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If there is an antonym to HumbleDollar it surely must be in the form of a gift my wife just received from her niece. The gift is a bag. It’s a designer thing. From Paris. I googled the bag, and if you are interested you can buy one of your very own for about $4000.
My wife’s bag is actually a knock off, a counterfeit. The niece only paid 50 bucks. I couldn’t figure out how to post a picture, so I will try to describe it.
It’s a bag, it has strap, no zipper, totally open on the top. Picture one of your reusable shopping bags for the grocery store.
Chrissy just looked over my post, and has informed me that it is not a bag. It is a tote. I stand corrected.
I was stuck in Atlanta airport and saw a man with an interesting piece of luggage while on its train. I took a photo of the bag. The bag was alligator-looking with a name embossed, but I could not identify the two words. When I got a chance, I did a search to see if I could make out the words and identify the bag, just for fun. But the embossing was not that clear. I came upon a similar presumably-real-alligator bag that might have been from a company whose name might have matched what was embossed. That bag retailed for $11,999. Who’d buy a bag for that much? I could probably fly around the world three times for that. And even if it was a knock-off, it would be a bag with a much higher probability of being mistaken for an expensive bag and thus more likely to be stolen. (By the way, I used miles for this particular trip.)
The yellow cloth bag I really like is one I received for volunteering. It’s hand made by a very nice lady who loves to sew, and does such a super job with tons of love.
This is something not found in some store. And I also wish I could share a picture.
Hmmmm gotta be a way.
your lead sentence— !!!! perfect hook.
I can’t even get behind luxury cars or phones, let alone luxury apparel. I’ll wear it for a reasonable price, but money and value definitely matter to me. This stuff serves one purpose, which is to broadcast wealth, or some kind of social standing. Just look at the way Americans worship iPhones, and the whole green bubble thing that Apple invented to stigmatize non-iPhone users.
Dunno what the green bubble thing is but I generally see an iPhone and it mainly signals to me “sheep”. But I guess I can only applaud Apple’s success at packaging existing tech into objects that owners believe are superior while trapping them in an entire ecosystem.
What exactly are we debating here? I can buy an Iphone SE for as low as $150, or an android for as much as $2000.
I think the point is that many of us, including this Apple user, think paying through the nose for the latest and greatest phone is dumb.
I’m not sure we’re debating anything other than the fact that the phone industry (and probably tech hardware more generally) spends a hell of a lot of marketing/ad $ on promoting the latest and greatest as a must have lifestyle accessory while a) most grown ups probably don’t give a crap provided what they have works (and I note Samsung are now achieving Apple like levels of battery decay) and b) most objects are a signal of lack of uniqueness rather than the specialness they might intend.
“Green bubbles indicate that a text message is being sent from an Android device to an iPhone, or from an iPhone user who has disabled iMessage.” Very annoying.
I have only ever had Android phones, bought unlocked, usually from B&H Photo. They have been perfectly reliable.
I think what really makes it feel that way is the fact that most iPhone users have never even really used any Android phone, yet they are so unjustifiably confident that Apple products are the best thing since sliced bread. It really is a little sheepy. Don’t get me wrong, iPhones are great, especially for older people or non-tech natives, but I’m at the point where I know it’s an unnecessary luxury more than a product I need. I’d rather spend $200-300 for an Android phone that’s easily just as capable, rather than $1000+ for the Mercedes/Louis Vuitton of phones. That said, everyone gets to choose, and I’m glad I don’t have to choose an iPhone, just as many are glad to have one. To each their own.
I used Android for years and battled huge stability issues across various vendors of phones. I switched to an iPhone as the pandemic started and the thing just works. It’s bulletproof. I am not trapped in anything. I pay my $29/month for service and it just works. I use Windows on a PC I made myself and a Lenovo laptop and the iCloud app syncs everything perfectly.
You saying it signals “sheep” is like an Apple fanboy saying Android signals “loser.” It doesn’t get you anywhere.
Sorry I should have been more explicit – anyone who thinks an iPhone signals luxury good, taste and refinement isn’t seen that way by me or probably anyone who has chosen differently. The only status value is probably in the playground where we know kids can be vicious about off brand sneakers etc etc. Of course there are valid reasons to have one, personal choice and all that.
