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Bizarrely Good Value Things in Modern Life

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StockyGuy

Observe, Discuss, Apply
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15 October 2007
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With all the talk of inflation, some non-market related things that simply seem too cheap, inefficiencies in the marketplace of life, if you will:

- 65 cent can of baked beans from Woolies. 65 cents! It has a proper pull tab, no can opener needed! Not ideal to live off, but you could do worse. At 1332 kilojoules that's a meal, for 65 cents!

- The insane cost of elite private education vs the much cheaper option of public education where that public school is in a higher socioeconomic area (maybe just down road of the private school).

- The Veblen-good insanity of expensive watches with fancy unreliable movements vs a fair quality (under $200) digital or quartz option that keeps on ticking on.

- Classical good looks, to me, seem undervalued, as eg very few supermodels have them, in my estimation.

- The extreme disparity between cost of new and old season sports shoes. I like the looks of name brand sneakers, sure, I admit. But there simply is no rational reason to pay twice/thrice as much for the new season stuff, while they're heavily discounting the old stuff.

- YouTube, Wikipedia. It's incredible how life-enriching these free things are.

- Good country real estate. Always astounds me the willingness of people to take on multi-decade big city mortgages. The stress!!

- Second hand cars. So much depreciation in value as soon as you take ownership when new. I know there's high net worth types and even very high net worth types here who might read this, so this doesn't apply to you folks. My point is the diminishing returns the higher up you go, price-wise. There's way too many yahoos who think it's better to go into years of debt for a brand new dream car, vs save up for a few months and buy a completely functional vehicle that's a few years old.


Any I've missed?
 
Hand tools in super cheap auto. Bought a few things out of here after having tools knocked off and it works well for the price. Often a third the price of bunnings.
 
yeah there's lots of great cheap things. more that i could mention

and even if you get a dream home or luxury car, you get used to it after a little while.

it also goes against reason to want to be wealthy (makes no sense).
 
grah33 said:
yeah there's lots of great cheap things. more that i could mention
Click to expand...

Definitely so. TRUE blind tests often are embarrassing for the higher priced brand. I say "true" because eg theres a whole series of entertaining YT videos ( ) showing supposed blind tests by experts where you can often obviously tell by the container and/or presentation that it's the more expensive item (or is not). I like https://www.choice.com.au/ .

Irrational brand loyalty is one that always makes you wonder. I suspect virtually everyone here works for, or has worked for, some entity which is simply not the best in the marketplace for its products/services. Yet you observe customers stay wedded to an inferior brand, offering poor value. Knowing our industry as we should we would never use said brand, nor recommend friends/family do, but we advocate for it. That's capitalism for ya lol - probably is not a better system for human nature, though, despite the quirks.
 
moXJO said:
Hand tools in super cheap auto. Bought a few things out of here after having tools knocked off and it works well for the price. Often a third the price of bunnings.
Click to expand...
Go to a weekend market, swap meet there are always old guys selling their old work tools, amazing stuff tension wrenches, spanners, pipe benders $5-$10 each.
Helps them, helps you.
 
sptrawler said:
Go to a weekend market, swap meet there are always old guys selling their old work tools, amazing stuff tension wrenches, spanners, pipe benders $5-$10 each.
Helps them, helps you.
Click to expand...
There's a few markets where they sell new tools they import in. Often a third to a fifth cheaper.

I love collecting tools as I have lots of jobs to do round the house. Then I remember I am in fact a tradie and don't bother turning up.
 
wayneL said:
Qualified Farriers.

We're the epitome of bizarrely good value (does not include unqualified cowboys)
Click to expand...

I google the cost and it actually is less than I expected to have a horse shoed. Perhaps not usually cheap to OWN a horse, though - given their often many decades of life.
 
StockyGuy said:
TRUE blind tests often are embarrassing for the higher priced brand.
Click to expand...
Smurf being Smurf will point to an electrical example:

Beware of rabbits selling leaky batteries.

Consumer misuse, and misunderstanding of what battery ought be used for what purpose (something the manufacturers seem more than happy to encourage since it's rather profitable), is the ultimate cause since all alkaline batteries will ultimately leak if used for the wrong purposes. Suffice to say however that some brands are far more prone to leak than others, some will cop modest abuse and stay contained whilst a certain brand are notorious.

They're one product where I'm very careful to buy the right one. No point paying extra for batteries which leak and wreck the equipment when a cheaper non-leaking or at least less likely to leak product is available.

