Author Topic: Things That Are Expensive But Should Be Cheap(er) ((aka Lose Value Instantly))  (Read 13399 times)

EscapeVelocity2020

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Hope I'm not stepping on any toes/overlapping with another thread.  I don't spend as much time on the forums as I should and I'm not about to due diligence outside my office when I'm having fun.  I was watching a YouTube video and got a little inspiration wondering how widespread this phenomenon I recently experienced (my wife commented on how pretty a RR Evoque was).  So here is the link to the video of a convertible Range Rover Evoque.

What things have you seen that are maybe interesting or nice, but way overpriced?

TheGrimSqueaker

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Anything deliberately marketed as a "collectible"
Any new automobile
Cosmetics
Electronics
Timeshares

EscapeVelocity2020

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Yeah GrimSqueak, it must be a generational transition, but fortunately I hear less and less about 'collectibles'.  I think the whole 'estate furniture' thing is still appreciating, but most 'collectible' crap is worthless from 1980 forward.  I also struggle to see the lasting value in a 'Micky Mantle', but I won't fault people for wanting to own a little piece of their past.  It won't be worth shit to the next generations, but nobody will fault you for giving a few hundred or thousand to own what your think was a valuable piece of your history. 

It's a weird thing between the rich and the poor - Hugh Hefner just died, and most of his life seemed to be pretty sad after he made it big.

slugline

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Nearly all jewelry at retail.

GuitarStv

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Nearly all jewelry at retail.

But especially engagement rings.

seathink

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Nearly all jewelry at retail.

But especially engagement rings.

Insurance on engagment rings.

penguintroopers

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Nearly all jewelry at retail.

But especially engagement rings.

Insurance on engagment rings.

As someone who has insurance on their jewelry, and the bulk of the value is my engagement + wedding ring set... please tell me I haven't done something stupidly unmustacian here.

As for on topic things: my instantaneous thought was cars. Similarly: "high end" furniture. You're never gonna get the $10k back that you dropped on that perfect dining room table. Try $1000 on FB, IF you're lucky. Because a. Someone has to be willing to put down $1000 on a used furniture item (which is near insanity in my opinion) and b. they have to have $1000 lying around.

paddedhat

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Insurance on engagment rings.

As someone who has insurance on their jewelry, and the bulk of the value is my engagement + wedding ring set... please tell me I haven't done something stupidly unmustacian here.

As for on topic things: my instantaneous thought was cars. Similarly: "high end" furniture. You're never gonna get the $10k back that you dropped on that perfect dining room table. Try $1000 on FB, IF you're lucky. Because a. Someone has to be willing to put down $1000 on a used furniture item (which is near insanity in my opinion) and b. they have to have $1000 lying around.
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Diamonds are an amazing monument to marketing. Essentially worthless and undesirable until the DeBeers empire marketed them to the status they currently enjoy. It makes for a great read.

Furniture is an interesting game also. All of our un-upholstered stuff is Amish, bought new over the last two decades, fairly priced, and capable of lasting another hundred years, or more. The exception is our hand made cherry dining table from some famous name woodworker. We bought it an an auction. At that point it was $4700 new, in his showroom, and we paid $200. Twenty five years later I can safely say that it was a good buy, LOL.

EscapeVelocity2020

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My thought was sunk cost on jewelry (not being an investment with any yield nor appreciation) and then compounding that mistake by having to buy insurance so as not to lose the residual value.

Maybe, in your personal situation, it makes sense to buy jewelry of such significant value that insurance makes some sense to protect against theft, but this is not typical.  And it is obviously frivolous.

former player

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Modern art.

A local artist sells her paintings on line and in local galleries for mid-four figures.  I picked up a pair of her works at auction for £220 including buyer's premium.    Almost anything that you like that is for sale in a gallery, check on line for the resale prices for that artist first.  If you love it, still buy it, but in almost all cases its a money loser.

