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Things that are inexplicably expensive (1 Viewer)

Righetti said:
We need to rethink this except people will literally line up for days for the new ones.  The functionality of a phone today including its computing power is incredible, the screens are amazing, the cameras are fantastic.  I spend more time on my phone than I do my laptop or my iPad and neither seemed expensive when I bought those.  The only reason we think phones are expensive is because we remember the clamshells.  
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Don't knock the clamshells. The T420 is still better than any consumer PC sold today.

 
Cell phones used to cost thousands of dollars.  In 1980s coin.  And you couldn't even watch porn on them.

They're too cheap now, if you ask me. 

 
Deepster said:
7 grand for a wedding band?

Cancel that, hire a reasonable DJ and fly @Righetti in for his Bon Jovi routine. Problem solved. 
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A professional wedding band for $7k may not be a wise financial decision, but it's not ridiculous or inexplicably expensive. You figure there are at least 7 people in the band. So that's a grand per member. You have to figure around 8 hours for travel, load-in, sound check, the actual reception, and break down at the end of the night. So you have professional musicians each clearing about $125 per hour. But you're also getting equipment rental as part of that deal. The PA, lights, and the musicians' personal equipment. Probably at least $35,000 in equipment on the stage. And the band also has expenses (I'm guessing you're not paying for their gas, guitar strings, etc.).  For a group of professional musicians who will be the focus of entertainment at the reception, that's not that inexplicably expensive once you break it down. 

But, yeah, we went with a DJ for our wedding. 

 
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French Onion Dip.  It costs twice as much to buy the little thing of French onion dip (which is full of weird preservatives and tastes wrong) as it does to buy the twice as much of the two ingredients that make good French onion dip and mix the two together.  

 
General Malaise said:
My wife is a retired photographer.  That price for wedding photography is egregious.  She said she'd fly to NY and do it for half that.
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A friend of mine did this for their destination wedding. It was cheaper to hire an acquaintance of theirs that was a local photographer and fly them down for the wedding than to hire a photographer at the resort that they had their wedding. Can't recall where they went in the Caribbean that it was, been a few years.

 
My FIL dropped around $20K for our wedding with about 250 guests in 2000.  He was a photographer and had a lot of tight contacts in the wedding business.  My mom got us the flowers at cost through her best friend and my uncle got his best friend to be our DJ as his wedding present.  The 2 biggest costs were the full dinner reception with open bar (about $15K) and the dress (over $4K).   We got photography for free from my FIL's employee and went super cheap on the cake.

The reception was awesome.  I had a bunch of college buddies who weren't invited that crashed the reception for the open bar and dancing.  Family and friends alike had an absolute blast.  That entire weekend was one of the greatest times of my life and the only time I had all of my favorite people in one place at the same time.

I think back at times and wish we had some of that money instead, but I don't know if I'd want to give up those memories either and I don't think my FIL regrets one penny.  He seemed genuinely happy the whole time and he's normally a pretty negative/grumpy guy.

 
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IvanKaramazov said:
2) Cell phone plans.  I was a one of the last people I know to get a phone, because they strike me as preposterously over-priced.  Both the phone itself, and the associated data plan.  At this point in my career though, I can't not have one, and we bit the bullet and did the whole family thing because my kids were also the only kids without phones in our little circle for a number of years.  Why does your average middle-class person spring for this kind of thing, though?  I can afford this, and it makes me throw up in my mouth when I see what we're playing each month.  So how does somebody making the median household income justify this expense?  
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No kidding. This and cable TV. Burns me every month to pay that thing, and my neighborhood has 3 options for cable TV. You would think the competition would help drive the cost down.

Nope. 

