Things that are just bafflingly expensive

I mean sort of but not really, it's just when you compare them to air fares...and just the fact that returns do not cost double the single fare most of the time, and there are many different prices to be found for what will get you the same seat on the same train just depending on what minute of the day you book and how far in advance. But we've had all this out before I know.

this is the same with flights.

(artificially kept high by the industry - they're not THAT rare)

Train tickets are not bafflingly expensive as we all know how much the rail system in this country costs to keep going as well as how much the train companies are hiving off in profit. Budget air fares might go in my list of things that are bafflingly cheap though.

13. Stella Artois is supposed to be Reassuringly Expensive, according to their adverts. It isn't really though, is it?

15. Real ale in supermarkets.

22 Art materials

24. Coke

Taking the car to the Hebrides on the ferry

A camping holiday (£900 for two weeks touring scotland)

I wish it was cheaper to holiday at home.

assuming we're taking 'bafflingly' to just mean 'cynical rip-off by the sellers'

Train ticket pricing is far more baffling than airline pricing. With the latter, it's usually just a case of the earlier you book, the cheaper it is. With trains, certain tickets become available at certain times, two singles are someetimes cheaper than a return, sometimes it's even cheaper to buy two separate A-B and B-C tickets than one A-B-C one when you need to change trains.

Yes yes but the point is, there is surely a sizeable middle ground of people like myself and perhaps CJ who would be prepared to overlook a price increase were it not so HUEG - thus being spurred into tightwad-based action and leaving their bloody Revels where they are

Personally it is baffling why Real Ale costs less in pubs than generic industrial lagers (Fosters, Stella etc.) and keg Guiness (the bottle conditioned guiness the exception here) when it costs much more to make and keep in good condition. Of course the reason for this is the marketing costs of these products, and I'm not complaining. I can envisage a time in the future when Ale becomes the premium product in price terms though.

No, we're talking about things where the price just makes no sense. Either because the whole industry keeps something artificially expensive and no one can be bothered to start a price war, or because they're considered a delicacy, or because there's wildly inconsistent pricing policy, or something like rail fares which is just absurd.

some airlines (esp the budgety ones) seem to just quote your fares as a combination of singles these days. but yes it's easier with planes unless you're mixing and matching airlines (but i don't think that's the same with mixing train companies).

otm. and it's shocking how much you can be ripped off if you don't 'shop around' for the best priced ticket. For instance my monthly visits to Bristol could cost me £82 if I just asked the teller "return ticket to Bristol please", but booking online and looking for certain types of tickets I end up saving about thirty quid.

Who does that? I thought everyone took it to A Little Bloke Down The Road.

(although, saying that, I have been pleasantly surprised by how competitively priced the dealership has been in doing some work on my BMW)

how does that not make sense (to them)?

You don't. Popcorn + pick'n'mix are freely available to scoff at will to fill up your container with in the main concourse of the cinema. (at least where I live, anyway)

xpost to Stevem

i.e

Panda cola

are you buying the tickets from the teller in advance though?

Panda cola

Yes there is a funny 'if it's that cheap it must taste shit' thing with this.

Fentimann's glass bottled cola is 're-assuringly expensive' otoh.

Price is generally a good indicator of quality.

Panda cola tastes shit. xpost grr.

Concept of 'brand equity' to thread.

i forget what the proper term is for economics of luxury goods but for things like truffles, diamonds &c their "artificially" high price is an integral part of their market appeal in the first place

Macamadamia nuts are expensive because they need shelling by hand (I think?) because they'd be poisonous otherwise.

Yes, I take it to the little guy down the road, but I have used the main dealer for one or two jobs over the years. You'd be amazed how many people just pay through the nose for jobs that any mechanic could do.

Gent's barber

Other end:

Male Grooming

Saw this on 211 bus through Fulham yesterday.

(I had an ex-boyfriend who used to pay about £30 to get his hair cut. He was a poncey twat).

i always imagined part of the joy of female haircut is to be able to tell others how much you've spent on your haircut.

well buying in advance is usually cheaper than day of travel (you're paying for the convenience and flexibility of just wandering to the counter and get your ticket and go?)

Attractive Russian hairdresser, probably recently trained, being very slow and very methodical. I would recommend the experience if you're ever in Waterloo and in need of a haircut.

Don't get me started on the drinks as well. £11 for a double whiskey and Coke I paid the other week.

Mrs Dr. C takes 2 hours. I reckon it's around £60, but may be more. I am not privy to that information. So approx = 50p/min. Also I know that several glasses of wine are involved.

Cut Shop in Euston is good for people who don't want to talk to hairdressers - they are quick and it's £15 or so, and you don't have to make appointments - it is like being in the Japanese Future! Or perhaps just Japan. They have a special haircut vacuum system which means no itchy neck - so they say! I certainly had no itchy neck. My haircut was alright, seeing as I had no idea what I wanted, it was just in the middle of the heatwave and my hair was TOO DARN HEAVY.

I want a haircut again now, but I have just started being complimented on my hair now it is just past shoulder length, and my desperation for SOMETHING about me to look good won't just let me cut it all off at the moment.

Strangely, it costs me more to have less hair cut-off.

xpost, I have never heard of these boffo new disposables, maybe I'll give 'em a go.

OT MUTHAFUCKING M

Womens haircuts are stupidly expensive. I haven't had my hair trimmed in a year because the last time I tried to get a trim - just a trim, mind you, chop the ends off, no styling - everywhere I asked wanted to charge me £30. FOR A TRIM!!!

Eventually after asking around, a place did it for about £20, but still. Absurd.

My ex used to get his hair cut at one of those £5 places. I went to get my hair trimmed there - they told me it would be £10 because I had long hair. I just wondered if a male with long hair went in there it would be the same. Grrrr.

I think I may try this cut shop place, but I utilised the Liz self haircutting method this past week.

Trains, also. WTF? The service gets worse and the prices go up. Start making sense, please.

Why are their prices climbing at such an absurd rate?

When I first started buying them, they were £60. They they went up to £65 within about 6 months. The past Xmas, they were at £75. This is all within about two years!

I want a haircut.

I suppose with a lapdance you are paying for the memories.

I have noticed this last week that the reduced train service has managed to be on time at least, but that might be due to fewer passengers, sorry, customers.

http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/servlet/display/product/detail/31831

http://i.treehugger.com/files/th_images/razorsaver.jpg

Actually it probably would be the same. I've been charged extra for having a lot cut off.

I quite like going to the barber's but you could do it more often at home, and at any time.

The other thing though is that the cinema exhibition industry has been in a serious crunch for a while, really ever since home video took off as a format. The party line is that they can't make ticket prices any lower and still keep the lights on; the ONLY profit they make is actually in the concessions. Why one chain doesn't knock the price back slightly and try to make its name as the one where you don't have to pay through the nose for concessions is obvious: they would have to run ads proudly proclaiming "Only $2.25 for a box of Junior Mints!" which doesn't sound good even if the going rate is $2.75. So even though everybody who goes to the movies does nothing but gasp in horror at the prices, no individual exhibitor has any incentive at all to cut the prices back.

Michael Carrick

Indeedy-doody. A few months back Pam, in late stages of pregnancy and not really keen on setting up the mirrors at home to cut her own hair (which is what she usually does), decided to splash out on a HBF cut. Retained her basic bob but with all these 'orrible long bits. I thought she looked OK (from the photos she took) but before I got home she'd lopped off all the superfluous stuff.

