What Do You Think Is More Expensive Than It Should Be?

Lawbstuh.

Diamonds.

Natural Gas.

Lobster is gross

All of the prices of prepared meals at Sprouts and Trader Joe's were raised this year to the point of not worth it

Vacuum cleaners

Mattresses

Fresh fruits and vegetables

etc.

Gelato in Italy.

Medical care.

rent

Blenders - all the low-end models sold by Oster, Black & Decker, Kitchenaid, Hamilton Beach are Easy-Bake Oven quality and usually don't last a year

R1 that's why I prefer unnatural gas.

Sex

Therapy - $275 without insurance.

Printer ink. A complete rip off for what is mostly water. ‘ Lawyers.

Gas. Not only the cost at the pump, but also the ‘gas’ stuck on the seats of our caftans from all the higher priced foods we are forced to pay.

Prepared Cakes

Especially a naked one!?

Fucking condo fees

Housing and gasoline.

All more and more expensive so landlords and oil companies can continue to increase their profits because they can never be rich enough. These two things are the biggest reason most of us "work to live and live to work."

Prescription Glasses 👓

R11 Printer Ink is a total scam

Dental implants. It took my dentist about 3 minutes to put the screw in and then another 3 to attach the crown. I paid 4,000 USD for this.

Broadway Tickets

throw pillows

Rent Boys

Plumbing repairs

I had the same procedure done for the same cost R18. They wanted me to finance it through their "monthly payment program" and were visibly angry when I said I'd put it on a credit card and then pay the balance off in its entirety.

High end designer crap.

It's one thing to charge $3K for a well make suit, but $900 for a t-shirt?

Water

Paying some snotty poser too much money to list and sell my house.

My darling Darfur Orphan, isn't EVERYTHING more expensive than it should be for you?

Popcorn in a movie theater

I recently saw videos women post of all the "luxury" purses they buy and I had no idea that they "wear" purses that on average cost $2500-$5000!

Completely insane delusion that women have bought into

Prescription drugs, Pedigree dogs, and pistachios.

Life.

Seriously, I don't want anything more than a cozy little place with no stairs and hopefully has room for a wee garden. Also health care, and care when I get too old to be in my cozy little place. I might as well want a mansion with dedicated staff and the best doctors and the most loving care nurses. Will never happen. So depressing.

Monthly cable and Satellite Dish service: Spectrum, Direct TV, Dish

Cut the cord and get a couple streaming services

Disagree about cheese. Basically, it's shrunken-down milk. It takes 10 lbs. of milk to make 1 lb. of cheese. Then you've got to deal with aging it and fermenting it to some degree - but not going too far into spoilage. Then, transport. You can't just stick cheese into a box and hope for the best. It's got to be refrigerated all the way. Aging: you need the space to do that, it takes time, time is money.

Then do it yourself, R26!

Trucks

Totally agree about prescription glasses and printer ink. Both are rackets.

Electricity, gas, and internet should all be free with the option of upgrades. Enough rich folk will pay for upgrades top make it free for we plebes.

mattresses

dental care (implants etc)

picture frames

throw pillows

planter pots

Why do you need throw pillows, R38. I hate them. (I'm thinking of decorative pillows that serve no purpose.)

I don't understand why in California rentals that heat is mandatory but A/C is not. Most places you can't even install your own unit, and the "porable" ones are shite. If I'm cold I can figure out how to keep warm, but in these new fucking days, I'm totally fucked when my apartment gets into the 90s INSIDE.

This is in Massachusetts. I was in Hannord's and thought the price of cheese was outrageous. Then saw the same ones in Market Basket for half the price.

Was told at the pharmacy the price of my insulin if I didn't have insurance (3 month supply) would be $2,500. Why do we sit back and allow this in the US?

Ahem..."portable".

R41 that is just fucking criminal (price of uninsured insulin).

Chartreuse, both yellow and green.

Levi's denim jeans are ridiculously overpriced. I stopped buying them and I was a 40-year customer.

Seems like it's $70 for a pair of Levi's. They're not made in the US. Doesn't seem ridiculously overpriced. I remember them being about $50 a few years ago.

Yes, Levis are way overpriced. I now buy my denim at Costco.

First class airfares compared to coach.

2 for $90

$45 each.

Even in the year 1987, the years Datalounge is set in, this can't be expensive?

Or are you non-US based DLers and Levi's are hundreds of euros in your country?

Regards electricity when I lived in the northeast it was National Grid. 25 cents per kWh. Now I'm using Georgia Power it's 12 cents per kWH. I'm seriously loving that. But national grid - their projection for the cost of wind power would rise to 50 cents per kWh. Even if you factor in preventative maintenance it's just a fucking money grab.

Or did you all accidentally click on this?

r39, my sofa is one with the straight up arms (?), I think it's called a tuxedo sofa and if I want to flop on it and watch tv all day while futzing around on DL I need at least one throw pillow for my neck. I don't even love the ones I have but I refuse to get new ones

OK R34, go ahead and let us all know why anyone should pay the exorbitant percentage fees to sell real estate. It's bullshit, and you RE people all know this.

there are 600K handbags r29 - Hermes Himalaya. Shocker. There are only two made a year and there is a six year waiting list for them.

