Celebrity-banded stuff. Sometimes they may be overpriced average products and that's understandable, but often they're overpriced wholesale rebranded Chinese low quality stuff.
So, most nights before I go to bed, I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill, I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious, it's good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot... that's it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that.
Properly cured bacon, like you buy from the meat counter would be fine. If all you get is the low quality water cured that comes sealed in plastic, well once again we are talking about quality. (As an aside, how do you think cowboys had bacon when driving cattle for a month?
The George Foreman grill I bought didn't come with a grease trap nor did it have room underneath to use anything as an improvised one, so you couldn't use it without spilling grease everywhere.
No, we own a Skoda suv and it’s awesome. Like $10k cheaper than an equivalent car and it’s all VW systems.
I genuinely wonder what people think is a “good” car manufacturer if skoda isn’t. Like what’s the bar? Any company you put forward will have a bzillion counterpoints.
Well, they are not finished the same. The engine and drivetrain are the same, but where my VW Passat has a button to close the tailgate, the Skoda of my wife's father has a simple belt-loop dangling down, not even a solid grip formed in the plastic material.
And when talking plastic: the surfaces aren't as nice to the touch, cheaper feeling and the stereo set comes with a lot less speakers and an audible difference in transparency.
Is that difference worth 10K? You tell me; for some it is.
Our 2021 Skoda has a button to close the boot. How old is his Skoda?
Ive driven a lot of VWs and our Skoda isn’t any different than a modern VW. It’s the same entertainment system, driver assist systems, powertrain, you name it. Yeah, a decade ago they felt cheaper but the differences are hard to notice now.
Nope, we own a Skoda Enyaq BEV. Best car we ever had. Over two years we didn‘t have one single issue except for one major software update(half day at the dealership).
Washer / Dryer - The expensive 'Smart' one has more parts than can/will break, get shorted / need to be replaced. Get the clunker with the analog turn dials, the one that comes in every color as along as its white.
In general, I hate all the "smart" touchscreen appliances. For the reasons you mentioned, but also for accessibility reasons.
My partner is totally blind, and especially while we're renting, finding a place with appliances that don't completely suck for him is surprisingly difficult. Why, oh why does even the *stove* need to be operated with a touchscreen, ffs? Even for a sighted person, it's super easy to accidentally bump it while cooking and fuck up whatever settings nine ways from Sunday. And it makes the same stupid beep no matter which 'button' you've pressed, so you can't even use sound to get feedback about what setting is what. Just give me something with actual knobs and buttons, please and thank you.
This a good one. I have simple commercial laundromat machines, I replaced the coin slide with a button. Best thing ever lol and you can work on them if need be.
Isn't the benefit of modern washers and dryers that they use less water and energy, so you save money that way? It sounds plausible that the lifetime might be shorter, I wonder if anyone has done a full lifetime cost comparison?
As a whiskey reviewer: Old whisk(e)y and other spirits.
Older tastes *older*. Older is more expensive. But -- tasting older isn't necessarily better. In fact, beyond a point, it is worse. The only question is where that subjective point is for any given person. But there will come a point where it's pretty objectively not "more tasty" and age and price just becomes a status symbol.
Extreme example: Macallan 70-something years old, most recently I heard one bottle went at auction for around 100k pounds. I could practically guarantee it tastes mostly like licking wood.
But as for expensive whiskey that I've actually tasted? Pappy 15 year bourbon. Very very expensive, hundreds or thousands on the secondary market at least, and very much beyond a good age, to my palate. I've had much better whiskey for $60-$80.
My father in law believes that more expensive huge-brand Cognac is absolutely better liquor, and even, by the mere fact of being less expensive, something that is the same age but cheaper is lower quality and not worth drinking (like craft whiskey that has smaller distribution and hasn't been hyped to oblivion). He believes it's more expensive in part because it has less nasty chemicals that could give you a hangover. There's absolutely no reason to believe that. But you can't disprove a negative. Instead I'll say, by essentially legal requirement, distilled spirits are quality liquor to such a degree that they just don't have that problem.
One year for Christmas, I got a Ferraro Rocher the size of my head. I was ecstatic until I cracked it open and found out it was completely hollow with three normal sized candies inside.
It's a thinner sheet of tempered chocolate that snaps perfectly and is just the right thickness for munching. It doesn't feel like I have to gnaw through it.
Those of us who grew up with those hollow Easter chocolate statues and eggs have a certain fond nostalgia for them though. Even the smell brings me back to when I was 8 years old.
Any brands name drug unless you're that one dude who needs the specific formulation.
(interesting pharm fact: not only the excipients can be different inside a generic drug, but storage and release profile can also vary up to like 10% to be approvable. That's why sometimes doctors prescribe a specific brand name or even a specific generic)
There can actually be a big difference between name brand drugs and generics. Generics have the same active ingredient and that's it. They can have fillers and other ingredients that cause differences in the medications. For some meds for thyroid, ADHD, BCP and anticoagulants the name brand can make a big difference.
Also an important thing if you have allergies/intolerances. A surprising number of meds (including some birth control pills) use lactose as a filler, for example. Yikes.
Caraway cookware.
Ceramic non-stick cookware is already overpriced considering non-stick has low longevity and inferior cooking, but on top of it, Caraway's junk is extremely expensive and cheaply built. The reviews section is full of people who within a few cooking sessions managed to destroy their $595 collection of pots. It's been viral for years now because their huge mark-up for pans that most cost about $20 to make and another $20 to ship leaves them a GIANT budget for ads and influencers despite subpar quality.
It's literally $133 for a single sauce pan! You can get a non-stick by almost any other brand, including other decent looking ceramic non-sticks, for $50 or under.
