If you bought that shit just so he'd buy you shit on your birthday, then you're not a very good friend. The point of giving gifts is not expecting anything in return.

>>17297583
No, unless you think the only reason to buy people gifts is to pressure them into upping the ante for your birthday. If you're not giving gifts as a way to show people how important they are to you, then you shouldn't bother. It's a gift, not a needlessly complicated IOU.

Assuming im a bad friend for doing all that expecting shit in return. Does that change that fact it was dick move. Maybe I shouldnt have expected anything and it was my fault.

>>17297583
You're retarded. If you really think that way then you shouldn't buy anyone gifts.

>>17297595
If he's not comfortable spending on you the amount you spent on him, that's up to him. And I generally don't like feeling obliged to spend the same amount that someone spent on me.

>>17297595
Did he ever buy you shit for your birthday before? Are there circumstances in his life (monetary, not being around much, whatever) that he's dealing with that he wouldn't have been before? Is this the first time you spent a lot of money on him?

>>17297607
To be honest I would have settled for a gift card to Walmart. Not the whole party and shit.

>>17297612
He bought me some stuff on Christmas and he isn't going through anything monetarily that would prevent him from being a giftcard.

>>17297615
But how does he normally handle your birthday? Gift card? Small gift? Big gift? Nothing? And was this year markedly different than other years, in terms of you buying him stuff or him not buying you stuff?

Going out in a limb, but are you a Bernie supporter, OP?

>>17297623
He usually takes me out to a restaurant and picks up the tab. I usually get him something around $30 bucks but this year I switched it up and did the whole party thing.

I'm not a Bernie supporter. I don't pay attention to politics much.

Not really. Giving people the gift of obligatory reciprocity isn't that nice. It's not really giving anything if they have to return the same value to you.

If you had both organised your own parties where gifts are expected, it'd be extremely rude of him not to bring a gift to yours, but since you threw him a party presumably unasked, and presumably didn't host a party yourself, there's not really an obligation on him to give you a gift.

Now that you know he doesn't reciprocate unprompted, you can simply choose to not buy him an expensive gift again if it bugs you.

>>17297615
>To be honest I would have settled for a gift card to Walmart. Not the whole party and shit.

So you give him a $60 gift card and he give you a $60 gift card?

That's not a gift, that's a loan.

It's fine to have your feelings hurt that he didn't show you appreciation the same way you did for him, but that doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate you. And if he doesn't appreciate you, he can't really be punished for his feelings any more than you can.
But you have to acknowledge that he doesn't actually owe you anything. Being allowed to feel bad doesn't mean you were actually wronged.

I have a similar experience as OP... I gave my friend 50 bucks on his birthday and he didn't give me anything for my birthday.. Plus his family owns a business and a nice house while my family has trouble paying for food, I didn't expect anything but it kinda hurt since he's my only friend and my gifts from my family were low end like shirts and socks and that money I gave him was a lot for me .. Should I feel hurt?

>>17297700

You're right I was expecting a reciprocal gesture but would it be rude of me to not buy him a gift at all for his next birthday.

>>17297722

That is very sound advice, however I do feel hurt that the gesture wasn't returned but as you said there is a difference between being wronged and being justifiably hurt.

>>17297742

I basically was in the same situation except his family isn't wealthier particularly wealthier than mine.

>>17297583
He is not obligated to reciprocate a gift. You made your own decision. Actually its shitty in general to give people expensive gifts because you put them in an awkward position of an unsolicited feeling of being indebted.

You were shitty when you got him the gift, you're shitty for expecting something in return (read difference, definition of gift vs. Definition of trade) and youre shitty for thinking hes shitty for not giving you stuff.