EscapeVelocity2020

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I view art as a lotto ticket.  But if you buy something you actually like, you'll definitely lose money ;-)

Imma

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My thought was sunk cost on jewelry (not being an investment with any yield nor appreciation) and then compounding that mistake by having to buy insurance so as not to lose the residual value.

Maybe, in your personal situation, it makes sense to buy jewelry of such significant value that insurance makes some sense to protect against theft, but this is not typical.  And it is obviously frivolous.

Jewelry is often included in contents insurance, so for many people it wouldn't be a special insurance. It is in ours, even though we don't have any valuable jewelry at all. Many people inherit valuable jewelry and I can imagine they don't want to get rid of that because it's technically just overpriced molded metal. My family is not wealthy, but especially the older generation would buy gold as a form of insurance. People didn't trust banks and investments back then and if you gave your daughter a golden ring when she turned 18, she'd always have some money that was completely her own. People bought gold instead of stocks. Also, in my country we have wealth tax and while gold bars are taxed, jewelry isn't.

The only reason we have contents insurance is because my partner owns a lot of valuable music gear and we have known people that were targeted because of that. It's well known what he has because he performs a lot and if it would all be stolen we don't have the money to replace it all at once. He'd have to cancel performances. For most people, the contents of their house probably wouldn't be worth the insurance premium.

EscapeVelocity2020

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Good post Imma, I took pictures of our most valuable stuff and it was covered by renters and home insurance. My car was broken in to once and that's what insurance is for, my basic coverage bought me all my CD's back and a new windshield, around $900 at the time...

Michael in ABQ

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Nearly all jewelry at retail.

But especially engagement rings.

Insurance on engagment rings.

Valuable personal property insurance on our weddings rings and my wife's engagement ring is $37/year. I lost my wedding ring a few years ago and the insurance company cut a check for the $600 or so a new one cost. I had paid a fair amount less as gold was cheaper at the time we bought them, maybe $350 each. I had thought it was only about $20-30/year but when I looked it up just now I realized that unless I lost another ring in the next decade or so it's not really worth it. Better to quit while I'm ahead. If I have to go $600 out of pocket now that's not really a big deal anymore since we're debt free. Replacing my wife's semi-custom engagement ring would be a lot more but she doesn't even wear it all the time anyways since it sometimes snags on her clothing.

ambimammular

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Hot tubs, swimming pools, trampolines

Pools cost a ton in maintenance and chemicals, especially if you're the type who hires someone to open and close it for the year. Insurance goes up.
I see posts all the time for people giving away hot tubs, if you're willing to cart it away for them.
Most of the trampolines I've seen look pretty trashy after a few years.

Imma

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Hot tubs, swimming pools, trampolines

Most of the trampolines I've seen look pretty trashy after a few years.

Trampolines don't last for years if you don't take it indoors during the winter, but they're not really expensive, €150 will get you a pretty decent one. We had one at home when I was a kid and I think it was the most used toy for years. It can cause expensive trips to ER though....

thesis

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This thread makes me happy, and is very much in line with "run your life like a business to gauge whether it's working for you or not".

Decorations of any kind. I spend ~$120 for two foreign-style round plate decorations to go on both sides of my TV. I love them, but I guarantee you nobody would want to spend more than $20-40 on them second-hand. I've had them for maybe a year. I also watch a lot of urban exploring videos on YouTube, and the decorations are almost always still there at abandoned houses.

Semi-cheap furniture. Bought a $130 end table for $25 at goodwill. Bought a $120 printer card for $30. They were somewhat lucky finds, but they are last-five-years-style in decent shape.

Movies. VHS tapes go for $0.50, some people have to give them away for free to get rid of them. Granted these are from the 90s, but most people paid $20 for each and put that on a credit card. It's not uncommon to see hundreds in collections at garage or estate sales, and $20 was worth more back then, too.