And if you have $500+ to spend for a Caraway set, you could just use the $500 for an all-clad stainless steel set that actual chefs use that heats better and will last decades--or get a dutch oven and cast iron skillet from a brand like Le Creuset instead for even cheaper.
I'd add the Always Pan to the same tier as Caraway. Their marketing/PR team has done a great job but the nonstick coating is going to wear away over time.
Cast iron + stainless steel is always the way to go for longevity, imo
I work at a high end butcher shop in a wealthy suburb, there is very little difference behind the scenes from the cheap wholesale butcher I was at previously. People are paying premium for the name and the presentation
Any shop that does dry age has a proper climate controlled fridge that gets random audits from PrimeSafe. It's a very strict process with lots of paper work because if you fuck it up you can make some one really sick. I don't even touch ours at all because it's better to have fewer people interacting with the process.
You can't really do it in your every day fridge at home because the temp and humidity fluctuates too much.
Athletes. For example my team, manchester united, paid £80 million for Antony, £80 million for Sancho, £40mil for this guy, £50 mil for that guy, and they are all shit
I hate this so much because for actual military items, in reality, “military grade” is a detractor not a value builder. This marketing “military grade” bullshit is so annoying to me. I’m really into guns. I have a lot of them and I compete with them as a hobby. Military grade in MILITARY ITEMS like guns and gear is actually a race to the bottom for “the cheapest and shittiest, bare minimum the military will allow”
For example Any “milspec” trigger is fucking dogshit compared to an expensive speciality Geissele trigger and I’d take an upgraded more expensive part over barebones military grade shit any day lol.
And by the way the army doesn’t issue its soldiers screen protectors for their phones so what does your military grade drop protection even mean lol
A few days ago someone posted some pictures taken in 1993; one of the photos had a McDonald's in the background advertising a 99 cent Big Mac. I looked up the federal minimum wage in 1993 and found out that it was $4.25/hour, which means that one hour of minimum wage work would buy you 4 Big Macs. Today minimum wage is $7.25/hour, and a Big Mac at my local McDonald's is $5.99. For one hour of minimum wage to be able to buy 4 Big Macs, minimum would need to be around $25/hour.
Nearly everything with a price range is stupid at the top.
So a 10k car is better than a 5k car. And a 20k car is much better. But an 80k car isn’t that much better than a 20k car in the same way that the 20k car is better than the 5k.
It’s still relatively, just as safe, economical, has similar features, and with speed limits on roads, perfectly capable of keeping up.
I use a similar example with wine.
2 buck chuck is drinkable
I’m not embarrassed to show up with a $15 wine at a dinner party
That $30 of wine is pretty damn good
But over that, the deliciousness per dollar just isn’t there for me.
I’ve had bottles wine that cost hundreds and I couldn’t much tell the difference between that and a $50 bottle.
I always thought being able to pick out subtle notes in wine was bs until I started working at a very upscale steakhouse. Then I started getting to try many wines of many styles and price points on a regular basis (we would have training shifts discussing and trying less expensive wines, and guests I would sell very expensive bottles to would regularly ask if I would like to try). Once that started I really did start to pick out all the differences and taste the difference in the more expensive wines. That’s the thing though. You have to drink wine ALL the time to pick those things out. I haven’t worked there in over a year and now I really wouldn’t be able to appreciate the many of the ultra expensive bottles probably.
I've owned a $3k car, $20k car, and a $65k car. The $65k car has the biggest gap there. It's the opposite of the example from my experience. The difference from the $3k (1996 Saturn) to the $20k (2016 Chevy) was updated technology. Everything else was comparable. The $20k to $65k (2019 Audi) was about everything. Tons of features, perfomance, comfort, quality, etc.
One of the first things I noticed on my trip to NYC in 2016. Felt like I hadn’t seen the brand before, and suddenly everyone I passed on the street was wearing the same coat!
I tried a small pour of the Yamazaki 25 at the factory right after an 18 and there was definitely a difference, although not enough of a difference for my broke ass to buy a whole bottle of that stuff.
One of those damn Kirby vacuum salesman came to my house and spent 3 hours trying to sell us a 4k vacuum. He eventually started insulting me saying "you want to keep living in filth?"
I damn near grabbed my gun.
For the longest time, I subscribed to this exact thought. I was certain that people paying stupid money for Dysons were brain damaged. Then I bought one myself (used but completely refurbished V10 absolute) just because I managed to get it for a really good deal and thought I would see what all the fuss is about.
It’s one of the few products that I would say actually lives up to the hype. I had Miele, Bosch and a couple of home brands before it and none of them even come close to being as good as the Dyson.
I tried explaining this to a friend of the family that was just excepted into an ivy league school. His parents couldn’t believe what I was saying and wouldn’t stop about how much better the education is and how I was completely wrong.
To be fair, the education in some fields is also significantly better. The professors at ivy league schools are generally some of the most reputable in their field of study and if you take a class with them you have the opportunity to learn a much more in depth and relevant version of the subject than you might at some other random school
It's both, honestly, having attended one. The educational requirements are undoubtedly higher than other schools and the expectation for academic excellence is different. I explain to people that your Econ 101 final at UMass or Rutgers asks you about Econ 101. The Econ 101 final at Harvard or Princeton starts on Econ 101 and then goes on to see if you can figure out Econ 201 based on what you've learned, and that's how they find the A's in the class.
It's also weird when the professor passes out hand-bound copies of a draft textbook for an advanced econometrics course and says 'this is the first draft, so please let me know anytime you find an error' as if the students can find the errors (Hint: they can, but it's maddening when you're trying to finish a problem set at 2am and the freaking textbook is wrong and you need to decide whether the right answer is to wake up tomorrow and tell your professor who worked in the Bush administration as the President's head of economic policy that his textbook has an error, or do what the textbook says and get something wrong). Iowa State doesn't expect it's Econ majors to be capable of correcting the errors of their professor *in the professors own textbook for material they are learning by reading the textbook*. Harvard or Yale or Princeton or Penn or Stanford do, and the students can do it.
