[notsydonia]

You know how a person on 'average' income might sometimes browse retail sites as displacement activity, while waiting for something/someone or a side-quest etc?

Ultra-wealthy people also do that but they're trawling through Sothebys or Christies - eg: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&-manuscripts/b...

They don't have time to read - say - a lengthy biography about a Civil War general but they can purchase their diary or letters - people who are interested in wealth preservation, especially across generations, are trained to disdain the ephemeral. They like primary documents and depending on their age/interests, cool stuff like first edition comic books or vintage niche Chanel clutch bags.

As impulsive or indulgent as it may seem - eg: I just saw a counterfeit version of Dante's Le Terze De Rime on there for $159,000 USD - the purchase are all investments and as such treated as a tax deductible by your team of accountants. If you purchase a bottle of Romanee St Vivant as an investment but (whoops) drink it - that $16,000 is a business loss. Or maybe a trust fund loss.

And once you start spending at a certain level on sites like those and others, there are extremely nice people who would like nothing more than to invite you to private showings, arrange a private briefing to bring you up to speed with whatever topic you'd like to learn more about or help you select the right gift with which to blow the mind of a business rival or someone you're courting.

I thought that reddit piece was weird. Why would the ultra-wealthy mess around with 'masstige' kitchenware appliances? They wouldn't even have a brand on their dishwasher - it would be commissioned by an architect or interior designer quietly maintained at regular intervals by an appliance engineer who has been either supplied-by your core op-secs team or thoroughly checked out by them etc etc.

[esperent]

> They wouldn't even have a brand on their dishwasher - it would be commissioned by an architect or interior designer quietly maintained at regular intervals by an appliance engineer

I'm not sure that I buy this. It's not simple to make a bespoke appliance like a dishwasher that's better than a very high end mass produced one. Where did you get the idea that this happens from?

[mrguyorama]

It's just a normal retail dishwasher, but it's been through some third party company who "customizes" it by removing any branding and maybe adding their own, and then sell it to the rich person through about 3 steps in a chain of middleman where it eventually gets to someone who just "solves" the "I need a house" problem of the rich person.

Cathode Ray Dude on Youtube talks about this in his videos about the Niveus media center computer https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2OPrGBxkD0

The rich do not give a single fuck how it functions. They have never even thought about that or considered it. If they bought a dishwasher that sucks at washing dishes, their staff will deal with that. If they bought one that breaks after a few months, it will be replaced and they probably will never know. They haven't even stepped foot in this house in months anyway.

The rich are not discerning purchasers because they do not have to be, and they think their time is way too valuable to care about simple things like "Am I spending too much on this" or "Will this widget actually work as advertised"

[notsydonia]

Sorry, I guess what I meant is that this hypothetical ultra-wealthy person wouldn't think "I am going to get a <premium brand> dishwasher, as such. They'd assume it would be the absolute best. If this rich person fancied themselves as a chef, they'd absolutely obsess over the oven etc and have a very clear concept in mind - eg: a high end Aga. But the real estate brochure boast of all Miele (or Bosch, whatever) kitchens would not move them, as such.

[bluGill]

Their custom appliances often are objectively worse than the high end mass produced ones. However they have a maintenance person on staff to deal with that so it isn't a problem.

As other pointed out, they often just have the mass produced appliance if they are not trying to show off.

[anarticle]

The front is replaceable with cabinet door. That’s what they mean I think.

[JKCalhoun]

Yeah, dishwasher? I doubt it.

Custom wine cabinet? Sure.

[mattmaroon]

That would be the ultimate status symbol, paying the world’s best dishwasher engineer to design you a custom one off dishwasher.

[rsynnott]

> They wouldn't even have a brand on their dishwasher - it would be commissioned by an architect or interior designer quietly maintained at regular intervals by an appliance engineer who has been either supplied-by your core op-secs team or thoroughly checked out by them etc etc.

I _absolutely_ do not buy that very rich people have custom dishwashers. Like, _why_? There's no way it could be as good as a mass-produced unit; you benefit from massive economies of scale on the design, there, along with lessons learned from previous models.

[ragazzina]

For me it's the opposite: I cannot believe a rich person deals with "you need a Samsung account on the Samsung CleanDishes to unlock the QuickClean functionality".

[fergie]

> They don't have time to read - say - a lengthy biography

If theres one thing all the wealthy people in my life have it is in fact _time_, which in turn means that they take their leisure activities really, really seriously.

[notsydonia]

I disagree, although mine are clients not friends as such so you may have more insight. Running an empire or even managing a fortune you inherited is a tonne of work - there are so many people from the government, potentially bad hires, distant family members, not to mention actual criminals who think that the person's money would suit them a lot better. They have auditors to audit the auditors, barristers on call and philanthropy managers to gently explain to your 3rd cousin that your charity fund does not extend to funding their permaculture concept.

I also mean 'don't have time to read' to be a bit sarcastic - as in it's not a flex to read the best-selling biography of whoever that was reviewed favorably or might win the Pulitzer - but having acquired the guy's letters - that even the biography author could not get - that's your one-up.

There's also the evidently more ascetic end of the billionaire spectrum - eg: Peter Thiel, Michael Burry - who don't seem to be interested in luxury, as such.