Dining sets and collectibles. Someone mentioned it's a generational thing, I agree. My sister and I had no interest in potentially having our grandmother's dish sets when she passes. It would be tempting for the nostalgia, but even my sister doesn't see the purpose in owning a hutch. Also, it's so incredibly sad, but I've been to three estate sales in the past year. At the first one, there were probabably five dining sets, why the f--- you would need five dining sets blows my mind, except of course that they were collectibles. All of them were sitting around, and I swung by on the second day. Nobody cares. They had $50 on the sets, I think, or less. Nobody cares. It was so sad seeing that house full of absolute junk, like that's what those people spent their lives doing. Their kids (much older than me, of course), were just trying to get rid of it all. I'd rather leave my kids a ton of stocks (as long as they know how to handle wealth), not some crappy collectible sets.

I also agree with the diamond rings. If they are worth so much, why are there so many of them in pawn shops? You basically have to sell at a loss, that is the cost of the pawn shop doing business. I would probably rank my high school class ring as worse, though. $400 and I didn't even think to put what I wanted on it, not that I even care now. What a ridiculous tradition, it only exists to make one company a ton of money, my parents really didn't have the cash at that time, and I regret pressuring them to get me one....

Imma

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Dining sets and collectibles. Someone mentioned it's a generational thing, I agree. My sister and I had no interest in potentially having our grandmother's dish sets when she passes. It would be tempting for the nostalgia, but even my sister doesn't see the purpose in owning a hutch. Also, it's so incredibly sad, but I've been to three estate sales in the past year. At the first one, there were probabably five dining sets, why the f--- you would need five dining sets blows my mind, except of course that they were collectibles. All of them were sitting around, and I swung by on the second day. Nobody cares. They had $50 on the sets, I think, or less. Nobody cares. It was so sad seeing that house full of absolute junk, like that's what those people spent their lives doing. Their kids (much older than me, of course), were just trying to get rid of it all. I'd rather leave my kids a ton of stocks (as long as they know how to handle wealth), not some crappy collectible sets.

Which is how I came to own a beautiful antique oak hutch and a complete dish set from the 1930s for free :) I do own only one dish set and I use it too. It's a waste if you don't use things just to keep them looking like new.

Someone already mentioned it, but semi-cheap new furniture can get quite expensive but looks dated in a few years. As it's not solid wood, it gets damaged quickly and is almost impossible to repair. I only buy solid wood furniture and I normally get it for free or nearly for free. I have the skills to restore it into a timeless piece.

A relative inherited a few ugly dish sets but as they were brand name (Wedgwood, Royal Albert) they sold for a lot of money on Ebay. Their late grandmother would kill them if she knew it was auctioned off, but well, she's not here anymore. You shouldn't want to burden your kids with posessions.

thesis

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Which is how I came to own a beautiful antique oak hutch and a complete dish set from the 1930s for free :) I do own only one dish set and I use it too. It's a waste if you don't use things just to keep them looking like new.

+1 for using it, that's what makes the difference :)

zolotiyeruki

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I can't believe nobody has mentioned RVs yet.
Flagship Android phones.  iPhones hold their value a *little* better, but still lose a lot of value quickly.  The Samsung Galaxy S7 was $700 at launch, it's now about $300 used on eBay (if not lower).  It's an even bigger drop if you go with a not-Samsung flagship, like the LG G6 (similar specs to the Galaxy S7, but now $200).
Luxury cars
High-end computer parts (although that hasn't been as true lately for CPUs, thanks to stagnation)

MgoSam

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Modern art.

A local artist sells her paintings on line and in local galleries for mid-four figures.  I picked up a pair of her works at auction for £220 including buyer's premium.    Almost anything that you like that is for sale in a gallery, check on line for the resale prices for that artist first.  If you love it, still buy it, but in almost all cases its a money loser.

Any more advice for buying art? I like art and love owning original paintings but prices can be high. I highly doubt anything I own will become valuable someday so I can't see myself paying more than a few hundred for a painting.

former player

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Modern art.

A local artist sells her paintings on line and in local galleries for mid-four figures.  I picked up a pair of her works at auction for £220 including buyer's premium.    Almost anything that you like that is for sale in a gallery, check on line for the resale prices for that artist first.  If you love it, still buy it, but in almost all cases its a money loser.