Handbags from Chanel and Hermes are investments. I used to work for Chanel and I got a medium classic black caviar (which is pebble calfskin) with gold hardware for $1200 (super cheap even then) about five years ago. The bag now has a retail value of $7700. I could sell mine for $5000 in ten minutes online if I wanted to now. I have sold older bags from Chanel that I got super cheap for 5 times what I paid. So yeah. They just don't carry your cellphone. They appreciate greatly if you buy smartly.

Bottled water which I think is the most horrible thing on the planet. It’s stolen by Nestle to leave droughts in California and sold in plastic for more than the price of gasoline.

The price of food is soaring. One kiwi at Hmart is now 89 cents. It's not large either. A honeydew is now $7.99.

Leather belts. It’s a strip of leather and a metal buckle.

That's the craziest thing that most little purses don't even fit your phone R55

One purse cost over four grand and "you can fit your keys, some cards and a lipstick"

Wedding dresses are an acrylic overpriced synthetic racket

Phone charging cords

No one is holding a gun to your head, r53.

Sell your property yourself if you think the commission is too high, or “bullshit” as you refer to it.

Balenciaga- 1200$ for a sweatshirt that would basically be rejected by a Champion factory employee

LV - plastic coated canvas

Ray Ban wayfarers- they redesigned them so they’re made of molded plastic now and replaced the mineral lenses with acetate ones - pure made in China trash now

R63 see R24

[quote]First class airfares compared to coach.

What is "coach?"

Athletic shoes.

R62 I do. Go fuck yourself. You all know you're thieves.

Especially now R65, R48 is right.

1st class is usually 2X2 instead of 3X3, so you could expect to pay 1.5 more than coach.

In the past, you could argue the food and free drinks added to the cost (all of which are slim to none now), but … even then, maybe $25 per seat?

A Jack and coke costs an airline MAYBE $1.50 to make and the meals are pre-packaged and just warmed up (talking domestically).

I could see a 1st class seat being twice as much as coach, but it is frequently 3 to 4 times that.

Depends on where you are flying R68

On a short domestic flight, configured as you note, first class is not worthwhile but is usually priced to reflect that.

On an international flight you are getting a much larger mini-cabin (especially on non-US carriers) and the price, which can often be 5X the coach price, reflects that as well.

In both instances, the airlines are relying on business travelers and frequent flyers.

Ama-fucking-zon

Maybe first class is not based on comparisons to economy / coach. It's based on comparisons to renting or owning private planes. Also, lots of first class fliers are flying on company (business) accounts. I used to fly (nothing major at all) for work and the company had a corporate account with one of the airlines. It was easy to change flights, etc., due to the corporate account.

[quote] All of the prices of prepared meals at Sprouts and Trader Joe's were raised this year to the point of not worth it

Sprouts has always been way overpriced and not worth it. I'd rather throw away money at Whole Foods, because I can self checkout.

Shit grocery store sushi

I was recently in Mexico City and stayed in both a 3 star hotel and a 5 star hotel. the difference between the two was about 100 USD. I swear the hotels pretty much looked the same and offered the same thing.

Salads at restaurants always cost a fortune. It’s lettuce!

Creed perfumes

I sort of feel that anyone foolish enough to even consider grocery store sushi deserves to be overcharged R73

[quote] I was recently in Mexico City and stayed in both a 3 star hotel and a 5 star hotel.

Why?

Pussy.

Pussies.

The price of being a contributor to DL.

My brother’s ex wife made $450k last year selling real estate. She worked as a waitress in a chain restaurant before that. She’s cute, but not very bright. It amazes me how much realtors can make with very little actual skill.

A waterproof, reliable dilator. A sort of girl should be able to keep her love tunnel open for business while showering her ample, soft body in the stockyards!

[quote]Dental implants. It took my dentist about 3 minutes to put the screw in and then another 3 to attach the crown. I paid 4,000 USD for this.

And the Meth is so cheap!

I have a friend who makes a living in real estate. I think she makes most of her income as a rental agent, though. She is DUMB!

Everything.

“Supply chain tissues” which I know are real but let’s see if the prices go down after this is over. They never do.

[quote]Was told at the pharmacy the price of my insulin if I didn't have insurance (3 month supply) would be $2,500. Why do we sit back and allow this in the US?

The shot that I have to give myself every two weeks would cost me $3500 apiece. The previous shot I had to give myself every two months would have been $12,000. Thankfully, my insurance covers it completely.

I can kind of see how dental implants could be expensive, with some justification. You're dealing with at least a couple of trained people (dentist and an assistant), special equipment and the implant itself has to be titanium and also molded to fit that person's mouth. The whole environment would have to be sterile because it's surgery. There's a risk of infection. There's anaesthesia, etc.

I guess you're now veering into cosmetic dentistry, though, and the dentist feels like he or she can mark up the price.

$4,000 sounds on the low side, actually. I've heard that the implants cost $10K each in some areas.

Implants are $700 in Costa Rica, and the dentists are great. It will obviously require multiple trips, but would still save money if you needed more than one and lived in a city with cheap nonstops.

I bought Vanilla (not extract) from Costco & assumed it’d be $10 or so, was shocked when it came to $30!

Saffron is also ridiculously expensive.