(xpost)

I bought a beard trimmer recently for 15 euro in boots, it doesn't quite give you a cueball clean shave but it does enough that I'm never buying razors again, at least not until such time as I have a job that requires a cueball clean shave...not looking likely anytime soon...LIVING THE DREAM

but isnt' that five minutes worth of personal 'entertainment', as opposed to the cinema where you share your (SIX HOURS?? for 20 quid??!?! maybe if you watch lord of the rings) whateever time with 200 other people!

"[sellers] know people will pay and are trying to rip them off" is the reason why everything in this thread is the price it is

Do YOU work for free? Things are expensive for various reasons. Sushi is not about quantity, it's also about the making of it. Together with truffles, I suspect that part of why they are expensive is because the ingredients quickly expire and that has to be calculated into the selling price. Haircuts? I guess some places are more expensive because of location.

*shrug* I know I'm not making sense, but I always think that if it's expensive it's not necessarily about ripping off but higher cost.

Except diamonds, that's a controlled markt. Is it worth the price? You could say yes because (until now at least) you know the prices won't drop dramatically. (Then again in the 80s they did plummet if I recall correctly.)

xpost

however, once i decide i want short hair again i am going to have to start going to the salon more :(

better than what you get at a pub.

most expensive glass of coke ever.. 93 feet east, 3 quid for a glass of coke. it was more expensive than beer (or maybe same price)!

Yeah, but guess what they fill it up with to make up the volume!

9. pro audio gear

Ha! I'd say high-end consumer audio gear is worse cos at least you know you're guaranteed good, accurate sound with the pro stuff but, again, the "high-end" thing kinda exempts it from the bafflingly expensive tag. It's "high-end", of course it's going to be pricey (even if yr £2,000 CD player is just a cheap Philips transport, some mass-produced electronics, a massively-overspecified PSU and some dubiously-placed vacuum tubes in a chunky brushed-steel box and sounds no better than a Sony at a tenth of the price).

fucking tossers.

-- Nathalie (dotdotdo...), January 5th, 2007.

it's worth the price because you know they pay the miners well -- a bit like fair trade coffee, but more bling.

Katrina and Rita destroyed much of the 2005 crop up the path of the storm, LA and MS, but the yield here is higher this year. The 2006 Georgia crop is only half of '05's because of a warm winter, and Texas' crop is down because of lack of rain.

“You need a good, cold winter for the tree to go into dormancy, and we haven’t had that in the past few years,” Leger said. “That doesn’t mean the tree won’t produce. It just produces a lower amount of pecans.”

OK, why are green cardomums more expensive than any other curry spice (except maybe saffron)?

xpost

SO OTM it hurts.

We looked at an identical flat to ours to buy nearly two years ago and it would have cost over £300 more a month to buy rather than stay renting our current place +£100 in leasehold charges + other assorted repairs (£630 pcm). House prices have apparently gone up 15% in Brighton since then...

You could just as well say [size of housing stock remaining fairly constant]+[desire for buy-to-let as an investment alternative to underperforming pensions]=[demand to buy outstrips supply]+[demand to rent met by supply]. This needn't necessarily be a bubble, it could just be a change in market (and cultural) conditions.

It's probably a bubble, mind.

cross posts

For houses in particular and especially on buy-to-let, the "real" future value is basically their rental return, which isn't increasing much beyond inflation. More bubbles than Fairy, here.

But you can't live in tulips. xposts

Hm, that analysis looks like it's examining the housing market in a vacuum to me, without reference to outside factors like a disastrous pensions system and a tax system which (I think) has been geared to encourage the private rented sector since the 80s.

Also it seems to me that a lot of the buytolettists are only looking to cover costs, because what they want is the asset at the end, which warps the concept of "real" value a bit, doesn't it?

Anyway, as I say (and as I've likely just demonstrated) I don't know what I'm on about.

Yes and no. The buytolettists are probably the ones driving the bubble, to be honest. Like everyone who wanted in on this South Seas company, they see a quick buck.

But the prices they're paying mean that quickly the rent they have to charge even to cover costs vastly outstrips the price renters will pay. The owners can take a loss, but eventually they'll have to get rid of the house. If that happens to a lot of people, the price will drop dramatically -- and the bubble bursts.

Your points about the market are good, but the reason a bubble is easier to see in houses is that everyone needs to live somewhere. The rental value is the price they're prepared to pay for that. If the cost of a house vastly outstrips it, it has been put there by some other factor. If that factor is actually based on the potential rental value that it's now outstripping, there's a big problem there.

Does that make sense? Speaking as someone who dropped economics to spend more time in bed on other things.

Also they always have new gizmos in them that haven't quite been mass produced yet and so are still expensive, like that adaptive cruise control that makes sure you're always the right distance from the car in front.

As for movie theater popcorn, I have no idea how anyone can finish off more than that one little bag you can get for about $2.50, and even that will sometimes present a challenge. I think five people can easily split the popcorn in one of those huge buckets. So that's not that bad. Now movie ticket prices, OTOH, namely the ones for the national theater chains, are getting out of control. When I have to pay for matinee prices that which just a few years ago would have been the regular price for a ticket, that becomes the time for me to switch over to our local movie theater chain permanently.

I went to buy a massive frying pan with a lid. I suppose I want more of a saute pan, but one that's not so deep so I can do massive fry up in one pan. The only one I could find that fitted this description was in Boswells for £63! For a pan! WTF?

37. Vanilla Extract

39. Dentistry

Amount I have paid since October: $150. Amount currently due: $100.

Yes, I have learned my lesson, but due to their tardiness in sending tickets it took me until November to figure out my infraction--meanwhile, they are still backlogging October tickets.

xp mach3 cartridges last a long time, at least 2 months each for me

This is so true. It seems to be worse in North America, for some reason.

getting things framed

49. Face moisturizer

n/a otm

ikea imo

Really, someone please explain the training/tools/technology behind the framing industry that allow them to charge so much. I'm genuinely curious now.

Everything when you're not working.

Birthday cards - a bit of card with a picture printed on it, why is this almost £2?

50. Y-3 or Lanvin menswear

fruit

Can someone please explain the framing? Genuinely curious about this as well.

http://www.thegrumble.com/archive/index.php/t-11902.html

my favorite is this: "Custom framing is a great buy, compared to your $1,000 computer, which will be worthless in a few months. And you will never enjoy that computer as much as this frame, which will provide decades of enjoyment..."

I was so shocked by the price of a framing job a few months back that I almost walked out but then I chickened out and paid up anyway. I think about half of their sales are to people who are embarrassed about looking cheap.

Can someone please explain the framing? Genuinely curious about this as well.
--he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0)

I don't know a thing about framing, but any job that requires a person with specialized skills to work on something for an extended period of time will be big bucks.

it's not that hard, tho, is the thing

"decades of enjoyment" = it will hang on a wall and you will not notice it

my sister learned how to frame stuff on her own, and does it all herself now

My only experience w framing is with a small local shop in my parents' hometown where all the work is by hand. They have saws/trimmers for angled matt cuts and so on, but there's a person actually handling your artwork, thinking about how best to display it, whether a little more space between the glass and the art is going to affect how close/deep/real it looks or whether less space will preserve the old paper better...I don't even know but I'm pretty sure there's a lot of esoteric & specialized knowledge involved. Plus you want someone w the experience to know how something is going to look BEFORE they custom-size and assemble all the pieces, because you don't want them going back again.