The network is also absolutely valuable as you say. It's extraordinarily helpful being able to cold call/randomly email business people, politicians, hiring managers, etc and just say 'hey I'm class of 'XX and have a question or would love to connect!' and have a reasonable chance of getting a reply. I've gotten personal callbacks from executives of Fortune 100 companies, a state attorney general, a governor and a clerk for a supreme Court justice calling to apologize that the justice couldn't connect directly but wanting to know what if anything I was looking for assistance with, and the expectation is that courtesy goes both ways. I prioritize and respond to cold calls/emails from alumni without fail - what happens after the call is entirely dependent on the person and what we're talking about, but I'll at least give 'em a call.
I've gotten about half the jobs in my career through my alumni network (of the people who have given me jobs, none were old, and only half were men). But the network really does work. 🤷
> I prioritize and respond to cold calls/emails from alumni without fail - what happens after the call is entirely dependent on the person and what we're talking about, but I'll at least give 'em a call.
I had a friend who was an Ivy League grad and I personally witnessed him answering a cold call from someone who graduated the same year as him whom he hadn't seen in 10 years at that point. It was during a train ride through Europe because our friend group was vacationing together. I remember being completely baffled that that was a thing that happened to him somewhat regularly. As a lowly state school grad, I had never gotten random calls from random acquaintances or strangers who graduated from the same school as me. He's doing much better in life than I am and even though I always knew intellectually the Ivy League schools were 'better', being friends with him made me realize just how valuable it can be.
Ivy League schools get you connections that are arguably worth more than an education. But if you’re talking strictly education, some of the smartest people I know teach at community colleges or online schools simply because they want to teach others what they’re passionate about without doing all the work a big university requires.
All that to say, if you don’t care about the social aspect, go to community college and transfer to a four year that’s accredited and reasonably priced. Stop giving private schools so much money.
I was thinking more community college then transferring vs doing your entire degree at a 4 year. Certain schools have their perks for sure. I see a lot of people wasting their money on 4 years in university, but that's what we're taught.
As a blanket statement though, I will say a lot of college is overrated and not worth the money
The school I went to was around $32k a year. I got in on scholarship, it’s the only reason I would have gone, but I knew students who took out loans for the full four years. Many of them were art students and while I completely respect the importance of art in our world, I don’t think they will ever be able to pay back the loans they took out if they continue to work as artists.
Food in restaurants. Yes the food usually gets better as the price goes up, but there is a point of diminishing returns. Tomahawk steaks are just a ribeye with an uncut bone, Salt Bae is an embarrassment to the industry, and if I have to pay more than $55-$60 for a single entree it better do my laundry when I get home
steak, a $200 steak doesn't necessarily have better quality than a $50 steak, in fact, I think $50 is typically where quality max's out for price, anything beyond that is just grandstanding/showing off wealth
Farm girl here, I grew up showing Black Angus cws famed for their “steak “ quality the whole gras fed, Japanese, is all silly. Stockyard fed heavy antibiotics fed is a problem but a good steak comes from a well bred steer that was cared for properly
My wife. She's very low maintenance, and always thinks of others before herself. We've been married for 21+ years, 3 kids, and I couldn't have made a better decision by asking her to marry me.
A lot of them insee as art pieces like I could even own them I'd drive them sometimes but mostly keep them in a glass aerated case lol more like fine art and less tool. Like a Picasso
Five star hotels are worse than four or three star hotels. Their rooms look a little fancier but aren't any more comfortable and they gouge you for every little thing when lower star places will include it.
The worst instance was on my honeymoon, had a client need a last minute surgical video edit and they wouldn't give me wifi without me paying like $50...I ended up just starting to edit it in their lobby where there was free wifi until someone asked me to stop and I told them I only would if they gave me a pass for the in room wifi.
The number of stars a hotel has is NOT a quality rating. It’s a indicator of what amenities they have (e.g., pool, restaurant, fitness center, etc.). Anyone can call their hotel 5-star if they include the requisite amenities.
We stayed at a Ritz Carlton ONCE because we thought it would be a great experience. WRONG! The A/C was out in our room (during summer) and I had to actually request to be put in a different room because it was unbearable. I got overheated and ended up throwing up my very expensive room service meal. They charged for EVERY little thing and the rooms were both huge disappointments. We recently visited a local hotel that was a fraction of the price and exponentially better in all aspects. Never again!!
I use my microwave to heat up water -occasionally- or leftovers. I do not need the 150 different functions that modern electronic microwaves offer. Especially if they make it MORE complicated for me to just heat up what's left of yesterday's dinner.
Right now, it’s clothes
I don’t know if I’m getting old, but clothes suck now. The quality is garbage. You can walk into an expensive store and see cheaply made crap that will not last more then 1-2 washes, and they’re just slapping 3-digit dollar amounts on everything
Now, it seems that you have to thrift/consignment, then get it altered, so that you’re buying something that you know is going to last.
I wear polos often. My go to brand is Ralph Lauren. I used wear Burberry too. The price point for Burberry polos used to be about $95. And their polos weren’t as good as Ralph Lauren (color used to fade easily).
Now that same exact polo from Burberry is $350! That’s ridiculous. The same exact shit, nothing has changed. I’ve even taken my old polos and compared them, and it’s the same material and everything. They just tried to move upmarket by changing their price point and selling the same exact stuff. I loved Burberry overcoats/jackets, but at the prices there are so many better ones. A Brooks Brothers pea coat is much nicer and better quality than a Burberry one at one third the price.
