PSA: Spent $80 on a fancy dice tray for D&D and it warped in two weeks.

My group laughed when I showed up with a cheap plastic tray from the dollar store instead and it's held up better for a whole year, so why do we keep buying the overpriced stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

miller.avery29d ago

Read an article about this exact thing a while back. It talked about how a lot of these "artisan" makers are just buying bulk blanks from the same factories as the cheap stuff, then putting a better finish or logo on them. The problem is the base materials are actually thinner or lower quality than the mass produced stuff because they cut corners to keep their profit margins up. That dollar store tray is probably made from a harder, more stable plastic blend meant to last, while the fancy one used a softer material that looked nicer but couldn't handle humidity or temperature changes. It really does feel like we're paying for the story behind the product, not the product itself most of the time.

spencer_moore3929d ago

Wait, you mean the story is what we're actually buying? Huh, that kinda bums me out.

tyler17629d ago

Why is it always the stuff that's supposed to be "premium" that falls apart the fastest? I swear this applies to everything now, not just dice trays. My buddy bought a $60 "artisan" water bottle that dented the first week, but my old Nalgene from college has been dropped down stairs and still looks new. It's like companies figured out we'll pay more for stuff that looks good in a photo, even if it's actually made worse than the cheap version.