldest brother gave me his old PS2 secondhand as a gift. Then a month later he took it back because he needed a DVD player for his new apartment.
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Nov 29, 2021 01:35
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Big Beef City posted:This has literally never happened to me or anyone I know, op. I surround myself with terrible people to make myself feel better about how terrible I am. Highly recommended.
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Nov 29, 2021 12:44
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DamnCanadian posted:This was years ago, but when my oldest kid was little, my brother-in-law got him a bunch of Hot Wheels cars. He was big into “collectibles”, and was telling my son they’d be worth a lot of money one day. How dare this child have the audacity to play with toys
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Nov 29, 2021 23:31
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:When I was younger my mom liked to gift me bras several sizes too big and insist I try them on, presumably hoping that it would force me to grow boobs right there and then out of politeness 
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Nov 30, 2021 15:10
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YeahTubaMike posted:edit: oh this is about people getting gifts they really want for themselves, not lovely gifts in general. Carry on then. It’s segwayed into being about people getting lovely gifts in general as well but I love reading about all these lovely gift-giving/receiving experiences whether they be on topic or not.
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Nov 30, 2021 15:53
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 That was loving perfect.
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Nov 30, 2021 16:45
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Beachcomber posted:My father gave my mother a toilet seat for Christmas. We needed a new one. This is truly next-level Homer Bowling Ball ‘I got you something we needed for the house as a Christmas present because you’re the homemaker’ gift-giving, and the fact that it happens so loving often (“I can’t wait to see her face when she opens that ironing board cover!”) it honestly loving baffles me that people don’t think of what the person would want instead of what their inanimate house needs. Worse still, it also seems to happen to women much more often than men.
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Dec 1, 2021 03:29
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I’d honestly rather someone ask me instead of assuming I’ll like something and getting it horrifically wrong, or as someone else mentioned, finding out I kinda like something and assuming I love everything about it and basing every gift on that one tiny thing.
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Dec 1, 2021 10:46
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In my early 20's my life went into a downward spiral of suicide attempts, homelessness, depression and general self-abuse while I struggled to stay afloat financially. For most of the year I managed to suffer in silence without telling my parents, then things got too bad to hide. They, my mother in particular, were absolutely horrible to me about how humiliating it was for them to have a child who is not only broke and homeless, but also has a 'mental thing' that makes them look like bad parents because they raised 'a broken child'. The last Christmas I spent with my immediate family, I made every effort to make and build nice gifts for each of them (parents, my two brothers and my sister) since I didn't have a cent to spare in the world. In return they all gave me €20 each, under the strict instruction that I pay off whatever bills I owed on at the time. I wasn't allowed to spend it on anything frivolous or they'd take it back from me because I 'clearly couldn't be trusted with money'. They all got nice tangible expensive gifts from each other that they loved and spent a comical amount of time gushing over in front of me; they openly hated all the handmade gifts I gave them, and I got a bit of money that was gone within 2 days paying off a scratch of my debts (which weren't even close to being fully paid off even with the money they gave me; I'm the only person in my family that's not obscenely rich btw and that's only gotten more true since I stopped talking to them). They gave me money to make themselves feel better and I felt that instantly, especially when they all gave each other nice expensive jewellery and giant TVs and brand new game consoles in front of me. Later on Christmas Day, I dropped by my best friends' place. After telling them how upset I was at my family for doing something that was very transparently done to make themselves feel better, they gave me a gift they'd picked out for me: a Betty Boop mug with my name on it, and a Betty Boop keyring. I still love and cherish the keyring and the cup outside of the fact that they were the only lasting gifts I got on my last Christmas with my bioligical family, and now I spend every Christmas with my best friends instead.