At best, I guess, you're paying for specialized tech and assembly know-how PLUS aesthetic guidance. At worst...I have no idea.

women's things: haircuts, clothing, dry cleaning

Re framing: At worst, you should probably go to Marshall's and buy a really ugly "basket of fruit" kitchen print for $25, tear the picture out, and tape your artwork it its place.

i mean, yeah, you're paying for access to the materials (no idea where to get framing stuff) and for the aesthetic consultation, but if you can DIY it's gotta be a huge saver

laurel: ikea! for serious

"decades of enjoyment" = it will hang on a wall and you will not notice it

If you don't notice what's hanging on yr wall, why are you paying ANYTHING to put it there?

Okay, Ikea!

I understand the skill and technical knowledge required, but it seems really out of scale.

xpost to Laurel

will not notice the frame, not what's in it. i don't usually notice frames! but that's just me.

Maybe you could ask the guy to frame the receipt for you as well?

Never had anything framed - how much did you get stung for?

Those framers are mad defensive.

The prob I guess is that it doesn't seem hard in my head - like you can guess handmade shoes would be stupid expensive because they seem very hard to make. But a wood oblong, not so much. And even if you just keep making your made-up version of framing harder ('special wood', 'special glue', 'very straight') it still never seems like it's that specialised a skill, not till you get to those fancy gold-leaf frames with fruit round the edges etc. .

If I made a makeshift frame & showed it to someone they would say, 'o a slightly shitty frame, you made it yourself, that is nice'. If I made some shoes, they would say 'What is that? Well they don't look like shoes. You can't wear them. How long did that take? Why?'.

I have a Dubout film poster at home that cost a lot of money, but not as much money as the frame.

When my mom has had stuff framed for me at home, they do a custom frame, the design of which you choose out of HUNDREDS, cut not to the size of your artwork, but to the size of however many layers of matting are going in it -- different colors of matt will frame your item differently, plus the angled cut leaves a white border of varying widths (depending on the angle) that adds depth again and sets off the next layer...

How far you want the matts to extend in framing the piece depends on a ton of shit, like whether the scale of the orig is bold or dainty, how big the space is in your home where the piece is going...hell, probably 5 other things.

If you want your art or poster to go right up to the edge of the frame and have no matt and no detailing, fuck it, go to Ikea!! Don't get it professionally framed at all.

My wife bought like a 9" x 12" print when she was in Italy back in 2004, we took it to a frame shop and were told it was going to be $200 to frame it. She paid $45 for the print.

some ikea frames have mattes

Nice to know. I have a 15-yr-o Belle & Sebastian show poster that I want framed, and it's an odd size and I might want it double-sided glass b/c it's a double-sided print. Not really looking forward to that final number, but it's prob a couple of years away anyway.

can't believe arugula hasn't been mentioned yet

it's a weed

weed

can't believe arugula hasn't been mentioned yet

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's a weed

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:34 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

same with ramps. they grow everywhere in upstate ny, yet go for $16 a pound at farmer's markets.

27. Pizza

I was thinking about this this morning. I live in a neighborhood w/ super cheap ethnic food everywhere but the pizza places aren't cheaper than anywhere else in the city. you'd think there'd be more price competition, esp considering how cheap the ingredients are.

this pizza place near my office just lowered their prices to $1 a slice. First time I've seen pizza prices go down.

imo that should be the fair price for a not-fresh piece from some crappy hole in the wall pizzeria

any job that requires a person with specialized skills to work on something for an extended period of time will be big bucks

this seemingly logical statement so far from the truth

Friends tell me framing in the US is way more expensive than the place I used to go to in the UK. I need to get a picture re-framed :(

cant believe you guys are such framing haters

if u have nice artwork its important to have a quality frame that complements the art, otherwise your art will look shitty and you will look like a fool

It's almost as if we're trying to make it appear that the industry is guilty of some crime that it did not commit.

¯\(º o)/¯

if u have nice artwork its important to have a quality frame that complements the art, otherwise your art will look shitty and you will look like a fool

lookit dis dude, buyin' into the framing-industrial complex lie$

Good framing is worth it.

