Crack Is Cheaper/Headscratchers

• The way people who aren't into a certain hobby, subculture, etc act so downright shocked when they find out how much people spend on something they're interested in. Look, I'm sure you have your own weird little overpriced things that you're willing to blow money on, why can't you just let us enjoy ours? Especially if it's something we're really into. If you're interested enough in something, you'll understand.
  • It's likely because people have trouble understanding why certain people "waste their money" on things that are highly unlikely to give any sort of reward. Collecting toys to put on your shelf that you don't play with and won't be worth a lot more is strongly considered a "waste of money" as the buyer isn't gaining enjoyment from the products they purchase.
    • Whoa, whoa, whoa. Obviously the buyer is getting some kind of enjoyment out of things they buy. Otherwise they wouldn't be buying them.
    • Most people who collect those 10 inch figurines aren't exactly "playing barbie". So unless they are planning to sell them, then it is seen far more as a "waste of money" as it serves no purpose other than being something on a shelf. Now if you were collecting figurines because your research shows you that someone having the "full set of 100" would be able to sell them for a lot of money, then it can easily be explained as a smart business choice. Having them sit on a shelf with no intention of selling them or "playing barbie" with them is seen as a negative thing by a lot of people as it just makes the buyer look "weird" or "creepy".
    • This, of course, depends on the buyer and the observer's definition of 'reward'. Sometimes the act of having something nice on your shelf which gives you pleasure when you look at it is it's own reward. For some people that's action figures, for others it's decorative pieces, and so forth. Not everything has to be about money or returns on investment.
• The fact that some of these hobbies that cost so much are things that many people hope to eventually make money from (such as musical instruments, art supplies, etc). It's just hard not to feel bad when people hope to help support themselves with their music, art, etc but end up never breaking even, if they even make any money from it at all.
  • If it makes you feel better, they aren't doing it for the money.

• The fact that the examples in the original article are phrased as if this phenomenon is inevitable when one is involved in a particular hobby. Now, for some of them, like music, they actually are, so I'm not complaining about that, but for things like anime or Merchandise-Driven shows, where most of the Crack is Cheaper aspect comes from buying The Merch, have any of you ever considered that, you know, you don't have to buy it to enjoy the show? Technically, you don't even have to buy the DVDs most of the time because pretty much every TV series ever can be seen on video-hosting sites on the Internet. So why bother with wasting your money on things that are useless anyway, and will cause those unfamiliar with the fandom to think that you're an Otaku?
  • Dude...
  • For the same reason that my first thought during a power outage is not "Where did I put my flashlight?" but rather "Hey, my core drill lights up!" I imagine.
  • Because we're obsessed. We revel in our obsession. We can't have enough of it. Here, have a metaphor:
    • Two plates of the most delicious whatever you can think of is set in front of two dudes, both of whom love it equally. One will devour said food ravenously, likely asking for more (this is the Crack is Cheaper example). The other will enjoy it slowly, savoring each bite.
      • Obviously there's a bit of materialism playing into it but you get the general idea.
  • ok,i have to confirm if i read this right or not. was the guy who asked teh question seriously just endorse pirating of said material? if so, kindly get heck off tv tropes.
  • The Anime example comes from not so long ago when Anime was hard to get ahold of in the states and most series didn't get an official translation at all. So you ended up buying a lot of mysterious brown bags (to hide that you watched it) from strange men in alleys (anime pirates) and never having any money as a result. Thus the "crack is cheaper" punchline. Not sure why that was removed when the examples were cut.
  • Because, for the cost of some money and some waiting for the order to arrive (since I buy online), I can watch my officially-produced DVDs pretty much any time I choose — repeatedly, if I so desire — with no significant wait to load. Same with manga, although the loading time for each image probably isn't the same. This is especially true for folks like me who are stuck without broadband (YES, we exist, even in the 202nd decade A.D./C.E.) and for whom the wait — during which little else can be done on the internet without slowing both processes down — would be awful. If there weren't DVDs, I just wouldn't bother trying to watch.
• Why is this article based mostly around Anime Merch? there are numerous other examples-- a gun collector is clearly paying for the "legacy" of a Colt 1911 when there is a Glock 21 (firing the same caliber, with bigger capacity and more reliability) for half the price (~$1200 vs. ~$500). The same could be said for anyone paying for a $1500 Dessert Eagle when you could buy, for the same price, a Sig-Sauer P226 and various magazines and accessories, not to mention ammo, for it, with about 90 times more practicality. It's the "prestige" of having a shiny Hand Cannon.
  • Because most tropers are twenty-something nerds whose interests run along those lines. Its a symptom of authors only writing what they know, not of lack of examples existing.
  • Wait a minute, a Dessert Eagle?
  • Plus, this is a wiki; there's nothing stopping people adding other appropriate references, it's just that most of the people who have been contributing to this wiki so far have greater interest in merchandise around fictional properties than firearms.
  • It's also probably because this wiki as a whole is based around fiction and how it works, not firearms in real life. And for the most part, unless it's relating to their use in fiction, firearms in real life are more or less irrelevant when it comes to a huge percentage of the site, so most people when they're exploring and editing the site most likely simply aren't going to be thinking about them as much; even if they're a gun collector, when they're on this particular site they're more likely to be thinking about, say, their favourite TV program or anime than their gun collection. They very likely will, however, be thinking about various fictional properties, simply because they're on a site almost wholly devoted to breaking down, cataloguing and exploring fiction. So, when dealing with a trope about merchandising and collecting, people are probably more likely to produce examples about fictional properties than examples about firearms simply because the user is more likely to be thinking about fictional properties at the time and will more likely be able to come up with relevant examples about them than they are about firearms. This doesn't mean that the firearm examples might not be valid, just that it's not one that's going to readily come to mind for 99% of the users of the site 99% of the time.
• So now that Troper Tales has been moved offsite, where should the Real Life examples go?