Anyone get disenchanted?

J

jackknife

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
17,508
With the so called high end stuff?

I'm anold fart, I know that. But in my long life, I've been a snob now and then. Sometimes watches, sometimes guns, sometimes motorcycles. And even sometimes knives. But I got to a point where I got totally disenchanted with the stuff. Like watches. When I was a young guy in the army, I got a Seiko watch. It was nice, looked good, and kept pretty good time. For a while. The first couopeyears it was great, but then it would stop, and the thing needed a cleaning, the automatic mechanism needed fixing, and it got to be a PITA. I ended up giving it to a family member and went back to wearing a Timex. Later I went to Casio. Ran great, kept perfect time, and nothing ever happened to it.

Motorcycles. I had a couple of BMW's, and they were nice bikes. But not the flawless jewel like examples of Teutonic engineering that they would like us to believe. Parts cost was like getting screwed without being kissed, and weird problems. Stearinghead bearings going out at low milages, electrical problems. The two Honda's I had were way better motorcycles.

Things like that. You go buy a very nice pen for some dollars, and it writes okay, then one day you leave it home by accident, and then have to sign something, and they give you a plain Pilot G2 and you're amazed at how smooth it writes, so you stop off at Staples and buy one, and it becomes your edc pen. And if you loose it, you can replace it at the next big box store you pass for the cost of a beer at the corner bar.

Now having had the good stuff like the old made in U.S.A. Cross pens, Seiko watches, BMW motorcycles, Colt Python revolver, and even Randall knives, I look back and wonder what did I get for my bucks? Yeah, I've heard about the pride of ownership thing, and it doesn't work when you're having it fixed, again. Or you're standing by the side of the road waiting for the tow truck. Or your Zippo runs dry again and you have noting to light your smoke with, but the Bic always works and you can see how much fuel is left.

So, do any of you guys ever second guess yourselves and wonder what you are doing with some stuff?
 
# 1 on the Cross pen thing have one in my pocket right now but the truth is its just a pen. I just bought a Strider Sng was a little bit iffy at first on what it is and what it costs but for what it cost me I can live with it. Would I pay full price for a new one doubt it. Ever since I came here my taste has definitely gotten more expensive a $60 knife used to be all I thought I needed not anymore. That includes watches,pens,axes,tomahawks and on and on.
 
I am right there with you. I used to think stuff like watches, knives, guns, pens and the like had to top of the line....damn near if not heirloom quality. Not any more.

I have 4 Cross pens I haven't used in over 12 years, just sitting in my drawer. They are quite honestly a PITA to write with in hot weather, so... I have been eying the Zebra 701 (7 bucks) for about a week now and will most likely pick one up. If I lose it or lose interest in it, no big deal.

I have a battery operated Fossil date/time chrono that I wear at work, and a Casio I wear for running. Other than that, I do not wear a watch, so anything high-end or automatic is a waste for me.

Same holds true with knives. I have no safe queens, and never will.

My guns are the most expensive things, and quite frankly, they shoot bullets just like their cheaper counter-parts.
 
Unfortunately, we live in a disposable society. A couple of generations back it was important to buy good quality items from well established brands. It assured that you would have ongoing access to spare parts and service so that you could always count on carrying a reliable product. But those days are largely gone. Just try to find a local repair shop for most of the things you own. 99.99% of the stuff cannot be economically repaired, it is just not designed that way. The infrastructure for quality products is not what it used to be and you can probably get a lot more reliability and efficiency from disposable products.

n2s
 
There is something nice about the feel of a quality item. In my opinion, it does not need to be the most expensive to be of good quality. I used to think SnapOn tools were just outrageously priced. Having used Craftsman tools all my life I now can appreciate the “feel” of the SnapOn tool.

I’m in that old fart class too and have gotten to the point where I like a good quality product and can afford it. I don’t always spend the most for anything but, 14 Timex’s, 4 Seiko’s and one Fossil watch later, I now have a Casio G-Shock GW-A1100. It’s a nice watch and so far as tough as nails. “I” think it is a good quality product.

I also have a Sebenza knife that I think is a good quality knife that I carried for 5 years but, in my pocket right now is a ZT0801. Not the most expensive knife I own but still good quality.