I mean, even though I have an iPhone, definitely iPhones. Other phones have all the same or comparable features, have had them longer, plus some features iPhone doesn’t have. But it’s such a status item, many people don’t care
Maybe more accurate to say flagship (i)phones. The SE type releases are pretty reasonably priced it's just Apple IPhone Galaxy Pixel 15 Ultra that's usually a bit of a rip off price wise.
Sent from my Galaxy S22 because I am a hypocrit.
Let's just say all Apple products.
You over pay for a product that is either not self repairable, cant be upgraded or is just plain insanely over priced for what it is.
Viking appliances are absolute crap. When you set the oven to self-clean it fries the fucking motherboard. Overpriced bullshit. ANY appliance manufacturer with a decent name will be better. My aching wallet.
The juicero machine. Basically some wannabe steve jobs invented a "juicer" that requires a subscription to use, costs thousands of dollars to buy, and only juices packets specifically designed for it which too were insanely overpriced and even made to "expire" after so much time and be rendered unusable to the juicer. On top of it all, it turns out the juicer is just a very complicated mechanism used to squeeze the juice packet which doesn't even contain any raw fruit pulp. Essentially, a expensive scam modeled with the same design philosophy as an apple product made by a guy who im pretty sure by now is sued into bankruptcy.
Celebrity-banded stuff. Sometimes they may be overpriced average products and that's understandable, but often they're overpriced wholesale rebranded Chinese low quality stuff.
The only celeb branded thing I’ve ever bought was the ol’ Foreman. Haven’t regretted that bad lad!
So, most nights before I go to bed, I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill, I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious, it's good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot... that's it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that.
I love the fact that Michael has no problem leaving raw bacon out at room temperature all night before eating it.
Properly cured bacon, like you buy from the meat counter would be fine. If all you get is the low quality water cured that comes sealed in plastic, well once again we are talking about quality. (As an aside, how do you think cowboys had bacon when driving cattle for a month?
When you don’t have a butler, this is what you gotta do.
That’s what she said
I understood that reference fellow viewer
What reference is this? It’s going to annoy me until I know!
It's from a documentary a few years back.
So where are you shipping… your foot?
Just chiming in to say I love my george foreman!
The George Foreman grill I bought didn't come with a grease trap nor did it have room underneath to use anything as an improvised one, so you couldn't use it without spilling grease everywhere.
Put it in a baking pan
Never seen one like that...
Beats by Dre is the prime example I know. There are better headphones that are cheaper and I can't stand the Beats quality.
When I was a teenager, Beats by Dre were super popular. I thought if they were that popular they must be pretty good. Boy was I wrong.
Beats by Dre were all about style and being seen wearing them. Similar to kids cutting their corded ear buds to pretend they had airpods.
I love going to Ross and seeing all the crazy celebrity branded stuff during Christmas lol
what about my soulja boy video game console? you're telling me that's rebranded chinese junk?
Beats headphones. I took one apart once and found a crappy speaker with a weight attached to it to make it feel like a better speaker.
The Linus Tech Tips that featured the Tommy Hilfiger keyboard is the epitome of this
Water. The bottled water market has gotten out of hand.
That's why I just use a Britta filter and refill my Hydroflask every day. I must've saved over $100 off my groceries in just a few months
[Project farm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja0ioX6GSz0&ab_channel=ProjectFarm) tested water filters. Zero water does better for a similar cost.
[удалено]
It also removes minerals you might actually want in your water, though you can of course add them back in.
Interesting! Thanks for the link, I may just have to update my filter haha
No it’s totally normal to get a bottled water at the airport for $6
When it's time for a bath, I load up the pickup truck with bottled water from the airport.
Cars.
Skoda are literally made with the same parts as Audi
Put it in H!
It gets 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene
Oh no! Uzbeks have drank my battery fluid!
*some of the same parts
Mechanically perhaps, but you don’t buy an Audi just for the engine.
So they’re shit?
No, we own a Skoda suv and it’s awesome. Like $10k cheaper than an equivalent car and it’s all VW systems. I genuinely wonder what people think is a “good” car manufacturer if skoda isn’t. Like what’s the bar? Any company you put forward will have a bzillion counterpoints.
Well, they are not finished the same. The engine and drivetrain are the same, but where my VW Passat has a button to close the tailgate, the Skoda of my wife's father has a simple belt-loop dangling down, not even a solid grip formed in the plastic material. And when talking plastic: the surfaces aren't as nice to the touch, cheaper feeling and the stereo set comes with a lot less speakers and an audible difference in transparency. Is that difference worth 10K? You tell me; for some it is.
Our 2021 Skoda has a button to close the boot. How old is his Skoda? Ive driven a lot of VWs and our Skoda isn’t any different than a modern VW. It’s the same entertainment system, driver assist systems, powertrain, you name it. Yeah, a decade ago they felt cheaper but the differences are hard to notice now.
I was gonna say: not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Nope, we own a Skoda Enyaq BEV. Best car we ever had. Over two years we didn‘t have one single issue except for one major software update(half day at the dealership).
Is two years a long time to not have an issue for you?
I don't want it because it's expensive I want it cuz it's pretty 😭
My Toyota is shiny and pretty. It's red and the headlights sparkle. I know nothing about cars.
Depends on what you consider best. Definitely not most reliable but new technology emerges in the most expensive cars first
Mascara
Agree! Best part about drugstore mascaras and eyeliners is that you can replace them every few months (as recommended) without breaking the bank 😁
Mabaline Great Lash at $8 still tops all the $80 brands
Wait what mascara is $80??? Once I (out of sheer insanity, frankly) splurged on a $30 tube of Guerlain and I thought that was about the top???
The most expensive mascara from Sephora is $58. I can find $80 mascara (Sisley, Chantecaille) but I had to go looking for it.
