If you're like me, you're in the market to buy yourself an island-sized boat, but you're not satisfied with the world's current inventory of formulaic, fuel-guzzling, cruise-ship-like mega-yachts. You might want to consider picking up a WHY 58x38, which offers 36,000 square feet of living space, a 120-foot "beach," three decks, and an 80-foot interior pool, topped by a vast solar panel array. It won't break your budget -- at a mere $151 million, it doesn't even crack the top four most expensive yachts in the world! [more inside]
posted by brain_drain on Nov 13, 2009 - 68 comments

Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has launched his 557-foot yacht, Eclipse.
posted by Joe Beese on Jun 16, 2009 - 75 comments

The Most Expensive Journal blogs about $4,200 computer keyboards, $2.7 million guitars, and $11 million watches.
posted by Joe Beese on May 2, 2009 - 44 comments

Coincidental to the publishing of her memoir, Candy Spelling - the widow of legendary television producer Aaron Spelling - is selling her Beverly Hills mansion for $150 million. (Daughter Tori Spelling is not expected to share in the proceeds.)
posted by Joe Beese on Mar 27, 2009 - 23 comments

Conspicuous Combustion: since May 2007, 292 luxury cars have been burned in Berlin. A simple Google Map at brennende-autos.de ("Burning Cars") charts the date, model, and location of each.
posted by anotherpanacea on Mar 2, 2009 - 66 comments

Luxury items, once made by European artisans, fetched a high price due to the craft of making the items by hand in small workshops. But now, although the prices are even more astronomical, the products themselves are really cheaply produced in Chinese factories, similar to those that make Gap socks, or baseball caps. Despite this, they continue to be worn as badges bought on thinning credit.
posted by four panels on Nov 24, 2007 - 65 comments

These days, you don't have to be rich to have all the right stuff, at least for the night. Going deep or flying high, these days you don't have to be rich, to pretend. Just a good credit card, and no thought for the future.
posted by nomisxid on Jul 19, 2007 - 8 comments

Do all your friends already own yachts? Perhaps you should consider getting a luxury submarine.
posted by pantsrobot on Jul 16, 2007 - 38 comments

Busted! In one of the biggest counterfeit busts in years, a 19-month investigation reached its climax on Tuesday as federal officials conducted early-morning raids throughout the NY metropolitan area, arresting 29 people, seizing more than $230 million in merchandise and ultimately dismantling three operations believed to have imported more than $700 million in fake products over the last 24 months.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Jun 27, 2007 - 147 comments

Bling h2o is the invention of Hollywood producer Kevin G. Boyd. It;s water in a frosted glass bottle with a cork and emblazoned with Swarovski crystals. At $24 a 750ml bottle, it's targeted at the super-luxury market. Is water from Tennessee really worth that much? Apparently, for some celebs, it is: "A lot of times when you have some water, people are like, 'You're drinking water?' Instead, you say, 'Naw man, I'm blinging." -- Jamie Foxx
posted by SansPoint on Mar 8, 2007 - 114 comments

"Please understand that this is an extremely special piece of furniture, of exceptional quality and design – it is not for everyone by a very very long way and can only be afforded by the lucky few of us with exceptional wealth." (Videos [1, 2, 3.])
posted by mr_crash_davis on Jan 6, 2007 - 58 comments

Le Grand Jardin. For only $65m dollars you can own a thousand year old villa along with the bastille that housed The Man in the Iron Mask.
posted by OpinioNate on Dec 27, 2005 - 10 comments

The world's most expensive restaurants, though even these eateries pale in comparison to the $37,000 lunch and the $10,000 Martini on the Rock, poured over a diamond. As a New York Times food critic defends pricey meals, it is clear that times have changed since another famous Times critic drew letters of condemnation from the Vatican for his expensive dinner in 1975, which itself was a pale shadow of the most legendary costly meal ever, that of Antony and Cleopatra.
posted by blahblahblah on Nov 16, 2005 - 38 comments

Hotel Godwin. Five-star luxury in Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat.
posted by matteo on Apr 29, 2005 - 7 comments

