Man, that's how they get you though. The universe punishes you for being loyal to the old gear right when you're standing in a ditch holding someone else's cheap wizard stick. My go-to used to be a $200 locator that weighed like a brick, and now I'm eyeballing a $25 one my neighbor uses for sprinkler wires. It's cracked and held together with electrical tape, but it finds stuff my "professional" one gets all moody about. Honestly, at this point I'm convinced the expensive stuff is just for impressing clients, not actual work.

Tbh, I saw a YouTube video recently where someone tested 30 different washi tapes from Amazon and she found the same issue, most of them were basically transparent unless you used them on white paper. That sheer problem is way too common with those cheap bulk packs, they look amazing in the photos but the quality control is just not there. The peeling thing is a dealbreaker for me too, if it can't stay stuck to paper then what is even the point. That Portland stall find sounds like the real winner though, sometimes the single rolls from actual people who test their stuff are the only ones worth buying. I've definitely learned to buy one or two nice rolls instead of gambling on a huge set.