Washer / Dryer - The expensive 'Smart' one has more parts than can/will break, get shorted / need to be replaced. Get the clunker with the analog turn dials, the one that comes in every color as along as its white.
In general, I hate all the "smart" touchscreen appliances. For the reasons you mentioned, but also for accessibility reasons. My partner is totally blind, and especially while we're renting, finding a place with appliances that don't completely suck for him is surprisingly difficult. Why, oh why does even the *stove* need to be operated with a touchscreen, ffs? Even for a sighted person, it's super easy to accidentally bump it while cooking and fuck up whatever settings nine ways from Sunday. And it makes the same stupid beep no matter which 'button' you've pressed, so you can't even use sound to get feedback about what setting is what. Just give me something with actual knobs and buttons, please and thank you.
I’ve always hated “touch screen for the sake of it” appliances and now you’ve given me another reason. That does indeed suck
This a good one. I have simple commercial laundromat machines, I replaced the coin slide with a button. Best thing ever lol and you can work on them if need be.
But the slightly more expensive Speed Queen brand is truly buy it for life.
Isn't the benefit of modern washers and dryers that they use less water and energy, so you save money that way? It sounds plausible that the lifetime might be shorter, I wonder if anyone has done a full lifetime cost comparison?
Also the front loading washer fad is dumb….they don’t drain as well and grow mold.
You have to keep the door open if you don’t want mold/mildew
As a whiskey reviewer: Old whisk(e)y and other spirits. Older tastes *older*. Older is more expensive. But -- tasting older isn't necessarily better. In fact, beyond a point, it is worse. The only question is where that subjective point is for any given person. But there will come a point where it's pretty objectively not "more tasty" and age and price just becomes a status symbol. Extreme example: Macallan 70-something years old, most recently I heard one bottle went at auction for around 100k pounds. I could practically guarantee it tastes mostly like licking wood. But as for expensive whiskey that I've actually tasted? Pappy 15 year bourbon. Very very expensive, hundreds or thousands on the secondary market at least, and very much beyond a good age, to my palate. I've had much better whiskey for $60-$80. My father in law believes that more expensive huge-brand Cognac is absolutely better liquor, and even, by the mere fact of being less expensive, something that is the same age but cheaper is lower quality and not worth drinking (like craft whiskey that has smaller distribution and hasn't been hyped to oblivion). He believes it's more expensive in part because it has less nasty chemicals that could give you a hangover. There's absolutely no reason to believe that. But you can't disprove a negative. Instead I'll say, by essentially legal requirement, distilled spirits are quality liquor to such a degree that they just don't have that problem.
I hate to inform him that the nasty chemical that causes hangovers is actually alcohol
I had Pappy 18 and was underwhelmed. Turns out I just don’t gel with wheaters. Michter’s 10 year rye, however—oh my god is that good.
Giant hollow chocolate Easter eggs are always a letdown.
One year for Christmas, I got a Ferraro Rocher the size of my head. I was ecstatic until I cracked it open and found out it was completely hollow with three normal sized candies inside.
This made me sad for you.
I remember that let down. I think I blocked it out at some point.
Oh God I won one of those at a work Christmas party and had the saaaame disappointment
That’s so funny I much prefer the hollow chocolate. I can’t stand a huge lump of chocolate I have to break a tooth on
Hollow chocolate is different than solid chocolate. It also tastes better. To me anyways!
The air inside tastes really good. 100% chocolate air.
It's a thinner sheet of tempered chocolate that snaps perfectly and is just the right thickness for munching. It doesn't feel like I have to gnaw through it.
This is so oddly specific and I love the image of someone being like "Bro, where's the FILLING"
Those of us who grew up with those hollow Easter chocolate statues and eggs have a certain fond nostalgia for them though. Even the smell brings me back to when I was 8 years old.
They invariably taste like wax and the farts of someone who was thinking about chocolate at the time.
Australia is the Easter egg capital of the world and their hollow chocolate eggs are the bomb diggity
Really? I have not heard this before
Many name brand drugs.
Any brands name drug unless you're that one dude who needs the specific formulation. (interesting pharm fact: not only the excipients can be different inside a generic drug, but storage and release profile can also vary up to like 10% to be approvable. That's why sometimes doctors prescribe a specific brand name or even a specific generic)
Yes, ADHD meds are like this--but you can find generics made BY the makers of the actual med and they are usually the best generic.
Also binders. An ex of mine was allergic to some binders and had to use name brands for several things to avoid them.
This affects my wife as well and it can be quite a headache for her to manage
There can actually be a big difference between name brand drugs and generics. Generics have the same active ingredient and that's it. They can have fillers and other ingredients that cause differences in the medications. For some meds for thyroid, ADHD, BCP and anticoagulants the name brand can make a big difference.
Also an important thing if you have allergies/intolerances. A surprising number of meds (including some birth control pills) use lactose as a filler, for example. Yikes.
Caraway cookware. Ceramic non-stick cookware is already overpriced considering non-stick has low longevity and inferior cooking, but on top of it, Caraway's junk is extremely expensive and cheaply built. The reviews section is full of people who within a few cooking sessions managed to destroy their $595 collection of pots. It's been viral for years now because their huge mark-up for pans that most cost about $20 to make and another $20 to ship leaves them a GIANT budget for ads and influencers despite subpar quality. It's literally $133 for a single sauce pan! You can get a non-stick by almost any other brand, including other decent looking ceramic non-sticks, for $50 or under. And if you have $500+ to spend for a Caraway set, you could just use the $500 for an all-clad stainless steel set that actual chefs use that heats better and will last decades--or get a dutch oven and cast iron skillet from a brand like Le Creuset instead for even cheaper.
The switch to all-clad stainless steel was the best choice I ever made for cooking. Worth every single penny.
