Comment by hellbannedguy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hellbannedguy | Hacker News Reader

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Yea, I felt the magic of the movies was the honest comradery between the guys.

They looked like they really cared about eachother.

I didn't know the torn urethra was that bad. Ouch!

Until now, I wasen't sure if he was acting when Butterbean knocked him out in that retail store. It was real. I remember thinking, he's a great actor with the tremors, or it was real? Never forget his first words after the knockout, "Is Butterbean ok?". Priceless.

My favorite clip of him is when they did an intervention for Steveo. Knoxville went into the room, and told Stevo to stop taking drugs. Stevo wanted the intervention filmed. I guess he thought it would be a good footage. Knoxvile told the cameraman No. I gained a lot of respect for him that day.

I hope Bam gets sober, or at least cut way back on the alcohol.

(Off topic, but to guys interested in fashion. I have a sister who made her huge wad selling shoes. She told me, in LA the higher the price, the more desirable people think your product is. Crazy? (Shirt, his own. Hoodie, $268, by Odessa 1919. Pants, $375, by Connor McKnight. Sneakers, $50, by Vans Authentic. Glasses, his own by Ray-Ban.))

Steve-O wanted everything filmed. There’s a pretty intense documentary about his descent into and rise over drugs on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ulzP2XUOg

> in LA the higher the price, the more desirable people think your product is

Many luxury items are 'Veblen goods' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good) - the high price is a feature, it keeps the riffraff from having the same things you have, which makes your things better status symbols.

Brought to mind Yeti coolers. Unnecessarily expensive, but that's why you have/want them.

> Well, the price, for one thing. Yetis work like a Veblen good, which are luxury items that turn the laws of supply and demand upside down. Take Swiss watches: “A guy who buys Rolex watches doesn’t want a cheap Rolex,” Williams says. “Part of the prestige of that brand is when you wear it, everyone knows they cost at least $8,000 and up. If Rolex brought out a low-end model, it would kill their brand.” It’s why the iPhone 5C — a low-priced iPhone — flopped. [0]

[0] https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/why-are-coolers-so-expen...

Yes, Yeti coolers are generally the most expensive coolers. But if that was the only reason for their high price point, we would see alternative rotomolded coolers of similar quality that are significantly cheaper, not just the 10-33% we tend to see in the market.

Yeti 45: $300

Engel 45: $275

RTIC 45: $200

Sure, $300 is quite a bit more expensive than $200, but they're also not the same:

- Yet 3 years vs RTIC 1 year warranty

- Yeti performs better

- Yeti has better design (form & function)

- You can pick up a Yeti at your local REI vs RTIC is only available DTC

- Yeti is a household, lifestyle brand, that's done the work to create this market (alternatives would most likely not exist without Yeti doing this work)

The difference between a Rolex and another watch that has the same capability is a couple orders of magnitude apart in price. $200 vs $300 on a cooler isn't that big of a difference.

But then why did the 5C flop, rather than succeeding in the short term and killing the iPhone brand?

I'd wager it's because it wasn't nice, not because it wasn't expensive. Low end phones aren't nice to use, and people who buy Apple buy it for the polished user experience.

If they sold their flagship phone at entry-level prices then I'd expect it to do as you suggest, selling like hotcakes but devaluing the brand. Even then it wouldn't do half as much damage to the iPhone brand as a $100 Rolex would do to the Rolex brand, because iPhones have a lot of utility that makes them worth having whereas a watch is, these days, almost entirely a vanity item.

There’s also a complementary strategy followed by many larger luxury brands, where the clothes are the halo product, but they make most of their profit selling accessories (sunglasses, perfume, etc.) that are affordable to many more customers (including those outside of LA!). The latter are often produced by other companies under a license.

It’s well known in the wedding photography world that raising your prices might actually net you more customers - to an extent, anyways.

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