I guess what I am trying to say is: I understand your disenchantment and sometimes will shop for the cheapest but, I do appreciate the finer things and my kids and grandkids like that. They will have to deal with all this stuff someday.
 
Do you get disenchanted with a Ducati motorcycle? First, understand what you are getting with your purchase. If you want low cost of ownership, very little maintenance, etc. you have made a poor choice. People don't buy Ducati's because it has the reliability of a Honda, low cost of a Suzuki, etc.

Teutonic reliability or needless bling? Bleeding edge technology usually comes with some drawbacks. High price and lower reliability are just a couple out of many. On the flip side, why are so many taxis in Europe a Mercedes Benz?

If you are buying a mechanical watch for high reliability better timing precision, again you have made a poor choice and purchased for the wrong reason. For me, it's less about being a watch and more about being a piece of functional art. Whether someone else likes my "art" or not is irrelevant to me personally.

In the end, I want quality. What qualities I value depends on what I am buying and why I am buying it. There is a place for a cheap gel pen or rollerball and there is a place for a nice fountain pen. Understand why you have each and where they perform best to avoid disenchantment with having the wrong tool at the wrong time and place.
 
Timex..........check
Honda..........check
Pilot G2........check
Bic lighter.....check

You have good taste. :thumbup:
 
Not disenchanted because for the most part I don't have highend stuff. What little highend things I do have was highend long ago and not even highend when I bought it. Seems I make most of my stuff last, and when I do buy something new it's often used and/or vintage anyway. I due try to get qua lityvalue though, like a SAK or an old Schrade or Camillus. Not highend but high quality and good value. Good quality and good value means you buy once and then inexpensively. Consider my car. I make the death commute on I95 to northern VA and back daily. My daily car is a 1998 Civic I bought inexpensively in September 2012. Nothing but routine maintenance cnd it gets my to work and back everytime. In the 20 months I've had it, I've put 33,000 miles on it. That's value.

Regarding the zippo, it's certainly not something I'd consider highend. If you just get in the habit of filling it every Wednesday, or some other rhythm, and keep a couple of flints under the cotton flap over the cotton packing you'll not worry about it not lighting when you need it. Doing that, I can't recall ever having a zippo not light unless it needed a new flint. Then I just replace the flint with one under the cotton flap.
 
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High End quality is a good thing in my opinion.
Being possessed by your possessions…not so much. :)

Doug
 
I got tired of buying replacement watches, so I go high end.
Seiko kinetic - scratched glass, seals leak - lasted two years
Citizen world time analog/digital watch - scratched glass, seals leak - lasted 1.5 year.
Seiko cheap chronograph - scratched glass, scratched case/band - lasted 5 month
St. Mortis Titan II watch - one single scratch on sapphire glass. I am keeping it for backup.
Lum-tech watch with Tungsten Carbide case - Not a scratch on the case, one scratch on sapphire crystal, and the crown keep loosening - water leaking in.
That's not even counting all the plastic Casios I wore in High School. All scratched glass. You see where I am going with this?

I got feed up, and got a used Ball watch on the Ebay. It's a Swiss made chronometer, with a lock on the crown. It lose 5 seconds every day, consistently, so I don't bother getting it adjusted. Best of all, the dial's markers light up like Christmas tree at night, because it's one of the "x-lum" model. Retail for $4000 new, I paid $1600. Worth every penny. Does it make financial sense? Not really, but I won't be throwing watches away every two years. I am willing to pay $100 every 10 year to get it serviced.

It all depends on your preference. If that high end item have a quality that you value, then it's worth it.
 
I always try to buy quality, but knives are the only high end items I buy. I only own Rugers, Marlin and Winchester, my pens are freebies I get from my credit union or another company. I treated myself to a Seiko, the no return policy from the well known NY seller should have alerted me. I've seen them in jewelry stores for 400, bought mine for 150 plus shipping. It ran so fast, I would gain a couple hours wearing it in a day. So, I still need to send it to Seiko to be fixed, and haven't been able to enjoy it. I've been wearing the same Casio for the past couple years, just needed to get the batteries replaced. I would like to treat myself to a Wenger or Victorinox watch for my birthday. I was looking at high end headlamps at Cabelas, but then realized I get by just fine with the Klarus 900 and Fenix 700 lumen flashlights I have, in addition to various other high output lights, and the single Energizer brand 150 lumen headlamp I use when walking the dog at night. Doesn't seem cost effective to buy an expensive headlamp from REI just for walking the dogs at night on the roads at home.