I don’t think anyone besides children think of people using androids as losers. Most adults I know, despite using iPhones mostly, recognize that phones using Android (Samsung, Google Pixel, etc.) are just as nice now.
I agree about the reliability of the I Phone. I don’t upgrade often, and don’t buy the most current model. I just ditched my 8 for a 15; should be good for another 10 years.
Sometimes buying designer merchandise is buying quality that lasts. And interestingly enough there is an excellent resale market for these bags. I’ve bought LV bags (I know longer do) when I was a career woman. And later when I didn’t want them I sold them. Not at a profit but I recouped 75% of my original purchase. That is a win-win. Attractive, quality, fashionable purse when I needed it and later sold to another woman who wanted it. Keeps junk out of landfills. I’m a big fan of resale.
Also fashion is a hobby for some people. They like to collect designer bags or dresses. No different than collecting stamps or art. I am not a collector of stuff but I appreciate that people do collect and enjoy their hobby.
You make some good points to consider. My Chris has a thing for Brahmin Bags, she owns 6 or 7 of them. They are very distinctive looking; people frequently recognize and comment about their attractiveness. They are also very well made. I would guess their average retail to be around $300. And there’s a certain wristwatch brand I fancy. It’s made in Detroit thereby appealing to my stubborn made in the USA mindset, and is a fraction of the price of the designer brands. So we are not immune to status symbol consumerism.
But c’mon, 4k for a grocery bag?
I think the description of the “tote” was perfect. Some people joke.at my 21 year old Chevy pickup. I bought it when it was only 4 years old and had 64K miles on it for $8200.
2005 Toyota Hilux (small pick up truck in Australia). I will drive it until the wheels fall off.
Awe dude, that trucks got soul!
I’m not joking Brian. My GMC Yukon XL is 22 years old and proud of it. 🙂
My husband has a 1986 Chevy S-10 (original owner) and enjoys the fix up of it. Much as I’d like to say sell sell sell, it’s a fun retirement project.
Pat, I’d still be driving my 2009 Saturn Aura were it not for the fact that they sit sort of low, and Chris was having a hard time getting in and out due to bad knees.
Your Yukon will run forever with good love and care.
We were in Florence and walking toward the Ponte Vecchio when a small crowd of women rushed by. One called to Georgiann: “Hurry, the bus to Gucci is leaving!” I guess chasing bling is a hobby.
Luxury goods are an economic enigma in themselves. While they may represent higher quality and workmanship, a lot of the value to the consumer seems to be in their exclusivity or (un)affordability to the hoi polloi as a signal of status. And, of course, as a fashion item, looking good.
At least in cars one can usually see the $ reflected in the performance or the engineering.
I think the tech bros in their addiction to hoodies and sneakers upset the luxury goods world to some extent. AIUI there are a lot of “stealth wealth” brands out there now which look very much like high street/mall products but with x degree of refinement.
It’s all a stupid human game anyway. Once you are done trying to impress other people with “stuff” you fall back on personalities and real connections which is IMV a far better place to be.
“I think the tech bros in their addiction to hoodies and sneakers upset the luxury goods world to some extent. AIUI there are a lot of “stealth wealth” brands out there now which look very much like high street/mall products but with x degree of refinement.”
This of course, made Steve Jobs, and his black turtle neck and T-Shits and black jeans come to mind.
it also reminded me of a brand I recently looked into, based on an article I read. The brand is “Robert Barakett.” They sell T-shirts for $69.50-$99.50 and pants (basically stretch jeans) for $195.00.
Not in my lifetime.
One of my favorite expressions goes something like, “Spending money you don’t have, to buy things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even like.”
Now, like most people, I have purchased some “luxuries” in my lifetime, (a few of my guns come to mind) but clothing and accessories have never been included in that category. I have to admit however, I saw a video on You Tube, of the VW Karmann Ghia, which automotive spys say VW is considering reintroducing…in gas models and electric models. If that happens, I could just possibly say, “The Hell with it, you only live once…”
One of the things I despise about luxury clothing items and accessories is that they try to turn customers into human billboards. If an item is so obviously superior, why do you need to make your brand name the most distinctive feature? The answer is obvious: To the vast majority of observers, it isn’t clear that these products are indeed better made, so the screaming brand name is crucial to the product’s appeal.
