this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
10 points (91.7% liked)
hololive
1379 readers
58 users here now
Community dedicated to discussing the Japanese Vtuber group Hololive!
Rules:
- No doxxing
- Make sure to link original art sources
- No harassment
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Taken to the extreme, isn't this going to be the case for all merch? Even in cases where the product itself is good (and in this case it sounds like the council of knife experts is dubious), you're adding an extra party into the mix and they need their cut.
It'd usually be more "functionally" efficient for everyone but the merch manufacturers if we just bought a good hoodie / knife / etc and then gave some money directly to whoever we wanted to support. The biggest roadblock to achieving that goal seems to be a human psychology problem, where it's easier to justify wrapping that "donation" into the cost of a good than it is to separate the two.
There's a bit more to it than just that, of course - a random good quality tshirt isn't a direct replacement for one with, say, membership branding on it, but still.
Pattern welded VG-10 from China is not an expensive material, and altogether this is about a $50-70 knife prancing around with a $280 price tag on it. That's fine as far as a collectible goes, but from the standpoint of actual functionality it's pretty absurd in this case. Otherwise, you're looking at a 400% markup just for the branding.
For example, here's a similar VG-10 pattern welded chef's knife for $70. It's probably about the same quality as this one, minus a large part of the questionable design. (The pattern welded and acid etched finish is of course purely decorative even on the above, and serves no functional purpose.)
That was my point. This is obviously not meant to be used as an actual working kitchen knife, so purchasing it with that aim in mind is pretty silly. If you want to buy it as an objet d' art, that's different.
Sure, merch in itself is always going to be something more parties need to benefit from, the thing I always assumed is that stuff this pricey was going to be high-quality too, since that would be an excuse to inflate the price (and the profit margin too).