[Icehouse] off colored pyramids question

[Brian Campbell]

On Jan 22, 2007, at 11:40 AM, kerry_and_ryan at att.net 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.