I saw this post and wanted to ask the opposite. What are some items that really aren’t worth paying the expensive version for? Preferably more extreme or unexpected examples.
Medicine. The house brands and generics are the exact same, tested the same, made the same.
But real Advil has the candy coating on the outside, and I haven’t found a generic that does =(
Otherwise 100% identical yes.
Problem with the candy coating is you can’t enjoy it, unless you want to suddenly learn what pure poison tastes like. It’s such a tease. Doesn’t help that they look like scrumptious little caramel-y morsels.
Oh I suck on them first. It lasts long enough.
Wait, what? I have no idea what advil is, but sugar coating any drug is a recipe for disaster.
Sugarcoating pills is fairly common, especially for pills which are frequently ingested or target older demographics. It’s because sugar coatings are much gentler on the esophagus (i.e.: less likely to cause esophagitis, “pill burn”). Advil (i.e.: ibuprofen) is a cheap, well tolerated, and non habit-forming pain reliever – it’s about as safe as such a thing could possibly be, so hopefully that helps to explain why a sugar coating might be warranted given the aforementioned upsides (for the love of all that is holy; always read the directions on the label, it’s still quite possible that Advil is not safe for you specifically). FWIW: the bottles also have childproofing mechanisms built into the caps (… at least in U.S. markets. Not sure about elsewhere?)
I’ve never heard of sugarcoating pills, is it a US thing maybe?
I think you have a wrong image of how this looks/works. It’s not like there is a cany-shell or something. It’s a regular, smooth pill. You usually do not notice this coating because you don’t keep a pill in your mouth. If you were to, the pill would taste sweet.
If you ever have gotten a pill of some sort that dd not feel chalky on the outside but smooth and looked kinda shiny, that probably has been a sugarcoated pill.
I think you’re right then, and honestly I can’t say I’ve noticed.
many birth control pills are sugarcoated for example. Or anti-histamine allergy medication like Cetericine
Yep
There may be a difference in things like pill shape, texture, release mechanism / time to absorb (if it’s not very important for how the medication works)
So it’s ok to have a preference for one brand over the other when one of those points is relevant to your situation. I know some people also prefer the generic brand version over the regular (even if prices were the same)
Not exactly. Just a fun fact and disclaimer that I use generics if at all possible. But my pharmacology class taught that generics can have higher tolerance of error in % of active ingredient. Not usually a big deal unless the drug has a very narrow therapeutic range, meaning too little doesn’t work and too much will harm you. 99.9% of generics is fine. But if you ever wonder if one batch of your med doesn’t seem to work as well this it’s likely that batch was on the lower end of acceptable.
Depends on the meds. I take concerta for ADHD and as I understand it, the generic doesn’t use the same release mechanism.
Also, a cheaper alternative is to eat less and eat healthier. I know we can’t all afford expensive healthy foods but just simply cutting out excess fats, sugar and empty carbs from your diet will add years to your life and also add better years to your life.
Aspirin and paracetamol I don’t think are patented by any one company now. Supermarket brand is super cheap.
Often made by the same.
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Hard disagree!
Are you saying that you’ve owned both cheap and expensive cars, and that your favorites have always been the cheap ones? That they’ve been more reliable, more comfortable, better-riding, and better-driving? Or, at least, no worse than the expensive ones?
Yes, more expensive cars are more expensive. They often have a higher cost of ownership. And, sometimes, brands really fuck up and cut corners they shouldn’t, and result an reputational harm that takes years to recover from, long after they’ve fixed the production issues (c.f. Audi in the early 00’s). But, IME, it’s usually worth it, if you can afford it.
Cheap cars definitely are more reliable if you pick the right brands. On all the other points it just doesn’t make enough of a difference to me to justify the enormous cost increase.
Our $10k used Camry is still kicking ass over ten years later and hasn’t ever needed work more extensive than replacing leaking struts. The reliability truly is astounding.