Same with toasters, r8. I bought two mid-priced toasters that went tits up on the first use, returned them, then shelled out $70 for a basic Russell Hobbs that doesn't have any features (except a bagel button) but at least it works. You used to be able to buy a toaster that just plain worked for $20 and lasted a few years, but no longer.

R41 What do you mean, "Why do we allow it" ... we don't allow it, Congress allows this to continue. The drug lobby throws sacks full of cash at these assholes at every opportunity. Unless and until we get lobbyists and those elected to Congress under some form of control in the USA, we will continue to be bent over and fucked hard by them. They could give a damn about how much you pay for insulin, $12K injections, and everything else you are prescribed. They are all bought and paid off by the drug companies. Republican, Democrat, or Bozocrat ... makes no difference.

Perfumes and Colognes

The packaging costs more to produce than the fragrance

It used to something like 100 lbs of flower petals needed to make an ounce of perfume but nowadays all perfumes are synthetic.

Definitely all makeup/cosmetics are 95% packaging and promotion.

I agree, R14.

And she is lying about her income, R81. Realtors lie by default.

Workers and service people should earn a decent salary. Unfortunately in a lot of cases (most cases?) the people who do get most of the money are CEOs and not the people who came up with the product or service themselves.

Almost everything manufactured. Damn tariffs.

Abreva - tiny tube for $23.00

Cable television

Parking in big cities

iPhone accessories

cocaine

Herpes and a drug habit, r98?

Men's colognes are overpriced, but nowhere the ludicrous prices of women's.

Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker have both made hundreds of millions of dollars from their perfumes

One thing I've figured out with airlines and disabilities. Book the worst seats.. You'll either get put in business class or first class. For the free.

[quote] There are only two made a year and there is a six year waiting list for them.

Why don't they make 12 and clear up that list? Six years from now some of those people may not want them.

They don't seem expensive to make, but every bag of Pop Chips is half empty

Manwhores.

[quote] Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker have both made hundreds of millions of dollars from their perfumes

And all they had to do was license their name.

Yes R95, she most likely made twice that.

Dick!

Good dick is too damn expensive!

Candles

Cable, ink cartridges

And realtors. They’re useless.

R110, see R26.

earrings

Caftans!

You all hate lawyers until you need one.

I highly recommend the Kodak wireless printer -- which brags about cheap ink (and is one easy to stick in cartridge). I will never use another and am so glad they are back. Mine is the Verite 55.

As for expensive... what the fuck is wrong with the US post office? I avoid sending packages like mad.

Movie tickets. $15 for a single ticket? Yeesh.

Perfume and cologne.

Divorce.

Went to the Post Office today to mail something, and a Flat Rate Priority Envelope now costs $8.70 to send. It's supposed to be "temporary" until December 26. We'll see about that.

Louis DeJoy is a DICK.

Sarah Jessica Parker should sell her own brand of ivermectin.

Why would someone feel safe carrying a designer bag that costs as much as a house?

automobiles

[quote] Why would someone feel safe carrying a designer bag that costs as much as a house?

Because presumably for the women who own such bags, that is like the average person losing $50

It’s not like they’re going to lose the bag. Also, like someone stated up thread, they can be resold for more sometimes. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel have regular price increases. A speedy bag that cost $325 in 1998 now costs over $1k, and they look the exact same. If a person bought that bag in 1998 and kept it in good condition, they could easily sell it for more than they paid, in 2021.

Audis

All the women I've seen who post their unboxing videos on youtube are in their late twenties and thirties and work entry-level or mid-level management jobs, flight attendants.

Not with disposable income to drop four grand for a stupid purse because she saw a Kardashian had it.

The unboxing videos are sad and desperate. If all you have to offer the world is a video of yourself opening a fucking box, you may want to examine your life.

I have a FB friend that does the unboxing thing, often on her birthday. Her sons are buying her 2, 3, and 4K bags, sometimes more. These kids are in their early 20's and don't have high paying jobs. There is something very off about this.

Machine-made lace.

[quote]Machine-made lace.

I know, the cost of my fem panties are outrageous, right?

The filter for my refrigerator water dispenser is $50 or so. Why?

I'm glad I found this thread. I didn't want to page through threads to find it. But there's something along the lines of what's far more expensive than it ought to be. I'll tell you something. Years ago I downloaded an album called "The Monkees - Greatest Hits (2014) [24-96 HD FLAC]." Yes, I downloaded it. Ring the red flashing light. Call Lars from Metallica to come and bust me.

ARE YOU AWARE THAT THAT TITLE IS ERRONEOUS? The Monkees did NOT have any 'greatest' hits. They had some chart near toppers, and the songs were great pop music. But the night I tried to listen to this album in its entirety was like finding out there was no Santa Claus (did I just create a spoiler?)! The Carpenters, as maligned as they are on this site, had SOMETHING.

I don't know why it even signifies, but it's such overblown false advertising. And who knows, maybe the band members weren't aware of it, although I've heard Mike Nesmith is a savvy businessman. Just my personal rant. I love the first few albums by The Rolling Stones. But I don't think I've ever heard anything by The Dave Clark Five. Ida know, is the schlock shit we call popular music today any better than the crap they made those prefab bands play and sing in the early 1960s?

