I'll never buy a calendar.

I haven't made a purchase this December - pretty sure thats the longest I've gone without a purchase since I've started. If Totem makes another card that cannot be purchased without me having to buy a bunch of unwanted cards then I'm done. I have 1700 credits on hand and will spend those slowly until I'm confident that Totem will not block my purchases in the future. If another "calendar" comes before my credit are gone then I will not be buying more credits.

One thing I did realize though. These cards must cost much less to produce than I once thought. They can't if Totem can afford to sell it for only 24 days even if its at an inflated price.

Clearly you misunderstand dar

You could and still can buy any of those cards without buying the Advent Calendar. The 25th card is the only one that is not available to those that did not purchase the calendar.

91, I do not misunderstand anything. I chose not to buy anything while the calendar was active and will do so again.

I know I could have paid for all 25 cards even though I would only consider buying 15-20 of them but that would be foolish. I'm sure soon enough I get the 5 or so I really do want and in time I will probably add some others I might have bought as well. But I'm sure the calendar cost them 6-10 cards sales including Niemira which I cant buy and I wont be getting Peneloppe either as that card will remind me of the 'Calendar'.

I understand clearly.

I don't think you do

The only thing the calendar did was give the purchasers the opportunity to get each card a day early and provide one extra exclusive card.

I still don't have that 25th card, and now the calendar is gone :(

@dar2112v

it's actually quite clear from your posts, that you totally misunderstood the Calendar.

I have 1700 credits on hand and will spend those slowly until I'm confident that Totem will not block my purchases in the future. If another "calendar" comes before my credit are gone then I will not be buying more credits.

One thing I did realize though. These cards must cost much less to produce than I once thought. They can't if Totem can afford to sell it for only 24 days even if its at an inflated price.

It did not prevent anyone from purchasing the cards on the calendar, if they didn't take part in the event.
The price of the cards were not inflated. Members paid their going rate based on their current level.

There was no Price Inflation, or blocking non participants from purchasing the cards released.

You have got that All WRONG !

Any member, ALL members inclusive, still had / have the ability to purchase All of the cards on the day they were released.

The Only card Not available to non Calendar participants, is the card released for the 25th.



All of the other 24 cards were normal releases available to ALL members regardless of calendar participation.

The Calendar was just a Fun Holiday experience, with a small bonus of a free exclusive card.
A gift for purchasing the first 24 December released cards.

@xdlolthe
If you bought the Advent calendar, you also received the card behind the door on the 25th of December.
Please search for e0863 or Niemira in your collection.

If you use the filters, then you will find card under the main filter "Release date" and the sub-filter "Unknown".

thank you for this calendar, great idea!
Just a shame it didn't work on weekends

The Calendar was just a Fun Holiday experience, with a small bonus of a free exclusive card.
A gift for purchasing the first 24 December released cards.

I got nothing wrong - if I wanted the Niemira card it would cost the price of 25 cards (330 credits) not of my choosing. I am blocked from buying the Niemira because it was not released without paying a ransom of 330 credits - yes I know that I would get the other 25 cards but I don't want all those cards. I would call that both blocked and inflated; nothing fun about that to me.

And to make it worse Totem has produced a card it cannot sell so I assume other cards must sell for more to cover that cost.

Spin it any way you like - it's nothing more than a 25 day subscription with a 4% discount (1 free card). I don't want a subscription at any discount or price. Had the calendar cost me 33 credits and not 330 I would have still passed and felt like an unwanted customer.

I will add that I do think Totem should bring back subscriptions for those that will take whatever they get at a small discount. I think the steady guaranteed sales would be good for cash flow. But I like choosing the cards I want purchase and don't want more unwanted cards in my collection.

It's no matter - I will hold my credits for now and if another 'exclusive' card shows up I'll move on spend my money elsewhere. I'm sure my few dollars will not be missed by totem and I will no longer be annoyed by the calendar.

Whatever

@dar2112v
I completely agree with you - I also didn't bought the calendar.
It's nothing for an explicid collector who just pick the ones he want.

but I do not understand why you are annoyed.

Marketing strategies are everywhere. Every supermarket, stores or internet platforms - they all use 'special offers'. And of course the main reason is to increase the sales.

so if some call it a 'fun holiday experience' or just 'super sales, power sales or sales tricks' it's always up to you to choose.

Totem started to make weekly offers since a few month and no matter if you choose one or not it never is a disadvantage. They can never satisfy everyone - but as told before - you are free to choose.

It's also a lerning process for Totem to see what is more sucessful. And some day there maybe comes an offer you like...

so let's calm down and come to the real dark side of the ***** - the marketing ;)

I didn't buy the calendar: I'm a stockpicker. I don't like every model, I don't like every outfit, I don't like slow shows and I'm not so much primarily with XXX-cards.

The very intersting thing about the whole calendar is that it make's clear what customers really like and don't like.
Fake boobs and big tattoos didn't get a high rating. Those who don't like fake breastst give such a card a low rating and those who don't like big tattoos do the same.
The low rating of Luna Corazon is still a mystery.