Any more advice for buying art? I like art and love owning original paintings but prices can be high. I highly doubt anything I own will become valuable someday so I can't see myself paying more than a few hundred for a painting.
I'm no sort of expert (I "buy what I like" and it probably all looks a bit random to a serious collector) but here's what I do. 

I don't like to buy at galleries: the mark up is enormous (sorry, Teal).  They are often very nice to walk around, though.

My current browsing source in the UK is the-saleroom.com, which has online catalogues for art and antiques auctions all around the UK.  Not sure if the USA has an equivalent?  I use it to triage what's on offer at local auctions, to see whether to go to a viewing in person.  If you are prepared to buy without seeing the art in person you can bid online and many of the auctions will ship internationally.

In the past I've bought at the Affordable Art Fair, which I see has now branched out into Europe and New York.  Not sure if it's still the same as when it started, but when I went to the first one it was a way for galleries to offload their "seconds" - paintings and sculptures which hadn't sold, or had been damaged, and so on.  One thing I really liked about it was that there were so many different artists on view I got a great overview of contemporary art and could get my eye in as to what worked for me and what didn't.  By the time you have looked at several hundred paintings from several hundred artists you have a good idea as to whether there is anything you want to take home and look at for a decade or two.

I do sometimes look at ebay.  The important thing there I think is to set the filters right - only look at pre-owned original art that is for sale by auction, for instance.  Then narrow down by the categories (prints, oils, landscapes, etc.) you are interested in.  But personally, I tend to find that anything really interesting gets bid up beyond what I'm prepared to pay for something I haven't seen in person.

Good hunting!

BlueMR2

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Telescopes.  You can spend hundreds to thousands of dollars real fast, then can barely sell them for $10 in a garage sale later.

Performance car parts.  I've spent thousands on (non-wear) parts that I've later thrown away because I could not even give them away.

High end bicycles.  You buy the latest dura-ace everything bike for $5-10k.  You'll be lucky to get 10% of that back in just a couple years.

Any niche product.  They're typically hard to find exactly what you want and cost a fortune to get, but then nobody else wants exactly the configuration you have, so they become junk when you're done with them.

Turnbull

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High end bicycles.  You buy the latest dura-ace everything bike for $5-10k.  You'll be lucky to get 10% of that back in just a couple years.


True that. Years ago I bought a barely used Merlin with full Dura-Ace off Craigslist for $1500. I hate to think about the depreciation hit that guy took.

Seadog

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Telescopes.  You can spend hundreds to thousands of dollars real fast, then can barely sell them for $10 in a garage sale later.

Performance car parts.  I've spent thousands on (non-wear) parts that I've later thrown away because I could not even give them away.

High end bicycles.  You buy the latest dura-ace everything bike for $5-10k.  You'll be lucky to get 10% of that back in just a couple years.

Any niche product.  They're typically hard to find exactly what you want and cost a fortune to get, but then nobody else wants exactly the configuration you have, so they become junk when you're done with them.

I disagree with this fully. As someone who's "invested" a fair amount of money into optics (camera/telescope stuff) They're expensive because of the very fact that they're precision made, often specific to the person ordering it, and can do things that something much cheaper can not. While the resale may not be potentially so high, it's not because they lack the value, rather it's because it is such a niche, limited market. They maintain value, however the market for such things tremendously lacks liquidity.

On that note, I didn't buy these things because I want to make money on them, rather because I want what they can accomplish. The investment return isn't financial. As someone who was in the market for a decent telescope, I was prepared to wait until I found one on kijiji that fit the bill. I waited close to a year but ended up getting a setup almost exactly what I wanted for 60% of new, and it had already been listed for a couple weeks and the guy said only one other guy had come to look at it. To that end, I really don't think given the work that goes into these things, if they should necessarily be cheaper.

As to the original question though, anything that can be easily faked to a 99% level at 1% the cost. Rolex watches for instance. There is a fair bit of jewelry value there, which like art is in the eye of the beholder. In a broader sense, anything where you are paying a significant premium for a name, brand, design, or something purely qualitative that translates to "cool". Sunglasses are another classic example. The $10 pair from the drug store does as good a job as $300 Oakleys. Contrast this with say a helicopter. Even a non name brand chopper will set you back a pretty penny.