EDIT: But, let’s not talk about my camera-buying habits lol
let’s not talk about my camera-buying habits lol
Ah, that’s the perfect hobby if you really hate having money 😅
Our 2016 (new) BMW has never had a major issue. Our 2014 (new) Volvo - which cost half what the BMW did, has almost never not had something going wrong with it. We bought a new Altima many years ago that was less expensive than the Volvo; we had it for several years and it was fine, but it was still in the shop more than this BMW (but less than the Volvo).
The issue isn’t so much reliability, but what it costs when there is a problem. Fixing the Altima would certainly be cheaper than the same repair of the BMW. The Volvo TCO is higher than the BMW or the Altima.
I also think you have to be comparing similar years. My sister - who’s 20 years younger than me - is still driving a 1996 Nissan 240SX, and it’s in great chat wasn’t a “cheap” car when it was new, but still. I think cars from last century were more robust.
The repair cost is ultimately the most significant, that’s true.
We’ll have to see how statistics play out in the long run: that’s where the non-anecdotal evidence for Toyota’s supremacy comes from.
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Mercedes is an outlier. Try comparing Toyota with Lexus, Nissan with Infiniti, Chevy with Cadillac, or Ford with Lincoln. In all of these instances, the luxury marques have equivalent or better reliability than their economy counterparts.
Of course, whether or not the reliability and features are worth the cost is a different question entirely. (I generally lean towards no.)
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Lexus is made by Toyota, just an fyi. To your point, a lot more vehicles are built with the Toyota badge than the Lexus badge. Options and creature comforts separate the two. Most (maybe all) of them share the same platform with each other.
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I buy a lot of generic or store brand stuff. Usually I’m comfortable doing this with things that have been around for a long time like bleach, laundry soap, and basic foods. I assume that it is not difficult to do these things so anyone can make it and there’s little if any difference between brands.
On this topic: I heard once that you should first buy cheap tools. Use them until they break and then decide what you want to improve about those tools and buy better ones. Often those first tools never break. This seems like pretty good advice for most things.
The tools is good advice most of the time, but not if the tool would fail dangerously. Don’t skimp on car jacks, table saws, or other things that are likely to injure you if they fail.
Screwdrivers/drills/hammers/crowbars/etc. don’t need to be expensive if you are going to use them rarely as the professional grade is mostly about being used all day every day and being able to survive rough handling by tired workers.
Yup, buy most things at harbor freight the first time, if you break theirs buy whatever name brand fits your color scheme.
Water. At least here in Denmark. Bottled water is less regulated than tap water.
One of the benefits of living in the Nordics is tap water that can literally be of higher quality than bottled water (assuming you don’t have bad pipes.) The only time I’ll ever buy bottled water is if I get really thirsty when I’m on the go and don’t have a bottle of tap water with me
Fashion accessories. For most fashion (not workwear), the expensive stuff is made from the same material and in the same factories as the cheap stuff, they just market it harder.
Body wash. It’s watered-down soap. Just buy a bar of soap.
Amazon Prime. Amazon used to be space-age Sears. Now it’s just Aliexpress. Fake reviews and bribery are rampant, dangerously nonfunctional products get top recommendations, used and broken products get resold as new while untouched returns get thrown into landfills, Amazon Basics violates IP, and they’re putting ads in Prime Video now.
Microwaves and space heaters. The boxes may try to convince you otherwise, but the amount of heat these devices can deliver is bottlenecked by the power outlet. Every 1100W microwave is just as effective as the others. If you’re paying more, it’s for looks and for features you’ll never use like popcorn mode.
Electronics, for most people. Most people won’t get more use out of a new $1500 phone than a last-gen model from the same manufacturer for $500. Do you really want a $200 smart coffee maker, or a $20 dumb coffee maker with a $10 plug-in timer?
Software. Obligatory FOSS plug. I don’t blame people for sticking to what’s familiar, but if you have the time and energy to spare tinkering, most software out there has a good free or open-source equivalent these days. At least for personal use. In my use case, LibreOffice beats Microsoft Word, Photopea beats Photoshop, and Google Sheets beats Excel.
