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I've also been having a bad day and so I apologise for my rude reply to your rude reply! Hope your day improves (and mine) We deserve it.
Looking at the thread I reckon there are three different strands emerging. There are definitely things where the cheap equivalent is exactly as good and the same as the most expensive option - bottled water must be the winner here.
Then you have things people perceive to be better but really aren't - Most ultra high end stuff sits here like Overfinch, Rolex, stupid high end audio cables etc its obviously not the same thing as the cheaper stuff but it really doesn't perform any better than the alternatives.
Then finally you have the iPhone v cheaper android/Dacia v BMW/Squire v Fender etc which is basically just diminishing returns.
Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does
If you just want to think about functionality, you're right. In the same way that my 10 year old Renault will get you to my seaside flat, the same that a brand new shiny Porsche would. But 5.5 hours in a Porsche would be far more comfortable, it'd make overtaking some much easier, it'd be quieter (so I can listen to my music better) etc.
My iPhone doesn't do anything that a cheap Android phone does, it's true. But the screen is noticeably nicer to look at, with a sharper picture; the phone responds instantly to my inputs; the camera takes photos that are clearly better than a cheap Android phone. I use my phone a lot, and all these little things add up. Are they essential? Clearly not. But do they make my life "nicer"? Definitely yes.
(And FWIW I regret getting an iPhone, this time round. I should have got a Samsung Galaxy, not that it changes in any way what I've written above!)
Then you have things people perceive to be better but really aren't - Most ultra high end stuff sits here like Overfinch, Rolex, stupid high end audio cables etc its obviously not the same thing as the cheaper stuff but it really doesn't perform any better than the alternatives.
I doubt anyone buys a Rolex expecting it to tell the time better than a cheap Casio... they buy them to let other people know they have enough cash to waste on a Rolex.
They buy them to let other people know they have enough cash to waste on a Rolex.
Is that your opinion of all jewellery?
Paracetamol, Ibuprofen etc.
I was under the impression that paracetamol was the generic drug. Certainly ibuprofen is, same goes for s****y antihistamines, that cost £5 a packet, when a generic version from the high street shop of your choice will cost about a quid.
Dried pasta.
Watches.
A £25 casio tells the time just as well, better, even, than a Patek Phillipe that can easily set you back over a hundred grand.
People must only buy these things for washing money?...
People must only buy these things for washing money?...
Applies to loads of things from the perspective of those who don't appreciate them. A lot of people would be bewildered by the amount people on here spend on a push bike.
Should we all just buy the most basic, utilitarian version of everything we own and use, which just meets the minimum spec to perform its function? Or is there room for a little artistry/novelty/luxury if it makes us feel good?
I'm not into posh watches, but I understand why people might be.
Did read the title of the thread? 😅
Casio watch? Some hold their time better than others.
G-shock is a good place to start, or just go for a radio controlled watch if you require absolute chronological precision.
dried pasta? Stick with the wholewheat stuff. Organic is even better for peace of mind.
android vs iPhone?
does android actually vet their third party apps, or does anything go?
Fairly expensive headphone cable?
if it’s connected to proper equipment, then oh yes!
People still wear watches? 😁
I have three. One is a 'nice' watch (not by STW standards of course, it's a Citizen Eco-Drive which cost a couple of hundred quid). I mostly wear it when I'm going out and want to know the time without looking at my phone constantly. I have an old smar****ch, the original Huawei W1, which I mostly wear these days if I want to don't want to miss calls without looking at my phone constantly. And I've got a bargain basement G-Shock for when I'm on the bike and don't want to... you get the idea.
Each has a function. The only reason I can think of wanting to replace any of them with something more expensive is I'd quite like payment functionality on the smar****ch.
Oh good grief. Smart watch.
Dried pasta.
Nope!
Massive difference in Barilla or De Cecco compared to Tesco/A.N.Other own brand stuff.
TBF, Lidl italiano range is very good, but there's a big difference between brands.
have enough cash to waste on a Rolex.
Rolex ain't even all that expensive. Few years back I put on a display for Jeager le Coultre..... Cheapest watch in display was 190,000€.... Most expensive was over 2m€....!
Talking of other bullshit brands.....
I put in a display in Munich for Loro Piana. Cheapest item I could find in the store was a baseball cap for 380€. Most expensive was a jacket for 32,000€.
What a load of bollox. People who can afford such things should be introduced to much higher taxes.
Talking of other bullshit brands.....
Going off piste, but don’t most brands end up being nothing than a bull shit brand,they start off actually having different attributes that make them stand out, ie quality and reliability and then that brand name literally gets milked whereby the owners have no interest in keeping those attributes other than cranking the price up.
What I’m getting at is the brands you aspired to as a kid were actually good then but now are a pale imitation.