Time to level out my blood sugar. I'm starting to feel like one of those guys during the early morning rush hour who hands out gov't conspiracy pamphlets that are blurred from the mimeograph machine.

^tl;dr

That’s because, R23, that rather than [italic]making [/italic] an extra $400 off of you under their finance plan, they had to [italic] pay [/italic] the credit card company $120 to process your charge.

Viagra

Razor blades

Dental work.

Male escorts

Everything

R91 You're absolutely right, but they're not our masters. They only way to get these weasels out is not to vote for them, and people won't do that. Or we could take to the streets, but we don't do that. So we allow it. We do have power in this country, but act completely powerless and are taken advantage of and let it happen,

[quote] "Blenders - all the low-end models sold by Oster, Black & Decker, Kitchenaid, Hamilton Beach are Easy-Bake Oven quality and usually don't last a year"

They really are all trash, R8. My ex-roommate had a Ninja blender, and that thing was pretty great, and not nearly as expensive as the Vitamix. I currently only cook for one, so I on the rare occasion that I need a blender, I just use my Nutri Ninja Pro (it has 18oz & 24oz containers), and an immersion blender for soups.

They aren't top of the line, but they're sturdy, powerful, and I know they'll last for years.

[quote] "so I on the rare occasion that I need a blender..."

Oh, dear. It's late for me, but I trust you get the point.

I have an Oster blender, have had it for probably 20 years. Recently the glass thing broke, my fault, but there's nothing wrong with the blender.

Dyson products.

r143, I have recently come to the conclusion of 'fuck dyson'.

Dyson fan/heater shit thing...melted...it did.

R142 Blenders aren't made like they were twenty years ago. There are endless models and price points by every brand now.

All my life as a poor I heard 'dyson dyson dyson' so I finally got a big ball one. loved it- for a year. Got the cordless stick vacuum one for the stairs etc. Hated it and the vacuum part broke very quickly so now I have a dustbuster that cost several hundred dollars. fuck dyson.

Yacht girls.

[quote] I have an Oster blender, have had it for probably 20 years. Recently the glass thing broke, my fault, but there's nothing wrong with the blender.

It's possible that a Mason (canning) glass jar could screw down into your blender (as a replacement blender cup).

[quote] All my life as a poor I heard 'dyson dyson dyson' so I finally got a big ball one. loved it- for a year. Got the cordless stick vacuum one for the stairs etc. Hated it and the vacuum part broke very quickly so now I have a dustbuster that cost several hundred dollars. fuck dyson.

R147, my old Eureka (Kmart) crapped out after 10+ years of service.

I recently bought a ~ $40 Dirt Devil ("Endura compact") from Target (delivered free via UPS). So far, so good. I have a small apartment, though. You might want something larger.

Also, a carpet installer told me that you don't need a vacuum that picks up a bowling ball; just one that picks up dust. Those words have stayed with me over the years, haha.

I have had my Dyson animal for 13 years and it still works great. I wonder if they used to be made better (like a lot of products).

If you can come across any appliance that wasn't made in China then you have the gold standard!

So many parts of a car's interior are cheap plastic you'd find on a toy

everything from CRApple

Good colored help that is not an immigrant from one of those voodoo Islands !!!

I'm surprised people are still falling for Apple's bullshit and buying every latest model

Beef. I looked at a package of 3 Rib Eye steaks and the price was fifty dollars, a beef roast was twenty-five dollars.

College/university. Thousands of year tuition for someone to lecture and teach? I know a couple of college professors and they are not rolling in dough so I have to wonder who is raking it these dollars taken from student tuition.

Cigarettes. I don't smoke but a smoker friend told me he pays around one hundred dollars for two cartons of cigarettes. I think this one my be due to high taxes.

As previously mentioned, printer ink cartridges. I discovered that I can buy a new printer complete with ink cartridges for about five dollars more than buying replacement cartridges.

Cable TV/ Satellite services. Even if you bundle with your phone and internet, you still pay hundreds per month. It wouldn't be so bad if they had channels of quality programming but your stuck with packages that feature moves that have been played dozens of times and reruns of of sitcoms. Honestly, how many times can you watch Friends or The Golden Girls or Roseanne?

The labor charges on car repairs/maintenance. I work for a dealership service department and they are making a killing. The prices on cars have also risen dramatically in the last few year.

Restaurant alcoholic drinks, beer and wine. My husband owns several restaurants and the markup is incredible. He said the food brings in the customers for the bar pays the bills.

As a professor, I can tell you who is raking in the dollars, R157. Universities are shockingly top-heavy with administrators who make many times what faculty do.

R70, What are you talking about, that Amazon is too expensive for its value? Do you mean the voluntary Prime option? Do you mean its market-based stock price?

You do know that Amazon is primarily the Middle-man between consumer and merchant?

I guess I don't eat a lot of cake, because up until the last week, I didn't know about naked cake.

r70 I've been an Amazon customer for 15 years and they have become less competitive with the general marketplace and more expensive. I am now paying much more for the convenience of shopping at home and home delivery. They have really exploited the pandemic.

For basic non Amazon in store grocery products the price of ground beef has almost doubled. Almost all animal protein products have gone up. I guess because of he factory issues.