Hard disagree on body wash vs soap. Soap always leaves a weird filmy feeling on my skin no matter what brand I use. Plus having to lather up the bar is annoying and I don’t want to deal with wet washcloths in the shower. Give me a poof and a bottle of body wash any day.
Yeah, body soap last me a lot longer as well. People gift me Lush some times and the large bottle lasts months, I’m almost 1/4 done with one I got back in October.
The advantages of being hairy. I have out evolved the need for washcloths.
Huh. I had to google it, but you’re right – body wash isn’t technically soap, it’s detergent. So it’s less likely to leave a film, particularly in hard water.
You learn something new every day.
Sounds like you have hard water
I agree with everything but using Google sheets. It’s neither free nor open source. You don’t pay with money but with your privacy. Libre office is just as good as a desktop application and is actually FOSS. If you absolutely need the cloud storage, get a provider you can trust, buy the space and sync your files online, after editing locally.
Google sheets isn’t FOSS, right? Is there something comparable in libre?
Dogs, rescues are just as doglike and mostly free compared to the Hapsburg simulator known as breeding
But look at the chin on that dog!
What … interesting proportions.
Pets are best when you buy the cheap off brand versions. Purebred more often equals inbred and personally I don’t want that generic headache as a pet ages.
I own and train hunting dogs for upland and waterfowl hunting. I’ve also done breeding in my younger days. Bloodlines absolutely matter. A puppy from National Champion bloodlines has a far, far better chance of being very good at his job. This goes for ANY working breed that is actually expected to work at their job in real life. And they cost a LOT of money to buy, train, and maintain. But these aren’t foo-foo dogs bred strictly for looks either.
If all you need is a popcorn and movie and sleep on the bed pet, then it doesn’t probably matter very much. Find a nice rescue - they need a home and love too.
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This used to be true, but unfortunately, like USB-C the game has changed completely.
The downside to standardization is that if you keep the same physical form for multiple iterations, the internals can change. The specs of the source and receiving ends have gone through tons of changes since 2015 and old HDMI 1.4 Cables don’t have the same standards to transmit high speed signals from things like PS5, Xbox, Apple TV etc.
Additionally because they require programming and HDCP (a verification handshake between the 2 devices it connects) when companies cheap out they may not properly program them.
That being said, you don’t need spend an arm and a leg, but don’t get shit either. Generally speaking, buy the cheapest version HDMI 2.1 from a reputable brand or vendor. Definitely not from Amazon anymore, a TON of products labeled 2.1 are actually 2.0 or worse, 1.4.
OK, this one is true until it isn’t.
HDMI 1.4 and arguably 2.0 specs were straightforward enough that it was rare to encounter a cable, no matter how cheap, that did not support all the features you wanted if it listed the right HDMI spec. That… is no longer a universal truth with HDMI 2.1 if you need something that will do 4K120 with HDR. There are cables that just don’t like some ports, particularly on PCs.
Length is also a way this can be wrong. Go above 2.5-3m and you may start losing the ability to hit some of the spec. I have a HDMI setup that requires a longer cable and there are basic cables that work and some that don’t for the application. To get a better chance on longer cables you end up having to go for powered cables or HDMI over fiber, which are both more expensive than normal cables and it can be luck of the draw even with expensive cables whether they will like your devices and be compatible with what you’re trying to do.
So console plugged directly to your 60Hz TV over 1.5m? Sure, cheap cable will do. Longer distances or higher bandwidth requirements? Be prepared to shop around and try different options, potentially getting very expensive.
To a degree. I once bought HDMI cables at Dollarama thinking the same thing. For $4, it should work good enough, right? It took me a while to realize that the random interference that was pixalating and distorting the image was the cable and not my media PC, but not before swapping the video card to test.
You can buy cheap cables, but beware that not all cables are the same quality.
