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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My tiny contribution here is to look things aimed at commercial use, not consumer grade. For example, next time you need to buy a can opener, buy it from a restaurant supply shop instead of Amazon or Walmart.
Same with electronics - instead of a smart TV from Amazon get an industrial TV from B&H or similar (they’re the kind used in store displays like the menu at burger king etc)
Bonus is they likely won’t have “smart” features or AI
Throwing in a little odd advice for the secondhand scene - even if the shops are bad, I’ve had some good luck with estate sales and cleanouts (where a family or realtor basically opens the home to anyone who’ll cary stuff away and save them the trouble and cost of throwing it out). It can feel kinda bad, picking through stuff in that context, but we’ve saved a bunch of nice old tools and kitchen stuff that way, and the houses generally have everything else you might need for a house. Personally I think the best BIFL stuff is old and made before they really perfected enshitifying their products.
The cleanouts I’ve been to we found through postings on our local free groups (which I also really recommend) or word of mouth, but I used to know some folks who went to them professionally, looking for merchandise for their own businesses, so they must be advertised somewhere normal people would find them too.
Ok, I will try to find more dying people in my area, thank you!
For certain things, yeah I think so. Good knives, cast iron cookware. Fountain pens yes, as long as spare parts are available. Meze headphones are designed to be completely user serviceable, but that will entirely depend on if they continue to make spare parts.
I would say a majority of modern electronics and appliances are all designed for obsolescence. Born to die. Surprisingly, I have bought things off AliExpress that are more serviceable than most mainstream electronics! Linux-based gaming handhelds that are assembled with screws, no clips or glue. With replaceable components. Headphone amps with socketed op-amps so you can replace or change them at your will.
The real BIFL these days is definitely priced at luxury levels. Speed Queen washers and dryers. Sub-Zero refrigerators. Tudor watches.
With how electronic everything is these days, if you want to BIFL, you better get good at diagnosing and repairing tiny surface mount PCB components. That’s where I’m at now, with a lot of my game consoles. I can toss an SSD in my PS2 and play some San Andreas. No discs, no laser issues! But that PS2 still has 24 year old capacitors, and they’re probably going to die at some point.
I have no idea regarding locally sourced textile goods, sorry. Hammer Made has great men’s shirts, but I don’t know anything beyond that.