Goldielocks

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i was just thinking this when I was at the store this week.

Crest Whitestrips.    the "14-use 1 hour professional pack" was listed at $63, on sale.   These are strips of plastic, with a peroxide gel on them.. 
I was thinking that they were priced based on what a professional job would cost, NOT remotely close to the cost of the package.

paddedhat

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Performance car parts.  I've spent thousands on (non-wear) parts that I've later thrown away because I could not even give them away.

Any niche product.  They're typically hard to find exactly what you want and cost a fortune to get, but then nobody else wants exactly the configuration you have, so they become junk when you're done with them.

The parts and accessories situation is interesting. Twice I have bought used pickups that had bed covers on them. Both trucks were late model, full sized Chevys, so nothing oddball. The first had an expensive, lockable, segmented cover. That one I nearly had to throw out, since it was of no interest to anybody on CL, or anywhere else. The second truck came with a hard fiberglass lid that was strong enough to stand on, and custom painted to match the truck. I spoke to a couple of dealers of used truck caps who refused to take them for free, saying that they had to occasionally round the ones up that they got stuck with, and haul them off to the landfill. I found another cap dealer who would take it for free. He told me he would probably sell it for a few bucks, possibly give it away if he was feeling generous, or crush it up for the dumpster, if he got tired of it sitting around. I asked if he ever sells new ones like it? He says, "Oh yea, a few a year, they run about $1200, once they are all painted and installed".  Weird.....................What else can you spend that kind of money on, one day, and the next day it's a liability that's hard to give away for free?

GuitarStv

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If I want modern art, I'll go out . . . get some paint and a canvas and make my own.  The beauty of modern art is that it doesn't have to look like anything so you can't really screw it up.  If you're choosing the paints going into it you know it'll match your home colour scheme exactly.

Goldielocks

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If I want modern art, I'll go out . . . get some paint and a canvas and make my own.  The beauty of modern art is that it doesn't have to look like anything so you can't really screw it up. If you're choosing the paints going into it you know it'll match your home colour scheme exactly.

LOL, because that is exactly why people produce and buy modern and fine art.

<I do get the point that people can produce their own art... it is similar to my position that going and playing a sport is better than watching professionals doing it, even if you are not very good.   I think art is a bit more like music than sport, however-- the artist creates a mood and ambiance that you may not always reproduce for yourself>

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With much art I'd agree with you.  Renaissance masterworks, some impressionist stuff, sure.  Modern art is like free jazz though.  Literally anyone can do it and come away with good results (Can you see?  Draw triangles, squares, AND circles?  Flick paint?  You're all set!).  I'm not saying it's without value, and there's a bunch of it that I like, but would never pay someone money for a picture of squares in different colours, or some paint thrown on a canvass.  I'm fully confident of my ability to do similar works just as well (but mine will match the damned carpet - guaranteed).  It's also a lot of fun.

:P

MgoSam

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I apologize encouraging the foam!

TheGrimSqueaker

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With much art I'd agree with you.  Renaissance masterworks, some impressionist stuff, sure.  Modern art is like free jazz though.  Literally anyone can do it and come away with good results (Can you see?  Draw triangles, squares, AND circles?  Flick paint?  You're all set!).  I'm not saying it's without value, and there's a bunch of it that I like, but would never pay someone money for a picture of squares in different colours, or some paint thrown on a canvass.  I'm fully confident of my ability to do similar works just as well (but mine will match the damned carpet - guaranteed).  It's also a lot of fun.

:P
The one on the second row from the bottom, to the right, is hardly the result of different colored squares or paint thrown on canvas. Don't you see the autumn road scene? Chill with the picture a bit, squint if you have to, and see if the autumn leaves, sky, and dashed line on the roadway pop out at you.

