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Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

buyforlifeproducts.com

141–150 of 413 posts

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#141

I like the concept but since it's open to the public it will suffer from ignorance. For example, take the Salomon Quest boots that are listed. I own a pair of them. While they're good boots for the price they do not deserve an A- score. They are not BIFL. The soles are glued making them not resoleable. The sole on one of mine has started coming unglued too. The same can be said for the Victorinox Fibrox knife that ha…

I like the BIFL concept.

The problem is I find BIFL communities often can't distinguish between just more expensive, or rando add on features / durability ... from actual utility / quality.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#142
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good idea. Thanks for making that site. I am an asshole. I copy&pasted a fake 5 star review from Amazon, using a fake account. Do you have a plan to stop brands from doing this to you?

I think the ship has sailed on the trustworthiness of online reviews from rando people. Pretty much every store or review site that aggregates user-submitted content has done a poor job of removing spam and fake reviews, and people are finally starting to realize how worthless the ratings are. Even if someone does crack this nut and figures it out, they won't be believed because of how fake everything has been for th…

>I think the best thing online stores can do at this point is just nuke all user-submitted ratings and reviews. They're 99% garbage.

Yes, in order to re-start, but what then? The whole user reviews concept is bonkers, I would add that there are - besides "fake" reviews - "real" ones BUT written by clueless people (in good faith, but completely disconnected from an objective rating), and in this it is also way off the "5 star" rating where 4 stars are already "not so good".

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#143
post #22

Any thoughts for adding good TCO commercial grade things? As an example, after I got upset throwing away my 5th coffee maker in a row, I found myself a Bunn pourover coffee maker on craigslist. They are made for huge duty cycles and every part is hard wearing, replaceable and easy to get ahold of via commercial coffee distributors. Now every time I have something needing replacement I look at commercial options, but…

Coffee makers are some of the few devices where this makes sense. While commercial things can occasionally save money, they usually don't. Furthermore, the TCO calculation has to take into account what you would have done with the same amount of money. Let's pretend you buy a $2000 commercial grade widget instead of the $500 consumer grade widget. Over ten years of use, your commercial grade widget cost $100 in parts, running and maintenance costs, and depreciated to a value of $1800; during the same time, the consumer grade widget would have required about $50 in parts, running and maintenence but would have depreciated to a value of near zero.

So, you might think, your TCO of the commercial grade widget is $300 and the consumer grade is $550. Easy win for the commercial widget! But then factor in the potential uses of that extra $1500 upfront. Assuming you were earning an average of 3% on your cash during that period, you would have made $515 on 10 years' interest on $1500. Now, put your money into an index fund, and your returns would be (historically speaking) thousands of dollars.

(Before the inevitable comment, there are plenty of ways to earn a return on money that don't involve an index fund. Investing in your home, high interest savings accounts, Treasuries, paying down any debt, etc etc.)

So you can easily see that for most things - where maintenance is cheap - it's not worth it. This includes most white goods, almost all electronics, etc. Where maintenance is expensive, though, you can save a lot by buying commercial. The classical example is the Isuzu crew cab trucks: if you do need to haul a lot of stuff, they're far cheaper in every way than comparable consumer options.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#144

I like the concept but since it's open to the public it will suffer from ignorance. For example, take the Salomon Quest boots that are listed. I own a pair of them. While they're good boots for the price they do not deserve an A- score. They are not BIFL. The soles are glued making them not resoleable. The sole on one of mine has started coming unglued too. The same can be said for the Victorinox Fibrox knife that ha…

Yeah, BIFL takes a while to sink in as a concept for a good chunk of people. Lots still think it’s just buying a high quality product and don’t consider that it’s about lifetime longevity.

I think a lot of the BIFL folks out there find it really hard to distinguish between 'oh it has better materials' and 'lifetime longevity'. They're not the same... and they fall for a lot of luxury brands that just look nice / provide some sense of better workmanship / materials, but reality doesn't match up.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#145

If I could actually know "durability" before buying something I would love that info. It's just hard to really know that in advance, because products change so much. E.g., my vacuum cleaner is still working fine after 15 years. Great, but that just says that if you bought one of these vacuums 15 years ago it probably would have been a good idea. But it doesn't actually tell you much about what to buy today, because t…

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Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#147
I'm in support of things like this, but I also feel like maximizing durability is too simplistic.

