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I was invited for coffee at a friend's friend. He seemed a pretty regular guy, very friendly: kids playing in the pool. Nothing out of the ordinary except as m

I was invited for coffee at a friend's friend. He seemed a pretty regular guy, very friendly: kids playing in the pool. Nothing out of the ordinary except as many house employees as adult guests (and house employees where calling guests by their name). I happened to know the artist Jeff Koons: not a big fan of the "inflated balloon dogs" but I do like his ballerinas. Well... Turns out the dude had one house destroyed then rebuilt to accommodate a 3 meters high Jeff Koons sculpture of two ballerinas. I don't know exactly but I take it that's a $15m sculpture. I'd say most people don't know who Jeff Koons is and most people have no idea that some people shall just level an entire house just to have an architect redesign a new house, at the same place, so that a sculpture can now be admired from the living room, kitchen and garden. He's got several paintings from Basquiat too. He's actually in the top 200 of the world's top art collectors (I found that out by googling his name after having been to his place). And he's got his art pieces sprinkled around the world, in his many properties. > The $10-30M people don't seem much different from me. Definitely not very different. One little fantasy I saw not one but two people in that range do is buy several times the exact same car. Identical. Same config. Then they use one as a daily, and put the the others at different vacation places they have: so they land, take a cab, then get to enjoy the same car. Weird but I've seen two people do it, so I take it's a thing? One had identical Range Rover, the other identical Lexus. Not real petrolheads: rich car petrolheads are actually going to own fancy stuff like old Ferrari 250 (even if "just" a GTE), old GT40, old Porsche, etc. which every body expects rich people to have if they're into cars at all. But yup: buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird.

georgemcbay 1y ago
> buying x times the exact same car Triples is best. https://youtu.be/8Inf1Yz_fgk https://youtu.be/8Inf1Yz_fgk
JKCalhoun 1y ago
Yeah, surprise the linked reply doesn't mention art. There's no ceiling there. I suppose you can add actual Jurassic era bones to the weird stuff the wealthy seek out.
throwanem 1y ago
> But yup: buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird. Is it? I'm on my second iPhone 13 mini, this one being the replacement after the first died of a drop. There are two more stored in the attic, each preconfigured with the accessories I like and with a SIM from my provider in the box. So if anything happens to this phone, as soon as I get home I just break out #3, restore the latest backup, activate the SIM and assign it the number, and I'm back in business at the same old stand. An iPhone 13 mini with the accessories I like (case and charging adapter) is about $300. That's amply worth it to me, a couple times over, to never have to think about how to replace a cooked phone and get back into communication with my family and the world. Nothing special about the phone, it's if anything unusually unassuming. It's just the phone I happen to like (since 2021 when I concluded it no longer made sense to keep keeping 1st gen SEs alive) and thinking about phones is something I only like doing when I want to. That's the problem this money solves, and I have the money available to use this way, so why not? Scale the dollar amount up a few orders of magnitude and the necessity down by the same amount, and sure, I see how it makes sense to "just" drop an identical set of wheels at every one of your pieds-à-terre. What did the funny sweary smoking man in the movie say? "You learn to spend what's in your pocket."
- fragmede 1y ago
  > Scale the dollar amount up a few orders of magnitude But that's what makes it "weird". Most people can't afford to do that. As you point out, it mashed a certain amount of sense, but we're in the midst of an housing crisis. People who have enough money to own, not just multiple houses, but so many cars that they got tired of different cars so they just bought more of the same? Weird because I've never done that. How many iphone 13 minis have you used concurrently, and in how many different locations did you own them? Byb your own admission, you only use one at a time.
  - throwanem 1y ago
    I didn't say that it wasn't grotesquely flagrant consumption, only that I can follow the reasoning behind it. And I have made no admission of which I am aware.
humanpotato 1y ago
Steve Jobs did this, he got a new car every 6 months yet for years only drove a 911, then an MB SL55. Why have to learn a new car when you like what you drive? https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704461/heres-why-steve-jobs-got-same-new-car-every-six-months/ https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704...
- tough 1y ago
  he got the new cars every 6 months because he could avoid then putting car plates on it (california weird law on new cars) and then not be able to be given tickets when he would park on his disabled spot at cupertino classy mfer lol
  - drfuchs 1y ago
    No, they always had legit California "temporary plates" for the allowable (at the time) 6 months. They were very ticketable; his motivation was to keep his car relatively anonymous when driving around. Source: Me, living near his house and walking by regularly.
    - tough 1y ago
      oh ty ty that does make much more sense than my absurd simplification (note that they owned the parking, so its moot if they parked on a reserved spot on private property of theirs) I guess not being localizable by press/random people is a nice plus if you can afford. but didnt he buy always the same model?
      - nerdsniper 1y ago
        You were actually right. See sibling comment to yours.
        tough 1y ago
        Yes, I didnt remember but that's probably the article I had read years ago and was thinking about! I guess we both where right at different points in time ;)
toyg 1y ago
I would absolutely do that. Having to relearn instrumentation and optionals, how the car handles, dealing with its size, etc etc, is an absolute ballache. If you're not into cars, there is no novelty in having to drive two or three different cars just because you want to be near the sea this week and near the city next week.
- sunrunner 1y ago
  If you were that rich wouldn't you just hire someone to drive well for you? But if you liked driving for the sake of it would it not be part of the enjoyment to learn to handle different vehicles well?
  - geodel 1y ago
    As people are discussing there are different level of rich. At some level one want to reasonably good car that they drive themselves. At another level maybe people send advance team to setup before owner reach their vacation mansion and drive them around, cook their meals, etc once they are there.
    - sunrunner 1y ago
      > maybe people send advance team to setup before owner reach their vacation mansion and drive them around, cook their meals, etc once they are there. I can readily believe this does happen at the right level of wealth, but there's something deeply absurd and humorous about someone sending a vanguard to their second or third home before they arrive.
      - geodel 1y ago
        I mean the level of conveniences in developed world are already much much higher even for middle class that we don't even think of them as luxury it would be for > 90% of world population. My very typical American suburban home on a 0.2 acre lot is better built, has better views, parking, heating, cooling and so on than a 3 generation rich (from my standards) cousins' home in India. However they do have half a dozen servants at home and I have obviously none here. So it does sound weird that people seek even further from developed world middle class point of view.
fakedang 1y ago
> But yup: buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird. Not really, decision fatigue is a thing. My colleague actually took me out car shopping a couple of weeks back, to the Ferrari showroom because apparently to get some models, you need to be one of their favorite customers or a referral from one. We also visited a Lamborghini showroom next (which apparently didn't have such restrictions). But deciding between their cars was so tough, and I really wanted to get an EV instead for my daily driver, that I just ended up renewing on my rental Honda Civic for a few more months lol. I could buy these cars, but I tend to be vested in things I buy, and suffer from FOMO for not buying the rest, so might as well postpone the decision to when I can afford to hold them all together and give them time to maintain them. There's also the real problem with rose tinted glasses. For example, I was a huge fan of the Testarossa ever since I was a kid, but just one drive inside one showed me how badly designed it actually is in the interior.
pests 1y ago
I had a friend of a friend who made millions off FBA/dropshipping in the early days. He has the exact set of about 4 cars at multiple of his properties, all wrapped in a location specific color. Miami they were gold, LA they were purple, NYC they were black, etc.
arkey 1y ago
> buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird. I would totally do that if I could. I have done it with shoes when I've had the good insight of thinking about it. I do it often with clothes when I find a good product that suits my needs. And I wish I could do it with my very-average-but-reliable car. I'm dreading the moment I have to buy the next one and take the risky decision. I am very fortunate to have an above average salary for where I am from, but what surprised me from going to pretty much broke to quite well off, is that my life didn't become flashy, it just became VERY comfortable with normal, everyday things.
wbrinkley 1y ago
Reminds me of a story a contractor told me: he was building a multi-million dollar house in Hawaii as a second home for a very wealthy California couple. He said they made the kitchen exactly the same as their other house. Same appliances, same cabinets, all the exact same dishes and silverware, all in the same drawers. People like what they like, and when you're hung over and reaching for the coffee cups in the morning, you know exactly where to find them.