anyway yall want me 2 blow yr minds

shit is expensive

because

~~~people will pay lots of money for shit~~~

I would agree that the industry is gilty

thanks, max. i like the way your argument is framed.

I got two screen print posters framed at the local (UK) framing shop and paid about £60 each (total size about 30" x 14"), which seemed fair to me - all the stuff upthread about expert knowledge for the type of materials, best mounting colour etc resulted in a far better job than I'd ever do, even if I had access to a shed, suitable woods, saws, glass, ambulance service etc.

And for something truly bafflingly expensive I'd like to agree with the comments from '07 that printer cartridges are absurdly so - a few weeks back I spent the best part of five grand at work on HP toners, effectively coloured dust in a box.

yeah but that's not baffling

(printer company has (more or less) a monopoly over making cartridges for its printer -> $$$$)

lol i'm only posting here because i was just looking at my tub of grapes and saying "two quid for these wot a rip off" and seconds later just saw this thread

Took a smallish painting to be framed the other week, came to £90 - when I looked at the price list I exclaimed "christ, that's expensive" exactly as mr spacecadet (who has had things framed before) declared it to be very reasonable

but an incident a few years ago led to me attempting to, uh, reconstruct the small wooden frame around the 4"x6" glass pane in my parents' front door - thought this would be a simple task but after much measuring and sawing had 4 pieces of wood which did not fit together at all, so yeah, not going to make my own picture frames any time soon

i used to be a framer (lol to see a link to the grumble on ilx). even the simplest moulding starts at about $10/ft. retail, plus they get you for glass ("oh, you're gonna want the UV-protectant, glare-resistant glass too"), upsell you to the nice suede mat board, then talk you into a decorative fillet around the bevel. then of course the price has got to account for my minimum wages. yes it's all overpriced, but no more overpriced than the art itself. 90% of the clients who came into my shop were all rich old ladies anyway.

cell phone service is needlessly expensive.

fucking amoral greedhead
http://www.thecompletepictureusa.com/images/nancy1.jpg

i do not miss that velcroed wall

Framing whatevs, I can dig why it would be $$$. What gets me is how much it costs to buy a pre-made canvas compared to the price of knocking one together yourself. And the canvases available at the one place that sells them here in town could not seem cheaper or shoddier in quality. I'll save $$ on the canvas & then cry when I got to get it framed.

if i didn't buy razor blade cartridges for six months i could probably use the money to frame a poster

stretching your own canvas is really satisfying once you get good at it. professional gift wrappers at the mall also know this joy, although they're limited to scotch tape while framers get to use a pneumatic staple gun.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21GrdRowR4L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Much much cheaper.

Framing is a scam, but how to get around it? It's a sellers market cause you already have the art... what the fuck else are you going to do with it? Blu-tack it to your wall? Also, what iiiijjjj said above – a good percentage of the customers are not very price-sensitive. And, the raw materials are very expensive for unclear reasons. The shop obviously has to keep a lot of stock on hand, which is inefficient.

my family thought about getting my diploma framed but after seeing the prices, no. I think it's currently rolled up bound with rubber bands sitting in some desk drawer at home.

yeah xposts cellphone service in canada is even more expensive than most places! it is dumb
i don't think cellphone and laptop batteries should be so $$ either

i got something framed for a christmas present a few months ago and was gen surprised at how cheap it was so maybe this is a US thing.

shampoo

Shampoo is $0.99 for a bottle of VO5. Not shampooing at all = freer and better for your hair in the long run.

not down w/ dirtbag style

I'd like to agree with the comments from '07 that printer cartridges are absurdly so

If you search ebay or amazon you can find refillable cartridges that match your printer, and they have chip overrides on them so you can refill until the end of time. I bought one two years ago -- it came with little CMYK refills bottles -- and have just now run out of ink. And now replacing everything will only be 10 bucks or so.

But yeah, the ink racket....sheesh!

ayo just use less shampoo afaik

The Rev. you have like no hair! How is shampoo a big expense? Are you like an Aveda groupie or summat?

I gave my upstairs neighbor whose hair is same length, etc., as yours 1/2 a bottle of shampoo (a small bottle) and it lasted him like 3 months before he asked me for more shampoo. (I am an Aveda groupie so I felt odd knowing this guy was using some girly-smelling shampoo. Also why was I giving this guy shampoo?)

the odd part is that he came back to you for more 3 months later

cant believe you guys are such framing haters

dont hate the player hate the frame

Soundmen. The kind that "operate" a mixing board.

"cell phone service is needlessly expensive."

Yes! I was talking to this guy who was in said business and he said starting up was expensive but once that stage had passed, profits were ridiculously high. Belgium is one of the most expensive btw. :-(

The Rev. you have like no hair! How is shampoo a big expense? Are you like an Aveda groupie or summat?

― How to Make an American Quit (Abbott), Wednesday, March 10, 2010 10:47 PM Bookmark

the length of my hair tends to vary quite a bit. and it's curly, thus longer than it looks. thick, too.

besides, I didn't say I go through a ton of it, just that it's bafflingly expensive

HDMI cables

bay scallops (the little ones)

NY TIMES home delivery (never understood why subscribing costs MORE than buying the paper everyday)

I found through dedicated study that if you spend $10 on one of those giant bottles of "salon" shampoo it will last longer. Even Mane and Tail. Whereas the VO5 is used up in two weeks. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems if you spend more you get a product with a stronger concentration.

I am too old to spend like a college student. Not complaining though.

Soundmen. The kind that "operate" a mixing board.

― Josefa, Thursday, March 11, 2010 8:33 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Priceless if they're good. Scum of the earth if not.

the big value size tub of head and shoulders I bought last september is still going strong

um the times home delivery is WAY cheaper than buying the paper daily! I'm paying thirty bucks a month.

dry cleaning

actually dry cleaning is pretty rad if you read about it, it requires all sorts of specialized machines and detergents and trucking stuff away to dry cleaning factories and stuff. I'm surprised it doesn't cost more than it actually does

HDMI cables are cheap online.

and monster cabels are a ripoff btw

Beer in Singapore.

Paid SEVEN POUNDS for a pint the other night.

HDMI cables are cheap online.

i paid less than $10 online for one that radio shack sells for 79.99!!

eyeglasses.

It seems in all these cases we are baffled by markets we don't fully understand.

It seems in all these cases we are baffled by markets we don't fully understand.

Well, if you boil it right down, there's not a lot to understand. They charge a lot because you will, for one reason or another, pay that amount. Maybe the thread should be called "things I spend a baffling amount of money on".

Yeha, but unless there's a monopoly, these items' prices ar also subject to downward pressure from competition. If the prices are baffling there's something about the supply or demand we aren't taking into account.

I don't understand why there isn't some non online store that sells hdmi cables for $10. It seems like there would be a market for that kind of thing.

Soundmen. The kind that "operate" a mixing board.

yeah, it's rough when they're making way more than anyone in the band and doing a shitty job, but it's also a pretty thankless gig. if you do a good job, you usually don't get props, but everyone hates you if the sound is bad. and i would hate to have to show up early, deal with bands, and be the last one to leave. it's like all the worst parts of being in a band without getting to play any music.

AMERICAN COLLEGE TUITION

re: the parts we aren't taking into account -- You mean the baffling part? Who buys monster cables? I know who supplies monster cables... those brigands!

I, for one, would purchase a pair of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, which are made by Monster. They are REALLY expensive. But I have no need as the ones I have currently are doing just fine.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the association with Monster, and has EVERYTHING to do with its association with Dr. Dre. The amount of joy that man and his music have brought into my life is kind of extraordinary when you consider that I have never, nor will I probably ever meet him.

re: the parts we aren't taking into account -- You mean the baffling part? Who buys monster cables? I know who supplies monster cables... those brigands!

Please see
Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

sports illustrated subscriptions

it's a weekly

$200 for a paisley dress shirt made in China? Fuck you Michael Kors.

every time I give any serious thought to how the fashion industry works it just makes me want to stab

violent rage seems like a p reasonable solution to overpriced sweaters, sure

entertainment weekly is a weekly and it's about 1/5 the cost

A new turbo for my bloody car! Cost = 1/5 of what I paid for the car (4 y.o)

$200 for a paisley dress shirt made in China? Fuck you Michael Kors.

Remember your option not to buy. (Or is the brand/print/cut that apppealing?)

entertainment weekly is a weekly and it's about 1/5 the cost

EW's like 20 bucks, SI 40 bucks, both at Amazon, what are you talking about?

Remember your option not to buy. (Or is the brand/print/cut that apppealing?)

oh I didn't buy it I'm not gonna contribute to that douchebag's 2000% profit margin

Norway