I’ve seen YouTube videos going over old vintage clothing showing how the quality of materials and workmanship was much higher for a brand then than now (and the use of China for manufacturing and finishing in other countries - although there’s a bit of disinformation going on from China )
Have we got this far in with nobody mentioning premium petrol and diesel?
If your car is designed for higher-octane petrol (especially turbos), it will perform better if you buy high-octane. If it's designed for lower-octane petrol, buying higher-octane won't give any benefit.
Android auto works fine in my Dacia.
Would rather spend £10k on a car than £50k that's for sure. Still gets me from a to b. You are just being suckered in by marketing and being sold an aspiration.
Would rather spend £10k on a car than £50k that's for sure. Still gets me from a to b. You are just being suckered in by marketing and being sold an aspiration.
Sometimes, if I’ve had a shit day at work, or it’s late, or I’m knackered, or a combo of all 3, I’ll get a cab home (rather than ride/get the train. Mostly the drivers have mid/low spec corollas/auris’/prius’ and the like and they’re fine, they get me home more quickly/easily than my way. There’s a couple of drivers though, one has a Merc E class and another that has a huge Lexus and they are wonderful. Super comfy seats, quiet and smooth and much nicer places to be. Thats on a 20 minute journey. If I had to spend any amount of time travelling by car, I know which end of the market I’d be looking.
Your choice but paying £60k for a more comfortable seat and a better stereo is pointless to me.
At the risk of appearing like this could be a bike web site for a moment... Santa Cruz, compared to normal bikes.
Going off piste, but don’t most brands end up being nothing than a bull shit brand,they start off actually having different attributes that make them stand out, ie quality and reliability and then that brand name literally gets milked whereby the owners have no interest in keeping those attributes other than cranking the price up.
Tell us you're talking about North Face without telling us you're talking about North Face.
Talking of other bullshit brands.....
Going off piste, but don’t most brands end up being nothing than a bull shit brand,they start off actually having different attributes that make them stand out, ie quality and reliability and then that brand name literally gets milked whereby the owners have no interest in keeping those attributes other than cranking the price up.
What I’m getting at is the brands you aspired to as a kid were actually good then but now are a pale imitation.
I’ve seen YouTube videos going over old vintage clothing showing how the quality of materials and workmanship was much higher for a brand then than now (and the use of China for manufacturing and finishing in other countries - although there’s a bit of disinformation going on from China )
That hits Endura right on the head !
Or The North Face. Or Moutain Hardwear. Or Mountain Equipment..Or... [put name of once good outdoor gear company here]
Almost anything sold by Uniqlo is well designed, decent fabric and excellent value. (On the other hand Avoid most clothing that has branding on the front as it’s probably overpriced)
At the risk of appearing like this could be a bike web site for a moment... Santa Cruz, compared to normal bikes.
expensive road bikes. I worked for a time for a shop that sold high end second hand road bikes and got to ride some very expensive bikes. Better group sets shift better, but diminishing returns set in much quicker on road bikes than they do mountain bikes IMO, and the frame price of road bikes goes way way higher.
Here we go... Or perhaps there may be other reasons people buy stuff you don't approve of...
Go spend your money on whatever, I really, really couldn't care less. But a Rolex or a Tag Heuer (and I appreciate that's the "cheap" end of the fancy watch market!) are clearly no better at telling you the time than a Casio, and quite possibly worse.
Stems! OK there is probably a minimum here but for most of the time I've been riding, more expensive stems have been aggressively worse. From Thomson's "Why yes the faceplate is a consumable, that's completely normal" to people using bloody stupid tiny bolts, or designs that have to be tightened in exactly the right way but of course you forget that after a year... And the inevitable "MaChInEd FrOm BiLlEt" so it costs more when you can buy a forged stem for £13. And of course machined carefully so that everyone looks at it and goes "Oooh machined", let's get the maximum amount of steps and lines and waste material and stress risers in there folks.
Council stem for me please, every time.
I'd extend this to any bike-specific cleaning product. Between isopropyl alcohol and washing up liquid you're covered for all bike cleaning needs
I remember a long time ago, back when I was getting into mountain biking, reading that washing up liquid wasn’t ideal because it has a certain amount of salt in it.
Now, I’m not sure if that’s true, but I always used cheap car shampoo; about the same sort of price, but without the implication that it could, possibly, cause corrosion.
In your world, going to see Joe Bloggs play a £10 gig in your local pub is the same as a ticket for Glastonbury?
Well, it depends on who Joe Bloggs is, for starters. I won’t go to Glastonbury, it’s far too big, and it’s too far to walk between the various stages. Small festivals like Greenman mean it’s easier to see a number of different acts each day.