georgemcbay 1y ago

> buying x times the exact same car Triples is best. https://youtu.be/8Inf1Yz_fgk https://youtu.be/8Inf1Yz_fgk

JKCalhoun 1y ago

Yeah, surprise the linked reply doesn't mention art. There's no ceiling there. I suppose you can add actual Jurassic era bones to the weird stuff the wealthy seek out.

throwanem 1y ago

> But yup: buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird. Is it? I'm on my second iPhone 13 mini, this one being the replacement after the first died of a drop. There are two more stored in the attic, each preconfigured with the accessories I like and with a SIM from my provider in the box. So if anything happens to this phone, as soon as I get home I just break out #3, restore the latest backup, activate the SIM and assign it the number, and I'm back in business at the same old stand. An iPhone 13 mini with the accessories I like (case and charging adapter) is about $300. That's amply worth it to me, a couple times over, to never have to think about how to replace a cooked phone and get back into communication with my family and the world. Nothing special about the phone, it's if anything unusually unassuming. It's just the phone I happen to like (since 2021 when I concluded it no longer made sense to keep keeping 1st gen SEs alive) and thinking about phones is something I only like doing when I want to. That's the problem this money solves, and I have the money available to use this way, so why not? Scale the dollar amount up a few orders of magnitude and the necessity down by the same amount, and sure, I see how it makes sense to "just" drop an identical set of wheels at every one of your pieds-à-terre. What did the funny sweary smoking man in the movie say? "You learn to spend what's in your pocket."