Don't be assuming that spending the most money gets you the best product.
 
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Interesting; with batteries I have tended to shell out for the more expensive if is going in a new product that I care about, for old stuff just the cheapest as long as it's listed as recommended for the particular device.

True double-blind randomised lab-style tests, with the tested needing to even be blindfolded if the item can be obviously visually linked to a certain brand or price point, probably aren't great viewing. Wine is perhaps the classic one; the el cheapo wine can often show up much more expensive options when tasters don't know which is which.

As a general observation I think the best value proposition, for new items, can often be found at the mid to lower end of the price spectrum (assuming there is a healthily broad range and number of prices). The very cheapest is usually best avoided. The very most expensive is often just a premium payment for name/packaging/advertising; maybe it's a complacent market leader who does not need to improve to battle for market share, so won't bother to. The higher end of the spectrum, price-wise, might be higher quality, that's for sure, but depending on the product it can involve extremely diminishing returns as you go up in price.
 
The best value product in modern life ?

Hard Rubbish collections. Every year Council offers householders the opportunity to "put out their dead" so speak for an appointment with the tip or recycler.

Fact is however there is often so many usable, quality items on these nature strips. And all for free. Just use eyes, judgement and perhaps be willing to wipe some dust off. Best pickings are in the more affluent suburbs.
 
basilio said:
Best pickings are in the more affluent suburbs.
Click to expand...
Not wrong, it's like the effluent affluent have competitions to see who can throw the best stuff out...? kid you not.

A few years ago now, i bought a new lawnmower from Big W, was on special and was happy with it so went back and bought another.
After the special finished, i put one on eBay for a 50% profit or so. 15 years on, it's still running fine...

Currently, one can get pitted dried dates for about $1.70 for a half kilo, imported from Iran... sold in that German supermarket chain where the checkout people sit on their arses and try to chuck your groceries on the floor ?
 
StockyGuy said:
Wine is perhaps the classic one; the el cheapo wine can often show up much more expensive options when tasters don't know which is which.
Click to expand...
Happily a wine Philistine...

Years ago I walked into a push wine shop, looking for a nice wine to take to a dinner party.

The <can't remember the right term for a wine boffin> asked - "Do you want a wine that tastes great or do you want a label to impress?"

We opted for a wine that tastes great and he immediately shepherded over to the reasonably priced wines between $7 and $15 at the time. LOL

I actually have a really good true story about a famous WA Inc corporate cowboy and 100 year old Taylors Port... Maybe for another time.
 

Oh to own a ute! Unfortunately my current area is one where each house has to book it in specifically. Because it is thus NOT same date for everyone in the area you kind of don't always have the same absolute certainty it's left there for that purpose.
 
basilio said:
Fact is however there is often so many usable, quality items on these nature strips. And all for free. Just use eyes, judgement and perhaps be willing to wipe some dust off.
Click to expand...
I like yelling things out the car window at people picking through piles on nature strips.
Things like,
"OI, WHY YOU STEALING MY STUFF?"
or "GET OUT OF IT, YA GRUB"

The reactions, Sometimes you get a grin and a laugh, other times it's a "F you" or a middle finger, others will scurry away like they've been caught doing something shameful.

Quite funny really... if a dog is hanging out a car window, I'll bark violently at it, just to let it know who is boss and to tell it to pull it's head in ...?
 

What's the best instant coffee? | CHOICE

Our experts taste and review instant coffee from Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Nescafe, Vittoria and more to find out which brand's coffee is closest to a cafe brew.
www.choice.com.au

It's amusing if you scroll down to overall score and then click on the price per 100g tab for instant coffee brands. Def not what you'd likely expect. Admittedly instant coffee is not quite like wine in that some do judge somewhat the appearance of the granules and powder - and indeed if it is granules or powder (apparently the home testers were given anonymous bags of the dry instant coffees).
 
wayneL said:
We opted for a wine that tastes great and he immediately shepherded over to the reasonably priced wines between $7 and $15 at the time. LOL
Click to expand...
Lots of things like that.

There's the top branded product and there's the best one. The two are not the same.

Then there's that other trick where the same brand sells multiple grades of its product. So there's the economy one that's cheap, there's the unstated one that just carries the main brand name that's mid-priced and there's the premium one that costs far more.

What they don't mention is that the contents are exactly the same for all of them, all that differs is what's on the label. Pick a label colour and how much you'd like to pay - it's the same product regardless.
 
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