Thank you April for giving me the heads up to check Delphi forum on your wish list about gifting, being new I didn’t know what catchup meant after the players names.Now I know, Thank you. I want to thank all my new friends g for their gifts and or the anniversary rooms. I wasn’t sure if there was a protocol to gifting so I sent everyone a gift that was accepting gifts and I am fine with my other great friends just for letting me use their rooms.With the friends I do gifts with I do every 2 to 3 days which works good for me,if that’s too much I can cut it down to once a week if that’s what most prefer.I also do the postcards. Again I’m fine with friends just letting me use their anniversary room without gifting too. It helps a lot to build up coins. Thank you  April and thank you to all other friends, you’re all wonderful! Moonflower61 / Red Rider

You’re very welcome moonflower. This forum and the wonderful people on here are so lovely and helpful. Jennifer has done a fantastic job creating this forum for us all.

I must admit, gifting was the one thing that worried me most - was I gifting enough, was I gifting the right thing - but I’ve been reassured and reminded that we should all have fun and play the game our way, so I’m comfortable with gifting alphabetically. 

If there is something in particular you are in need of, please don’t be shy to send me a PM or put up a post. 

Cheers, April: ) 

whitebutterfly54 (redbutter54) said:

there's absolutely no stress

Exactly my point, no stress gifting, no waking up in the middle of the night to send gifts back in the gifting period... no keeping lists anymore about who sent what and when.

Gift etiquette can hardly demean those that just want to be "Santa" occasionally. And it is quite nice when I DO need things for a challenge, my friends are willing to help.

I agree: it's often better to just buy a gift for 30-60 coins than to give something you actually have.  It's great when high level people have shipping supplies on their list, cuz you always have lots of those.  It's frustrating when a 93-level person only has items I actually need to complete the quests on their list.  If I have even one of them, it doesn't let you buy one so I have to either give them something I actually NEED, or else skip them and not give them anything.  So it's great if I can just buy some weird thing I haven't even gotten to yet for 50 coins and be done with it. 

Of course I also wish I could send out a few more gifts per day so I could catch up on my list.  I'm still two days behind in gifting back to everyone since so many people are sending me gifts, but I do have a full list of every gift I've gotten and am working my way through it.

I'm especially grateful to everyone that sent me pet eggs.  I didn't ask for them to sell them.  I needed them to craft the pets.  I don't have my list in front of me but I was given 5 or 6 of them altogether, which greatly increase the size of my menagerie.  ;)

Hi Kitiara,

I’ve only been playing for about a year, so I still consider myself a bit of a novice; but was lucky enough to find this forum early on, and receive tips and guidance from the wonderful folk here. 

Some of the players at level 93 only have the daily quests to work on between events, so they may need the same items as lower level players. If they are Delphi members you could send them a PM, and maybe work out a strategy that works for both of you.

I read a lot about gifting, the many different approaches and methods people used, and like the game, I’m still evolving. For a year I kept track of who gifted me, and what I sent back, then life got a bit busy, so I started just returning gifts to friends I had received them from, and gifting lower level players with any left over spots. Now I have changed my system again, and gift everyone from A to Z (except some Consortium donations that I do daily). If someone doesn’t have a list up when I reach their name, I just move on to the next one, and hope to catch them in the next cycle. 

One of the best pieces of advice I have received, is to play the game your own way. This applies to gifting too - just do what works for you.

Also, if you have a bit of extra coin, don’t forget about the fortune wheel. They have a pet egg on it every day. I spun the wheel 5 times every day, and got all my pets in under a year (excluding seasonal pets). And it’s so much fun getting all the pets. 

Most of all, have fun however you play (thank you Lady Pirate for reminding me). 

I think that whatever you want to do with your friends is OK, but when I was asking for new friends I made it clear what my gifting plans were.  I have a core group that I gift to, and then a bunch of Event Friends that I got with no intention to gift (though they may very rarely get something, usually because I'm trying to balance my inventory). 

One of my favourite things to gift are items that I can buy for a few diamonds (6 or less).  I'm working on the Market Master badge and very rarely find something I think is worth spending them on for myself (I'm at quite a low level), but for my friends it feels good.

Now I'm facing a bit of a dilemma, because my core group has had several people disappear, and I'd like to add some more, and I wish there was a way to know if any of my Event Friends would like to be on my gifting list, but am not at all sure how to figure that out.

Are there any Event items you need to buy? If not NuttyNana usually has a couple of things. I'm after Destiny Keys at the moment if that's any help.

Norry

I'm all good for event items.  At least, I have some of each.  Some I wish I had more of, mostly Holiday Wands.  I have some of those, but not nearly as many as I think I'll need for gathering eggs for the Consortium again this Christmas.  But too many that I don't feel OK sharding/selling them to be able to purchase some come the Winter Event, especially since many people were gifting them to me to help out the Consortium.

I've added NuttyNana to my gifting list.

April @ MC (April54321) said:

I must admit, gifting was the one thing that worried me most - was I gifting enough, was I gifting the right thing

I feel the same way.  I am probably a horrible gifter, although I try to do it every day.  Did I gift this person, or that one? Did I forget someone? I don't want to feel like I have to keep long lists of who gave me what and when.  After all, it IS a game!   Am I wrong?

I don’t think you are wrong at all. When I first found this forum I didn’t know about friends or gifting. There have always been quite a few discussions about gifting, and reading them all I think I put all the pressure on myself. Somewhere along the way I got it into my head that if I received a gift from someone, I had to gift them back.

Now I look at gifting totally differently. I gift because I enjoy it, with no expectation of a return gift. I go through my list alphabetically, just keeping a note in my phone of the last person I gifted. If I miss someone because they don’t have a list up, I don’t worry about it and hope to catch them on the next cycle. I no longer keep a list of who sends me gifts, because I know everyone who has a list up will get a gift. 

This may not work for everyone, as some people have event friends that don’t want to receive gifts, but I have found it much easier.

As you have said, it’s just a game. So my advice would be just do what works for you. 

Cheers 

April