fragmede 1y ago
> Scale the dollar amount up a few orders of magnitude But that's what makes it "weird". Most people can't afford to do that. As you point out, it mashed a certain amount of sense, but we're in the midst of an housing crisis. People who have enough money to own, not just multiple houses, but so many cars that they got tired of different cars so they just bought more of the same? Weird because I've never done that. How many iphone 13 minis have you used concurrently, and in how many different locations did you own them? Byb your own admission, you only use one at a time.
- throwanem 1y ago
  I didn't say that it wasn't grotesquely flagrant consumption, only that I can follow the reasoning behind it. And I have made no admission of which I am aware.

humanpotato 1y ago

Steve Jobs did this, he got a new car every 6 months yet for years only drove a 911, then an MB SL55. Why have to learn a new car when you like what you drive? https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704461/heres-why-steve-jobs-got-same-new-car-every-six-months/ https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704...

tough 1y ago
he got the new cars every 6 months because he could avoid then putting car plates on it (california weird law on new cars) and then not be able to be given tickets when he would park on his disabled spot at cupertino classy mfer lol
- drfuchs 1y ago
  No, they always had legit California "temporary plates" for the allowable (at the time) 6 months. They were very ticketable; his motivation was to keep his car relatively anonymous when driving around. Source: Me, living near his house and walking by regularly.
  - tough 1y ago
    oh ty ty that does make much more sense than my absurd simplification (note that they owned the parking, so its moot if they parked on a reserved spot on private property of theirs) I guess not being localizable by press/random people is a nice plus if you can afford. but didnt he buy always the same model?
    - nerdsniper 1y ago
      You were actually right. See sibling comment to yours.
      - tough 1y ago
        Yes, I didnt remember but that's probably the article I had read years ago and was thinking about! I guess we both where right at different points in time ;)

toyg 1y ago

I would absolutely do that. Having to relearn instrumentation and optionals, how the car handles, dealing with its size, etc etc, is an absolute ballache. If you're not into cars, there is no novelty in having to drive two or three different cars just because you want to be near the sea this week and near the city next week.

sunrunner 1y ago
If you were that rich wouldn't you just hire someone to drive well for you? But if you liked driving for the sake of it would it not be part of the enjoyment to learn to handle different vehicles well?
- geodel 1y ago
  As people are discussing there are different level of rich. At some level one want to reasonably good car that they drive themselves. At another level maybe people send advance team to setup before owner reach their vacation mansion and drive them around, cook their meals, etc once they are there.
  - sunrunner 1y ago
    > maybe people send advance team to setup before owner reach their vacation mansion and drive them around, cook their meals, etc once they are there. I can readily believe this does happen at the right level of wealth, but there's something deeply absurd and humorous about someone sending a vanguard to their second or third home before they arrive.
    - geodel 1y ago
      I mean the level of conveniences in developed world are already much much higher even for middle class that we don't even think of them as luxury it would be for > 90% of world population. My very typical American suburban home on a 0.2 acre lot is better built, has better views, parking, heating, cooling and so on than a 3 generation rich (from my standards) cousins' home in India. However they do have half a dozen servants at home and I have obviously none here. So it does sound weird that people seek even further from developed world middle class point of view.

fakedang 1y ago

> But yup: buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird. Not really, decision fatigue is a thing. My colleague actually took me out car shopping a couple of weeks back, to the Ferrari showroom because apparently to get some models, you need to be one of their favorite customers or a referral from one. We also visited a Lamborghini showroom next (which apparently didn't have such restrictions). But deciding between their cars was so tough, and I really wanted to get an EV instead for my daily driver, that I just ended up renewing on my rental Honda Civic for a few more months lol. I could buy these cars, but I tend to be vested in things I buy, and suffer from FOMO for not buying the rest, so might as well postpone the decision to when I can afford to hold them all together and give them time to maintain them. There's also the real problem with rose tinted glasses. For example, I was a huge fan of the Testarossa ever since I was a kid, but just one drive inside one showed me how badly designed it actually is in the interior.

pests 1y ago

I had a friend of a friend who made millions off FBA/dropshipping in the early days. He has the exact set of about 4 cars at multiple of his properties, all wrapped in a location specific color. Miami they were gold, LA they were purple, NYC they were black, etc.

arkey 1y ago

> buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird. I would totally do that if I could. I have done it with shoes when I've had the good insight of thinking about it. I do it often with clothes when I find a good product that suits my needs. And I wish I could do it with my very-average-but-reliable car. I'm dreading the moment I have to buy the next one and take the risky decision. I am very fortunate to have an above average salary for where I am from, but what surprised me from going to pretty much broke to quite well off, is that my life didn't become flashy, it just became VERY comfortable with normal, everyday things.

wbrinkley 1y ago

Reminds me of a story a contractor told me: he was building a multi-million dollar house in Hawaii as a second home for a very wealthy California couple. He said they made the kitchen exactly the same as their other house. Same appliances, same cabinets, all the exact same dishes and silverware, all in the same drawers. People like what they like, and when you're hung over and reaching for the coffee cups in the morning, you know exactly where to find them.