Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not understand the Pandora obsession?

235 replies

MycatsaPirate · 27/11/2017 20:23

Just that really!

A neighbour of ours is obsessed with it, every Christmas/birthday/mother's day she is constantly tagging her husband on fb with endless Pandora ads saying 'hint hint hubby!'. She has loads of it. And so does one of my DSD's.

Why spend so much money on stuff that so many other people are also wearing?

Each to their own but I don't get it. And surely it will be worth nothing in a few years time?

I'm not overly bothered about jewellery, I wear my engagement ring (which was made specifically for me) and a pair of pretty plain white gold earrings every day .

Would just love to know why Pandora is so popular? And why some people want the entire collection?

OP posts:
IWannaSeeHowItEnds · 28/11/2017 08:08

People buy radley bags because they are good quality for the money. In recent years they have made some nice designs. I bought a pocket one years ago, cut the dangly dog off and gave it to dd to play with - that bag has been bashed about to buggery but still looks nearly new.

I don't get Pandora bracelets, they are overpriced and have no intrinsic value, which is my main issue with it. Some of their stuff is pretty though. Okay, it's not unique, but then neither are the millions of solitaire engagement rings sold on the high street every year or any other jewellery not specifically designed for an individual.

Valerrie · 28/11/2017 08:09

Typical Mumsnet arseholes again, judging people for what they do, or what they don't do.

I have a Pandora bracelet with some charms that were all bought to mean something special. I couldn't give a flying fuck if it's tacky or cheap. I like it and that's all that matters. They're very good quality, I wear mine every day and it still looks brand new.

If wearing a particular metal item on my wrist makes me automatically "unsophisticated" in your eyes, you need to take a good look at yourself, as you have no idea about me at all, just from looking at my arm.

Oh, I'm a "grown woman" and a professional too. Guess what? My Pandora bracelet doesn't make me less mature or less able to do my job well.

If you judge people for their taste in jewellery, clothes, bags etc. What else do you judge them for?

So much for women lifting each other up and empowering each other. Nah, let's bitch and judge on Mumsnet instead. Absolutely pathetic.

Phalenopsisgirl · 28/11/2017 08:10

I also have a friend who has some ‘serious jewellry’ And generally gets at least 50k spent on her annually. One piece that stood out was a 200k item that was an anniversary gift (she didn’t tell me, I saw the same piece in de beers where she got it from) despite this, she always has her pandora bracelet on when out and about in the day for the same reason as me, the kids gave them to her and they chose all the charms and therefore it means something to her.

Happyhippy45 · 28/11/2017 08:12

10 years or more ago Pandora was very popular with tweets/teenagers in the USA. I wouldn't buy one for myself or anyone else but they are quite cute. I found the charms etc to be overpriced for the demographic it's most popular with.......drove me nuts watching my dd blow all her money on charms.
I'm stuck in the mindset that they're not really for adults to wear.

Gazelda · 28/11/2017 08:14

I'm wearing my pandora bracelet today, as a 'fingers up' to all posters who have sneered and judged them and people who wear them.

RJnomore1 · 28/11/2017 08:14

Ill be honest and say I always thought it was mostly men who bought pandora?

I like the concept, but I prefer a traditional charm bracelet. In fact they must be due a comeback soon.

I also don't understand the desire to be like everyone else and have the same things but as people ironically keep pointing out we are all different!

TheFirstMrsDV · 28/11/2017 08:15

I don't believe for one second that anyone on this thread 'doesn't get' why some people like collecting charms.

Why not just say 'AIBU to think I have much better taste than everyone who isn't like me?'

I don't have pandora so no axe to grind personally. I have an old fashioned charm bracelet I like to add to. They were the height of chav when I was growing up. They were meant to be a funeral fund/show of wealth and therefore hideously vulgar to the middle classes.

Nothing really changes does it?

fustercluckery · 28/11/2017 08:17

It's the go-to present for the partner with no imagination.
My daughter went through a stage of liking the rings when she was about 14, and she still likes the ones she got then, even though she wouldn't buy them now at 19. She requested a silver and garnet Great Frog ring for her 18th and it's beautiful.

JackieMac77 · 28/11/2017 08:24

The gift "collecting" thing is nothing new: I remember as a child buying my nanna a piece of a particular Royal-summat-or-other china pattern each Christmas, and all these fussy trinkets (pill boxes, bells, miniature shoes ffs) being proudly displayed on her reproduction welsh dresser. It's harmless and gives people pleasure.

Theimpossiblegirl · 28/11/2017 08:26

I love my bracelet that has been added to over the years by my children. The earrings are the only ones I've found that I can wear day in day out without getting sore ears.

Each to their own but the sneeriness of people calling it shit and cheap and tacky is just snobbery.

