Buy it for Life

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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!

Guidelines:

Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!

Unlike that other BIFL place, Home-made and DIY items are encouraged here, as long as some form of instruction is included in the body of the post.

Videos links are not allowed as post titles, but you may use them in a text post.

A limited amount of self-promotion is accepted, IF the item you are selling aligns with this criteria:

The item must be made with sustainable or recycled materials.
If electronic in some way, the item must be open-source.
The item must be user-serviceable (if applicable).
You cannot be a large corporation.
The post must be clearly marked with a [Self Promotion] tag in your title.

founded 2 years ago

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Is BIFL Still Possible Today? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 8 hours ago by rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/buyitforlife@slrpnk.net

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Hi there, I came here to the BIFL Lemmy out of suspicion that the reddit posts are just unlabelled marketing, and I was wondering the possibility of sourcing goods that are more to a BIFL standard? In my area, second hand goods tend to be really quite poor in quality (reselling fast fashion) or otherwise not present, and I have not inherited anything that does last. So I would apprecite advice or reccomendations for finding goods at a BIFL standard. I was also wondering if maybe there would be anyone with good advice for finding sustainable, local textile production so that I may be able to tailor what I need without having to buy from the poor selection aforementioned, does anyone know of any of this?

TL:DR I am suspicious that a lot of what is claimed as 'BIFL' has been enshittified, and would like advice on being able to search for sustainable goods for a local area (not specified because I'm hoping for advice with searching, not exactly for specific reccs)

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[–] StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I myself yearn to still be able to buy analog and mechanical things (varying, obvs; i.e im in good health so i dont need an electric salt shaker, etc) but they’re weirdly uncommon now, you just cant repair electrics the same :( (through random prodding, lol)

Digital gear is cheaper, lighter, and FAR more compact. The trade off is that it just doesn't last as long. As for repair, It's not really more difficult (so long as you can get the chips), it's just a different skill set is required than in the past. Gen Z would be baffled looking at an old tube amp or spring reverb. God help them if they dug into an old Pinball or DJ machine from the 60's or 70's.

thank you for the appraising method reccomendation! I did also wanna quickly say that when I say local I don’t mean ‘artisinal’ but more 'i would rather avoid shipping costs, unneeded transport (for sustainanility reasons), and if you source things overseas, it’s likely a bigger name i.e, prone to enshittification. Is that odd?

I get you. I'm part of that supply chain, drive a truck for a living.

Not sure where your from, but here in the US it is almost impossible to buy locally made for anything except services. Manufacturing is too thinly spread out, assuming you can even find something US made. Best we can do here is to try and buy from local suppliers where possible, which for many of the things I often need is not always possible.

should I bite the bullet and even buy second hand from overseas?

Secondhand junk is still junk. Though, if you can get it for a reasonable price you might get some use of it and delay it's trip to the dump. Though it has to be extremely discounted for me to bite.

also, I’ve tried looking at surplus, but it’s really hard to sort through (feels like its your mentioned cheap chinese copies), or is being sold for ‘collecting’ (i.e vintage and very expensive)

Military surplus is VERY regional. Here in the US, most of the Cold War surplus got sold off back in the early 2000's. Iraq and Afghanistan didn't generate nearly the build up of excess material that Vietnam did, hence the slim pickings. Given the World landscape, I'd say the picking will be slim for a good long while.

[–] rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 hours ago

Digital gear is cheaper, lighter, and FAR more compact.

can't say you're wrong there, its just that when something has a mechanical handle or button it seems so much more reliable (touchscreen cars, anyone?)

Secondhand junk

truly? I had considered buying things pre-owned would mean that they had proven their durability? (In addition to sidestepping ethical concerns, as presented by buying new) i guess theres many kinds of second hand. does military surplus count?

Given the World landscape, I'd say the picking will be slim for a good long while.

Hey, won't need to look for surplus when conscripted, right?