Food, in general. I guess WIC takes care of some but the rest of us pay to support their poor decisions until the government gives the option of a hysterectomy after 5 kids.

Safavieh, anything by this brand but esp. the rugs. Cheap acrylic from China? No thanks. Safavieh is a crock of a brand anyway, the woman thats husband owns it is a nutcase and just loves to show off her mansions full of good quality furnishings and then sells her cast offs to her readership as a hobby.

Beach towels- A decent one will run you $40+++

Underwear.

Picture frames.

R161- Walmart is quickly replacing Amazon. They vet their suppliers unlike Amazon so it's a much easier return if something goes wrong and they require their vendors to have a physical presence in Arkansas.

Bears repeating: Car Repairs, Car Repairs, car ripoffs.

Almost no one “repairs” cars anymore. They “replace” systems.

Took my beloved Jag to dealer for a small but irritating problem. Service department quoted a [bold] several [/bold] thousand dollar estimate, because they wanted to put major new components into a 18 year old car.

R155 you are not funny. You’re an imbecile.

R142, you might be able to get a replacement jar - try Walmart. I agree the Oster blenders are decent quality and last for years. My mom had Kitchen Aid blenders that were terrible. She gave me one and it broke within a year (and this was in the 90’s!) The only tragedy to befall my Osters is me dropping the glass jar.

Agree with car repairs which is why I mostly lease now. I don’t want to maintain a car.

[quote]My mom had Kitchen Aid blenders that were terrible. She gave me one and it broke within a year (and this was in the 90’s!)

I had one that died just after a year, circa 2003). Plastic melted, and the jar became one with the base while I was attempting to make soup (split pea, IIRC). It had gone off warranty, and they wanted me to send it back to them to repair. However, they insisted I send it back to them in a box they would send me after I paid $25.

As if!

^ Yes, Kitchen Aid dishwashers suck as well.

On the flip side, I bought a $35.99 Craftsman shopvac at Lowe’s recently that is cheap plastic but it works really well and has more suction than most “interior” vacuums I’ve used. For $25 more you can a bigger one with wheels and a steel canister.

Low-end Oster blenders are equally shitty as any brand

Lowe's bought the Craftsman brand from Sears. Many Craftsman items at Sears had a lifetime warranty. As part of the deal, Lowe's has to continue to honor that. So if you have a Craftsman item you bought at Sears, you can bring it in to Lowe's for service.

R125 R126 R127 The vast majority of those unboxing fraus are either up to their neck in credit card debt, buying the bag for the video and then returning them, or buying fakes. Many have admitted as much or have been outed online for such such practices. The funniest ones are the dumbasses who live in crappy houses but hey, look at my $7000 Chanel bag!

To the poster above bleating on about resale value. The value of these bags is artificially hyped up and has very little inherent, universally accepted value. It’s like buying a car or a diamond. Once you take it out of the store, bam, you’ve lost half the value. Unless it has a unique provenance, it’ll be hard to sell. The market is oversaturated and fraught with fraud. And no, designer bags like a Chanel are not rare. The prices have been jacked up for one reason and one reason only: to discourage the riff raff, who are now accessing these items that were once for a certain class of person. LV did that with their monogram canvas line (showing them to be unavailable online and very limited in stores) because allegedly, they were dismayed by its ubiquity among the lower classes but wanted to find the sweet spot between massive profit and exclusivity. Chanel moved their prices to north of $7000 for a small double flap to accomplish the same thing.

Space tickets on Blue Origin

Some Hermes bags ARE a rare commodity though, because the store picks and chooses who to sell them to. You cannot waltz into a store and buy a Birkin off of the shelf. They have to offer it to you.

A desperate frau made an unintentionally hilarious YT video about shopping at Hermes for years and NEVER being offered a bag. She spent thousands of dollars there and never got what she really wanted (she eventually bit the bullet and bought one secondhand).

R175 While it’s true that you have to be “offered” a bag and go on a “journey” with the brand (barf!) , the secondhand market is flooded with the prestige bags and plenty of people I know scored one in Vegas or abroad in Europe or Dubai while on vacation on their first try. Just a scam to keep the bags out of the hands of the plebs, who are dumb enough to spend $30K on their “Hermes journey” but still come out empty handed. Win-win for Hermes.

R18 - next time get your dental work done in Puerto Vallarta. They've got some good dental clinics that both Canadians and Americans use.

My dental implant was going to be $2600 in US, even with good dental insurance. $800 in Puerto Vallarta.

[quote]While it’s true that you have to be “offered” a bag and go on a “journey” with the brand (barf!) , the secondhand market is flooded with the prestige bags and plenty of people I know scored one in Vegas or abroad in Europe or Dubai while on vacation on their first try. Just a scam to keep the bags out of the hands of the plebs, who are dumb enough to spend $30K on their “Hermes journey” but still come out empty handed. Win-win for Hermes.

It's the ~prestige factor for these people. Of course you can always buy a knockoff on Canal St but some people (like purse lady from the video above) want to feel WORTHY of being one of the chosen few to be offered a bag.

[quote] My dental implant was going to be $2600 in US, even with good dental insurance. $800 in Puerto Vallarta.

I hope the round trip plane ticket and hotel stay cost less than $1800.