I thought it was a good offer, and it was nice that it was one that i could take part in and benefit from. Because i own all the 3K cards, the normal weekend sales are generally of no use to me as these are the ones that are generally discounted.

Because of this i tend to buy all the new content as it comes out anyway so the chances are i would have bought most of the cards if not all, calendar or no calendar, so getting a bonus card at the end was great. I would do it again for sure.

dont get why people are upset, tbh, i thought i was pretty generous of totem to leave the offer open up to the 23rd dec, meaning that i could have got the exclusive card, buy just buying only 2 cards over practically a whole month, ok i would not have been able to go through the store and hand pick which cards those cards would be, but really is that so important?

Overall i thought the standard of the models and shows over the course of the calendar were good, so i even though i bought the whole calendar sight unseen on day one, i dont feel let down or ripped off beacuse i had to purchse in advance.

But hey each to their own.

If the team were to do it agian the only thing i would change is that they need to come up with a way of making the doors open on a sunday, that was a bit annoying, especially as after all the hype no one actually got the special show on christmas when we were meant to, that was a shame but c'est la vie.

I am in complete agreement with everything littleEvilMe said. I totaly fail to understand why anyone was upset by this special offer, if you ignored it then then there were just a normal 24 days of cards to choose from.

but I do not understand why you are annoyed.

@Virt4b

I'm not annoyed by the calendar subscription but annoyed by the exclusive card.

It benefits no one - it cant be shared, sold, etc - so no value is added by the exclusive.

It ***** some - current members cannot by it, new members will never have had the chance to buy, and totem can only profit it from it for 25 the 25 days it was available.

I have the Divine cards and a couple other girls who show have been retracted for legal reasons. I guess you could call these exclusive but I get no pleasure in the facts that members can no longer buy them and totem can longer profit from them. I don't understand why I should?

If exclusive cards are going to become a thing then I am out. I joined because I could buy the cards I wanted. I'm something of a collector. I don't have all of Niemera cards, she's not an absolute favorite of mine but she is lovely and I would have eventually gottenthe 1 or 2 I didn't have to fill in the collection. And now I cannot so I am annoyed.

But I suspect I might sound angrier than I really am. I'm not angry just miffed. I think of VG/DB/IS as something I get along with my morning coffee nothing I can't live without.

Many years ago for months I just installed VG on multiple computers and watched the demos. I did this for many months then VG gave me a free card. After that I decided I wanted a few more .. then they had some huge sale .. and then I started collecting. Smartest thing Totem ever did was giving me that one free show. I will move on from this soon enough but had this been the promo 10 years ago then I bet I would still be watching free demos.

It ***** some - current members cannot by it, new members will never have had the chance to buy, and totem can only profit it from it for 25 the 25 days it was available.

I personally will never own every card. That's just my choice. I also wouldn't partake in this kind of promo just to get one exclusive card. Again, just me.

There are many collectors here who want every card anyway and to them, it was a nice, small bonus as opposed to many promos they can't take part in with full collections.

So Totem can only profit for the '24?' days the promo was available? I can't guess at how many non-collectors took up the offer but for those that did, Totem probably made quite a few bucks they may not have without the promo. Pretty sure they paid for Niemira's card many times over!

So instead of selling 25 cards at a loss with extra discounts, They probably made quite a bit extra that they can put to good use how they see fit. More power to the TEAM! 👍

Edit: These other 24 cards are still available for all to buy anyway. So no loss to Totem...

Why the special christmas card #0863 with Niemira doesn't appear in the list of card (see the pic) ?
Note : I've this card because I took the calendar.

@stefnev1
The bonus card of the advent calendar has been created only for the users who bought the advent calendar. This card can not be purchased (not in Girls store).

The card e0863 behaves like a card that can not be sold anymore (example: Alizee). All these cards can be found in the filter "Release date" in the subfilter "Unknown". None of these cards show other models' cards.

Try to search the card e0863 in the girls store (search box). This card can not be found there.
The search in your collection is sure to succeed.

Thank you for the explanation @spiderman1804.
Have fun with iStripper 😊

I too am annoyed.
And frankly I find it a little odd.
The 24 cards in the calendar are not discounted.
I don't really want them.
So this card - e0863 Niemiera 'Tis The Season - is some kind of a reward, for having a taste that includes all the other calendar girls, or a reward for spending money on something you don't want, and for having money enough to be able to buy all these cards at the time of the year, when other expeces are at their highest.. (Those who have in abundance shall be given more - even exclusive content - for free...)
And if you don't fall in one of these categories, your collection of Niemieras cards can never be complete.

Find this kind of discouraging. Sad actually. Think I have always seen VG / VGHD / iStripper as a unity somehow. But no longer.

I understand rewarding loyalty.
Choosing the time of year, where most people have least money to do so, is limiting the number of otherwise loyal customers you reward.
And that is disappointing.

@dar2112v :

I totally follow you, and totally agree with you.
Yet, it's the way it goes.

The economical purpose, for Totem, behind this Calendar event quite stays a mystery to me, besides, to speak true. Producing one card (Niemira X-mas themed one) a lot of customers won't buy for the precise reason you explain (and I share, personnaly)... Weird. But never mind.