When I'm looking to purchase something, the concerns are usually something like.

1. Minimizing the shared cost of throwing the thing away.

2. Maximizing durability.

3. Maximizing the actual efficacy of the thing.

4. Maximizing worker benefit - economical and political.

5. Minimizing animal suffering.

Not everyone is going to have the same mix of goals or order of goals and many have just one overriding goal: Minimizing up-front consumer cost.

So, for example, a "smart-fiber" shirt might be far more durable than a 100% cotton shirt, the throw-away cost is much higher so I'll pass. I'm not saying your site should account for this, but things are complicated, especially among conscious consumers which is an increasingly niche market anyway due to both preference and circumstance.

Edit: Oh I should also add somewhere in there

#. Maximizing ease of repair/cleaning.

eg. MacBook vs. Pinebook or Carpet vs. Hardwood etc.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#148
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The batteries absolutely fail before the tools do. As long as you stick to a range (for me, Makita Lxt) you’ll just need a few working batteries between all your tools as a diyer. At least that’s what I’ve found. They slowly fall apart, but you still get fairly good value from them. I started “collecting” tools a year ago and my first batteries are starting to go now. They’re actually still plenty good enough good en…

I mostly stick with corded tools. Over the past 17 years I've managed to collect: - A Milwaukee right angle drill. I don't use it much, but when I need it, it's invaluable - A Porter Cable circular saw. I get a bit more use out of this. Circular saws are so versatile. - A hand-held power planer. I used this a lot fitting doors to irregular door jams. I've loaned it out quite a bit too. Like the right angle drill, I d…

I used to have a cordless Craftsman drill/light set that I loved, then the batteries inevitably died. I shrugged off cordless tools for years, but recently went back. With Li-ions, it seems that the battery packs should be easily rebuildable.

I've got too many corded tools, so my decision isn't generally choosing between cordless or corded, but rather deciding whether adding a cordless version will help me. My metric is that cordless tools are useful for short jobs where reducing the setup time helps (eg pick up a driver and use it). Corded tools take less maintenance and are adequate for jobs where you're already setting up a work area... which is most things involving a jigsaw. Not having to manage the cord during long cuts would be nice, but doesn't seem like it would make any task significantly easier. Then again if I didn't already have 2+ jigsaws I'd probably feel different.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#149

A few months ago, I began developing the Buy For Life platform. It started as a simple list where people could add brands that manufacture durable products. It now evolved into a full platform with aggregated product reviews from all over the web, discussions, and various metrics to calculate a score for each brand and product. I want to help people finding the most durable and sustainable products in the world. It s…

I don't think the comparison to Rotten Tomatoes makes sense because you aren't aggregating professional reviews of these products. To me it is just another product review site tackling a niche. But the idea of tracking cost per month is very intriguing (a measure of TCO, which you may want to tackle as well, because for some products that may include electricity usage, upkeep, etc). I think it is something that can t…

I agree with you. It's more like metacritics than rotten-tomatoes

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#150
post #125

A few months ago, I began developing the Buy For Life platform. It started as a simple list where people could add brands that manufacture durable products. It now evolved into a full platform with aggregated product reviews from all over the web, discussions, and various metrics to calculate a score for each brand and product. I want to help people finding the most durable and sustainable products in the world. It s…

Great idea! List of more durable items: Stainless steel frying pan instead of nonstick frying pans where the non stick coating wears off. Cast iron even better. Plain bicycle without electric parts easier to recycle metal. Durable quality Screens drivers. Non electric espresso maker. Bailetto. Corded headphones no batteries that wear out. Changable parts. No wireless protocol that go obsolete. LifePo4 lithium iron ba…

> Stainless steel frying pan instead of nonstick frying pans where the non stick coating wears off. Cast iron even better.

They're called nonstick for a reason; stainless steel does not compare. You'll have more sticking problems cooking eggs on a steel pan drowning in butter than on a (new) nonstick pan with minimal grease.

I do own an 18th-century cast iron pan and it has pretty good seasoning. I use it for many things, almost daily, but I'm still glad I own nonstick pans too.

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