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Through some odd circumstances I found myself receiving a lot of catalogs and sales solicitations for a reasonably wealthy person. Most of the stuff was what yo

Through some odd circumstances I found myself receiving a lot of catalogs and sales solicitations for a reasonably wealthy person. Most of the stuff was what you'd exoect-- expensive furnishings, clothing, home goods. The two that were most interesting were the travel-related (guided trips in exotic locales w/ profiles and resumes of the local guides), and oddly specific and highly-focused catalogs (gardening, specific types of home goods). The one that really stands out was a catalog with hundreds of different brushes-- each with a very specific purpose (and many with carrying cases and other accessories). I had no idea there were so many different brushes.

tmcz26 1y ago
Do you remember the name of the travel guides/companies? That would actually be interesting.
- EvanAnderson 1y ago
  Ugh. We threw away a ton of stuff. I'll see what I can find. (A change-of-address had lapsed. We let the recipient's family know and they're keeping it updated now, so the torrent has, sadly, stopped.)
- tuumi 1y ago
  This one comes to mind. It was quite expensive and Uma Thurman's father was involved when I used to get the catalogs 20 years ago. They have private and custom tours available. www.nomadicexpeditions.com Some others. www.nomadicexpeditions.com www.geoex.com - Digging the 22 day train trip through the Silk Road for $50k How about around the work via private jet? https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/tours/around-world-private-jet/itinerary/ https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/tours/around-world-priva...
JKCalhoun 1y ago
Yeah, post the company name — because I'm picturing instead a company posing was a company for the rich and famous. Do we remember The Sharper Image catalog?
- EvanAnderson 1y ago
  There was one that totally had that look. Ugh. I should have made notes of the names. It was a very Sharper Image-looking catalog, filled with wildly eclectic products. It was replete with statements about everything being top-of-the-line, satisfaction guaranteed, and lifetime warranties.
  - myself248 1y ago
    I miss DAK.
- antonchekhov 1y ago
  The J Peterman catalog is still around around (at least, online) and approaches satire in its selection of goods (mostly clothing) that assiduously conveys "casual, interesting, old-money wealth". The Elaine Benes character on "Seinfeld" worked there, and had to deal with the kooky habits of the Mr Peterman character.
matsemann 1y ago
Huh, for me the nice part of being rich would be to not have to choose between so much goods. Like, when buying a new bicycle I have to spent lots of time figuring out the tradeoffs between what I want, what I can get a different price points etc, as buying something wrong will set me back and be a while until I can try again. But for a reach person, they can just buy the top spec of everything, and if they don't like it just buy from a different brand. Of course, since I'm interested in cycling, this nerding is a bit fun. But for loads of stuff it's just a hassle. Like our oven recently broke down. Then I had to spend a few evenings researching what to buy, how to get it delivered, what to do with installation etc. If I had more money, I could just tell someone to fix it, and "get me the best one".
- EvanAnderson 1y ago
  The specific catalogs seemed to cater to the specific interests these people would have enjoyed nerding-out to. For stuff they weren't interested in it looks like they paid people to just buy the highest-end if everything else (appliances, electronics, HVAC, etc).
- Suppafly 1y ago
  >Huh, for me the nice part of being rich would be to not have to choose between so much goods. A friend of mine has a friend that's a fancy lawyer and I went camping with them once and the lawyer had the best of the best of camping stuff. Like he just went to REI and was like "give me the best of whatever I need to camp this weekend." It's possible that he weighed the pros and cons of some of it, but I sorta doubt it. The tent fabric felt like silk and was the lightest weight of anything I've ever seen and I camp a lot of with a wide range of people that can afford nicer stuff. The tent didn't even have any branding on it. My friend was telling me about this bike the guy had, and it's basically carbon fiber everything probably $10k at least. He had wrecked his old bike and gave it to my buddy that would have just needed to get a few parts and have it assembled at a bike shop and it was basically too expensive for my buddy to justify it.

tmcz26 1y ago

Do you remember the name of the travel guides/companies? That would actually be interesting.

EvanAnderson 1y ago
Ugh. We threw away a ton of stuff. I'll see what I can find. (A change-of-address had lapsed. We let the recipient's family know and they're keeping it updated now, so the torrent has, sadly, stopped.)
tuumi 1y ago
This one comes to mind. It was quite expensive and Uma Thurman's father was involved when I used to get the catalogs 20 years ago. They have private and custom tours available. www.nomadicexpeditions.com Some others. www.nomadicexpeditions.com www.geoex.com - Digging the 22 day train trip through the Silk Road for $50k How about around the work via private jet? https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/tours/around-world-private-jet/itinerary/ https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/tours/around-world-priva...

JKCalhoun 1y ago

Yeah, post the company name — because I'm picturing instead a company posing was a company for the rich and famous. Do we remember The Sharper Image catalog?

EvanAnderson 1y ago
There was one that totally had that look. Ugh. I should have made notes of the names. It was a very Sharper Image-looking catalog, filled with wildly eclectic products. It was replete with statements about everything being top-of-the-line, satisfaction guaranteed, and lifetime warranties.
- myself248 1y ago
  I miss DAK.
antonchekhov 1y ago
The J Peterman catalog is still around around (at least, online) and approaches satire in its selection of goods (mostly clothing) that assiduously conveys "casual, interesting, old-money wealth". The Elaine Benes character on "Seinfeld" worked there, and had to deal with the kooky habits of the Mr Peterman character.

matsemann 1y ago

Huh, for me the nice part of being rich would be to not have to choose between so much goods. Like, when buying a new bicycle I have to spent lots of time figuring out the tradeoffs between what I want, what I can get a different price points etc, as buying something wrong will set me back and be a while until I can try again. But for a reach person, they can just buy the top spec of everything, and if they don't like it just buy from a different brand. Of course, since I'm interested in cycling, this nerding is a bit fun. But for loads of stuff it's just a hassle. Like our oven recently broke down. Then I had to spend a few evenings researching what to buy, how to get it delivered, what to do with installation etc. If I had more money, I could just tell someone to fix it, and "get me the best one".

EvanAnderson 1y ago
The specific catalogs seemed to cater to the specific interests these people would have enjoyed nerding-out to. For stuff they weren't interested in it looks like they paid people to just buy the highest-end if everything else (appliances, electronics, HVAC, etc).
Suppafly 1y ago
>Huh, for me the nice part of being rich would be to not have to choose between so much goods. A friend of mine has a friend that's a fancy lawyer and I went camping with them once and the lawyer had the best of the best of camping stuff. Like he just went to REI and was like "give me the best of whatever I need to camp this weekend." It's possible that he weighed the pros and cons of some of it, but I sorta doubt it. The tent fabric felt like silk and was the lightest weight of anything I've ever seen and I camp a lot of with a wide range of people that can afford nicer stuff. The tent didn't even have any branding on it. My friend was telling me about this bike the guy had, and it's basically carbon fiber everything probably $10k at least. He had wrecked his old bike and gave it to my buddy that would have just needed to get a few parts and have it assembled at a bike shop and it was basically too expensive for my buddy to justify it.