Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] off colored pyramids question

  • FromBrian Campbell <lambda@xxxxxxx>
  • DateMon, 22 Jan 2007 12:02:39 -0500
On Jan 22, 2007, at 11:40 AM, kerry_and_ryan@xxxxxxx wrote:

Apparently the market will bear a $50 price tag. That's more than I would pay for such a Treehouse set by a factor of three or four.

I'm not sure the market would actually bear that price, if more sets were produced. It's the exclusivity which gives them a good deal of their value, and so I wouldn't be surprised if the price went down considerably when there were more available. I think that $20 might be a more stable price if the stashes are still unique and rare but there are more available.

Hmmm... my thoughts on one-of-a-kind pyramids seem to echo Andy's on professional sports: why all the excitement over something one had no hand in creating? I'm rather proud of my own skeleton crew, origami patterned, purpleheart and other such sets. Not only am _I_ not thrilled about these off-color ones, but I can hardly believe that the manufacturer is all that proud of them either.

Oh, I agree that pieceniked sets are much cooler than in-between color sets. But that doesn't mean the unique colored ones aren't kind of cool, too. You can't make everything you own (well, perhaps you can, but you'd have to lead a much more ascetic lifestyle if you did), but can still be proud of some cool stuff that you've bought.

My thoughts on professional sports are that they're not cool because the vast majority of people watching have absolutely no connection to them. They're pure spectators. Most of them don't even play the sport in question on their own. That doesn't mean that I think professional sports shouldn't exist. For an example of a professional sport that I think is more reasonable, look at Chess or Go. You pretty much have to play the game to get anything out of watching it, so everyone involved has at least some connection. Amateurs pay money to see the game played at it's best, and therefore learn more about the game. They also pay for books written on the game, and lessons. If everyone, or even a majority of people who watched pro sport also played the sports as amateurs, I could understand them, but the way people just sit there and watch doesn't make much sense to me.

Anyhow, while you can claim that these in-between stashes aren't that cool because you didn't make them yourself, they are still a kind of nifty byproduct of the manufacturing process. I'd be interested in having some, even though I didn't make them, just like I'm interested in owning the regular colors even though I didn't make them. I pay money for goods and services, and I might pay a little more for premium goods.

Hmm. That was all a little disjointed. Maybe I can sum it up like this: professional sports can be cool, but not nearly as cool as everyone makes them out to be, not as cool as playing the sports yourself, and not worth all the money people pour into them. Likewise, special unique Icehouse colors can be cool, but maybe not $50 worth of cool, and not as cool as pieceniked sets.