R179 - yes, because I got some other dental work done while there. I also get some clothes tailored in PV for next to nothing.

I'd rather spend a similar amount for the same dental work AND get a week vacation out of it and some memories, than just plopping out the money and being pissed off at home.

[quote] I'd rather spend a similar amount for the same dental work AND get a week vacation out of it and some memories, than just plopping out the money and being pissed off at home.

Well, good for yooouuu, R180. Everyone should be so economical.

Takeout sushi

Even if a cake is “naked”, someone spent their labor baking it. They also have to pay rent for a kitchen, pay for tools and ingredients, taxes, a food license, etc.

And therapy is too expensive? Therapists can’t scale up the way physicians can - they can only see one patient at a time - so go see a social worker if you want to spend less money. Or check with a local graduate school for clinicians in training. FWIW, my dad is a psychiatrist who charges $375 an hour. That may seem expensive but he did eight years of education and training and has 50+ years of experience. People pay attorneys that much all the time but balk at paying a physician the same.

My answer is cocktails. Every restaurant I enter now charges $15 for a margarita. (Yes, yes, someone has to make it, etc.)

My STUPID FUCKIN sneaker inserts now cost $49 for something that should be $8.

Jeans. Paige men’s jeans were in the $150 range a couple of years ago (which seemed expensive at the time) and are now a little over $200.

The Internet, honestly. It's something fundamental for most people at this point. t's not just entertainment, it's communication, and for many, it's something they need for work.

Then I want a refund for every last naked cake for the time and labor SAVED by neglecting to frost the entire cake

It takes at least one hour or more labor to professionally frost the sides of a cake and I demand reimbursement

Perfume & cologne. The markup for branding, packaging and advertising has to be something like 500%.

I remember reading an article last year about a little blind-smell test researchers did, where snobs/fanatics and casual users alike were asked to identify Chanel etc. from Lidl own brand scents, and most got it wrong.

Restaurant cocktails and wine.

I worked for 5 years in bars and restaurants and I can believe that (dine-in) restaurants have small profit margins, compared to other businesses. Although I don't like it, I can see why restaurants jack up the prices of cocktails and wine and even sodas (Diet Coke, etc.). (To compensate for the low-ish profit margin on the food.)

I generally don't order alcoholic drinks in restaurants. Don't want to pay $12+ for one. Also, I'm usually driving and prefer, if I get pulled over to say: "No, I have not been drinking at all."

Anal rejuvenation surgery

[quote] Hermes bags ARE a rare commodity though, because the store picks and chooses who to sell them to. You cannot waltz into a store and buy a Birkin off of the shelf. They have to offer it to you.

Eh? What is the criteria to be offered one, if not loyalty as a customer, then? You must be BMI 19? Look French? Be !llum!nat!? Whisper a secret password to the store attendant?

Hermes: the desired bags are the Birkin and the Kelly. Not sure, but they cost (new) maybe $12,000 each.

In general, you're supposed to have a "purchase history" with Hermes. You have to spend approximately $12,000 (price of a Birkin or Kelly) on other shit like scarves & the less-desirable bags. At that point, they may "offer" you a Birkin or Kelly bag to purchase. Who knows what fucking color that offered bag will be. You can't just choose out your specs. Regular customers may be offered a spec bag.

Shortcut to Birkin / Kelly: Walk into a store in Paris or maybe even Hawaii and ask. They may sell you one.

Gasoline, natural gas , electricity, food, rent , on and on .

R63 mentioned RayBan Wayfarers up above, there are indeed a million shit Chinese knockoffs, notably on Amazon. I have been wearing this model since I was a teenager and now only order them direct from Luxottica in Italy thru rayban.com -- still quality glass lenses and frames, beautifully packaged. And there are frequent special offers.

The property agent grift is unbelievable. In a city like SF or NYC where a small condo can easily cost $1,500,000 one is expected to pay two clowns $75,000 cash to fill out an online MLS listing and submit/receive phone offers, complete a pre-printed form? I began to sell my properties myself, and it was surprisingly easy in a strong market; there are multiple online self-sell resources to facilitate the process.

In 2000, entrance to Disneyland cost $41. Disney just raised the prices again yesterday. Now it's as much as $164, depending on which day you go. Four times the price it was 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation it's still 2.5 times the price. And it's three times the price it was 50 years ago, even adjusted for inflation.

Disney is for imbeciles r195

The real bullshit of Disney is that they pay the actors and crew members on their shows the lowest wages of any studio.

Disney was the first studio run by accountants. Now they all are.

I can't believe it, more than 100 replies (at least half about a fucking purse) and no one mentioned cereal! So I'll say it, cereal costs maybe 10 cents a box to make.

Nothing beats prescription drugs in the US, though.

Food and drink at events, popular attractions, and airports.

Service charges are often such a rip off for what you get for them. Ground rents and leaseholds don't make much sense to me either - you should either own the property or not.

Produce.

[quote] Ground rents and leaseholds don't make much sense to me either - you should either own the property or not.

R199 ⤵️

Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing Housing

Room service in ANY hotel.

Have you ever tried to grow your own produce, r200? It’s not easy, and they have to pay people to pick everything. After Japanese beetles ate up everything in my garden this summer, I am happy to pay $2 for a head of romaine.