This was pretty close to being true for 1080p and lower resolutions. If you get a 4k 120hz HDR display then bandwidth and signal integrity start becoming very important. The article you linked is rather old and really only considers media up to 4k 30fps. Cable quality especially matters at lengths above 4 ft for uhd and higher.
There’s a lot of snake oil so you can’t just trust marketing claims. I’ve had terrible luck with cables that claim to support high resolutions from amazon and even monoprice. I’ve resorted to buying cables from actual electronics suppliers like digikey since their speed ratings should be accurate.
“There are major durability differences between different cables and many manufacturers offer additional features, beyond the ability to carry an HDMI signal, that could add value and cost” says Park.
There can still be a difference in physical quality, even if signal quality is relatively unchanged.
Yeah, it’s the same with USB cables. Technically they should all be equal. But after having all 3 cables in a pack of 3 fail within a few months of buying I only get one of the at least recognised brands now. Considering some of the higher power charging modes available now, you want a cable that really can handle the currents it says it can.
HDMI it’s generally the case, you want a decent brand for build quality. But when you see the “audiophile” rated stuff for digital signalling cables, then it’s time to move on.
I think HDMI cables is a rabbit hole subject you can really lose some time with. I don’t know how everyone is feeling about Linus these days (I never heard how his independent ethics audit went), but he did a big deep dive on this and found result all over the place. Some cables costing WAY more than they should being total garbage, and some cheap ones being relatively OK and meeting spec, with no real way to know who is safe without either 1) testing them yourself OR 2) finding someone doing a wide batch of testing.
Absolutely not. I finally got a 4K 120hz OLED TV which needs a HDMI 2.1 cable. Ordered a certified one and I couldn’t get 120hz to run whatever way I tried. I managed to force it one time and the TV screen black screened every two seconds. After doing everything else (reinstall GPU drivers, messing with settings) I finally ordered a different HDMI cable.
Plugged it in, set 120hz, it worked. Both cables are certified, but one was trash.
Even with the new cable I sometimes get a short black screen now, but I have no clue if it’s the cable’s fault or the TV. HDMI cables are a total mess when you actually want to use the full bandwidth :-/
I switched to 4K 60hz for now as I don’t really game on the TV anyway, it also allows me to use TrueMotion again (which seemingly doesn’t run at 120hz). Either way I get anxious about HDMI cables now, lol.
Spec yes, but how often you have to go jiggle the cord or having a cable so stiff it feels like you’ll break your port in order to run from near the wall makes some difference. The really cheap ones are touchy.
Anything made by Kirkland
Not their (organic) eggs, at least in my area. They have pale, tasteless yolks. Other than eggs, we get Kirkland if it’s an option.
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I’ll disagree to a point on liquor.
I like single-malt Scottish whiskey. I like Islays the most, followed by Speysides, Cambelltowns, Highlands, and Lowlands (in that order). I’ve found that, generally speaking, the longer a whiskey has been aged, the better it’s going to be at mellowing out the harsher flavors in a given distillery’s offerings. Compared to blended whiskeys–which are usually cheaper–single malt, and single barrel are a better experience in my opinion. I’m usually paying $50-200 for something that I’ll really enjoy, with most being in the $100-150 range.
But $5000 for a 40yo bottle of Macallen? Absolutely not.
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FWIW, whiskey is expensive because the market had grown sharply, and production runs a minimum of seven years behind demand (for Scottish whiskey, due to laws on aging). Ten years ago you could get a perfectly decent Laphroaig for $25-35; now it’s more like $60 for the same thing.
IMHO, there are two price bands for wine: under-$10, and over. I have an unsophisticated palette, but I can tell a cheap wine from a not-cheap one. I can’t tell a not-cheap one from an expensive one, though. Some really expensive wines taste like crap to me, worse than the mid-range ones. That’s the only time I can pick out on expensive wine: it might taste bad, but it doesn’t taste cheap.
See The Judgment of Paris or Brochet’s study.
Youtube premium
Just out of curiosity, do you avoid YouTube or just deal with the ads? I’ve been on a premium family plan for years and love it - we watch a lot of yt.
