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Friday, August 24. 2007160,000 times more expensive...
Before you continue reading this posting stop to think about this for a second. Can you think of two versions of the same commodity, both performing the same function, but one of them 160,00 times more expensive than the other? Of course one will be a simple version, and the other a luxury one. In both cases they do exactly the same (from the point of view of their purpose).
To put it into context, if you could buy a house for say, $10,000 (likely a dump, but performing its "function"), could you find one for $1,600,000,000. Shoes? Computers? Cars? Think about it before you continue reading... For reasons that are difficult to explain I have become interested in pencils and their history. While looking for a Canadian supplier for a Faber Castell 2001 series pencil, I discovered what is likely the most expensive pencil ever produced: The 240th Special Edition Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. Its official price is US$9,000 (although you can already find them on ebay at a discount).
 The Perfect Pencil Limited Edition ad. The images' copyright is likely owned by Faber-Castell Vertrieb GMBH. What do you get? A beautiful pencil with its own cover so you can, like any proud geek, wear it in your shirt's pocket. Its cover has a built-in sharpener. The wood is made of 240 years old olive wood; unfortunately its lead's graphite hasn't turned into diamond (even though you pay like if it had). In comparison the meagre, frugal golf pencil retails for $9 for a box of 144. $0.0625 per pencil. To be fair, you get 4 refills with the "Perfect Pencil", so it is "only" 32,000 times more expensive. Besides both being able to write they have something else in common: nobody would sharpen either one of them. Trackbacks
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From their website..."The special feature of this edition is THREE DIAMONDS worked into the cap as homage to the third millennium that had just begun."
No doubt some of the price is due to this fact...
Before I read below the fold, I assumed you were talking about bottled water.
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