Apologies for the low resolution. It was a mobile ad and all I could get was a screenshot.
While it’s true that you hit a point of diminishing returns, there’s a sharp divide between, say, a $200 bag and a $20 bag. Technically a plastic shopping bag will serve the same purpose as a purse, but it’s likely to break in less than a day. A $20 bag might last a few months of daily use if you’re careful, but it’s going to have cheap/non-durable materials, have cheap findings, and be poorly made. At $200, the odds are pretty high that it’s going to be well made, use solid materials that will last, and have fittings that aren’t going to corrode, fall off, or break in a few months.
I have a designer wallet that I’ve used every day for over 15 years, and while it looks beat up, it’s still fully intact. I averaged about one every 3-4 years before I got this one.
See also: Cap’n Vimes boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
I got obsessed with designer replicas - I didn’t buy many but I loved looking at comparisons on repladies… and the cheaper dupes were often much better made and quality controlled than the authentics. We’re still talking a few hundred for the bag but the genuine ones can be 10 or even 100 times the price. I know this isn’t what you were talking about btw. It’s definitely better to spend a bit more on a bag… or anything, for quality!
Doesn’t pretty much every wallet survive for ever. As long as it’s leather or something else durable.
To be fair I’ve got a wallet from AliExpress that still works fine after 5 years. Unfortunately quality and price are not the same thing. Sometimes expensive stuff is made as cheaply as possible. As a consumer it’s not always that easy to know when you are fooled.
Also it’s not really true anymore that a good brand is still good. Lots of good brands decided to produce inferior products for higher profits. I think it’s probably because a brand is bought by some investment firm that wants to maximize profits.