There’s an option C:
avoid YouTube
or just deal with theadsOf course I guess it depends on which devices that that’s an option.
I buy good brands from China for my professional tools, phones, laptops, and gadgets. The key is knowing which brands in China are good. Nothing else can compete in terms of value for money.
Motorbikes (for commuting). My midrange motorbike cost under 2k USD brand new, and it gets me to work at the same speed as an expensive one (Asian traffic, haha).
I would be careful with gadgets that have software on them like phones and laptops. God knows what kind of Chinese spyware they come with.
And the rest of the world will say the same with respect to American spyware.
As a foreign nation, why would you use a core piece of software on all your government computers? I’ll never understand why Windows is used in any secure government installation, let alone non-American ones.
Because Microsoft forces itself on countries with deals. Its how they have always done things. Contractual lock in until folks are stuck needing windows for proprietary software.
Microsoft actively goes to schools and governments using linux or mac and makes cheap contracts, at first, to move them all and they bribe too.
Monopoly is their goal always
Actually, that’s super exciting! I would have a fun time taking it apart, analyzing it, and publishing it. Would be great publicity, and would probably make me more money than the laptop/phone/whatever cost me.
That being said, the USA has the most established history of compromising cryptography and security. It’s not so much that I trust China or don’t trust the USA, it’s that I don’t trust any superpower, am fairly wary of nations in general, and in fact don’t have much trust for organizations of anything over a handful of people.
Phones
You don’t really need an 8-core CPU and 12 gigs of RAM for making calls and browsing the web, which is what 95% of people use their phones for. Not even buying such phone for the sake of longevity is worth it since most manufacturers drop support for their phones after 5 years at most.
Can’t exactly say the same for Samsung phones though. I used to have their cheaper midrangers and after like 2 years they’d get horrendously slow in day-to-day tasks. I got an older flagship for roughly the same price as a new midranger by them recently and I hope it’ll last longer.
The Galaxy A5x series is excellent value. It’s not the absolute cheapest but for ~$300 there’s nothing it does wrong. I’ve used a Galaxy A52 (older 4g version) for the last 2 years without any issues. Before that I stuck to Umidigi phones in the ~$120-$150 range which were all great except for the cameras.
Over Christmas I won a Pixel 8 Pro giveaway but except for in the lowest lighting conditions the difference is insignificant to my eye. I actually really miss some of the Samsung software features (namely secure folder and free-form windows).
Having a cheaper phone is also freeing to treat them less gently. I often found myself taking photos I might not otherwise due to the fact all my prior phones were so cheap. I’m not about to hold my Pixel 8 Pro out over a cliff, but for the Umidigi phones and Galaxy A52 that was no problem when traveling.
Headphones/ear buds. It really comes down to your use case. If you listen to podcasts and audiobooks 90% of the time then you only need good enough which is typically around $40.
For podcasts and audiobooks and even incidental music listening $10 panasonic buds go the distance for me.
When I’m sitting down to enjoy music at home, then it’s the $80 sony studio monitors. Still excellent value.
Give me my headphone socket back, phone makers :(
I have multiple LG HB800 Bluetooth headsets that you wear around your neck. 50 backs a piece, great noise cancelling , great sound, and 5 years on and they’re still running for a complete day.
Last year bought a set of Sony Bluetooth earbuds, we’re reviewed everywhere as the best at 350 dollars. They have half the volume, half the time I can’t hear people on calls, the noise cancellation was shit, and battery life new was about 4-5 hours, and now after a bit over a year, battery life is 5 minutes so I can throw them away.
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Yes, kinda. That is use a brand that is certified by your country’s health service. But use generics not the named brand drugs once available.
A lot of generic foods. Safeway’s in-house brand, for example, has better crackers, pasta sauces, a handful of other items than the expensive name brands do. And yes, that includes Rao’s. I’ll never understand why that brand is so popular when Safeway Select exists and tastes better with perfectly good ingredients at a fraction of the cost.