 
IvanKaramazov said:
2) Cell phone plans.  I was a one of the last people I know to get a phone, because they strike me as preposterously over-priced.  Both the phone itself, and the associated data plan.  At this point in my career though, I can't not have one, and we bit the bullet and did the whole family thing because my kids were also the only kids without phones in our little circle for a number of years.  Why does your average middle-class person spring for this kind of thing, though?  I can afford this, and it makes me throw up in my mouth when I see what we're playing each month.  So how does somebody making the median household income justify this expense?  
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You are doing it wrong if it is over-priced. There are a ridiculous amount of monthly plans that run you 30 bucks a month or so. Check the Hulk thread

 
ChiefD said:
No kidding. This and cable TV. Burns me every month to pay that thing, and my neighborhood has 3 options for cable TV. You would think the competition would help drive the cost down.

Nope. 
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Multiple providers is unfortunately different from competition

 
proninja said:
It takes a massive amount of land in the middle of nowhere, a huge equipment cost in lifts and groomers, they have a few months to make money, then it all sits idle for 3/4 of the year. And if the weather sucks they get way less. 

It doesn't seem shocking that skiing is expensive. 
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I understand why it is somewhat expensive, but the prices are getting out of control.  Doesn't really affect me since I buy a season pass that pays for itself after 4 days, but they just prey on the casual skier/snowboarder.  Smart business move for sure, but ridiculously expensive (that said, as typing this, i realized it says inexplicably expensive...really nothing is inexplicably expensive if it actually sells...if it sells, its the right price!)

 
Jayrod said:
My FIL dropped around $20K for our wedding with about 250 guests in 2000.  He was a photographer and had a lot of tight contacts in the wedding business.  My mom got us the flowers at cost through her best friend and my uncle got his best friend to be our DJ as his wedding present.  The 2 biggest costs were the full dinner reception with open bar (about $15K) and the dress (over $4K).   We got photography for free from my FIL's employee and went super cheap on the cake.

The reception was awesome.  I had a bunch of college buddies who weren't invited that crashed the reception for the open bar and dancing.  Family and friends alike had an absolute blast.  That entire weekend was one of the greatest times of my life and the only time I had all of my favorite people in one place at the same time.

I think back at times and wish we had some of that money instead, but I don't know if I'd want to give up those memories either and I don't think my FIL regrets one penny.  He seemed genuinely happy the whole time and he's normally a pretty negative/grumpy guy.
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I'll agree with this. People hate on weddings, and clearly some go over the top, but our wedding weekend was the best party I've ever been to in my life. Golf, party barge on the lake for rehearsal dinner, short wedding and late night reception with all of our favorite people.

 
General Malaise said:
Mr. Pickles said:
This one has been bugging me lately. It's now about $3 to have a soda at a restaurant. People probably don't even pay attention. 
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Order booze too. Any server worth their salt will never charge for sodas.
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This is as it should be. Free refills on soda are the norm. If you're refilling your beer mug with soda (even if it's technically in a different glass), that should count as a refill rather than as a separate beverage purchase.

 
Buckna said:
Have had friends do the camera's on the table thing and they always regretted it. The picture quality from drunk friends/family taking the shots usually unusable.
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Unusable for what? What does a person actually do with wedding photos? Granted, I've never been a picture person. I've never owned a camera in my life apart from whatever came with my cell phone -- and I never even use that except to deposit checks with my bank's mobile app. But I think leaving disposable cameras on the table is needlessly exorbitant. Just tell people to use their own cell phone cameras and to upload their pics to a designated website. Or just do a Google image search for "generic wedding photos" and make an album out of those. What's the difference? Do people actually look at wedding photos years after the wedding? I've never been married, but I'm quite certain that I would not.

 
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My vote for the most inexplicably expensive thing is: the making of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

 
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I know a bunch of DJs.  I understand that things are more expensive in places like NYC but $6000 for a wedding is almost 6x what the guys I know here in jerkwater charge.  I can understand something like rent or parking but DJing?  

 
CurlyNight said:
Anything
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Whole Foods gets a bad rep for being expensive, but I find it to be just fine, so long as you don't just buy anything and everything. I shop at like 5 different stores for my groceries, and Whole Foods, while more expensive than the big box grocers, is substantially cheaper than the small coops. And if you stick with their 365 brand, I find that it is comparable to most stores

 
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