I think what's annoying me about this is not that I'm not consumer oriented but that I'm also producer oriented. Michael Kors' profit margin will or won't be sustained by the market. 2000% profit margin in a wildly speculative aesthetic market doesn't strike me as excessive - you don't need to buy (I assume this is for your wife, otherwise be prepared for extensive alteration) it and he could fail spectacularly (or even just fail point, tout court) at recouping his expenditures in a business plan that includes multifarious obligations world-wide. If you're buying Kors, it's because of the zeitgeist, the specific quality or design or tailoring. Nobody buys such temporally topical shit unless they really, really want to and the economics thereof are going to be different from, I dunno, say, Carhartt or whatever. Get over your sense of entitlement, we're lucky to be clothed, frankly. I can't weave or cut fabric or sew.

we're lucky to be clothed

uh what? we are? or do you mean "we are lucky enough to be able to afford clothes and houses, etc."

Well, yes.

as mentioned elsewhere i just wear voluminous black court robes everywhere

they arent the expensive i make them out of curtains

CANT BELIEVE THINGS COST MONEY

CLOTHES ARE JUST MADE OF THINGS

It's a very dashing look, Lamp, but you night weant to try some more henna in your hair for added flash.

GOING TO COLLEGE IS JUST TALKING TO AN OLD PERSON AND LIVING IN A PRISON CELL WHY DOES IT COST FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS

prison costs way more than 40k!

uh, I don't know about your college years but mine were emphatically NOT a weird mashup of visiting yr grandparents at the home and doing time

Renting a car to drive from Portland to San Francisco. (One-way, alas.) $450 for two days!

eh, I was just doing some idle shopping for men's shirts at Nordstrom Rack (where, inexplicably, the women's clothes are quite significantly cheaper than the men's clothes). I was happy to buy the cheaper/more pedestrian Calvin Klein (or Carhartt or whatever), I don't think I would have even considered buying a Kors shirt at all except that I happen to have a soft spot for paisley.

But it's more the basic economics of the, as you put it, "wildly speculative aesthetic market" that I find inherently repulsive. Because they result in charging exorbitant prices for articles manufactured by a grossly exploited and under-compensated labor pool, all so a bunch of self-absorbed rich assholes can indulge their childish egos about how "stylish" or "pretty" they are. I mean how much do you think it really cost to make that shirt and get it into a US store... $5? $10?

(and fwiw I am more than happy to wear clothes made by actual people I know, my wife can sew, so can my mother-in-law, etc.)

oh many xposts oops

CLOTHES ARE JUST MADE OF THINGS

my clothes are made of ideas and mustard stains

you got hosed

^^my new response to everything on this thread

has anyone said "relationships" yet?

my clothes are made of ideas and mustard stains

Renting a car to drive from Portland to San Francisco. (One-way, alas.) $450 for two days!

u got hosed

uh, I don't know about your college years but mine were emphatically NOT a weird mashup of visiting yr grandparents at the home and doing time

hey $40k only goes so far...

u got hosed

i save money to buy things by refusing to tip waiters

u hose waiters

WHAT A DICK

shakey mo how much do u pay your wife & mother in law?

I don't think I would have even considered buying a Kors shirt at all except that I happen to have a soft spot for paisley.

I think I've identified where you went wrong.

(btw my condolences on MPLSound and Lotusflower, better luck next time?)

I don't think I would have even considered buying a Kors shirt at all except that I happen to have a soft spot for paisley.

As I recall.

I just mean, you like paisley, you see nice paisley, it costs WHAT?!!! Oh, Michael Kors... whatever. This explotiative line of argument is unfortunately a major factor in human nature. I'll buy union made, I'll buy fair-trade, I'll refrain from buying frippery but I may not not get what I want , eh?

Too lazy to google for picture of Ian Paisley's head...

shakey mo how much do u pay your wife & mother in law?

um I guess if you got into the crude economics of it I pay my wife around 1/2 my salary to take care of our kid and keep us all clothed and fed. my mother-in-law refuses to accept any money from us.

I think I've identified where you went wrong.

(btw my condolences on MPLSound and Lotusflower, better luck next time?)

paisley park is in your heart, Dan

how much do you think it really cost to make that shirt and get it into a US store... $5? $10?

i mean dude

But it's more the basic economics of the, as you put it, "wildly speculative aesthetic market" that I find inherently repulsive.

IT'S CRAZY TO PAY A MAN 10 MILLION TO PUT A BALL IN A HOOP

hey if you have a detailed breakdown of Kors' economics by all means lay it out there. but yeah mostly I assume anything that's made in China costs like fifty cents, since its basically slave labor.

IT'S CRAZY TO PAY A MAN 10 MILLION TO PUT A BALL IN A HOOP

imho yes it is! but I am that rare species of male who has absolutely zero interest in professional sports. and that's another thread altogether...

shakey mo knows how much things are worth

mo knows

everything made in china was made by slaves and costs fifty cents

no, you aren't paying for just the shirt, you are paying for it being a michael kors shirt.

the michael kors people had to shell out a shitload to make sure everyone on earth knows how special that is; that's the labor and expense you're paying for. no, you aren't paying the kid in indonesia, but you are paying don draper DO YOU SEE

yes I do see and frankly that's the part I have no interest in paying for

(lol the only reason I even know who Michael Kors is at all is because I have had to sit through a few too many episodes of Project Runway)

shakey i cant tell if youre operating on a sub econ-101 level here or are just ignoring the way pricing is determined?

hey if you have a detailed breakdown of Kors' economics by all means lay it out there. but yeah mostly I assume anything that's made in China costs like fifty cents, since its basically slave labor.

― Wet Hot American Oil Spill (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:23 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i mean there is more going into the kors shirt than chinese dudes and some paisley fabric

xxp exactly

"IT'S CRAZY TO PAY A MAN 10 MILLION TO PUT A BALL IN A HOOP

imho yes it is! but I am that rare species of male who has absolutely zero interest in professional sports."

I have no love for sports either, but Charles Barkley says such crazy stuff he's worth at least $1million for that. Would love to see Leno booted after 3 months and show given to Sir Charles.

Shakey, that line of inquiry baffles me. Why speculate? It costs what it costs. For every stuck-in-the-19th century pseudo-Marxist who has a slim grasp of his labor theory of value, there are stuck-in-the-18th-century Smithians who can faintly grasp only the importance of capital. C'mon, can we at least get within a couple of decades of modern economic theory?

(lol the only reason I even know who Michael Kors is at all is because I have had to sit through a few too many episodes of Project Runway)

Real slavery^^^

sorry to be al 'markets 101' 'marx was incorrect 101' but, there is no such thing as 'surplus value'. there is no inherent, and therefore no "just" cost for anything.

things are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them, and that's that, there is no other way of assigning a figure. oppression goes into the price, no doubt, but it's not like fixing the cost of a paisley michael kors shirt at 19.99 makes that problem go away. perhaps you have heard of wal-mart.

funny it took this thread to out me as basically anti-revolutionary, but there u go.

lol xps

Why speculate? It costs what it costs.

because, frankly, if that very same shirt did not have Michael Kors' stupid name on it, I would have been able to afford it. So I guess I'm just annoyed that he got a product made that I would have otherwise purchased, had his ridiculous industry not necessitated it being so expensive.

xp

that very same shirt wouldn't have even existed if not for Michael Kors

there is no inherent, and therefore no "just" cost for anything.

things are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them, and that's that, there is no other way of assigning a figure.

lol why are you even bothering with this thread then...? which is about people not being able to understand why certain things are so expensive?

anything that's made in China costs like fifty cents, since its basically slave labor.

People in China can make a very healthy wage, enough live comfortably by their own standards and/or achieve their personal goals (like working for 2 years in a factory and then going home with enough money to buy their extended family the first home they've ever owned, for instance), and still produce products that are really freaking cheap compared to our domestic labor.

The only area that we can't make the Far East conform to Western labor standards is in hours worked -- typically the young people that leave their families to live in a city and work for a manufacturer are willing to work far longer hours that someone in America who's been doing that job all his or her life and wants to leave promptly at 5pm.

that very same shirt wouldn't have even existed if not for Michael Kors

eh this is debatable - I mean, he didn't sew it himself. its not like it was THE MOST UNIQUE SHIRT EVER or anything

lol why are you even bothering with this thread then...? which is about people not being able to understand why certain things are so expensive?

― Wet Hot American Oil Spill (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:32 PM (20 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

think hes explaining why 'certain things are so expensive'

just by knockoffs

I would and do

think hes explaining why 'certain things are so expensive'

yeah but his answer is just "because that's how expensive they are" which is, you know, not really illuminating

btw i already explained all this upthread:

anyway yall want me 2 blow yr minds

― max, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 2:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

shit is expensive

because