I'm talking 7 bucks for a cabbage etc.

Where do you live that you pay $7 for a cabbage? My Whole Foods has organic cabbage for .99 cents a pound.

[quote] Food and drink at events, popular attractions, and airports.

Agree about airports. LAX has a huge markup. I think I paid $12 for a bottle of water once. DFW (Dallas) was way cheaper, though. I felt rich in DFW.

I can understand why produce costs as much as it does. It's labor intensive. There's land involved, equipment, capital investments. There's time involved, weather variables. Then, transportation (refrigerated) to your store.

R207 They are just taking advantage of a captive audience. I'm pretty sure it's the real reason why people are told to turn up 1-2 hours before their flight too.

R209, I think they tell you to turn up early because too many late assholes bitch about missing their flights. Plus, there's TSA now.

On top of that, we're not allowed to bring liquids. On top of all that, we want to stay hydrated and not look like shit when we land at our final destinations.

R210 2 hours is excessive though when it shouldn't really take you more than half an hour to get through security and to the gates. Airports must make a lot of money from bored people milling about the shops and other outlets there.

I'm just glad large condoms aren't more expensive than regular ones.

R210 Yes, it shouldn't take more than half an hour to get through airport BS but there have been more than a few times that I've arrived 2 hours early and just made it to the gate to find my flight in the final stages of boarding. This has happened to me when flying Hawaiian Airlines out of Honolulu way too often. Also, flying out of Ft. Lauderdale on cruise ship days is pure insanity. I'd rather do just about anything than fly out of any airport in Florida.

Fresh vegetables.

I wish small condoms were cheaper than large ones, R212

R198, cereal was $4.00 or more a box in the 90s and rarely went on sale. Sometime between then and now, cereal dropped in price. I can easily buy General Mills, Kellogs, or Quaker Oats cereal for $1.99 and somehow I get coupons for them despite never cutting coupons. If you were buying cereal in the 90s, cereal now seems less expensive than it should be.

Girl Scout Cookies

Don't think I don't notice the incredibly shrinking boxes and missing rows of cookies!

Premiership footballers (wages & transfer fees).

Considering they are now made in Asia, not England, cost more and use less materials cushioning the sole of the shoe than twenty years ago

Generic dextroamphetamine. ~10 years ago, it was almost cheaper to pay cash than the copayment for a generic drug with insurance. I used to pay ~$40 for a 3-month supply at Walgreens. Then, literally overnight, the price shot up to around $500 for the same amount.

Keep in mind, this was a cheap generic drug when my GRANDPARENTS were in elementary school. It got expensive ENTIRELY because the DEA unilaterally decided it was "too cheap" & massively jacked up the price it charges companies for the API (and it's the sole legal source).

Insulin

Epipen

R220 as a newly-discovered sufferer if B12 deficiency, I’m really afraid the same could happen to serum cobalamin.

Public transit.

Concerta. The copayment for its sole AA-rated ("physically-identical OROS-based") generic is now more expensive than the literal retail price of brand-name Concerta used to be. And even THAT is damn-near impossible to get.

Assuming your insurance will even (partially) COVER brand-name Concerta, it would end up being several hundred dollars per month AFTER you met your deductible for the year.

If you can FIND a pharmacy that can guarantee AA-rated Actavis-brand generic Concerta, it's approximately the price of AA-rated generic Adderall XR... but you can't use mail-order, because they'll just fill it with non-identical (and inferior) AB-rated "extended release methylphenidate", and most pharmacists will treat you like a drug addict if you demand the AA-rated version.

For those who don't understand the big deal, the drug in Concerta has a VERY short half life (~2 hours). It hits fast, hits hard, and wears off even harder (usually, giving you the same kind of headache you'd get from caffeine withdrawal). Concerta tablets incorporate an expanding sponge that soaks up gastric juice & continuously excretes a ribbon of methylphenidate gel at a constant rate, so you DON'T get body-slammed every few hours by having it either wear off between doses or ending up double dosed (which is almost as bad).

Concerta is basically the reason WHY the "AB" category of generic drugs exists. The original law permitting generic drugs doesn't require that they be absolutely identical... in content OR delivery. When Concerta's patent expired, some evil company got "ER methylphenidate" approved as a generic that used coated beads in a capsule instead of the OROS pump mechanism, and health insurers instantly moved brand-name Concerta from "preferred brand name" to "non-preferred brand name" or excluded it entirely.

The thing is... that awful generic WASN'T "the same", and the FDA knew it. But it took a few years for them to rewrite the law to create the lesser-grade AB category, and for Actavis to start making a generic version that's ACTUALLY identical to the real one (and in fact, retails for 99% as much, and is just "white-box Concerta" sold to Actavis for re-packaging so it can exist as a technical generic for insurance purposes).

A similar situation exists with Adderall XR. Officially, "amphetamine mixed salts, extended release" can vary the proportions of the 4 component amphetamine variants by 20%... and people who've done lab analysis have found even BIGGER variances, because the FDA's own quality tests don't actually distinguish between the 4 salts, so almost ANY ratio will legally pass. But when people who take it screamed, the industry tried to gaslight us & acted like we were drug abusers for daring to notice the difference between dextroamphetamine & levoamphetamine, even though EVERYONE (in the industry) knows there's a HUGE difference between them (levo- primarily affects the PNS, dextro- affects primarily the CNS).

