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Luxury vs Indulgence or a combination thereof.

A

Andy Kev.

Nordic Pine
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Some of the comments about pricing of woodworking mags got me thinking more widely about value. I think we can take it as read that quality always has a price. Then there's the concept of "Luxury Goods", which usually means no more than very expensive goods although you would expect them to be of high quality.

I imagine that we could mostly agree as to what high quality means, something along the lines of "made to the highest standards of manufacturing".

But what about luxury? It occurs to me that a lot of what is branded as luxury is in fact little more than indulgence (which doesn't mean not enjoyable) and then there is true luxury i.e. something which is life enhancing.

I've got three things which would definitely be classified as luxury goods, yet I admit that two of them are no more than indulgences: my watch (which has acquired a sentimental value as we have been through a lot together over more than 30 years but it's just an indulgence), my super posh camera which is no more than a ridiculous indulgence and which I would not own were it not for part exchange and the true luxury of my new pair of shoes, which is by far the cheapest of the three.

I have wider than average feet and my instep is high and therefore breaking in new shoes is often very painful, so I decided to bite the bullet and went to a proper shoe maker for a pair of bespoke shoes. Expensive yes, but at €1,400 they are about a quarter of the price of some which you can get in London and the quality is just as good. They are however, genuinely a painless pleasure to wear.

And that is about as well as I can do on the issue of quality, indulgence and luxury. I imagine that we have all got slightly differing takes on this ...
 
It depends on what one terms 'luxury'.
is it a state of the mind, snobbish, keeping up with the Jones's?

To some a luxury would be an Airfrier in the kitchen, to others just another kitchen appliance.

Our house was sold as a Luxury dwelling and we paid nearly 3m for it. To us it is just a straightforward middle class house. For someone South of the rail tracks it would be luxury.

I suppose one could pontificate for days on end agreeing and disagreeing.
I will not venture near indulgence :lol:
 
Talking about shoes.
For outdoor work, when it’s not too soggy, and the workshop, I wear go outdoors cheapest trainers, around £25 a pair.
As I seem to be on my knees a lot it’s usually the toes that succumb first, so as I find them comfortable out of box there’s no point in buying anything more expensive.
My sons wear trainers as fashion articles and thus pay at least three times as much, they think I am a skinflint but I argue that a good 50% of what they pay is just marketing and they are essentially puppets.

How many luxury items are nothing more than perception created by marketing departments.
Quality is about fitness for purpose.
 
Hmmm.....a discussion on quality. This is Robert M Pirsig territory. Let's all go back and re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
 
Mike G":3m2j34md said:
Hmmm.....a discussion on quality. This is Robert M Pirsig territory. Let's all go back and re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Click to expand...

:text-goodpost: :text-+1:
 
Worth remembering that Pirsig was basically a copyist, but substituted motorbikes for archery....

Longstanding themes though and very relevant to the text in my latest (of 2, ever) carving, about which I hop to start posting a WIP tonight.

Wood magazines are dead. You Tube gave them a terminal diagnosis and Instagram finished them off.
 
Oh, not Persig. A chap that wrote, amongst other things, about boredom, and succeeded in creating it.

Still it generates a thought about the difference between value and worth (something I have to drum into my graduates). Something, say, I dunno, a dental plate, may be worth a lot to X. But nothing to anyone else – only fits X. Unless Y knows that X needs it, In which case, how much of that transfers into the market place? Say Z also knows. They compete to bid. How much do they bid up to – just less than their profit margin on reselling to X? So how do reflect that in your open market valuation?

I seem to remember that the word luxury has its roots in debauchery/intercourse.

All in favour myself. And indulgence.
 
Something is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

As for luxuries and indulgencies I was bought up to believe that a little of what you fancy does you good. ;)
 
Andy Kev.":3nfaoaqk said:
Then there's the concept of "Luxury Goods", which usually means no more than very expensive goods although you would expect them to be of high quality.

I imagine that we could mostly agree as to what high quality means, something along the lines of "made to the highest standards of manufacturing".
Click to expand...
There is another possibility, that something is considered a luxury based on its rarity rather than its quality. Hence the NFT market. Or, say, many classic cars that are relatively expensive due to their rarity but may have been carp quality even when new. Or old woodworking tools that have become collectors items.
 
Personally, I think the fast approaching season of 'good cheer' has a lot to do with both luxury and indulgence, singly, together or combined. Nice bottle of champers on Christmas morning when prosecco is perfectly acceptable? It's one and the same...an indulgence and a luxury. The salient point is that you don't actually need a bottle of Pol (or whatever) it but it's 'nice' (good Malc word :lol: ) to have - Rob
 
Champagne and Prosecco basically the same. :)

Trying saying that in these parts and you get deported.


We make do with cidre BTW :D
 
Andyp":iuundhz6 said:
Champagne and Prosecco basically the same. :)

Trying saying that in these parts and you get deported.


We make do with cidre BTW :D
Click to expand...

Agreed Andy, they ain't the same, but you don't actually need champers on Christmas morning; anything with a bit of fizz usually does the trick and sets the tone for the Gn'Ts to come :D Normandy cidre (and it's distilled version, Calvados) is, I reckon, much superior to our home grown stuff - Rob
 
Are yes needs and wants.
Lets all take a look in our workshops and separate the tools we needed and the tools we wanted.
 
Mike, in his best Kryton persona, engages smug mode. I'm not sure there's anything I'd place in the want rather than need category. The lathe is an odd one, though. I neither want it nor need it, but I do use it now and then.
 
Tool wise I don’t think I have any needs and the few wants, I can’t justify to myself.

I recently bought a fishing reel, second hand and it needed a few hours work to get it up to scratch and that’s given me a lot of pleasure. More so than buying the latest top notch equivalent, that I could quite easily afford.
 
I was last subjected to the want or need debate when I purchased a hand forged kindling axe from Sweden. Could have gone to a local shed for a mass produced one from China for less than half the price.

A Luxury? An indulgence? Undoubtedly, but it is also a pleasure to use.
 
Personally I need a super yacht, with Riva tenders and a helipad. I would happily give up everything to live on a nice boat. It would be somewhere warm and not raining right now. Ideally It would have Kate Beckinsale on it, but that would be an indulgence.
 
At £50 to £70 a bottle ^^ its not cheap is it?

Good quality 10 year Normandy pear or apple Calvados we buy in Germany at under 20 Euros. Not sure what it would be in France but UK prices are grossly inflated with duties. I think the booze producers are price gouging at the moment.
 
AJB Temple":2uk08pma said:
At £50 to £70 a bottle ^^ its not cheap is it?

Good quality 10 year Normandy pear or apple Calvados we buy in Germany at under 20 Euros. Not sure what it would be in France but UK prices are grossly inflated with duties. I think the booze producers are price gouging at the moment.
Click to expand...

At £50 it’s clearly better than the 20 euro stuff.
Or that’s the marketing chaps main message on virtually everything.
 
AJB Temple":1ar4z8zu said:
At £50 to £70 a bottle ^^ its not cheap is it?
I think the booze producers are price gouging at the moment.
Click to expand...

Gin manufacturers especially are making hay while the sun shines. I say manufacturers rather than distillers because out of probably a couple of hundred makers there are only ten or twelve distillers. All the rest buy neutral spirit and chuck a handful of botanicals in it.
 
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