My favorite cap has no logo, just a plain old tan colored cap. I almost bought one once which had a message on the front which read: “Your logo here for a reasonable fee”.
They’re selling envy/jealousy, if you can’t expect people to know that you’re wearing something insanely over-priced, what’s the value, what’s the buy in. The seven deadly(s) are still massive behavior motivators.
I think you touch on a couple of things:
i) the real money in luxury goods isn’t in the haute couture or the very limited edition “designed” items – they simply don’t sell enough to really make profits and anyway a lot of the profit is captured downstream on secondary markets. It’s in the diffusion and brand extension stuff – the t shirts, logo wear and volume luggage etc.
ii) fakes and lookalikes are, to an extent, good for business. They signal the desirability of what they are pushing and reinforce the “value” in the real McCoy even if on a simple level the $5 knock off t shirt and the $100 official item do the same thing.
Dan, it’s more than a designer thing. People actually go to Paris to hunt for iconic Hermes Kelly handbags. Grace Kelly used one to hide her pregnancy after starring in To Catch a Thief”.
I never longed for that level of luxury in a handbag, but I can appreciate exquisite craftsmanship. Just a bit of trivia.
I grew up in the midwest hearing stories about the “proverbial farmer in bib overalls who drives an old pickup, and who is wealthy”. “The Millionaire Next Door” came out decades ago. You’d think that by now, people, especially those in sales, would know better than to judge a book by its cover, so to speak.
About ten years ago a new housing development with upscale homes appeared nearby. My wife and I had often walked around this neighborhood as the homes were being built and a sign advertising an upcoming “open house” caught my eye. Days later, my wife and I decided to go check it out, due to curiosity. She asked me if I was going to drive my Porsche, and I said no, I didn’t want to give the wrong impression. We took my “winter car”, an old Explorer, clean and in good condition but with obvious hail damage. We dressed casually, as we usually do. The sales person met us at the door, literally gave me a once-over glance, handed me a one page fact-sheet, turned and walked away without saying a word.
About 20 years ago our youngest son was studying abroad in England, and took a weekend trip to Paris with a bunch of fellow students. He called and asked my wife: “Mom! Who is ‘Louis Baton’ (Louis Vuitton)? Our bus drove by his store and the girls on the bus all rushed to the same side, screaming? We all went into the store, but us guys returned to the bus after a few minutes. Several of the girls purchased bags for themselves and family members at 850 Euros apiece How much do you spend?” My wife replied something like “Twenty bucks at Target”. And, yes he is familiar with the point of “all hat no cattle”.
Jack:
Remember the movie “Pretty Woman?” I remember the way Julia Roberts was treated, when she went in to a swanky woman’s store and was treated poorly by haughty staff. She came back later with a bunch of shopping bags from other stores, dressed “to the 9’s” and let the sales woman see how much commission she lost.
A similar occurrence happened to me in 2020. In January 2020, I was looking at a new truck. I had never owned a pickup but always wanted one. Since I planned to retire in June of 2020, I decided to buy a new truck, cash, to keep my self debt free in retirement.
I went to a local Ram dealer and found the truck that was almost the same, perfect one I had built online, using the Ram Website “Build Your Own” tool. Only the color was wrong. At the time, I was wearing jeans, T-Shirt and at the time, I was sporting a ZZ Top styled long white beard and a significant pony tail. Needless to say, the sales staff wasn’t falling over themselves to try and help me.
I left that store and drove to a small community @40 miles away…and found my 2020 Ram Limited, with almost every possible “package” and it was the Owners Demo. It had @5100 miles on it. The salesman introduced me to the owner and we discussed me buying his demo. I bought the truck, with a bunch of discounts, plus the dealer demo discount, and agreed to finance the purchase, at 2.9%, for another discount. All in, the MSRP was $71,900, and I bought the truck for $56,000. Ten days later, I paid it off.