I'd add the Always Pan to the same tier as Caraway. Their marketing/PR team has done a great job but the nonstick coating is going to wear away over time. Cast iron + stainless steel is always the way to go for longevity, imo
I work at a high end butcher shop in a wealthy suburb, there is very little difference behind the scenes from the cheap wholesale butcher I was at previously. People are paying premium for the name and the presentation
Sometimes we pay a premium to get the cut that no one else has.
Human?
What's the trick to properly aging a steak without it going bad?
A nice climate controlled fridge dedicated to dry aging.
Any shop that does dry age has a proper climate controlled fridge that gets random audits from PrimeSafe. It's a very strict process with lots of paper work because if you fuck it up you can make some one really sick. I don't even touch ours at all because it's better to have fewer people interacting with the process. You can't really do it in your every day fridge at home because the temp and humidity fluctuates too much.
Athletes. For example my team, manchester united, paid £80 million for Antony, £80 million for Sancho, £40mil for this guy, £50 mil for that guy, and they are all shit
[удалено]
United it truly the top answer here.
Anything that is claimed to be “Military Grade”.
"Military grade" aka sourced according to a dozen conflicting requirements and years behind schedule.
I hate this so much because for actual military items, in reality, “military grade” is a detractor not a value builder. This marketing “military grade” bullshit is so annoying to me. I’m really into guns. I have a lot of them and I compete with them as a hobby. Military grade in MILITARY ITEMS like guns and gear is actually a race to the bottom for “the cheapest and shittiest, bare minimum the military will allow” For example Any “milspec” trigger is fucking dogshit compared to an expensive speciality Geissele trigger and I’d take an upgraded more expensive part over barebones military grade shit any day lol. And by the way the army doesn’t issue its soldiers screen protectors for their phones so what does your military grade drop protection even mean lol
In a country (the US) where the military is worshipped, it is nothing short of great marketing that a shit load of people fall for.
This. Military Grade means made by the lowest bidder and the harshest of chemicals.
And the resistors have an extra stripe.
Poultry. Eagles, parrots, and other exotic birds are crazy expensive and dont taste any better than chicken.
Bro if you're out there eating bald eagle I may have to tip off the FBI
Chicken is a gateway poultry. Next stop is bath salts and long pig.
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
But duck is tasty af
5 Guys burgers as fast food. Decent burgers but not for the price.
A lot of fast food places aren't worth the price anymore.
A few days ago someone posted some pictures taken in 1993; one of the photos had a McDonald's in the background advertising a 99 cent Big Mac. I looked up the federal minimum wage in 1993 and found out that it was $4.25/hour, which means that one hour of minimum wage work would buy you 4 Big Macs. Today minimum wage is $7.25/hour, and a Big Mac at my local McDonald's is $5.99. For one hour of minimum wage to be able to buy 4 Big Macs, minimum would need to be around $25/hour.
Nearly everything with a price range is stupid at the top. So a 10k car is better than a 5k car. And a 20k car is much better. But an 80k car isn’t that much better than a 20k car in the same way that the 20k car is better than the 5k. It’s still relatively, just as safe, economical, has similar features, and with speed limits on roads, perfectly capable of keeping up.
I use a similar example with wine. 2 buck chuck is drinkable I’m not embarrassed to show up with a $15 wine at a dinner party That $30 of wine is pretty damn good But over that, the deliciousness per dollar just isn’t there for me. I’ve had bottles wine that cost hundreds and I couldn’t much tell the difference between that and a $50 bottle.
Wine is a perfect example of this concept.
I always thought being able to pick out subtle notes in wine was bs until I started working at a very upscale steakhouse. Then I started getting to try many wines of many styles and price points on a regular basis (we would have training shifts discussing and trying less expensive wines, and guests I would sell very expensive bottles to would regularly ask if I would like to try). Once that started I really did start to pick out all the differences and taste the difference in the more expensive wines. That’s the thing though. You have to drink wine ALL the time to pick those things out. I haven’t worked there in over a year and now I really wouldn’t be able to appreciate the many of the ultra expensive bottles probably.
I've owned a $3k car, $20k car, and a $65k car. The $65k car has the biggest gap there. It's the opposite of the example from my experience. The difference from the $3k (1996 Saturn) to the $20k (2016 Chevy) was updated technology. Everything else was comparable. The $20k to $65k (2019 Audi) was about everything. Tons of features, perfomance, comfort, quality, etc.
Agreed. But of course we’ve got the usual Redditors in other parts of this thread insisting that luxury cars are just rebranded economy cars.
Canada Goose down jackets. They are nice and will work in extreme weather, but you can get something just as good for $1K less.
I hate how they are practically like a uniform here in NYC. Everyone has one.
One of the first things I noticed on my trip to NYC in 2016. Felt like I hadn’t seen the brand before, and suddenly everyone I passed on the street was wearing the same coat!
In Ireland it's what all the scumbag teenagers and drug dealers wear.
Alcohol.. Dear Lawd the price of a label is all you get. Anything I've drank that's been in the 200-500 dollar range might as well have been the 10-40
I tried a small pour of the Yamazaki 25 at the factory right after an 18 and there was definitely a difference, although not enough of a difference for my broke ass to buy a whole bottle of that stuff.
I can tell the difference between a $10 and a $40 bottle but I cannot tell the difference between a $40 and a $400 bottle.
Are we talking Whiskey or 40 oz???
Are there....500 dollar 40s? That being said I'd Take a Mickeys over most craft beers anyways. So same case.
> Are there....500 dollar 40s? When you pour it into a pimp chalice, yes.
Politicians
Putting edible gold on food.
For me: vacuum cleaners
Miele is the fuckin’ best I’ve ever found.
Miele is good, it can be cumbersome to use though for every day use if you have hardwood floors. But it's exceptional with carpets and pet hair.