But a 200 dollar Swiss watch does ;)...
 
Doug C said:
High End quality is a good thing in my opinion.
Being possessed by your possessions…not so much. :)

Doug
Click to expand...

This hits the nail on the head IMO. People don't buy a Rolex because it'll keep better time than a Casio. People don't buy BMW's because they get you to work any more efficiently than a Honda. People buy them because they want to be perceived a certain way. They're status symbols plain and simple. Maybe the reason you don't like high end stuff anymore is because you're at a certain age that you've given up that pretense. You are who you are and you're fine with that. I wish everyone was the same way. In fact I have a hard time talking to other men because all they want to do is yammer on about stuff. Nothing meaningful, just stuff. A week ago I went up with my wife for a get together in Washington. My wife, a friends friend(female) and I were talking about Europe and the lack of good mass transit in our area off on the side of the larger group and this guy comes up, leans over my wife, interrupts everyone so he could say loudly "SO, YOU GOT THAT BLAH BLAH BLAH BABLAH?" A pleasant conversation ruined by someone wanting to talk about stuff. I won't even get into the fact that he actively excluded the women from the conversation and talked straight to me and just me. I wanted to punch him for treating my wife that way but that's a whole other ball of misogynist wax. And that was just a highlight of that guy. :rolleyes:

Now that shouldn't be confused with paying a little extra for a feature that WILL actually make a difference in your life. I personally have an expensive flashlight and I paid the extra amount because the UI is SO much easier for me to use and I use that flashlight multiple times a day at work. The extra cost translated into making my life easier. That's a cost worth spending money on.
 
Shotgun said:
This hits the nail on the head IMO. People don't buy a Rolex because it'll keep better time than a Casio. People don't buy BMW's because they get you to work any more efficiently than a Honda. People buy them because they want to be perceived a certain way. They're status symbols plain and simple. Maybe the reason you don't like high end stuff anymore is because you're at a certain age that you've given up that pretense. You are who you are and you're fine with that.
Click to expand...

Well-said. My feelings exactly.
 
Shotgun said:
This hits the nail on the head IMO. People don't buy a Rolex because it'll keep better time than a Casio. People don't buy BMW's because they get you to work any more efficiently than a Honda. People buy them because they want to be perceived a certain way. They're status symbols plain and simple. Maybe the reason you don't like high end stuff anymore is because you're at a certain age that you've given up that pretense. You are who you are and you're fine with that. I wish everyone was the same way. In fact I have a hard time talking to other men because all they want to do is yammer on about stuff. Nothing meaningful, just stuff. A week ago I went up with my wife for a get together in Washington. My wife, a friends friend(female) and I were talking about Europe and the lack of good mass transit in our area off on the side of the larger group and this guy comes up, leans over my wife, interrupts everyone so he could say loudly "SO, YOU GOT THAT BLAH BLAH BLAH BABLAH?" A pleasant conversation ruined by someone wanting to talk about stuff. I won't even get into the fact that he actively excluded the women from the conversation and talked straight to me and just me. I wanted to punch him for treating my wife that way but that's a whole other ball of misogynist wax. And that was just a highlight of that guy. :rolleyes:

Now that shouldn't be confused with paying a little extra for a feature that WILL actually make a difference in your life. I personally have an expensive flashlight and I paid the extra amount because the UI is SO much easier for me to use and I use that flashlight multiple times a day at work. The extra cost translated into making my life easier. That's a cost worth spending money on.
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But nobody knows or cares what I carry not trying to impress anyone if my wife knew what I carry around and what it cost she wouldn't understand. The same with my friend's. For me it's you get what you pay for I've had cheap gear fail me decided I would rather spend more for gear that will last and that I can depend on.
 