GuitarStv

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The one on the second row from the bottom, to the right, is hardly the result of different colored squares or paint thrown on canvas. Don't you see the autumn road scene? Chill with the picture a bit, squint if you have to, and see if the autumn leaves, sky, and dashed line on the roadway pop out at you.

Yeah, I totally do.  I like that picture (it's why I posted it).  I'm also confident that I could create the same effect, no problem.

I'd start by writing a simple software program to take in any image, randomly select pixels in the image, and then generate larger squares of that single pixel colour between preset parameter sizes.  Then I'd run any picture I want through it, and project it onto a canvas.  I'd take a large amount of acrylic paint and freehand the squares with a paint brush to get the cool organic quality.  Finally, I'd freehand a border around many of the squares with a slightly different colour - lighter for the dark sections and darker for the light sections.

It would take about a day to do the software, probably about two or three days to do the painting part.  Time consuming, yes.  Difficult?  Not really.  Way cooler to do on your own because you can play with a bunch of different images and colours to get exactly the art you want?  Hell yes.  I've done this sort of stuff in the past.  (Being a software developer makes it much easier to cheat at this kinda stuff.)

Imma

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Modern art.

A local artist sells her paintings on line and in local galleries for mid-four figures.  I picked up a pair of her works at auction for £220 including buyer's premium.    Almost anything that you like that is for sale in a gallery, check on line for the resale prices for that artist first.  If you love it, still buy it, but in almost all cases its a money loser.
Depends on if you want to support the artist or not. For living artists trying to making a living through their work, galleries and art shows are pretty much where they make their money. There's also a constant struggle to price something high enough to make anything off it1. Secondary markets such as auctions are great for getting art cheap, but the artist doesn't see any of the money at that point. If you want to support your local arts, your best best is to try and buy direct from the artist.

1. I do photography and most of my work is sold as metal prints. After the cost of the print and gallery fees I tend to make between $5 - 10. People complain all the time that it costs too much, but never want to pay what it actually costs to produce the work.

This. You buy art to support the artist and because you like it. If you want to invest, choose an index fund. If you appreciate the art and the artist, the works aren't less valuable to you because their financial worth has decreased. There's also no way of knowing what works will become valuable at some point in the future: my ancestors lived in the same village as Van Gogh did during the same era. It's not unlikely they met. I wish they purchased a drawing by him when he was a starving artist ... he only sold one work during his lifetime.

zolotiyeruki

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The one on the second row from the bottom, to the right, is hardly the result of different colored squares or paint thrown on canvas. Don't you see the autumn road scene? Chill with the picture a bit, squint if you have to, and see if the autumn leaves, sky, and dashed line on the roadway pop out at you.

Yeah, I totally do.  I like that picture (it's why I posted it).  I'm also confident that I could create the same effect, no problem.

I'd start by writing a simple software program to take in any image, randomly select pixels in the image, and then generate larger squares of that single pixel colour between preset parameter sizes.  Then I'd run any picture I want through it, and project it onto a canvas.  I'd take a large amount of acrylic paint and freehand the squares with a paint brush to get the cool organic quality.  Finally, I'd freehand a border around many of the squares with a slightly different colour - lighter for the dark sections and darker for the light sections.

It would take about a day to do the software, probably about two or three days to do the painting part.  Time consuming, yes.  Difficult?  Not really.  Way cooler to do on your own because you can play with a bunch of different images and colours to get exactly the art you want?  Hell yes.  I've done this sort of stuff in the past.  (Being a software developer makes it much easier to cheat at this kinda stuff.)
That's funny, because I had the precise same thought as I looked at that picture. (also a software developer, among many, many other roles): "I could write a script to create this!"

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Movies. VHS tapes go for $0.50, some people have to give them away for free to get rid of them. Granted these are from the 90s, but most people paid $20 for each and put that on a credit card. It's not uncommon to see hundreds in collections at garage or estate sales, and $20 was worth more back then, too.



