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I went to an estate sale at a Napa winery recently. I asked the guy where he was moving to. He said that he was heading out to Colorado because (with a thick Georgia accent) "California is going to hell in a handbasket." He was a rich ass liberal. Do you know how I know this? His book collection. He said he was selling his wine from his private cellar for half off.  He handed me the price list. I about choked. It was %50 off of $400 (the cheapest one). I said, holy shit, that’s crazy! It’s like that Payless social experiment… And then I laughed. As we were leaving, my friend said that I offended him. Did I? Oops!  Wink

I just saw a news flash somewhere saying that Jennifer Lopez was seen with a hundred thousand dollar Birkin bag. I just picked up a new Dewalt one. I love it! It came with a free random orbit sander. What do you think? Trend setter?
Sounds great for us. Given the range of animal hides sported by some brands, though, maybe that's a degree of psychological compartmentalizing in moral-semaphore territory that Hollywood celebrities would have to wrestle with. Sounds like Birkin herself at least tried to sever association.

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(Mar 21, 2019 11:05 PM)C C Wrote: [ -> ]Sounds great for us. Given the range of animal hides sported by some brands, though, maybe that's a degree of psychological compartmentalizing in moral-semaphore territory that Hollywood celebrities would have to wrestle with. Sounds like Birkin herself at least tried to sever association.

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It’s weird, though, isn’t it, CC, people thinking that an object makes them a better person? The company even sells scarfs that are over a thousand dollars. That just sounds so crazy to me. It’s all about self-esteem and a sense of belonging, I suppose, but it’s completely irrational. Although, I do like my new sander and it has made me a better craftsman. Wink

The Psychology Behind Spending Big
People infer more value to things that cost more, even if there is not a corresponding increase in quality. When setting prices, there's a range between so cheap it can't be worth even that much and so expensive is must be worth it. Too cheap, and people will assume their nephew could do better, but too expensive is really only limited by what the market will bear.

And you can't wear your yacht around town, but you can wear something expensive enough to work as a stand in for your wealth. It's like the secret hand shake to the elite club.
About 15 years ago I bought a designer case (Halfords?) with a free set of sockets included as an inducement to buy. The problem with the case is that there is no indication which way is 'up' and which way is 'down'. If you open the case with the 'up' side down all the sockets fall out onto the road and you spend the next hour picking up the ones you can find and putting them back into the little holes they've just jumped out of.
You might ask "Why don't you go to a safe place and check out the up and down nature of it and (with a felt tip pen) write UP on the up side and DOWN on the down side?". Right now I'm asking myself the same question. Obviously quite a few sockets are missing - lost in bathrooms and on roads and car parks around the county of Devon.
What I'm asking is "Is there really any difference between me and someone who can afford a $400 bottle of wine?". Reluctantly I have come to accept the possibility that there might actually be a real difference.
(Mar 22, 2019 01:38 AM)confused2 Wrote: [ -> ]About 15 years ago I bought a designer case (Halfords?) with a free set of sockets included as an inducement to buy. The problem with the case is that there is no indication which way is 'up' and which way is 'down'. If you open the case with the 'up' side down all the sockets fall out onto the road and you spend the next hour picking up the ones you can find and putting them back into the little holes they've just jumped out of.

You might ask "Why don't you go to a safe place and check out the up and down nature of it and (with a felt tip pen)  write UP on the up side and DOWN on the down side?". Right now I'm asking myself the same question. Obviously quite a few sockets are missing - lost in bathrooms and on roads and car parks around the county of Devon.


That happens to the best of us. Just happened to me recently. It’s the worst, isn’t it? They should make the top cover a different color.

C2 Wrote:What I'm asking is "Is there really any difference between me and someone who can afford a $400 bottle of wine?". Reluctantly I have come to accept the possibility that there might actually be a real difference.

Nah. Just look at Trump. He can’t even figure out how to open a door. I can just imagine how bad he’d be at the other little task that he mentioned. Egads!
I'm wondering how much brand name is important to the caché. Having DeWALT on the bag makes a statement about the person carrying it. If you lose the brand by changing DeWALT to DeSANDA does the statement become "Person who has difficulty remembering what's inside their bag."?

Incidentally in the UK, locally (and possibly nationally) - trump means fart.