There’s fancy, and then there’s this stuff. A lot of products are sold with a luxury tag in a way that truly feels bewildering, usually because they’re pointless purchases or regular items being upsold. Here are twelve of these luxurious yet unnecessary purchases. Which one do you think is the worst?
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.
Luxury doomsday condos in a missile silo
Only in America could an old Cold War missile silo turn into million-dollar apartments. In Kansas, Survival Condo sells half-floor units starting at $1.5M, with full floors available at $3M. These condos include access to a pool & gym, as well as fake window views to make the place look a little less depressing.
Iceberg water sold by the bottle
Svalbarði is a water company that takes chunks of ice from Arctic glaciers & melts them down. Then, they put them in 750ml bottles and sell them for about €99.95, which is approximately $100. Luxury London retailer Harrods once carried these bottles. Worse still, the brand also makes collector editions, even though it’s literally frozen water that would’ve melted into the sea.
A “luxury” ice cube bucket
Asprey London designed a sterling-silver ice cube bucket that sells for over $1,000. The bucket itself is quite heavy, and it makes the same cubes you’d get from a $5 plastic bucket at the grocery store. Once the cubes have melted in your glass, you won’t be able to tell whether they came from silver or metal.
A sterling-silver “tin can” and $9,000 yarn
Tiffany once launched a whole “Everyday Objects” line, and among the weirdest of their products was a sterling-silver tin can that was priced around $1,000. They also had a ball of yarn made of hand-spun sterling silver that cost $9,000. As you can probably imagine, these items weren’t practical and were simply shiny versions of things you’d throw away or use once.
A $185 paperclip money clip
Sure, you could always clip papers. But why bother when you can clip cash? Prada made an oversized sterling-silver “paperclip” that they called a money clip & sold for $185 at Barneys New York. And yes, it was exactly what it sounds like. It was an expensive, bent piece of metal that proved just how out of touch some people can be.
Sneakers released pre-destroyed
Balenciaga released a Paris Sneaker line in 2022 that included a limited run of scuffed-up, torn-apart high-tops. And all for the low, low price of $1,850. They made only 100 pairs, and the sneakers themselves looked like they’d already lived through a house fire. It’s truly bleak to imagine that people actually bought these things.
A $290 brown paper lunch bag
Jil Sander dropped a designer clutch that was anything but designer. It was literally a brown lunch sack with a crease, with the coated paper version running close to $300 & the leather one being around $630. Essentially, it looked like something you’d throw away after eating a PB&J.
A pencil that costs more than a phone
You don’t have to bother with ordinary pencils when you have Graf von Faber-Castell’s Perfect Pencil. It includes platinum fittings, as well as an optional 18-karat gold version, along with a price tag well into five figures. All that for a pencil. However, it’s unlikely that it writes any better than a 10-cent No. 2 from a gas station, and the “perfect” part means you’ll never want to use it.
Coat hangers with a couture price tag
Some companies make $400 wooden hangers that sure are smooth & polished. They also say the brand on them. Still, they’re just hangers and have one purpose only, just like the ones you get in a pack of ten at Target. It’s hard to imagine anyone bragging about those at a dinner party & it’s also quite depressing that these were ever sold.
Toothpicks priced like jewelry
A toothpick carved from exotic wood & sweetened with different spices sounds like a waste of money. But it’s real. Daneson sells luxury toothpicks for prices starting at $170, all the way toward $200. However, it’s simply a stick for digging spinach out of your teeth. The price makes no difference.
Designer shoelaces
Farfetch sells cotton shoelaces for over $100. They’re “strass-embellished” shoelaces, covered in specks of gold to make them feel fancier. But they’re not indestructible, and some of them don’t even have the brand name on the front. Anyone who bought them would probably be scared to scuff them on the sidewalk, which is what makes them such a weird purchase.
An expensive coffee cup
Several cup & mug makers have released coffee mugs plated with 24-karat gold, retailing anywhere between $100 & $500. They pour like any other mug. But you’d never relax holding it, and any coffee dripping down the side would be an absolute nightmare. Just what is the point?
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
