Can we talk about guys who skip the $80 climbing inspection on their saddles?
I sent my Buckingham saddle in for the $80 factory inspection after 6 years and they flagged stitching that I had looked at a hundred times and never seen, so call me cheap if you want but I think skipping that check every couple years is the worst kind of gambling with your own rope.
That $80 is cheap compared to a fall. Six years is a long time to trust your own eyes on something you look at every day, because you stop really seeing it after a while. A fresh set of eyes catches what habit hides.