~~~people will pay lots of money for shit~~~

― max, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 2:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'll buy that things are "worth" what the market will bear, but contained within that is the acceptance that markets often fail, and some markets are more "rational" than others, and there is plenty of room for bafflement in why that happens or why that is.

because, frankly, if that very same shirt did not have Michael Kors' stupid name on it, I would have been able to afford it.

Which posits that you DID like it (however original it may or may not have been). It's the cost that mattered to you. It was sufficiently attractive to elicit your interest but not at that price point. Okay, but why the Michael Kors hate, then?

anyway yall want me 2 blow yr minds

lol MIND ... BLOWN

However rational markets are, there are plenty, PLENTY of ineffiencies in human interactions; enough to keep it all 'interesting'.

BTW, don't knockoffs in general increase the value of the original brand? It's basically free advertising, and asserting by its being a knockoff that the original had some ineffable goodness worth knocking off.

I'll buy that things are "worth" what the market will bear, but contained within that is the acceptance that markets often fail, and some markets are more "rational" than others, and there is plenty of room for bafflement in why that happens or why that is.

otm

Conceivably, however, Michael Kors 'stupid name' is no more stupid than your favorite vocalist's, or favorite producer's, or painter's or writer's - they all more or less made it - it doesn't make them objectively the best. Go and try to make that one, unique, utopian paisly shirt for yourself, hell, make a half dozen for future use, and figure out how much that would cost you.

Learning to be a slightly less than knuckle-headed consumer is something they really should teach in school. If you get bored you can always slake your thirst with fluoridated water.

Go and try to make that one, unique, utopian paisly shirt for yourself, hell, make a half dozen for future use, and figure out how much that would cost you.

considerably less I'm sure, altho lol will have to figure out wife's hourly wage rate for this work haha... but yes fundamentally its not Michael Kors per se that I have an issue with so much as it is the name-brand fashion industry in general. which just creeps me out.

more than blood diamonds?

www.sackcloth.com

the word worth sorta makes this discussion tricky - I mean, in 2006 a house in riverside, ca is 'worth' $1,000,000 (someone will pay it) and it is also not 'worth' $1,000,000 (it does not have the underlying value and the market will eventually adjust)

I don't buy diamonds - pretty easy product to avoid. I am, however, required to wear a shirt on occasion.

More than the music industry? The restaurant industry? Biochemicals? Temporary workers industry? The lingerie industry? The arugula industry? The screamo industry? The pipe filter industry?

i've been calling for screamo regulations for years now

No one has mention rare records, private press, disco, minimal wave, northern soul, etc.......

Shakey Mo broke M. White

I am, however, required to wear a shirt on occasion.

Yes, but it's your choice to want to wear a handsome paisley one.

okay are we really playing captain-save-a-kors

I spend most of time worrying about the internet message board industry

I ain't broke, I was just off-raoding there for a stretch.

Scotty?! Don't give me you lithium crystals bullshit! What happened to spell-check?!

I spend most of time worrying about the internet message board industry

We DO need more fair-trade boards.

The only area that we can't make the Far East conform to Western labor standards is in hours worked

Also - environmental standards, or SEVERE lack thereof, tend to effect the cost of production.

We don't use any vendors that haven't passed a certain test that sets ethical business & labor practices. And everything I import has to pass stringent safety testing, so no fears on that count either. And it's still a freaking bargain compared to US pricing.

Laurel I forget who you work for...

i wish colleges would charge twice as much so education would be that much more precious

I produce children's books for the US arm of a French multi-media company.

books have to pass a safety test?

Children's books and toys and anything intended for an under-12 market do. Google "CPSC".

Or ASTM, or EN71.

I'll stick with just imagining a bunch of guys in white coats hitting each other with children's books/trying to give each other papercuts

It's find to imagine the squeaky sound as the scientists bonk each other in the head with bathtub books.

Haha that might cover EN71 but actually the CPSC is mostly concerned with testing every stitch, flake, and scrap of material for lead and phthalate content.

Sounds like a fetish to me.

yeah but his answer is just "because that's how expensive they are" which is, you know, not really illuminating

― Wet Hot American Oil Spill (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, March 11, 2010 3:34 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark

THEY ARE REALLY EXPENSIVE BECAUSE "MICHAEL KORS" HAS SPENT ONE BAJILLION TO MAKE THE WORLD THINK THE SHIRT IS FASIONABLE. THAT'S THE COST THAT THE PRICE ON THE SHIRT IS SUPPOSED TO RETURN.

if not very many people shell out, then obviously the marketing costs were a waste that year and they have to come up with a new product+advertising mix for next year. more people find it "bafflingly expensive" instead of "totally worth-it expensive" and life goes on. ometimes products fail, you know!

jesus christ i don't even know anything about fashion. or business!! this isn't that hard to put together

dude no need to yell - I understand and no its not that hard to put together, I just find it annoying when I'm confronted with the realities of Michale Kors' spending bajillion dollars on name recognition when I'm just trying to find a nice shirt to wear to a work party

Doesn't Michael Kors have an inexpensive ready to wear line at Macys?

I could imagine selling a prestige version of your product with no intention of pulling a return for the purposes of increasing demand for your downmarket version where you pull in the real $$. Who knows what chicanery the fashion industry is up to?

No different than advertising then, really. The opposite can happen, though. Look at Cardin.

dunno the truth of this anecdote, but i heard somewhere that at some point, BMW ("luxury" brand in the US, everyday brand in europe) decided to be a luxury brand everywhere and just jacked up its prices across the board. didn't change their product line at all. and it worked!

there's a "you charge for the customer you want to have" axiom in business, isn't there?

for those of you who think upholstery is bafflingly expensive, jack white has answers4u

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200305/?read=interview_white

http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Place-Religion-Contemporary-Art/dp/0415969883/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268348863&sr=1-18

Why does this book cost $125? Why does Routeledge charge so much for hardback books?

i've seen explanations why academic books and college textbooks are so expensive, and none of it made sense to me.

I have no freaking idea. Maybe it's print-on-demand? That means demand is so low that there's no point in printing a set quantity until someone actually pre-purchases it at a store, and then one copy is digitally printed and manufactured as a one-off. I still don't understand the price tag, though.

I mean that would be more than your average book, but not THAT much? I saw a children's book the other day that used to be 4.99 or something -- as a POD it's now 12.99.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

hmmm

Admittedly I don't know anything about academic publishing.

this book

http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Nuclear-Materials-Engineering-Landolt-B%C3%B6rnstein/dp/3540484744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268349395&sr=1-1

Selected Nuclear Materials and Engineering Systems (Landolt-Börnstein: Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology - New Series / Physical Chemistry) (Hardcover)

List Price: $8,039.00
Price: $7,838.03 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $200.97 (2%)

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Renting a car to drive from Portland to San Francisco. (One-way, alas.) $450 for two days!

― sean gramophone, Thursday, March 11, 2010 1:13 PM Bookmark

Amtrak imo

On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art is a pretty good little book BTW... good thing the library had it...in paperback.

some great reviews for that book there.

dunno the truth of this anecdote, but i heard somewhere that at some point, BMW ("luxury" brand in the US, everyday brand in europe) decided to be a luxury brand everywhere and just jacked up its prices across the board. didn't change their product line at all. and it worked!

there's a "you charge for the customer you want to have" axiom in business, isn't there?

― goole, Friday, March 12, 2010 6:43 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

coach is almost the equivalent of gucci and lv over here

different strokes for cummin on different markets

Fender Custom Shop guitars, specifically Esquires.

Someone said saffron way upthread but that one isnt baffling, surely. The crocus flower is fairly hard to grow and you only get like 3 stamens out of a flower or something ridiculous!

