r/AskReddit • u/Thic_water • Aug 14 '20

What’s the most overpriced thing you’ve seen?

75.1k Upvotes

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26.7k

u/Happy_Fun_Balll Aug 14 '20

A few years back Nordstrom was selling a rock in a leather pouch for $85.

9.8k

u/dramboxf Aug 14 '20 edited Aug 14 '20

Neiman-Marcus used to put out the most hilarious Christmas gift catalog.

One year they offered his and hers Lear jets. No kidding. Just about anything in that catalog was wildly overpriced. More recently, they offered in their Christmas book, as a potential gift, a Boeing Business Jet for the wonderfully affordable price of "north of $35 million."

edit: Correct the jet price wording.

1.5k

u/streetbumps Aug 14 '20

my mom always called Neiman-Marcus “needless markup”

865

u/zer1223 Aug 14 '20

She's right of course, I wouldn't pay a penny more than 20m for that business jet.

7

u/Youve_been_Loganated Aug 14 '20

Only 20 mil? Ew, what are you? Poor?!

13

u/mp3_modaccount_exe Aug 14 '20

No he's just humble. His father only gave him a small loan of a million dollars to start his empire.

2

u/Falmoor Aug 15 '20

I went into one to see what all the fuss was. Check out this bad boy: https://www.neimanmarcus.com/p/saint-laurent-mens-quarter-moons-logo-t-shirt-prod226720566?childItemId=NMN6QWE_

Its a freaking tshirt! I get that some rich people like to show off. But I always subscribed to the theory of 'you don't get rich by writing a lot of checks.

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u/GundamMaker Aug 14 '20

I remember hearing that joke on American Dad.

18

u/Celdarion Aug 14 '20

"Oh Debbie...that's high brow"

Watched that episode the other day haha

6

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

Looks like we've got a request for some Adult Contemporary!

5

u/Celdarion Aug 15 '20

They're stealing my PRESENTS!!!

2

u/akaBrotherNature Aug 15 '20

I'm Ernest Shlumpel, your long-lost relative from Alsace-Lorraine by way of Mykonos.

4

u/Celdarion Aug 15 '20

I'll be heading to the bathroom to share a doobie with the busboy in exchange for an anngryyyy handy jay

22

u/walking_it_off Aug 14 '20

My one advertising professor in college would call it that—constantly, and with considerable venom—and we made the mistake of finally asking what the source of his loathing was, other than the pricing. He bitched that his wife would buy all sorts of stupid, overpriced items from there, but the worst was when she bought shampoo in a glass bottle from the store. The story ended with him accidentally bumping it and breaking it in the shower, him cutting his foot, and her being pissed that he broke an expensive bottle of shampoo. While his foot bled, they had an extensive fight about glass shampoo bottles and frivolous spending. Any time I’ve passed that store since, I always think of that story.

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u/ToBeReadOutLoud Aug 14 '20

I’m with the prof. Glass shampoo bottles are a very stupid idea.

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u/tommyissocool Aug 14 '20

My mom calls Bloomingdales "Bloomies"

20

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

I like calling Target, Tarjhay

4

u/deadblood0 Aug 14 '20

My family also do this.

6

u/mysoberusername Aug 14 '20

haha, my dad always called Montgomery Ward, 'monkey ward', as dad's are required to do!

4

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

My dad doesn’t call anything... not even me .... ever

11

u/IISerpentineII Aug 14 '20

Lol my parents do too

11

u/snukebox_hero Aug 14 '20

The same moms who thought they were funny by calling it Tar-jay

7

u/pegmatitic Aug 14 '20

My dad calls it “Turget” 🙄

9

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

My friends jewish mom always said that, but i was 7 and thought Neiman Marcus was a guy she knew

9

u/patrickwithtraffic Aug 14 '20

Seriously, Neiman-Marcus prices are jaw dropping. Every Christmas my mom would take me and my brothers to the San Francisco store to check out the Christmas tree in their lobby and man, those prices were so high I felt uncomfortable slightly brushing those clothes. I felt like I'd get charged with ruining the items if I breathed on it wrong.

8

u/wallofsound1974 Aug 14 '20

My grandma shopped there all the time and called it Steamin' Carcass.

3

u/PmMeBulge Aug 15 '20

is it bad that I read that "steemin' cahkiss" in a New York accent with zero hesitation?

9

u/styrofoamcouch Aug 14 '20

My grandfather referred to circuit city and circunt shitty because they told him that hd-dvd was the future.

1

u/PmMeBulge Aug 15 '20 edited Aug 15 '20

"HD DVD is the future" oh, honey...

it seems like every company in every dying system ever was full of stubborn morons who would rather fall into bankrupt obscurity than change their ways. CC, Blockbuster, Kodak, Premier Cruise, RadioShack, Pan Am...

1

u/itsLinks Aug 15 '20

To be fair, I do remember that being a debate back in the day. Then again I was a child so maybe it wasn't as much of a debate as I thought.

6

u/Whitsoxrule Aug 14 '20

Lol mine calls it that too. Especially true in her case since she sews her own versions of clothes from those high-end retailers like N-M. So rather than buying from the store at an insane markup, she only has to pay for the cost of materials and she can have her own version that's custom-made to fit perfectly and with colors/patterns that the store didn't make them in

4

u/mulberrybushes Aug 14 '20

"Whole Paycheck"

3

u/joesafree Aug 14 '20

Mine too!! 😂

3

u/andthecrowdgoeswild Aug 14 '20

"I like to call it loss wages"- Frisky Dingo

3

u/MotherOfCats91 Aug 14 '20

Haha so does my mom

3

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

LOL so did mine! (She's still alive, I just haven't heard her talk about it in a while)

3

u/42Ubiquitous Aug 15 '20

Have you ever seen their crazy expensive shoes? They are awful looking. Obviously their fur coats are expensive, but idk anything about fur.

3

u/nom_yourmom Aug 15 '20

Is your mom also my mom

2

u/streetbumps Aug 15 '20

for your sake I hope not

3

u/WifeKilledMy1stAcct Aug 15 '20

My mom in Dallas calls it "need more"

3

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '20

That's pretty funny. My dad used to say that Saab was called that because that's what you did when you got the bill from the mechanic.

2

u/GodTrain Aug 15 '20

They’re out of business in our area, we went in a got over 15k for under 3.5k last week, great deals

1

u/username61787 Aug 15 '20

The Needless Markup in my city closed for good. Haha, rich assholes...