thought the m4 steel on my knife would never have to be sharpened. turns out, gotta sharpen it. but instead of taking ten twenty minutes, it takes 2-3 hours. sure, i dont have the sharpen it for a month, but my 440c knife i had to sharpen every~3 weeks, and it took 5 minutes to sharpen. sure the knife rattles, but it gets it done.

expensive knives and steels have a diminishing return on investment. the more you spend the, the more you get, but at a much slower rate. you can buy a 8 dollar knifeand a 20 dollar one, and the 20 dollar one is twice as nice and last almost twice as long, if you dont lose it. but that 200 dollar knife is not 20 times nicer than that 20 dollar one. and the 2000 dollar one only takes a baby step in the right direction.

dont get me wrong, i love my contego. but its a PITA to sharpen, and doesnt hold and edge as long as i thought it would (i expected too much to be honest) its still great though.
 
Practical has become the linchpin in my stuff buying philosophy.

It's taken me a long time to figure out that the law of diminishing returns is real.

The key is finding that line where more coin spent isn't going to have much effect on ROI.

My story has to do with a custom Les Baer 1911 I dropped whilst in the field. It got marred pretty bad. I was upset for days and in conversation with my dad (who owns customs and duty firearms alike) said, "if you carried a plastic pistol in the field and dropped it, would it tear you up inside like you're feeling now?"

His point was well taken. I now only own guns I use. I still treat them well; as if they were custom, but I'm less inclined to worry about them.
 
Shotgun said:
This hits the nail on the head IMO. People don't buy a Rolex because it'll keep better time than a Casio. People don't buy BMW's because they get you to work any more efficiently than a Honda. People buy them because they want to be perceived a certain way. They're status symbols plain and simple. Maybe the reason you don't like high end stuff anymore is because you're at a certain age that you've given up that pretense. You are who you are and you're fine with that. I wish everyone was the same way.
Click to expand...

I agree, great post.

I think that at one time many brands held as iconic these days had their roots in high/higher quality products. To me, not so much anymore. I have friends that have Rolex watches that they have worn for years, sometimes decades. They have no problems with their old Rolexes. I have only a couple of friends these days that wear something like that, and of the newer Rolex offerings, they seem to sit in the drawer always needing repairs.

In my remodeling business, tools are a very quantifiable quantity for me. Spending more money on tools these days may get you better tools, but it certainly isn't any guarantee. I have never bought more than I needed, but the trick is to buy just enough to get the job done.

I have always had a very frugal life style being raised by children of the Great Depression. Sadly, the only thing I have that I have spent money on with wild abandon in the knives I own. I don't buy really expensive knives, but I have many more than I could ever wear out.

Robert
 
I'm going through something similiar in the form of an impending mid life crisis. I have adaquate, servicable gear, but I'm craving the prestige of nicer bags, watches, pens, etc. Think Nordstrom or Macys instead of Sears or Kohls. The crutch being, I was raised being frugal and cannot justify spending hundreds of dollars when $60 equivalent works just as well, and IMHO holds up better to daily abuse. I drive second hand Hondas and Toyota, carry a basic nylon briefcase, wear a Timex Expedition watch, and like Uniball rollerball pens.
 
Does it do the job that I need done, and does it do it well enough to satisfy me. If so, that is what I get:

Watches:
For:
Dress: Old gold Omega inherited from Dad - I would never need to buy such a watch.
Exercise: Timex Ironman.
Everyday: Seiko (thin titanium, I have small wrist), or plain jane Swiss Army.

Carry knives:
Benchmade 710, M4 steel.
Benchmade Griptillian: big and small.
Small Swiss Army (quite basic).

Carry guns on permit:
Colt CCO with night sights, Smith & Alexander mag well, otherwise stock.
Glock 23 with night sights.
S&W 642 with no modifications.

Car: Honda Ridgeline.

I have several custom built carry guns in the safe - all for sale.
I have too many custom knives in safe to count - all for sale.

When I reached age 60 I realized that for me, simple was better for most things.

It gets irritating when I need a new microwave, and they all come with 4,382 features that I don't want. But, I have found that with Internet research, I can do my homework, and find something good that satisfies me.

Cost is not the deciding factor. My personal satisfaction is.

Practical Use
 
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