Stigmas. Whichever bit of the plant it is.

Wiki says stigma...I thought flowers only ever had one pistil, but I am le stupid, so...

Theyre all rude bits either way! :D

eyeglasses.

― r|t|c, 2010年03月12日 星期五 上午2:07 (9 hours ago) Bookmark

for real - if you have your prescription alraedy, there's no reason for a pair of glasses to cost more than $50 if you're just getting generic frames and regular plastic lenses.

Tell me about it, I spent over $500 on my last pair :/

But in fairness they were some kind of "designer" frames.

you're in australia right? send me your prescription, I'll get a pair made for you :P

in the US, you can go to places like 39dollarglasses.com

Yeah ppl tell me I should get glasses online or something. Its a thought - but how do you try them on and whatnot, I fuss around forEVER before I can bring myself to settle on a pair to buy :/ And then I went and lost my last (also $500+) pair by getting drunk and falling flat on my face in the dark and rain one night lol don't ask.

Saffron is kind of unbafflingly expensive to me, based on how much you get per some ridiculous amount of flowers.

This thing, on the other hand, is basically a fifty dollar piece of cardboard: http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Color-Separation-Guide-Scale/dp/B00009R7GB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268370571&sr=8-2.

THIS thing, I mean: http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Color-Separation-Guide-Scale/dp/B00009R7GB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268370571&sr=8-2

Soundmen. The kind that "operate" a mixing board.

yeah, it's rough when they're making way more than anyone in the band and doing a shitty job, but it's also a pretty thankless gig. if you do a good job, you usually don't get props, but everyone hates you if the sound is bad. and i would hate to have to show up early, deal with bands, and be the last one to leave. it's like all the worst parts of being in a band without getting to play any music.

Well it should be a thankless gig 'cause it's really so goddamn simple. Just don't mess it up, that's all you have to do. You are not doing anything creative. You are not doing anything that requires pre-planning or special expertise. You don't have to rehearse. Any idiot off the street could be taught how to do a soundman's job in under 30 minutes. Anyway, it's not "thankless" if you're getting guaranteed more money than the band could possibly be getting. The worst part of being in a band is lugging your equipment everywhere, and that's something a soundman never has to worry about. And what does "getting to play music" mean anyway? You don't just get to play music. You play it because you work at it and presumably are good at it. If you want to "get to play music" pick up an instrument and good luck to you...

yes to glasses! if you need reading glasses you can get them for like £3 from any chemist or department store, you can try a whole bunch of different prescriptions out in the shop instead of spending another £20 on an eye test too, but you want distance glasses? you have to get tested and spend £200 for a pair

maybe distance glasses are 60x more complicated than reading glasses, or maybe somebody worked out that us shortsighted mugs who are missing buses and walking into traffic and have to wear glasses to be allowed to drive would pay 60x more than people who just don't want to read large-print books

You can def pay less than £200 (get eye test, fill it online), but yeah world of opticians seems to be all set up so that a default or convenient behaviour (go to shop, buy thing) will end up with you paying that kind of money.

But I get the impression that short-sightedness is more complicated or dangerous (cars, driving and coming at you) than long-sightedness, so it's harder & more important to get right.

the tests and the lenses are the cheap part, it's the frames that are so fucking expensive. and yes, if you can get reading glasses for £3 i'm not clear why other frames are like a minimum of £80.

Well it should be a thankless gig 'cause it's really so goddamn simple. Just don't mess it up, that's all you have to do. You are not doing anything creative. You are not doing anything that requires pre-planning or special expertise. You don't have to rehearse. Any idiot off the street could be taught how to do a soundman's job in under 30 minutes. Anyway, it's not "thankless" if you're getting guaranteed more money than the band could possibly be getting. The worst part of being in a band is lugging your equipment everywhere, and that's something a soundman never has to worry about. And what does "getting to play music" mean anyway? You don't just get to play music. You play it because you work at it and presumably are good at it. If you want to "get to play music" pick up an instrument and good luck to you...

― Josefa, Friday, 12 March 2010 07:23 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is either the stupidest thing I've ever read on ILX or a really bafflingly unsuccessful attempt at a joke post

xp

The online places do seem to be seriously undercutting frame prices (but yes still like 10-20 x reading-glasses-price). I dipped my toe in last time I got a pair, but iirc found they were charging heavily on short-sighted lenses (I've got a fairly rough prescription) & didn't commit.

But frame prices in general are just... yes, baffling. A 'guess the frame price' img thread would surely cause confusion, outrage.

i get mine from a vintage dude that sells beautiful fromes from the 1910s-1980s. they're cheaper than new frames from 2010.

my last pair of glasses were £10 from tesco

that was for frames, lenses and eye test

Yeah I'm like isanely short sighted plus an astigmatism, basically can't function without glasses on, I don't mess around with cheap glasses.

My last hernia operation was at Tesco. £30 flat for the diagnosis, anesthesia, operation - the works

tbf cozen's glasses are awesome, from what I remember of the wdyll thread

nah they're boggin but c'mon £10

Yeah I'm like isanely short sighted plus an astigmatism, basically can't function without glasses on,

Who told you this? An optician? THEY'RE ALL IN ON IT.

yup they peddle that 'not all frames are strong enough to take prescription lenses' line too

Really I am the same, and get a bit nervous if glasses are too cheap. Also like '2 pairs for 1' deals so I have a pair of glasses to help me find my glasses.

uhmm are you guys getting lenses made from diamond? plastic lenses are really light

mine are lead crystal

uhmm are you guys getting lenses made from diamond? plastic lenses are really light

I've only heard a variation on the not-strong-enough line a long while ago when they refused to put new lenses in my old NHS frames because it would somehow destroy them. Usually they just nudge/push/force bad-eye people towards thin or ultra-thin lenses, which aren't so cheap.

glassesdirect.co.uk << these guys are great.

glassesdirect.co.uk

Was going to mention them but have spent a week at work having to look at a a magazine with the founder's face on it & he has a punchable face.

http://www.moneytrendslatest.com/wp-content/JamieMurrayWells.jpg

The soundman thing was kind of a joke, you're right. I started out talking about the very basic kind of sound job that is not that big a deal, but then I slipped into a drunken "character" and the post doesn't make much sense. Not to be taken seriously, sorry.

Reading this now, will report back later.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster

I just dropped $350 US on new glasses, too - and that's after the discounts from my pretty good vision plan. The one pair would have been at least $600 US otherwise. Buying glasses is like buying a car. You've got the frames, the lenses, the extra charge for having a strong prescription or bi- or tri-focals, then the coatings and the polishings... It's all the little charges that they pile up that makes it so expensive. I did get fancy pants frames, so that added about $100 to the total, but still.

I've purchased glasses on line with great success (zennioptical.com), but I don't know. I really wanted a nice pair and I've got healthcare savings account funds to burn up so I went for it.

Oh and this eye doc even charges an extra $11 for the visual field acuity test, which is really annoying! Why isn't it part of the regular exam??? Glaucoma and attendant vision loss runs in my immediate family, too, so I can't really skip it.

dude what?? Jenny that seems totally exorbitant.. My vintage guy sold me a pair of ca. 1910 wire frames with coated lenses for £90 all in.