@HombreSinSombra

So instead of selling 25 cards at a loss with extra discounts, They probably made quite a bit extra that they can put to good use how they see fit. More power to the TEAM! 👍

Any other month than december, I mught have considered.
With some kind of warning I might even have saved credits, to be one of the owners of this card.
But the TEAM did not give me the chance.
And I'm sorry, but this is precisely NOT TEAM.
I'm not a collector as such either. I do - did - however try to buy all the shows from the girls I like best.
Now - screw that. The Team made the endgoal unreachable.
Used to evaluate offers, rebates and discounts. If there was anything in there I could use, I'd buy them (if I could afford them), even if there were cards I really didn't want, and even if it meant, that I would pay more than I had to, for the cards I wanted, in whatever promo it was. It was for a good purpose - the TEAM.
From now on, this will end as well.

My loyalty has been rewarded, by the TEAM pushing me away. That si how it feels.
Totem may have made a few more bucks. The'll make less from me, from now on.

Well, as a triple diamond member, you get the biggest discounts on an every day basis. They didn't make "More" money. Everyone got their normal every day discount on everything.

Seems that the only "Real" complaint is that the Niemira / 'Tis The Season card was made exclusive and members can't buy it on it's own.

@91hebasu
First off:
My tripple diamond "title" and rebate, has probaly cost me around the same to acquire as has yours, and has no bearing on this.
I do see that Totem is focused only on the money. I'm not. I'm focused on the principles. Who needs happy loyal customers anyway?

Next:
And it was a very expensive deal.
And it was in the month where most people have the least to spend.
And it was without a heads up, that something worth saving credits for was coming. Kind of goofy - because nobody really knew if it was worth all those credits, 'till after the credits were invested.
The idea that one MUST buy 24 cards, weather one likes them or not, to get one exclusive card is wrong.
The idea of selling anything, that the buyer does not know what is, is wrong.
And the idea that there are cards exclusively for some, is wrong.
Oh - they did not buy the christmas card, it was a gift.
A gift for having a taste that made made them buy all 24 cards - or a gift for buying cards they didn't want, to get the gift.

If what you get form this is, that the complaint is "only about the christmas card", you might have to read again.
Yes - that it is Niemira, makes it worse.
I probably wouldn't have taken the time, if it had been a card that I didn't care to have.
But I still think that, as well principles as timing is way off.
And it is all very far, from what this used to be.

Maybe it's just me.
Think I'll just shut this down now, and stay away for a while.

Every time Totem tries to do something they think might be a nice thing to do, some people ***** about it

Yes, @91hebasu there are people who will ***** about anything. In this case I think the complaints make sense. I didn't take this offer and I'm not very disappointed about missing the chance to the the "free" card. Only Totem knows if they made any extra money.

I've seen that.
"A nice thing to do."
Explain how an exclusive card for a limited number of iStripper "fans" is a "nice thing?"
Especially for the ones that can not get the card.
Previously, there have been complaints about selling cards, that are not known, (About the only critisism I agree on)
Explain how rewarding people that buy 24 unknown cards to get an exclusive also unknown card is "nice". Really? TEAM Totem considers this "nice"?
I have bought 24 cards at full price many times. Why don't I get a reward?
I have bought many cards, I didn't really want, because they were linked to other cards I did want. Why didn't that merrit a reward?

Frankly, I don''t think anybody really have thought this "calendar" idea through. But someone should have.

Looking through my collection, I have many cards, I never see, and don't really want to see. Even performs, I find .. repellent.
They are there, because I am loyal and buy them - in TGIF offers - even when it does not give me any benefit or savings.
Because it goes to "The TEAM".
So now I know how much that is appreciated.

I fully understand "TEAM Totem" is a business, and does what "TEAM Totem" need to do (and I actually don't remeber really ***** before).
Clearly, the emphasis is on the money.
As a consequence, I need to adjust my future investment in Totem, in a way I am more comfortable with, given (what I perceive as) a change of circumstances.

@Birger

It's very nice for those of us that got it !!!

Yes, you have ***** about quite a few sales ! I've read them too.

You DON"T pay full price for anything !
You get a considerable discount for every card you buy ! The maximum discount available ! That's the reward you merit ! Every day ! Every purchase !

You made a choice not to buy into it. That's fine. Now you're raising hell about not being able to buy the one card you did want and you feel like you've been screwed out of something. We get it. We ALL get it. Some agree too.

I think I'm done talking to you. You seem to be getting belligerent at this point.
Let's just move on

Actually I did not make a choise not to buy it.
I could not afford it.
Probably would not have anyway, but it was never an option.

Litterally, I have bought 24 cards many times, at the price the 24 cards on the calender would have cost me. Not fulle price, true. But still the same.
Why are you so fixed on the dicount? You are the only one mentioning it. I don't and that is not what it is about.
You are pedantic and you read what you want, without actually trying to understand.
And at this point, I don't really care.

Moving on. Out maybe.
Sometimes it's not the mercahndice, that is the reason you stop.
Somtetimes it is the way you are treated, Company policies - or mabe just the people.