The same applies to any technology. VHS has gone the way of the floppy disc. There are people in the same situation with DVDs now, and people will be in the same situation with portable harddrives or BluRay and eventually the Cloud. Don't spend money on storage for technology. Or, if you have to (family photos etc), continually upgrade and only store what's important. Yes, I have a hard drive, but I know many people who have easily $1000 sitting in multi TB harddrives just for storing movies - or not, cos that would be illegal.

Imma

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I never got those people who hang on to (illegally) downloaded movies after they've watched them. You're not going to watch most movies again, why would you spend money to store them? And if you do decide to watch it again, downloading takes about 10 minutes these days.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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I never got those people who hang on to (illegally) downloaded movies after they've watched them. You're not going to watch most movies again, why would you spend money to store them? And if you do decide to watch it again, downloading takes about 10 minutes these days.

Well, I do watch movies multiple times. I've seen Gone with the Wind at least 20 times. Downloading may be cheap but it costs money every time. I pay for the data I use, not a lump sum for unlimited - and I pay less than $20 a month for both ph and internet.

former player

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Modern art.

A local artist sells her paintings on line and in local galleries for mid-four figures.  I picked up a pair of her works at auction for £220 including buyer's premium.    Almost anything that you like that is for sale in a gallery, check on line for the resale prices for that artist first.  If you love it, still buy it, but in almost all cases its a money loser.
Depends on if you want to support the artist or not. For living artists trying to making a living through their work, galleries and art shows are pretty much where they make their money. There's also a constant struggle to price something high enough to make anything off it1. Secondary markets such as auctions are great for getting art cheap, but the artist doesn't see any of the money at that point. If you want to support your local arts, your best best is to try and buy direct from the artist.

1. I do photography and most of my work is sold as metal prints. After the cost of the print and gallery fees I tend to make between $5 - 10. People complain all the time that it costs too much, but never want to pay what it actually costs to produce the work.

This. You buy art to support the artist and because you like it. If you want to invest, choose an index fund. If you appreciate the art and the artist, the works aren't less valuable to you because their financial worth has decreased. There's also no way of knowing what works will become valuable at some point in the future: my ancestors lived in the same village as Van Gogh did during the same era. It's not unlikely they met. I wish they purchased a drawing by him when he was a starving artist ... he only sold one work during his lifetime.
You know, when I bought those paintings I did worry that having a low public auction price record would hurt the artist.  But what am I to do about that?  If I hadn't bid the paintings would have sold for even less or not at all.  Am I going to donate the difference with the original price to the artist?  No, she's already been paid once for the paintings.  Am I going to buy something else direct from her?  Probably not, I've got limited wall space.  Do I think I've got anything that will seriously appreciate?  Probably not: I suspect that takes an "eye" I just don't have.  In the past I've bought direct from the artist or in galleries and may do so again, but the prices for anything I like tend to be four or five figures, which is a lot of money.


libertarian4321

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"Designer" anything.

I don't care if it's clothing, a watch, a computer, a purse, a car, or whatever.  If it's got the name of some designer, you will pay ridiculous amounts for essentially the same product you can get in a non-designer version for 1/10th the price.

FFS, it's a pair of jeans made in China.  There is no reason to pay $400 for it.  Even if "Yves Saint Laurent" or whatever slaps his name on a label.


Imma

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I never got those people who hang on to (illegally) downloaded movies after they've watched them. You're not going to watch most movies again, why would you spend money to store them? And if you do decide to watch it again, downloading takes about 10 minutes these days.

Well, I do watch movies multiple times. I've seen Gone with the Wind at least 20 times. Downloading may be cheap but it costs money every time. I pay for the data I use, not a lump sum for unlimited - and I pay less than $20 a month for both ph and internet.

Are you using mobile internet? In that case, I can understand it. Although if you're really going to watch your favourite movie a million times I'd invest €1 in a DVD from the thrift store.  Or do Americans have something like datalimits on regular home internet? I don't think that has ever existed in my country, but it might exist elsewhere.

myrrh

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Although I am not Anna, I can safely say that at least some Americans have data limits on home internet. I think it's because of the virtual monopoly cable companies have here. My own home internet, provided by the cable company, has a limit of 350 GB per month, which sounds like a lot until you and/or your spawn watch a lot of Netflix or Amazon Prime shows in high definition (which seems to be the default mode).