Oh I see you got an eye exam too? Did not know about an extra charge for strong prescriptions.. the same vintage guy (that I may be secretly in love with) also sold me some wraparound sunglasses made in Paris in 1975 and actually put wraparound prescription lenses in them, matching the original color of the plastic. It is pretty funky wearing prescription wraparounds, let me tell you. As I left the shop he was like "be careful the first couple of days you wear them" and I turned my head and was like "what?" and tripped over the doorway.

Oh but anyway yeah no extra charge for the wraparound/colored lenses. I just think these things can be done relatively inexpensively, they just aren't most of the time.

vanilla pods used to be this but i can get them in lidl now for 75c- last year it was €3.50 in tesco if i wanted the musky goodness.

i had some old frames and a prescription and still got quoted £150 or so to get shit made? this was a few years ago so maybe i am misremembering the specifics but it was easily enough to put me off.

(i have a weirdly felicitous prescription anyway so it's no biggie really - each eye is long and short sighted enough to balance each other out, if that makes any sense - but this will bode bad for the future i expect)

You know, Tracer, I'm trying to go over all the costs in my head and I think the bulk of that was the frames. I had copays for the exam and materials, and I paid out of pocket for anti-glare and scratch-proof coatings and I let them talk me into polishing the sides of the lenses, but my 'scrip is middle-of-the-road and single lens so there wasn't an extra charge for that. The copays run from $10 to $30. Sales tax accounts for 10% of the total.

Damn. Well, like I said, healthcare savings account funds to the rescue!

i know it's declasse and a crushing personal failure on my part to ask tracer who his frame dealer is but i'm gonna anyway.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) -- $226.05

Re: Sound Guy
Unless the band is really big or are dicks, it really is kinda overpaid. The "specialized equipment" isn't all that complicated and doesn't take so long to figure out and live mixing is pretty easy and fun. I was always kinda taken aback by how well it paid the handful of times that I did it. The only way I can rationalize it is that when things go wrong it's super-stressful, but if you're working at a venue where the mics don't fry from just a bit of spittle and you've got a reasonable amount of time for setup, then it's a breeze.

r|t|c I never tire of telling people about this man! He's a friendly Scottish guy who is terrible at marketing and doesn't wear glasses himself yet spends several months each year researching old warehouses in Italy and shit, trying to find big old cartons of unsold frames from yesteryear.

here's one of his sites - http://www.myspace.com/arckivcamden
here's another - http://www.arckiv.net

he's in the stables at camden market

Oh ty that is cool & I too will look into him. For some reason I thought you were on another continent, otehrwise I also would have asked.

Same here - I really need some new glasses (thread has had me glued to it) and glassesdirect was looking the best option until punchable face.

unfortunately for this fine sounding fellow i'd probably rather go blind than ever venture forth into camden again.

(seriously tho thnx i will check him out!)

Blue jeans. There are work-arounds, fortunately -- you can buy second-hand, or hit smartbargains.com, or things like that. But just walking into the Levi's store cold and paying full retail can make your head feel all swimmy. "Did I really just spend $120 on fucking denim?"

Jesus christ people, sound guys that are cool and good at what they do are the salt of the fucking EARTH as far as i'm concerned.

also, if it's so damn "easy" why are there so few competent ones.

the ones that really know how to do things correctly and know the room make an incredible difference.

also, dudes that know how to manage a 3-4 band bill, keep things running right, ensure that bands get on and off on time....doing the Lord's Work.

^100 percent real talk.

I don't think I've ever spent that much on jeans. Of course I just buy all my jeans at the Gap, there they are $40 to $50 max. Of course they are never going to be as nice as Steve Shasta endorsed jeans.

the contention that "anyone can learn a soundguy's job in 30 minutes" is total nonsense.

M@tt OTM basically

also, maybe this is a US/UK thing but lots of times it doesn't pay well at all.

The solitary pair of jeans that will fit me via smartbargains.com Daaamn, no thanks.

NB I don't pay over $30 for jeans and it shows.

Small venue soundguys in my experience tend to get paid about exactly as much as I'd expect for a job that requires a certain level of technical expertise and involves them being somewhere for up to maybe seven hours, in the evening

I've been curious how James Jeans would fit me. Different brands tend to have signature fits. Levi's are very straight, Express have a bit of butt sag but are v comfy, and H&M jeans display mad package.

American Eagle have a nice middle-of-the-road fit: not too baggy, not too tight. I have some Banana Republic "straight-leg" jeans that my wife calls my "Euro-trash" jeans - not quite Ramones-album-cover level, but still a bit cozy.

mozzarella sticks!

I buy Shasta-friendly-ish jeans. Currently wearing raw Levi Vintage Collection based on jeans from 1937. They are way roomier than anything I've worn recently.

But LVC and good Japanese denim makes some sense to me - they are made on old looms, of quality denim, by people making a reasonable wage (if only in comparison to where Levi's are produced). And if I only buy one pair of jeans to wear for a year (or two), that's not unreasonable for $200 imo.

I can't justify expensive jeans because my waist size changes so frequently. If I knew I was going to stay the same size, $200 might be more feasible.

I have never worn anything besides Levi's and probably never will

think this was the thread where I complained about glasses prices and people went "oh you should buy them online", so

broke my glasses Sunday night, ordered some online (cz I can get by without for a few days), got panicked last night that they weren't going to turn up by Saturday when I have booked to go to things that I would quite like to be able to see, went to Vision Express

so of course my ordered glasses turned up this a.m. and now I have some £220 glasses and some £22-including-postage glasses, and the former are a little more hip and stylish (though I am completely the opposite of a hip and stylish person so really they just look kind of incongruous) but I cannot say they are 10x better at anything

in other words, pretty pleased w/buying cheap glasses online except for the not getting a dispatch email which might have saved me £200, but nobody to blame except my own worrying for that

I am looking at glasses right now. There's a pair I like but they're $$$. I'm not opposed to spending the money on them, but keep thinking there's a better pair out there (and only want to do this once every 5-10 years, if that). I'm finding it hard to find frames that I see online to try on in person, especially fancy brands.

The Viceroy got some glasses (and some rx sunglasses) from the place mentioned upthread, zenni optical, and he's super happy with them. They look good, too. He'd never had prescription sunglasses before, so it was funny walking out with him into the epic New Mexico sunshine: "I can finally see things!"

out-of-print CDs

Soup

In respect to the glasses discussion here - Tesco do free eye tests! Who knew? Not me.

xp yeah, soup IS really expensive at like delis and grocery stores and shit--what is up with that??

I suppose it's reckoned if you're buying soup it's because you need something quick and convenient that doesn't take any cooking and will be willing to pay for it?

Right, but it seems more expensive than other prepared foods of similar substance.

How much is a can of Heinz or something these days, like 70p maybe? I think that's basically reasonable for something that will form the majority of a meal, you've gotta expect being too lazy to cook properly to come w/ a price imo

bread. seriously. wtf I pay over $5 for a loaf of bread now.

cashews wtf

Cashews are mental expensive, aye.

WHY ARE CASHEW NUTS SO EXPENSIVE?

Because so much of the work of processing the nuts has to be done by hand. The process goes like this:(6)

* The fruit falls off the tree.
* People pick up the fruit and twist off the nut.
* People put the nut in water for soaking.
* People lay out the nuts to be sun dried.
* People crack open every single nut individually. They use a machine that is powered by their hands and feet.
* People pick out the nut from the shell by hand.
* People remove the red skin from the nut with a knife.
* People grade the nuts into one of 22 grades.