Anyway, I have seen a few people in little venues who I’d rather see than the great majority of acts at Glastonbury, I’m thinking of one in particular, who has actually written songs for one of the world’s great bands, who I could have seen on a fairly recent tour, but couldn’t be arsed. He was a genuinely lovely bloke, and most people probably wouldn’t know who he was. John David Souther, meeting him in a little church hall venue in Bristol was a really memorable experience.
I remember a long time ago, back when I was getting into mountain biking, reading that washing up liquid wasn’t ideal because it has a certain amount of salt in it.
Now, I’m not sure if that’s true, but I always used cheap car shampoo; about the same sort of price, but without the implication that it could, possibly, cause corrosion.
I once washed my car using Fairy liquid. It stripped the top coat off, leaving a matt finish which would probably be considered trendy today but looked shit on a 1985 burgundy Ford Escort.
Here we go... Or perhaps there may be other reasons people buy stuff you don't approve of...
Go spend your money on whatever, I really, really couldn't care less. But a Rolex or a Tag Heuer (and I appreciate that's the "cheap" end of the fancy watch market!) are clearly no better at telling you the time than a Casio, and quite possibly worse.
A Rolex is not primarily a watch though. It is jewelry which happens to tell the time.
Paramo clothing. Is it really worth 1000 times as much as a bin bag ??
i've driven many many hire cars over long (and windy backroad long, not blasting up the M# and trunkroads) distances all around scotland chasing railway bridges and never ever thought "jesus i needed a mercedes for this"
You don't. I never used to care for anything fancy, there's probably a forum post on here where I say I'd never want anything more than a VW. However, I ended up with this Mercedes (and restored the suspension) and the benefits are not obvious at first. For me, NVH are important. Your brain adjusts for noise so even if it's quieter you adjust. I mean it's not so quiet that you go 'oh wow this is amazing'. But the overall noise is lower and has less effect on me, I don't need the radio on as loud, I don't have to talk as loudly to the passengers; on top of this vibrations in the steering wheel on coarse roads (e.g. M4) are less. The frequency distribution is different too - there is less base note from road vibrations. This has a significant effect on me after a long time in the driver's seat. Then there's the handling: the car holds its line much better in a curve , so you aren't doing micro-corrections over bumps all the time. The seats are also more supportive so your core doesn't have to do as much work holding your body in place. On windy A roads (like the A44 between Leominster and Worcester) you can go a little bit faster than in a cheap car for far less work. I was driving my mum and my sister to see my Dad in hospital, and whilst I wasn't 'pressing on' of course I was keeping up a nice flow and it was supremely easy; not only that my passengers were completely relaxed - no gripping of seats or handles, they were just looking out of the window, reading phones etc. All these little things add up - at least for me, and I am a hyper sensitive sort of chap.
Council stem for me please, every time.
Cheap stems are important because you can have a stash of different lengths to fine tune your setup. A properly set up bike is worth way more than cool looking machining.
People must only buy these things for washing money?...
Nah, they buy them because they want to impress other men and/or fill the emptiness in their lives.
😉
Strange thread! I expected it to be lists of things where the cheap stuff is just as good as expensive, or expensive stuff is way overpriced just cos it has a brand logo on it... like
Water bottles
Mineral water
Sunglasses
Bike luggage
Er, base layers
that kind of thing. Obviously, not ALL the cheap ones are just as good as the expensive ones, but if you shop around, you wouldn't waste your money on stuff like Oakleys, unless you were really just wanting to pay for having an O by your ear.
And gigs. I have a much better time at a £10 gig where I can stand 6ft from the guitarist playing stuff I haven't heard before and dance my arse off, than at a stadium where some hasbeen has charged £200 and I'm in a seat half a mile from them watching a big video screen. Your experiences my differ!
The south Vs the north.
In your world, going to see Joe Bloggs play a £10 gig in your local pub is the same as a ticket for Glastonbury?
Well, it depends on who Joe Bloggs is, for starters. I won’t go to Glastonbury, it’s far too big, and it’s too far to walk between the various stages. Small festivals like Greenman mean it’s easier to see a number of different acts each day.
Anyway, I have seen a few people in little venues who I’d rather see than the great majority of acts at Glastonbury, I’m thinking of one in particular, who has actually written songs for one of the world’s great bands, who I could have seen on a fairly recent tour, but couldn’t be arsed. He was a genuinely lovely bloke, and most people probably wouldn’t know who he was. John David Souther, meeting him in a little church hall venue in Bristol was a really memorable experience.
Great story but my point was that the poster was comparing two different things. Apples and pears, or maybe tomatoes and rice. But yes, because we're all old we've all seen great acts at tiny venues, none of us would want to attend Glastonbury, and ooh, isn't modern music loud!
Back when I were a lad they had proper tunes!