I stopped by the first dealership, on the way home…and pulled a “Pretty Woman” move.
As it turned out, I didn’t retire in June 2020, because of the market meltdown, but I loved my new truck, and drove it until 2023, when I traded it in, with only 15,000 mies on it, for my 2024 Hyundai SUV Palisades Limited. Some of you may recall that used cars got almost more expensive than new cars during COVID…well I actually “sold” my 2020 Ram (trade in allowance) for $58,100, and left the dealership with a cash difference check.
I was still dressed like a “bum,” as my wife says. I call it my, “My money is green and I will dress like I please.” wardrobe.
I enjoyed that movie, and liked the part where the haughty clerk was humbled.
You’d think someone who lives off sales commissions would know, or rapidly learn, that you cannot judge from a person’s appearance whether they just might become a customer. Treating ’em all with respect costs nothing, and just might improve one’s chance at making a sale.
Not all guys hate LV. A couple of years ago I was staying in the same hotel in Milan as the U of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, and they all arrived back from a shopping trip with gigantic LV bags. When they checked out the next morning we saw the Gucci and Ferragamo bags as well since it took them several elevator trips to make it down with their huge haul of bags!
My son works in construction. He will often go to lunch in dirty clothes and hot and sweaty. He and his coworkers are often treated poorly because of their appearance. He is not going to 5 star restaurants, just normal places or fast food. I have experienced that myself when I have been working in the yard and go get food, usually takeout.
Conversely, I remember meeting Mike, my brother-in-law for lunch during my brief foray into a financial services career. I had a 6 figure income…. If you count the 2 digits to the right of the decimal point, but I was dressed very nicely in a sport coat, shirt, and tie. The waitress barely acknowledged Mike, while treating me very well.
Years ago I was working in the garden and looking pretty ratty when my teenage daughter pestered me to go look at her dream vehicle, a Toyota RAV or something. We were seriously considering it and made an offer to the salesman. He said he would take the offer to his manager. A few short minutes later he came back and told me in front of my daughter to “Come back when I could afford one.” I was a physician and socialized with the owner of the Toyota dealership. He asked me once why I never bought a Lexus from him and I told him the story.
This reminds me when many years ago I was going to buy Connie a special Christmas present-one of those things from Paris or Italy. I went to a high end mall and the Gucci store.
As I walked around in shock at the prices the clerk came up and said “are you sure you can afford to shop here sir?”
I must admit my clothing was rather shall we say, tattered, but I just left letting her think she had made a good move getting the bum out of the shop. She lost a sale, but did me a favor.
Good lord, how rude. The thing is Dick, she’s may have the one who couldn’t afford to shop there.
That’s what I thought.
Dan, there must be a way to post a picture because R Quinn posted a picture of his condo community in his article: https://humbledollar.com/2024/07/pluses-and-minuses/
I’m thinking Jonathan may not want us to have that capability. We might get a little crazy.
I kind of think my description may work better than a picture.
Probably wise to leave out that ability.
🤔 Well darn!
That was contained in the article Jonathan edited and posted. I don’t believe that an option in forum.
couldn’t figure out how to post a picture
Jonathan, is there a way for us to post an image? I didn’t see one in the Style Guide.
There’s currently no way to add photos to Forum posts. It could be a new feature down the road….
If one uses google photo, one may set up a publicly available link…..To share a photo from Google Photos publicly, you can create a shareable link. Select the photo, tap the share button, and then choose “Create link” to generate a URL that anyone can access.
The advantage of this, is that it costs nothing for HD in terms of bandwidth or storage it is just a few bits of data….
As the owner of a WordPress site, I don’t really recommend allow end users to post pictures. That’s asking for trouble.
Indeed. If the pictures are on another site – mine are on Smugmug – you could post a link.
Can people view your photos without joining the site? I’m guessing only with an invitation or link from a site member, for privacy and security. You are such a techie, Kathy. I’m always learning from you and others here.
Thanks for asking. You can see the ones I’ve made public here. The site is rather neglected, I have loads of photos that need editing….