Things that are just bafflingly expensive

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