The Explanation of the rating system

 13 May2022

There is no TL;DR for this, strap in.

Now for another rambling to maybe dig myself a deeper hole and confuse people with my bad grammar and using a different font for every page.

This is an explanation of why things went the way they did. I did have the subtitles for each of the tiers but I figure there should be a more in depth of “how did we get here?” I based as much as I could off of what I considered “objective means” (How objective can you be on a subjective list?) I considered factors such as the art, how much they have in terms of variety, and how did these guys do business. One really can’t quantify all this because art is subjective, sometimes all I need a store to do is sell three things max, and I fully understand how hard it is to interact with people over DM’s. 

The only thing I truly would throw a fit for is what I call the “supreme method”. We’ve probably all seen the videos of people staying out in front of the supreme store for what? A white hoodie with a red stripe or even worse the most awful clothing I ever done did seen. Thankfully no one sells a trash rendition of Jotaro Kujo or Zero Two and sell it for $100 and never to be seen again (I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few of you out there that would jump on that though) but there are a few shops out there that work solely on pre-orders and then HAVE THE GAUL TO SAY “SOLD OUT”. Pre-orders are fine. It's when you do pre-orders only then say “and no more of that” or like I said “sell out” (still trying to figure that one out, it’s going to keep me up at night). I do have a few exceptions to the rule, most notably Lowkey Geeks who did earn an S rating and works along the line of this method. The reasoning I let this slide is that they do bring everything back for their black Friday sale or at a random time if they have the inventory (save a few items, still hoping for the Kill la Kill bomber jacket to come back) and also because I’m a simp for their artwork. Sue me. I understand that some people need to get rid of inventory and stop selling certain items because running a business like this isn’t easy and you might have another job or school to balance out and to those shop owners I give you a pass because I do understand.

 Then there is the other thing I will say is yes there are some shops that I genuinely don’t like their artwork. That’s always a tough one to say and especially having it on the internet. But it’s my opinion and in this life we will face disappointment and heartbreak. What’s important is that we carry on because as you can see in the why they got their rank section some stores are candidates for promotion because I haven’t bought from them yet or didn’t get a real good look into the store. In fact pretty much everyone might receive a promotion.

All in all there’s still a method to the madness and hopefully I can explain it pretty well as follows.

S Tier

These really are people I have had interactions with and everything they do I really can’t see them doing any wrong. I’ve bought their stuff and love it. Most have made it onto a pretty public item of mine (Hydro flask, car, pelican case, laptop, desktop, etc.) If people want to get some cool waifu or other anime stickers these are my first pick.

A Tier

Most of these I have bought from and I love the items for sale. It’s basically S tier but didn’t get that immediate sparkle in my eyes the second I saw them

B Tier

If anything it’s the selection that is why we’re here. There’s not too much in the realms of product but that’s ok because it’s what they do have that's impressive.

C Tier

Some of these really only have the fault of having bad web design which I feel is a legitimate concern. But there are some good things on the site that’s well worth the money. 

D Tier

The stuff here is good. Everything is worth buying but it’s back to the problem of selection or the store front is doing something on the business level that I just can’t agree with

E Tier

Some are good, some are lackin. It’s now at the level where something is off on a plane of existence that I can’t describe. We’re in the subjective realm

F Tier

Its subtitle is exactly what I mean. The store isn’t doing it for me and they had one or two things TOPS that I wanted. I appreciate their hustle and hope for the best but it’s gonna be a no from me dawg.

Russian Tier

This was a kick to make. Funny enough most of these were some of the first stores I found and bought from. A few months later they'd show up (try that now with the current conflict) and most of them came from the same place (Tula Russia). They’re just some Russian weebs trying to make a dollar (ruble) and my heart goes out to them because they’re victims too in this awful conflict going on. The reason though they get their own tier is because Russia even before the war is… Russia. They don’t have EVERYTHING we do in the west and the product shows. Also on a few of them the payment system is shaky as hell and I actually did have to burn a card because of theft.  So take that as you will

Dead

It’s a sad day to see some of these guys gone. Some had straight up zapped Instagram accounts or actually announced closing of the store. Others were in denial or had forgotten their venture with Instagram accounts still up but the last post was in 2021 and the store was closed. For those I made the decision that they in effect were no longer in business. But maybe I’m wrong so I have left a way to contact to hopefully rectify this. As the subtitle says pour one out for these ones, they did what they could.