Rich people really are different

[IndependentlyPoor]

They buy stuff like this:
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | Day in pictures

It looks like something from Pier 1, and it isn't even very old. $5.4 million?

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Guess you wouldn't throw loose change in it.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Wow! Absolutely perfect, not a silly millimeter of crazing on it.

 

[W2R]

I like the cheaper (probably Pier One) version of it much, much better. I have had one and was able to actually USE it without worrying about dropping and breaking it.

It is very pretty and a convenient, useful size. What's the point of having a pretty bowl if you can't even pick it up and use it without fear? In other words, this bowl is beautiful but the $0.59 version is also beautiful (especially to the nearsighted like me) and has the extra bonus of actually being useful and something you dare to pick up, examine, and appreciate.

Upper photo: their $5,400,000.00 bowl. Lower photo: my $5.00 bowl. I think mine is prettier. Nearsightedness has its advantages.

 

[harley]

I put some strawberry slices and white wine in mine, covered it with plastic wrap, poked a few holes in it, and used it as a fruit fly trap. Worked great. Worth every penny of the $5.4M I paid for it. Or maybe it was $1. I forget.

 

[vicente solano]

I put some strawberry slices and white wine in mine, covered it with plastic wrap, poked a few holes in it, and used it as a fruit fly trap. Worked great. Worth every penny of the $5.4M I paid for it. Or maybe it was $1. I forget.

How do the flies get trapped? They get stuck or what? I´m serious.

 

[bssc]

That used to be my cat's waterbowl until I noticed the markings on the bottom.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I did a search for antique Chinese bowl auction to see what is so special about that bowl and can't find any information about this other than the BBC site with the photo.

Wouldn't it be great to see it on Antiques Roadshow and have it exposed as a fraud after the auction--perhaps the markings say "Stolen from Confucius" or "Not made in China"?

 

[harley]

How do the flies get trapped? They get stuck or what? I´m serious.

It's pretty cool. I put the plastic wrap on really tight, and poke holes in it with a fork. Just big enough for the flies to get through. It works like a crab pot, they can't find their way back out. I suspect the occasional lucky or genius fly escapes, but this summer when we had a couple of major infestations we caught scores of them. When it starts getting nasty looking I just run water in through the holes, swirl it around to catch the still mobile ones, then down the garbage disposal. Then refill and reuse. Works like a champ. Kept the fruit fly population down significantly.

 

[HFWR]

A little plastic tubing, some plumbing hardware, and voila, a water pipe...

 

[CuppaJoe]

This may not be a comp. but was an impulse buy in 2006 at a record HK 151.3m; so could we conclude that the market has actually cooled all the way down to HK 42m for OP’s blue and white bowl, times are tough?:

At just 11cm across, Chinese bowl is a £10m record breaker | World news | The Guardian

 

[Michael Moore]

The important difference between really rich people and everyone else is that they CAN use the horribly expensive version without worry.

If I break something that is worth $100 it is an "oh ****"" moment. If a really REALLY rich person breaks something worth $5,000,000 it is an "oh well, time to look for another one" moment.

cheers,
Michael

 

[Meadbh]

Isn't it interesting that Americans are gawking at how lavishly Asians are spending their money? A century ago, it would have been the opposite. Think of these people as the Rockefellers of the 21st century.

The times they are a changing....

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Bumping my own thread again, but I can't resist.

Paul Allen, cofounder of MicroSoft, is yachting.

Paul Allen: Media Banned From Port While Microsoft Founder Is Yachting (PHOTOS, POLL)
I don't begrudge him the 300 foot boat, complete with two heliports, but wait, this is his smaller, older boat. His spare yacht so to speak:

Allen also owns the 416-foot Octopus.

Here 'tis.

Wow.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

I once sold a very expensive bowl after I discovered how much it was worth ($6000.00). It was an RS Prussia display piece that I inherited from my parents. I was sitting in the Monterey(CA) Public Library periodicals section reading antiques journals while I waited for my son who was attending a children's program when I spied a photo in one of them of my bowl, recently sold at auction. It gave the name of the gallery, I contacted them, shipped off my bowl and they sold it in a specialized ceramics sale. I didn't want anything that valuable when we were making military moves. I put the money in our son's college fund. I felt my parents would approve. I am rather glad that I am not rich enough to be cavalier about owning a $6000.00 bowl that could get chipped or broken.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Isn't it interesting that Americans are gawking at how lavishly Asians are spending their money? A century ago, it would have been the opposite. Think of these people as the Rockefellers of the 21st century.

The times they are a changing....

Trust me, the Bestwifeever ancestors in the Appalachians and hardscrabble New England would have been gawking just as hard a century ago, too....

 

[calmloki]

Saw this wee hut built into and around the rocks in Carefree Az a couple days ago. Then saw maybe 10 more in differing sytles of grandeur - spanning giant boulders and ravines, that sort of thing. Oh - killer views as well. All on one little road we happened to drive up. They were in the 7 million dollar range. Tasty. Better than the $60k three year old repo we saw in Buckeye.

 

[bbbamI]

This is Deion Sander's 29,000 square ft. shanty. He lives about 30 minutes from my abode. He hasn't invited me over; however, I'm waiting on his call....