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Dec 2, 2021 11:38
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mind the walrus posted:This is on the razor's edge from being genuinely funny and heartbreakingly sad. My family sucks. The sheer amount of people ITT whose families suck is heartbreakingly sad
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Dec 3, 2021 10:25
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Brother Tadger posted:I recommend you never check out the estranged parents or r/relationship threads if you think these stories are bad. Like, if you still speak to your family as an adult, consider yourself lucky. I frequent the Rejected Parents thread a lot and yeah, it’s fuckin rough
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Dec 4, 2021 02:49
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Paper Lion posted:in 2004, my aunt gave her 3 kids a big combined christmas present. they desperately wanted an xbox and it was all they asked for. they opened up a big box, and saw inside of it a disassembled cardboard box. an ex-box. she recorded their reactions. no actual xbox later. that was literally it. 
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Dec 7, 2021 18:43
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Anyone get good Homer Bowling Ball gifts yesterday?
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Dec 26, 2021 17:47
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Blistex posted:Got a statuette of Iron Man at a work secret Santa. I have a very slight knowledge of the Marvel stuff, only watching the Ragnarok movie because the guy who did "What we do in the shadows" directed it. Anyway, I open it up in the staff room, and I put on my best, "oh wow, this looks like it was over the $20 budget. . . thanks whoever" act. Not two minutes after we were all done opening our stuff, this other teacher comes over and says how great that was, and that I was really lucky to have it because it's . . . blah, blah, blah, rare, and some special suit that was only in the comics, etc. It was obvious that he bought it for himself, and was not-so-subtly trying to get me to trade him it for the coffee mug and beans he received. I pretended to be oblivious, admitted that I was not that interested in it, wasn't likely to keep it, and probably give it to my nephew. He was getting pretty desperate when I finally left for home. I threw it on Kijiji and sold it for $50, so it was actually a pretty decent gift in that respect. 
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Dec 27, 2021 17:18
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 Jesus loving balls Dave messed up so bad it isn’t even funny
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Jan 2, 2022 14:10
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Outrail posted:If I wasn't completely disillusioned by humanity I'd assume this was a cunningly stupid ploy to goad her into breaking up with him. Yeah I would say it was an NFT which means it’s worth next to nothing even if she did try to pawn it off on some other hapless moron.
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Jan 2, 2022 17:21
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NFTs always remind me of the TY Beanie Babys craze from when I was a child  a craze that was entirely fuelled by the speculator market, the idea that this tiny crappy thing, if kept in mint condition, would be worth thousands, if not millions, in years to come so please stock up on them as an “investment” and your kids and grandkids will thank you for this momentary stupid hobby, and nobody except the company that mass-produced them made any money out of them.
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Jan 2, 2022 17:36
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FogHelmut posted:This one guy I know who is deep into crypto and NFTs was also a major Beanie Baby collector in middle school. Also Star Wars figures when all the prequels came out. Who knows if he made any money (probably didn't), but it doesn't matter because his parents paid for all of it. Please give Mike Stoklasa my regards
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Jan 2, 2022 17:44
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:23 |
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I originally wasn't going to post about this Christmas' gift from my best friends, but I've realised in the last ~24 hours that I'm honestly more pissed about it than not, and will probably be bringing the gift to a charity shop in the next couple days along with various other 'I'm moving house soon and don't wanna carry this poo poo' odds and ends. My best friends, the same couple I mentioned at the start of the thread (she's a massive Dave Grohl fan and gifted her fiance Grohl's autobiography for his birthday), had me over for Christmas dinner this year as always since I don't have any immediate family left. They gave me a bag with 2 gifts in it; one for me, and one for Mr Alleyway. They gave my husband an awesome Lego Technic set of cars to build, which he's always loved. They gave me Carrie Fisher's autobiography, who I've never expressed any interest in. I'll stress here that they're my best friends and not my husband's; they barely know him because he's only been out to their house maybe 3 times in the last 7 years. They clearly bought my gift at the very last minute since the '50% OFF' price tag was still in the bag they gave me the gifts in.
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Jan 3, 2022 13:28
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