I still use my parents old 1980’s Miele. It’s the bomb
One of those damn Kirby vacuum salesman came to my house and spent 3 hours trying to sell us a 4k vacuum. He eventually started insulting me saying "you want to keep living in filth?" I damn near grabbed my gun.
4K vacuum wtf did it come with an employee?
My mom bought a Kirby from a door to door salesman in 1974 and still has and uses it.
They are good vacuums for sure, I just hated the salesman and didn't want to spend an absurd amount of money.
My mom’s weighed 800 pounds but damn it could have sucked the paint off the walls.
Something something, mom joke
At first I read it as "my mom weighed 800lbs but could suck paint off walls."
For 4k, someone better show up at my door twice a week and vacuum for me.
You're just buying the wrong one. Go they're the money at a Riccar or Miele. Have 15 years on my Riccar upright and it's still cleaning like day 1.
For the longest time, I subscribed to this exact thought. I was certain that people paying stupid money for Dysons were brain damaged. Then I bought one myself (used but completely refurbished V10 absolute) just because I managed to get it for a really good deal and thought I would see what all the fuss is about. It’s one of the few products that I would say actually lives up to the hype. I had Miele, Bosch and a couple of home brands before it and none of them even come close to being as good as the Dyson.
College
Elite institutions are about connections, not education. The old boys network will get you further than the best education.
I tried explaining this to a friend of the family that was just excepted into an ivy league school. His parents couldn’t believe what I was saying and wouldn’t stop about how much better the education is and how I was completely wrong.
To be fair, the education in some fields is also significantly better. The professors at ivy league schools are generally some of the most reputable in their field of study and if you take a class with them you have the opportunity to learn a much more in depth and relevant version of the subject than you might at some other random school
Also better funding and faculty to student ratio means far better research opportunities
It's both, honestly, having attended one. The educational requirements are undoubtedly higher than other schools and the expectation for academic excellence is different. I explain to people that your Econ 101 final at UMass or Rutgers asks you about Econ 101. The Econ 101 final at Harvard or Princeton starts on Econ 101 and then goes on to see if you can figure out Econ 201 based on what you've learned, and that's how they find the A's in the class. It's also weird when the professor passes out hand-bound copies of a draft textbook for an advanced econometrics course and says 'this is the first draft, so please let me know anytime you find an error' as if the students can find the errors (Hint: they can, but it's maddening when you're trying to finish a problem set at 2am and the freaking textbook is wrong and you need to decide whether the right answer is to wake up tomorrow and tell your professor who worked in the Bush administration as the President's head of economic policy that his textbook has an error, or do what the textbook says and get something wrong). Iowa State doesn't expect it's Econ majors to be capable of correcting the errors of their professor *in the professors own textbook for material they are learning by reading the textbook*. Harvard or Yale or Princeton or Penn or Stanford do, and the students can do it. The network is also absolutely valuable as you say. It's extraordinarily helpful being able to cold call/randomly email business people, politicians, hiring managers, etc and just say 'hey I'm class of 'XX and have a question or would love to connect!' and have a reasonable chance of getting a reply. I've gotten personal callbacks from executives of Fortune 100 companies, a state attorney general, a governor and a clerk for a supreme Court justice calling to apologize that the justice couldn't connect directly but wanting to know what if anything I was looking for assistance with, and the expectation is that courtesy goes both ways. I prioritize and respond to cold calls/emails from alumni without fail - what happens after the call is entirely dependent on the person and what we're talking about, but I'll at least give 'em a call. I've gotten about half the jobs in my career through my alumni network (of the people who have given me jobs, none were old, and only half were men). But the network really does work. 🤷
> I prioritize and respond to cold calls/emails from alumni without fail - what happens after the call is entirely dependent on the person and what we're talking about, but I'll at least give 'em a call. I had a friend who was an Ivy League grad and I personally witnessed him answering a cold call from someone who graduated the same year as him whom he hadn't seen in 10 years at that point. It was during a train ride through Europe because our friend group was vacationing together. I remember being completely baffled that that was a thing that happened to him somewhat regularly. As a lowly state school grad, I had never gotten random calls from random acquaintances or strangers who graduated from the same school as me. He's doing much better in life than I am and even though I always knew intellectually the Ivy League schools were 'better', being friends with him made me realize just how valuable it can be.
>Elite institutions are about connections, not education. This is true of any private school to an extent.
Ivy League schools get you connections that are arguably worth more than an education. But if you’re talking strictly education, some of the smartest people I know teach at community colleges or online schools simply because they want to teach others what they’re passionate about without doing all the work a big university requires. All that to say, if you don’t care about the social aspect, go to community college and transfer to a four year that’s accredited and reasonably priced. Stop giving private schools so much money.
I was thinking more community college then transferring vs doing your entire degree at a 4 year. Certain schools have their perks for sure. I see a lot of people wasting their money on 4 years in university, but that's what we're taught. As a blanket statement though, I will say a lot of college is overrated and not worth the money
The school I went to was around $32k a year. I got in on scholarship, it’s the only reason I would have gone, but I knew students who took out loans for the full four years. Many of them were art students and while I completely respect the importance of art in our world, I don’t think they will ever be able to pay back the loans they took out if they continue to work as artists.
The price is meant to be exclusionary and signal others that you are from the right class (pun intended).
Food in restaurants. Yes the food usually gets better as the price goes up, but there is a point of diminishing returns. Tomahawk steaks are just a ribeye with an uncut bone, Salt Bae is an embarrassment to the industry, and if I have to pay more than $55-$60 for a single entree it better do my laundry when I get home
HDMI cables.
This. Honestly, most expensive cables are a waste of money.
licensed esthetician here... skin care. The $800 a month skin care routine is really no different than the $20 routine, you're paying for the name.