For a while, generic dextroamphetamine had serious FDA-ignored quality problems as well. Back in 2013, one company's "dextroamphetamine" was found to be almost 25% racemic. In fact, it was PRECISELY formulated to pass the FDA's tests, while basically substituting cheaper racemic amphetamine for more expensive dextroamphetamine. In blunt terms, they were basically cutting an expensive desired drug with a cheaper substitute with unwanted side effects & getting away with it. And taking advantage of prejudice against people with ADD to gaslight us when we PROVED they were doing it.

TL/DR: not all generic drugs are equal. For drugs with narrow dose ranges and/or short half-lives, AA-vs-AB rating MATTERS.

Whores

Article re r225

Pizza. Holy shit, when did it start costing $25-30 for a large with three toppings? And now Take Out wants to be tipped. Bitch all you did was take my money....

r228, check Domino's carry-out specials. In South Florida, large 3-topping carry-out ordered via their app (under 'deals') is $7.99

Note that simply ordering a 3-topping pizza for carry-out will NOT give the discount. You have to find the deal buried near the bottom & explicitly choose it. And it's carry-out only. If you choose "for delivery", it won't show up.

Thanks, but I try to avoid the chains actually. And I also avoid pizza in general because I'm over 50 and carbs/fat. But I remember as a kid that pizza was always the fast, cheap dinner everyone liked. Now it's usually garbage and super expensive.

And yes, I know, I'm in "get off my lawn!" territory.

Printer ink, definitely -- ESPECIALLY because the ink for the inkjet printers dries out and becomes unusable very quickly if you don't print regularly. I long ago refused to continue paying those ridiculous prices, so now I have a printer that I use for scanning and copying, but it has no ink in it. This is rarely an issue, because so few things require hard copies of anything anymore, and on the very rare occasions when they do, I just ask a friend to print for me.

It also seems to me that some kinds of nuts -- pecans, walnuts, etc. -- are more expensive than they should be.

Adrenochrome

Migrant workers

Black market kidneys

Domestic caviar

Out of court settlements.

Right? It's not like the donor can't get by on one.

Vaginoplasty

A fake passport

Hush money

Quality therapy.

Yes, I know you can ostensibly get remote or sliding-scale help for a song these days, but it’s rarely any good, because anyone can get basic ‘therapist’ or pseudo-psych credentials and market themselves online these days. People go into counselling as a side-hustle, when often they have no business in such a field.

I never knew that about Hermes until reading this thread. It sounds less like a retail establishment and more like a cult.

I remember when women thought paying $100 for an oxblood Aigner or John Romaine purse was outrageous.

Poppers ( or "video head cleaver")

everything

My subscription to DataLounge

SHOES

Prices are constantly going up and quality going down. Some use actual cardboard in the soles.

Almost every brand have released shoes with this cheap mesh fabric claiming it cools your feet and it always rips in less than a year and ends up in the garbage

Why Louboutin Shoes are so expensive

A lot of women actually use regular red paint to paint the bottom of their shoes. It ends up cracking and flaking off.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York.

R247, you know this how?

R249 because Whitney Cummings admitted to it

Greater Boston real estate

Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare

Trips to the vet.

The hourly outcall rate for most men available on massuerfinder.com

R254 for real! Also rentmasseur.com

Nuts. Why are cashews, macadamias, pecans so expensive?

Don’t know if it’s been posted yet, but bacon. Fucking even the basic brands are about $12 to $14 for a normal package. When did that happen?

R257 Look in the meat case for 'bacon ends and pieces' that are left over from when the butcher slices the 'pretty' bacon. It tastes just as good, it's just not in uniformly attractive slices. Like who cares? I bought 2 lbs of ends and pieces for a couple of dollars yesterday. Great deal.

Kindle books. I bought a tablet for the primary purpose of reading books at work and was dismayed to learn that an electronic book is just as expensive as a physical book, sometimes even more expensive. I thought that not buying a physical book would be cheaper but no! I was used to buying used books and those can often be found on Amazon for just a dollar or two. I poked around and found a couple of websites that have free books to read but not download. So far, I've read "Gone With the Wind", "The Help" and I'm in the beginning of "To Kill a Mockingbird". I use the internet to steal television programs, music, movies so I might as well read free books. I am assuming that these sites with books are illegal? These books have to have copyrights, correct? I know the music and movies and TV programs I download are illegal but not sure about a book that I read only and do not make a digital copy.

r259, I take kindle books out from the public library (I'm a member of two different ones). It's free, and there's plenty to read. I may not get things on their release date, but the process grows more timely as the years go on. I urge you to look into doing the same where you live.

Fabergé Eggs

Magazines

Thanks for that excellent suggestion, R260. I don't know why the thought of using the library didn't occur to me.

International Drivers Licenses. In the US, you have to get them from AAA, a private insurance company. They cost $35 (might be more now) and are valid for one year. Other countries, they are free, some are valid for 10 years, some are permanent.

[quote] I know the music and movies and TV programs I download are illegal

Is it any different than the VCR days where people recorded tv programs and then swapped or loaned them to other people?