ShotsFired · 28/11/2017 08:26

The weird thing I find is how women imbue such deep meaning into them, as if they were hand-made just for them by a mute hermit seer on a faraway hillside. Not just churned out by the thousand in some (probably) foreign factory.

No love, the fact you got a fairy/dog/button charm does not mean your great-great grandmother who might have liked fairies/dogs/buttons reached out from beyond the grave and subliminally influenced the purchaser to pick that exact one off the rack. It’s more likely that the shop was hot and crowded, they were fed up of shopping and it was the first faintly decent thing they saw in budget.

QueenOfAllISurvey · 28/11/2017 08:28

The most hilarious thing is when they put barriers up outside and make people queue up to get inside at Christmas.

Can't imagine who would queue up in the street for a charm!

RJnomore1 · 28/11/2017 08:31

Yes I think it's the barriers and the wiring that make me a bit Hmm.

About the company not the wearers though. It's like they're trying to create an air of exclusivity and desirability about a mass produced item.

Next do the same thing, don't like them either.

whiskyowl · 28/11/2017 08:32

"The weird thing I find is how women imbue such deep meaning into them, as if they were hand-made just for them by a mute hermit seer on a faraway hillside. Not just churned out by the thousand in some (probably) foreign factory."

Grin

So Pandora have basically managed to convert the good old-fashioned, virtually free child-made necklace formed of pasta/giant chunky wooden beads into a commodity with marketable value? Sounds plausible.

Hulababy · 28/11/2017 08:33

But that's why I buy my own and yes, they aren't unique and they are relatively cheap ime, but I choose my own and usually get 'exclusive to' charms for that place or region.

I don't buy them for a resale value. They are the same, for me, as other souvenirs of a location or holiday we've been on. These are just a smaller, easy to store way.

And I already have the more expensive more limited and more likely to retain, or even increase, in value jewellery. Though even then it's unusual for it to be totally unique unless you have them designed and made yourself. I do have a totally unique and made for me ring too. They all have their place in my opinion.

However the derision and snobbery in here is ridiculous. Some people really need to take a look at themselves. 🙄 But then for some people trying to drag other people's decisions down and the oneupmanship I what they like. So, they'll never change.

AnnabellaH · 28/11/2017 08:35

Is Pandora still a thing?! Confused

sycamore54321 · 28/11/2017 08:40

I'm not a fan but have no problems at all with those who do like them. I just logged in to comment on this post near the start of the thread which made me laugh and laugh. I'm not sure the way I'm reading it is the way the poster intended Smile

"I don't like obvious make-up, short skirts, low-cut tops, shirts, tight dresses, or anything which makes me look like my mother"

specialsubject · 28/11/2017 08:57

All jewellery is virtually worthless second hand unless a serious rock.

Like it? Enjoy? But this kind of thing is why a present ceasefire is such a good idea.

Pedallleur · 28/11/2017 09:01

It's been cleverly rebranded/moved upmarket. years ago it was something you could only get in airports but then some ads in glossy mags and some slick marketing made it seem like you were buying something from Cartier or Garrards. It's all made in Thailand (nothing wrong with that) but the profit is good. Interesting read on Wiki

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(jewelry)

LunasSpectreSpecs · 28/11/2017 09:05

Aren't Chlamydia bracelets the same, just cheaper?

MadForlt · 28/11/2017 09:19

I don't get it either.

And I don't get troll beads. To me they look the same, yet so many people say they prefer one to the other.

I can kinda get that some people get charms as mementos/reminders and that's kinda sweet. But it's a very expensive bracelet once you buy all the charms, and you can get much more interesting jewellery for much less.

My favourite bracelet, that nearly everyone comments on, cost £60. I've never seen anyone else wear one like it (although obviously there must be!).

But each to their own. And, as has been mentioned, it makes gift buying easy.

strugglingtodomybest · 28/11/2017 09:21

This thread is making me wish I did like it. I love the idea of having a charm bracelet that the children add to, that's such a great keepsake.

But I don't like fussy jewellery so the reality is that I'd probably find wearing it a pita.

I don't have a problem with other people liking it and wearing it, but I do, like the op, struggle to understand the people who go on about it as if it were something inherently special rather than just special to them, iyswim?

ZigZagandDustin · 28/11/2017 09:23

You don't have to understand it but making a post about it simply to sneer at people who do like it is a bit of a waste of energy, no?

bunbon · 28/11/2017 09:48

I'm not keen on Pandora, but I don't really pay much mind what other people want to spend their money on. Surely everyone has a fondness for something a bit popular!

endehors · 28/11/2017 09:52

I also have a friend who has some ‘serious jewellry’ And generally gets at least 50k spent on her annually. One piece that stood out was a 200k item that was an anniversary gift (she didn’t tell me, I saw the same piece in de beers where she got it from) despite this, she always has her pandora bracelet on when out and about in the day for the same reason as me, the kids gave them to her and they chose all the charms and therefore it means something to her.

Of course.