Wherein I attempt to justify something ridiculous

I made it about 25 years on this planet before I really had any first hand interaction with the "designer" world. My then-significant other was into nice bags of varying brands, but more interestingly, she had an old (and real) Louis Vuitton handbag. It was a one of their signature medium-sized handbags in classic monogram print; it had been a gift well over 10-15 years prior.

One day -- at her insistence, because I was a hater at that point -- I took a closer look at that bag and was honestly impressed by the quality of it. It may have just been a bag to tote around junk and had spent a significant amount of time sitting on public transit seats, but you could tell some serious craftsmanship had gone into the design and creation of the bag. Kinda like when you got your hands on a unibody Macbook and just thought, "This feels like quality."

The leather had aged very nicely -- and once you have a general idea of what quality, aged leather looks like, it definitely caught your eye -- but most importantly it was in 8.5-9/10 condition cosmetically, and 10/10 condition functionally. It had a few scuffs on the highest impact areas, but overall it was kind of amazing at how well it had tolerated a decade or two of abuse and minimal care.

Shortly after, she started dragging me into various designer stores and we'd have fun browsing around but very rarely bought anything, and almost always something quite small, but then a certain line leather used in a lot of men's stuff at Louis Vuitton really started to grab my attention. I was really impressed at the texture, color, stitching, and quality of anything in their "Utah leather" collection -- which varied from wallets to $3,000 messenger bags. Something about it really appealed to me and I found myself wanting some of it, but just laughing at the ridiculous prices.

But one thing was for sure: I definitely need a new wallet. My then-current one had lived its 7-10 year life of abuse and was finally falling apart. It was the 4th or 5th wallet I had owned, and the 4th or 5th to fall apart. All of my previous wallets were $5-$20 but the one that needed replaced was a nicer $40 one from a well known brand. And it was in shambles. I went to Nordstrom and looked at all their wallets, I went to Coach and Gucci and a few others I forget the names of to look at nicer ones, but nothing came close to matching the appeal of something from LV's Utah leather collection.

Nothing came close to matching LV's ridiculous prices either. But I did it. Under a haze of rap music and Thai food, I wandered into the LV store literally across the street from where I was working at the time and just blindly bought the one I knew I wanted. It was so ridiculously expensive, but it was kinda fun. I looked at all of their wallets and landed on one of the most expensive ones: a $740 + tax "compact wallet" in "coffee" color.

Louis Vuitton has even nicer packaging than Apple!

Guess how long it took for my nerd friends to start making fun of me? It was pretty much immediate. But I stood by one thing: as long as I didn't screw up, this should be the last wallet I ever buy in my entire life. I won't quite break even unless I live to be like 110, but at least it will become less ridiculous with time. As I was reminded during Thanksgiving, not enough time has elapsed yet, and people still find this purchase ridiculous.

When we saw Inception, like 3 people turned to me after the line, "Here's my wallet, there's $500 in there, and the wallet is worth more than that," said by the rich guy. I gave them the death stare back. I am genuinely embarrassed when people call attention to this purchase around other people who don't really know me because, I imagine, a lot of incorrect things are inferred about a guy who would spend that much on something like that.

Of course, the handful of people I know that have a taste for the designer world were "golf clap" level happy for me. One of the things I liked the most about it was, at the end of the day, it looked like a normal wallet. I see the occasional monogram or other well-known printed wallet from a designer in the wild and, first, it's hard to tell if they are fake or not without taking a close look (unlike most bags, which are obvious from a mile away), but second I was not buying a logo; I was buying an extremely high quality product (rationalization is a very important life skill).

In the 3 years since buying it, not a single person has noticed it and said anything unsolicited. The only time it has come up has been when the conversation has turned on me and it's time to make fun of my ridiculously expensive wallet. Most of the time, I don't even bother to defend myself anymore. (It's all in good fun).

3 years of being sat on by me daily later

Thankfully for my wallet -- literally and figuratively -- LV has lived up to my expectations regarding quality (so far). Every few months I clean it off and recently I took a close look at it: not a single stitch is even blemished, let alone damaged or broken. Other than one very small scuffed area on a high impact corner, a couple tiny marks I've made on it, and some minor wear caused by plastic cards that can't really be avoided (I bought it to use it and do almost every day), it is in perfect condition. I'd give it 9-9.5/10 cosmetically, and 10/10 functionally -- after 3 years of abuse by me, and being sat on. A lot.

Try to find something wrong! Other than the price tag

The only way I can buy any ground with haters regarding my wallet is when I compare it to Apple stuff (which can totally backfire, of course), some of which just "feels" right the second you pick it up, or, say, Intel SSDs, which are "cool" to hold, especially in quantity, because they "feel" kinda futuristic (probably because of how light they are). Or probably the same feeling car people get when they sit in certain cars ranging from Miatas to 30 years worth of M5s to the ridiculous SL65s (Steve Jobs -- somewhat known for his pickiness -- drove a SL55 for years).

There is probably some corner of the academic and corporate world that is dedicated to studying this feeling and people out there who can drop some serious Knowledge and Words about the topic, but that person is not me.

If a stitch seems misaligned or not the right size, it's probably functional; this is the highest use area of the wallet

I am not a rich person, nor did I buy a logo (I think), nor do I think I'm awesome because I own some material good, nor have I ever shown it to anyone without them wanting to see it for some reason (okay, I showed it off to my sister unsolicited, I admit it). Usually it comes up because someone witnesses some haters who already know about it hating. Part of the disconnect that happens with the haters of "the $800 wallet" is that by caring less about money -- like I like to think I do, but am not sure about overall -- and material things in general (ditto), it becomes easier to make relatively poor financial decisions (but nothing that is going to send you to bankruptcy court at the end of the month).

If I lost the thing, I'd be sad, but I might buy another one (probably/maybe not). If it got stolen, I may replace it via insurance (I've asked and it's covered). If a pet ate it, I'd probably be upset for about 5 seconds, but at the end of the day it's just a wallet, and it's not the end of the world; plus, hopefully it's a rich friend's pet and we find ourselves at LV the next day; perhaps in Vegas as well. I do my best to take care of it and keep it out of harm's way, but I definitely bought it to use it.

And by "haters", I usually mean friends. Like I said, its all in good fun. If you haven't done anything stupid with a credit card in your life, you haven't lived at all.

Over the years I have seen plenty of 10 year old wallets that cost $20 and are still in good condition (but not as nice as this one will be! and arguably lower-abuse -- like carried in backpacks or bags instead of back-pocket) and I respect that some people just can't process spending that much money on anything like this, but hey, I'd do it again, and hopefully you understand at least a little bit of why this random guy on the internet did.

While researching this post I learned the wallet I bought has gone up in price by approximately $100 since I bought it.