Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 13, 2022

More bad assumptions from the kid. Good doesn’t necessarily mean expensive, etc.

OUR plan is to have good stuff that we leave to the kids and THEY can take it to the thrift store. Note, however, that we do also shop garage sales and thrift stores, where we … very occasionally … find something that’s excellent AND priced reasonably.

PS: It’s not possible to buy a genuinely great cast iron pan new. At least not for any price resembling sane (and I don’t know for sure about the insanely priced ones because buying one would be… insane…)

I’m not sure if the new 1972 Mercury Capri I bought was good or cheap But I still remember that it cost $2,727.20.

Holy crap, this is so damned elitist.

Sometimes expensive stuff lasts longer, but sometimes it doesn’t. And what’s wrong with thrift stores?

What’s Caulfield pointing at this time? Frazz’s fingers?

Mallett definitely wandering off-planet today. Or is it a shot a thrift stores, the most efficient form of recycling usable things. Granted, they usually are not organized like the nearest chain stores, but that just makes the hunt more interesting.

Two words: Staffordshire Dogs…

This seems like an offset of the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness.

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.”

― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms:

Another way to look at it is the most expensive piece of clothing is not the one you pay the most for, it’s the one you buy and never wear. On the other hand if you spend a lot for an item but wear it all the time it’s really a bargain. The true cost is $ divided by number of times worn.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness. — “Men At Arms”, by Terry Pratchett

What’s wrong with thrift stores?

I think the biggest problem is a lot of us don’t really know how much things ought to cost based on what went into making them — especially clothing. And thrift stores aren’t the great solution they used to be. The problem is fast fashion. People are becoming accustomed to buying cheap clothes, wearing them a few times, then discarding them at thrift stores. Consequently, thrift stores are now overflowing with cheaply made castoffs that nobody will buy. It’s a serious problem.

My favorite shirt is one that I bought at a Walmart for about ten bucks. That was more than seven years ago and it’s still in good condition.

We have Snap On tools in the garage, Le Creuset and All Clad cookware in the kitchen. Only have to buy it once, our grandchildren will be using it after we’re gone.

This has a great historical root. When Simmons Hardware built their factory/warehouse in Sioux City IA in 1905, the clock on the building’s tower had letters in place of numbers: T-R-O-Q-R-L-A-T-P-I-F, for the Simmons motto of “The recollection of quality remains long after the price is forgotten.” Full (and fascinating, I think) story at https://thegilbreths.com/fbgprojects/doku.php?id=shlb-tower.

Hey, anyone know how to reach Jef? His blog is ten years old and his website has been pirated.

The cyclists in here will raise an eyebrow at this one, but I live by the rule of XT. Shimano XT.

For components, there’s a noticeable upgrade from Alivio to Deore. Another noticeable one between Deore and LX. A noticeable upgrade from LX to XT. But the difference between XT and XTR is something only a professional rider would notice/benefit from.

There is no need to have “the best of everything”, usually a step or two below that is plenty.

That said, in this day and age the law of diminishing returns is somewhat out the window. Most things made are done so with an eye to being disposable, something that’s replaced every 2-3 years as part of an upgrade cycle. (And in the eyes of technology, they literally mean disposable, as anyone who’s tried to repair a smartphone will tell you.)

Sometimes, quality items that find their way to thrift stores get a second life with someone who couldn’t afford them when they were new.

We should also consider the ecological factor. The more we buy and throw away cheap stuff, the more trash we have in the world and we also use up the resources much faster.

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

- Terry Pratchett

Also knows as the "Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness" or “Boots Theory”