Is fragrance collecting an expensive waste of money?

First of all, fragrances are, in fact, a luxury. We could all live perfectly normal functional (albeit more dull) lives without them, but they are luxuries.

Those who think fragrances are expensive haven’t ever looked into upgrading cars, computer upgrading, trading cards, gun-owning, motorcycling, etc. And fragrances almost always have guaranteed scarcity, which means 1ml of anything will be worth the same in 10 years as it is now (if not more due to reformulation). How many hobbies can you name where value is retained? Even silver and gold have spikes every now and then.

But I look at some of the same people who would criticize someone for spending $1000 on 20 fragrances, and see that, they in a sense, “waste money” too.

There are plenty of people who celebrate Easter and Christmas with $200 family dinners at fancy restaurants. And it all food decomposes into the same thing in the end.

There are people who spend $1000 on a one-week cruise or vacation (hell, there are people who spend $3000+ on that). And that’s perfectly acceptable. But when you buy a couple of fragrances, that’s somehow waste of money.

Why would I spend $1000 on something that will only last a week? One week later you’ll be back at work and that money would have practically vanished. Me, I’ll be able to enjoy what I purchased for 5-10 years.

And that’s the value that fragrances have. They last 5-10 years (at the very least) if you take care of them. And if I wanted, at any time, I could sell my entire collection for almost all that I paid for it.

There isn’t a whole lot that you can purchase which will still remain usable or relevant in 10 years.

The point is no luxury is really better than any other luxury. All that matters is that you are happy. If you have the money, spend it on what you enjoy. If you don’t, then be more conservative.

But you can’t compare the cost of a fragrance to the cost of a vacation, they work on very different levels. Apples and Oranges.

I have trips that stand in my memory as very significant, I wouldn’t trade them for anything still, even though they are over. I don’t want that money back, it wasn’t a waste.

But it is a luxury, no one needs even one bottle. The only value will be to yourself, as with any hobby. Other people can’t put a value on someone else’s interests. My dad asks me all the time “are you still wasting money on all that perfume?” I have to politely say “no, I’ve never wasted any money on any of my fragrances.” I can’t counter him with anything though, they aren’t the collecting type. Unless you count my Dad’s continued desire to take college classes even though he’s retired now, he collects knowledge. I would call that a waste of time, but that’s for myself, not him.

One thing is certain, depending on how deep you get into fragrance collection, it has the option of being very VERY expensive.

But, you can’t put a price on memories. Especially holidays.