This handbag costs as much as a house - AIBU to think it's hideous?

[ScreamingValenta]

This handbag has just sold for £162,500

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44463624

Why? What's nice about it? Gold-coloured crocodile skin? It doesn't even appear to be a convenient size or comfortable to carry.

Handbag experts - What am I missing here?

Also, yes I’m veggie.

@ShinyShooney I believe the methods used to kill crocodiles are widely acknowledge to be very inhumane.

But yes, I am a veggie.

Nile crocodiles are not an endangered species. Most things living near them are.

Porr old croc. Could get a nice house for that money here.
Presume people who buy these kind of bags don't end up with sticky wrappers and crap at the bottom of their bags.

"Presume people who buy these kind of bags don't end up with sticky wrappers and crap at the bottom of their bags."

I bet they do!

I don't have any experience of buying haute couture, but I have to say that when I first bought a designer dress, I was deeply disappointed that it wasn't all that different from buying a high street number. I don't know what I expected - an hallelujah chorus from an angelic host when I tried it on, perhaps - but it definitely wasn't the transformational moment I had anticipated. The dress was just fabric, the same as the cheaper ones from the high street, and I didn't suddenly lose a stone or gain 5 inches of leggy height.

I only like bags that have a shoulder strap!

I thought that Jane Birkin had asked for the not to be called Birkins anyore?

Imagine what you could do in the world with £160,000. How many families you could help with respite care, how many people you could get off the streets, how much land you could buy and donate to a wildlife trust

While it’s an extortionate amount to spend on a bag, £160k isn’t that much for all these examples - it really wouldn’t go that far

The person who bought this has spent the equivalent of your average joe buying a new Radley bag.

There are bigger things to get worked up over, I have a handbag collection as an investment. A bag I bought for £450 in 2012 is now worth around £800. Show me an investment portfolio with that kind of return!

Sickening. Bread lines are growing and some can afford to carry £162000 on their wrist.

Is the 18 carat gold diamond encrusted lock there to stop people from stealing your purse with your last £50 in?

A bag I bought for £450 in 2012 is now worth around £800.

Worth £800 Preowned? Or new?

Expensive handbags are vile. Expensive anything really in the same category - shoes, watches, clothes. It seems that the more expensive they are, the more trashy they look.

Who cares if your handbag is "Birkin" or Primark. It does the same job. All this fuss about shoes having red soles. Trashy.

I feel sick looking at it - poor crocs. :( I like designer bags but wouldn’t pay that much for one. The Birken as well as the Kelly do nothing for me personally, I find them to be “old lady.”

Its a birkin, and its also the diamonds that hold the bulk of the price. Do the people who who say its horrible also not have anything made of leather? I would never pay that for a bag - but people have alot more money and the those that have bags like this, its more a collectors item really - look at its resale value. Personally i would be too scared to use it outside for fear of being robbed! Some people like fast cars, some like big houses, some like expensive bags. Different strokes.

Sickening. Bread lines are growing and some can afford to carry £162000 on their wrist.

It seems to be the same old comment that gets thrown out there whenever the rich buy something expensive. It’s a bit ridiculous to expect the rich to shop at Poundland and eat at Mcdonalds. The rich give to charity. They contribute much more than the non-rich do. So they have done their bit.

Expensive handbags are vile. Expensive anything really in the same category - shoes, watches, clothes. It seems that the more expensive they are, the more trashy they look.

A lot of people buy expensive in the hopes they are buying quality and well made, lasting items. I disagree, it looks trashy.

I’m shocked as I actually quite like it! It would go with some gold shoes I own (£30 in Dune sale)
I wouldn’t care if it was a look a like with fake crocodile though
Most I’ve ever paid for a bag was £250 and I still love it and use it regularly - it’s a grey jaeger mock croc bag

It will probably be kept in a glass display cupboard along with a collection. People that buy these have more money than sense, and not consideration for living creatures. It is a statement, although what is says about them is not what they think it does, however being self centred would mean that they don't give a shit.

It looks ok but I'd rather see it on the crocodile

BestBefore
I wondered what you wondered about in your post.... why 'designer' ( everything has a designer ) things cost so much.
Who decides the price and why people are willing to pay exorbitant prices.
Take for example Meghan Markle's wedding dress. A very nice simple dress in a very plain material with no embellishments ( apart from her diamond jewellery ). Yet it was £££££.
Why ?
The engagement photo dress was also off the scale price wise. Granted there was more detail, fancier material etc.
But 5 and 6 figures sums of money for dresses.
I really don't get it.
I think it's a combination of 'emperors new clothes' and 'a fool and their money are easily parted '.
I would really love to know who/ what makes the decision re pricing structure.

I hate the bag though, it's not to my taste , even if it was £20 I wouldn't buy it.
I would like a Chanel or three.

Handbags just aren’t my thing and I never really ‘get’ them. I quite like the Birkin shape, though. I’m not into shoes either. It’s going to be a nightmare when I’m filthy rich - what will I do with my cash?

I just can't even get my head around having that amount of money to spend on a bag. Something that isn't essential or even particularly decorative.

Each to their own, I suppose. I just keep my phone and keys in my pocket (I don't like handbags, they get in the way!)

Looks like something you’d find in Dewsbury market tbh . Grim.

I don’t like it, it looks vulgar, tacky and cheap to me. I like diamonds in jewellery, not on a bag! I do like the Chanel Russian doll bag which was in the same sale, but that’s because I collect nesting dolls.

I wish I could buy a house for £160k.

That is an obscene amount of money to spend on a bag!

It is hideously ugly, totally agree with everyone there. My last bag cost £16 from Sainsbury's

£20 is my absolute limit to spend on a bag, and even then that's expensive for me so I'd have to really, really love it to spend that much.

I usually buy cheap and cheerful from Primark.