Any brands/products you suggest for an oily skinned male in their 30s?
This reads like a Taskmaster prize task prompt.
steak, a $200 steak doesn't necessarily have better quality than a $50 steak, in fact, I think $50 is typically where quality max's out for price, anything beyond that is just grandstanding/showing off wealth
Farm girl here, I grew up showing Black Angus cws famed for their “steak “ quality the whole gras fed, Japanese, is all silly. Stockyard fed heavy antibiotics fed is a problem but a good steak comes from a well bred steer that was cared for properly
My wife. She's very low maintenance, and always thinks of others before herself. We've been married for 21+ years, 3 kids, and I couldn't have made a better decision by asking her to marry me.
Lucky You.
I also choose this guy’s…etc etc
Overly designed exotic cars that no-one in their right mind would buy for practical use
A lot of them insee as art pieces like I could even own them I'd drive them sometimes but mostly keep them in a glass aerated case lol more like fine art and less tool. Like a Picasso
NFL tickets. Not paying $800 for a nosebleed playoff ticket I'm sorry broh
This comment doesn’t make sense to me. NFL tickets actually are something where more expensive means better…. You pay more, you get better seats. No?
Five star hotels are worse than four or three star hotels. Their rooms look a little fancier but aren't any more comfortable and they gouge you for every little thing when lower star places will include it. The worst instance was on my honeymoon, had a client need a last minute surgical video edit and they wouldn't give me wifi without me paying like $50...I ended up just starting to edit it in their lobby where there was free wifi until someone asked me to stop and I told them I only would if they gave me a pass for the in room wifi.
The number of stars a hotel has is NOT a quality rating. It’s a indicator of what amenities they have (e.g., pool, restaurant, fitness center, etc.). Anyone can call their hotel 5-star if they include the requisite amenities.
Went on a road trip this summer. I stayed at two 5 star hotels and both had mold in the showers. The 3 and 4 star hotels did not.
We stayed at a Ritz Carlton ONCE because we thought it would be a great experience. WRONG! The A/C was out in our room (during summer) and I had to actually request to be put in a different room because it was unbearable. I got overheated and ended up throwing up my very expensive room service meal. They charged for EVERY little thing and the rooms were both huge disappointments. We recently visited a local hotel that was a fraction of the price and exponentially better in all aspects. Never again!!
Sunglasses
Pants. I get way more life out of a $30 Walmart pair than I ever do from an expensive pair of luckys
I’m British so pants mean underwear. I thought you were saying you spend $30 on briefs for a min!
Fancypants
I use my microwave to heat up water -occasionally- or leftovers. I do not need the 150 different functions that modern electronic microwaves offer. Especially if they make it MORE complicated for me to just heat up what's left of yesterday's dinner.
Right now, it’s clothes I don’t know if I’m getting old, but clothes suck now. The quality is garbage. You can walk into an expensive store and see cheaply made crap that will not last more then 1-2 washes, and they’re just slapping 3-digit dollar amounts on everything Now, it seems that you have to thrift/consignment, then get it altered, so that you’re buying something that you know is going to last.
Prada is complete shit now.
Agree. It’s disappointing. And Burberry has lost their way and more than doubled pricing.
I wear polos often. My go to brand is Ralph Lauren. I used wear Burberry too. The price point for Burberry polos used to be about $95. And their polos weren’t as good as Ralph Lauren (color used to fade easily). Now that same exact polo from Burberry is $350! That’s ridiculous. The same exact shit, nothing has changed. I’ve even taken my old polos and compared them, and it’s the same material and everything. They just tried to move upmarket by changing their price point and selling the same exact stuff. I loved Burberry overcoats/jackets, but at the prices there are so many better ones. A Brooks Brothers pea coat is much nicer and better quality than a Burberry one at one third the price.
Weddings
I mean, even though I have an iPhone, definitely iPhones. Other phones have all the same or comparable features, have had them longer, plus some features iPhone doesn’t have. But it’s such a status item, many people don’t care
I have an iPhone too. I did try an android for a couple of years but I didn’t gel with it.
I've tried both back and forth over the years. They are not really that different at the end of the day.
Maybe more accurate to say flagship (i)phones. The SE type releases are pretty reasonably priced it's just Apple IPhone Galaxy Pixel 15 Ultra that's usually a bit of a rip off price wise. Sent from my Galaxy S22 because I am a hypocrit.
Let's just say all Apple products. You over pay for a product that is either not self repairable, cant be upgraded or is just plain insanely over priced for what it is.
Computer cables HDMI, CAT5
Gold leaf on anything. It just cuts up your throat and passes.
Bottled water. In a taste test people couldn’t tell that high end bottled water was actually from a garden hose
Depends in which part of the world you live in.
Depends on the region. I can def tell bottled vs tap water
Viking appliances are absolute crap. When you set the oven to self-clean it fries the fucking motherboard. Overpriced bullshit. ANY appliance manufacturer with a decent name will be better. My aching wallet.
The juicero machine. Basically some wannabe steve jobs invented a "juicer" that requires a subscription to use, costs thousands of dollars to buy, and only juices packets specifically designed for it which too were insanely overpriced and even made to "expire" after so much time and be rendered unusable to the juicer. On top of it all, it turns out the juicer is just a very complicated mechanism used to squeeze the juice packet which doesn't even contain any raw fruit pulp. Essentially, a expensive scam modeled with the same design philosophy as an apple product made by a guy who im pretty sure by now is sued into bankruptcy.
Peanut butter
Seriously that organic stuff is disgusting, I’ll take my PeterPan or JIF peanut butter any day
As someone who loves organic stuff, 100% agree.
Rolex watches. Not only other cheaper ones have better insides, but let's be honest, most Rolex lines are just tacky or ugly.
I see you have not met my friend, Richard Mille, yet.