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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I never got those people who hang on to (illegally) downloaded movies after they've watched them. You're not going to watch most movies again, why would you spend money to store them? And if you do decide to watch it again, downloading takes about 10 minutes these days.

Well, I do watch movies multiple times. I've seen Gone with the Wind at least 20 times. Downloading may be cheap but it costs money every time. I pay for the data I use, not a lump sum for unlimited - and I pay less than $20 a month for both ph and internet.

Are you using mobile internet? In that case, I can understand it. Although if you're really going to watch your favourite movie a million times I'd invest €1 in a DVD from the thrift store.  Or do Americans have something like datalimits on regular home internet? I don't think that has ever existed in my country, but it might exist elsewhere.

Yep, mobile internet, and yes, I have cheap copies of favourite movies that I re-watch. I'm in NZ and we don't have data limits but the unlimited internet is pricey - like $80 a month just for that. Seems silly to me when most people mainly use the net for work or forums etc and not watching hours and hours of movies. But you pay for it anyway.

Gone Fishing

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Clothing margins are insane. I'm sure there are people out there who can consign or ebay used clothing minimizing losses or even turning a profit, but most new clothing purchases suffer massive depreciation when you walk out the door and throw away the receipt.

Michael in ABQ

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Clothing margins are insane. I'm sure there are people out there who can consign or ebay used clothing minimizing losses or even turning a profit, but most new clothing purchases suffer massive depreciation when you walk out the door and throw away the receipt.
Clothing is complicated though. On the really cheap range it's not even worth what you paid for it (and negatively impacts the enrivorment and developing economies); on the high end you tend to be overpaying for what you get. However, there is an "expensive" range that correlates to high quality materials and workmanship. So paying a couple hundred dollars for a well made wool coat may in fact be a fair price (plus they last along time if you take care of them!). The only way to get some clothing cheaper is to buy it used.

I have a T-shirt that I've worn fairly regularly for nearly a decade (100+ washings, easily) that is still in good shape. Other T-shirts that probably cost about the same or a bit less are starting to fall apart after a few years. Getting a good quality article of clothing that will last for years is definitely a better deal than something cheap that falls apart within months.

Imma

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I bought a pair of secondhand Levi's jeans recently for €25 (I haven't found them in the 10-15 range in my country). They were unworn and the cheap new jeans I buy normally are €40, so it's a good deal. Plus in my experience Levi's last twice as long as the cheap ones.

Undecided

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Nearly all jewelry at retail.

But especially engagement rings.

Insurance on engagment rings.

Valuable personal property insurance on our weddings rings and my wife's engagement ring is $37/year. I lost my wedding ring a few years ago and the insurance company cut a check for the $600 or so a new one cost. I had paid a fair amount less as gold was cheaper at the time we bought them, maybe $350 each. I had thought it was only about $20-30/year but when I looked it up just now I realized that unless I lost another ring in the next decade or so it's not really worth it. Better to quit while I'm ahead. If I have to go $600 out of pocket now that's not really a big deal anymore since we're debt free. Replacing my wife's semi-custom engagement ring would be a lot more but she doesn't even wear it all the time anyways since it sometimes snags on her clothing.

The annual jewelry rider for my wife’s engagement ring costs about 0.7% of the ring’s appraised replacement value, and I am often tempted to drop the coverage. You’re paying nearly ten times that rate, so while I would certainly drop that coverage, maybe you can find a (much) cheaper way to cover it? I wouldn’t bother with extra coverage for wedding bands, though (at least not ours), although they happen to be covered by our general homeowner’s policy.

talltexan

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If you think Jewelry is expensive, check out some other threads about how expensive divorce can be!

MountainFlower

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Sheets are expensive.  They're just a piece of fabric. 

LiveLean

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HVAC. Not much more than big metal cans and fans.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!