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Dec. 13th, 2009 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseA theory for present buying without a list:
If a person has one CD (or one book, or DVD) by a given artist (Or actor, or director, or other obvious connected streak), especially if it's a "best of" cd/collection, there is ZERO guarantee they want any more by that artist. No guarantee they won't, either, but without further information, you're taking a really serious chance.
If a person has two or three books/cd/dvds, then it's a fair bet they like the artist enough to accept more. And if said artist is prolific at all, it allows for a fair chance you can find one they don't have.
If a person has more than three cds/books, especially if they cite the relevant artist as a huge favourite, then unless something new has JUST come out, or they've complained about the ones they don't have in front of you, it's usually really risky to try and get them more by the same. (This one irks me in movies and tv shows and romance novels; Someone says how much they love X band, and the wannabe SO or friend buys them a "best of" or a well-known not-new album by that group. I *always* think "they're going to have it, you dork." And if they don't, which is most of the time, and there isn't a good in-plot reason for it, then I roll my eyes and lose some of my suspension of disbelief.)
This theory does need to be adjusted for certain relative conditions; how much a person re-reads books/re-watches movies/listens to music in the first place, how much of a collector the person is, how much they trade in stuff they don't like, how much they use resources like cable, libraries, online sources, and MP3 downloads, instead of more concrete and present formats. (This is why I let Connie Willis get away with one of the characters in one of her Christmas stories get away with not already having Miracle on 34th Street; because it's on every year on some channel or another, and the person wasn't painted as the kind of movie collector Colin is.) But it usually gives some clues.
And of course, actual possession of a wish list or a list of already-owned things cuts some of the outliers.
If a person has one CD (or one book, or DVD) by a given artist (Or actor, or director, or other obvious connected streak), especially if it's a "best of" cd/collection, there is ZERO guarantee they want any more by that artist. No guarantee they won't, either, but without further information, you're taking a really serious chance.
If a person has two or three books/cd/dvds, then it's a fair bet they like the artist enough to accept more. And if said artist is prolific at all, it allows for a fair chance you can find one they don't have.
If a person has more than three cds/books, especially if they cite the relevant artist as a huge favourite, then unless something new has JUST come out, or they've complained about the ones they don't have in front of you, it's usually really risky to try and get them more by the same. (This one irks me in movies and tv shows and romance novels; Someone says how much they love X band, and the wannabe SO or friend buys them a "best of" or a well-known not-new album by that group. I *always* think "they're going to have it, you dork." And if they don't, which is most of the time, and there isn't a good in-plot reason for it, then I roll my eyes and lose some of my suspension of disbelief.)
This theory does need to be adjusted for certain relative conditions; how much a person re-reads books/re-watches movies/listens to music in the first place, how much of a collector the person is, how much they trade in stuff they don't like, how much they use resources like cable, libraries, online sources, and MP3 downloads, instead of more concrete and present formats. (This is why I let Connie Willis get away with one of the characters in one of her Christmas stories get away with not already having Miracle on 34th Street; because it's on every year on some channel or another, and the person wasn't painted as the kind of movie collector Colin is.) But it usually gives some clues.
And of course, actual possession of a wish list or a list of already-owned things cuts some of the outliers.