Getting Bored is Not Allowed at the Plaza Hotel, at least not according to its famous fictional resident, the exhausting, spoiled and infectiously ebullient Eloise. Sadly, though, today's news is anything but boring: the Plaza's new owners announced plans to close the iconic hotel for 18 months, and renovate it to create private condos -- throwing hundreds of employees out of work. It's been said that nothing unimportant ever happens at the Plaza: from its 1907 opening to Truman Capote's 1966 Black and White Ball, the Plaza has hosted literati, glitterati, rock stars, and royalty. It has graced the screen in movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Great Gatsby, making Hollywood history when it became the first fully on-location film shoot for North by Northwest. Ernest Hemingway told F. Scott Fitzgerald to give his liver to Princeton and his heart to the Plaza; Dorothy Parker got her pink slip from Vanity Fair there. Residents, at various times, included Frank Lloyd Wright, Cary Grant, and Judy Garland. Every President since Taft has stepped through its giant engraved revolving doors. Chef Boyardee of canned-spaghetti fame got his start in its kitchens. No New York tourist's rounds are complete without a bloody mary and some bluepoints at the Oyster Bar, a martini in the Oak Room bar, or tea in the Palm Court, and its French-chateau facade is a Central Park centerpiece. An employees' group and a supporting 'Friends of the Plaza' group have begun working to save the gracious place, with the goal of preserving not only the building and their jobs, but the very idea of the quintessential New York luxury hotel. Almost enough to make folks want the Donald back.
posted by Miko on Mar 14, 2005 - 15 comments

It takes more than 40 hours to cover Mr. Potato Head with more than 23,000 Swarovski® crystals in 14 different colors.
posted by ZippityBuddha on Oct 6, 2004 - 22 comments

A real Gucci bag out of your reach? Don´t worry, just compensate by naming your kid Gucci! Or Lexus, Evian, Enternity.... more brand baby names here.
posted by jennak on Dec 27, 2003 - 30 comments

An L.A. restaurateur just won a rare 2-pound mushroom in an annual "charity truffle auction" in Santa Monica. The winner paid $35,000 for the truffle after a fierce bidding war between a New York-based restaurant owner and Gunther IV, who placed his bids through a subsidiary due to the fact that he is, in fact, a dog. The canine heir to a vast German fortune lost the auction, and the honor of placing the highest recorded bid ever for a mushroom. Go ahead, read it again. This is all, mind you, before anyone actually got their hands on the giant 'shroom.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Nov 11, 2002 - 42 comments

The Brand And Burger Concerto: Luxury And Poverty For All In The U.S.A. Is luxury becoming democratized? Are ostentation and conspicuous consumption not only tolerated now but demanded of anyone but the poorest and least ambitious? As James B.Twitchell, whose well-off father drove a Plymouth, pithily puts it in this adaptation of his book Living It Up: Our Love Affair With Luxury, would you go to a doctor who drove a Plymouth? Well, he confesses he wouldn't. His essay is full of interesting (though perhaps too easily answered) questions. Are time and philantropy really the two remaining luxuries for the truly wealthy? And is it really true almost anyone can now be king for a day or an hour? [I'd add that what he says about the U.S. is even truer of present-day Western Europe, where the stigma previously attached to ostentation was much more powerful among the middle and upper classes than ever it was with rich American WASPs.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Aug 5, 2002 - 23 comments

Worldcom staffers to enjoy all expenses paid cruise. Isn't that nice! You've just contributed to the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history! What are you going to do now? Eat filet mignon and caviar!
posted by mark13 on Aug 3, 2002 - 12 comments

For The Discerning, Segway-Hating Man About Town: Hammacher-Schlemmer's fantastic Unexpected catalogue is full of classy transportation devices, among countless other fascinating products, with prices to suit all pockets. The Two-Person Submarine is a snip at $62,900 but claustrophic types are well catered for too. There's the Zem 4-person bicycle for $6,499.95; the One Person Helium Balloon for 20K, the popular All-Terrain 2-Person Hovercraft; the very European Vespa motorbike; the extremely enticing Danish Police Runabout at only $5,999.95; the sexy little Amphibious Car for $9,995.95 and many, many more outlandish and distinctive vehicles, from 7 Person tricycles(for you, 16K)to a wooden '54 wooden Mercedes 300SL. For more sedentary gentlefolk, there are Feline Drinking Fountains, Impervious Unbreakable Chip Trays and, for only 25 bucks, a Barbershop Hot Lather Machine. Fancy anything, Madam or Sir?
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 15, 2002 - 19 comments

oh glorious rapture, vertu has launched. (flash) the phones (called "instruments" in vertu-speak) are okay, but the real meat seems to be the one-touch vertu concierge: allows one to find theatre tickets, make reservations, or (assumably) order KFC. and, as promised, they are indeed clutch-the-pearls expensive: €6000 to €24000. golly.
posted by patricking on Mar 27, 2002 - 12 comments

Nike Air Jordan XVII priced at 200.00. Nike unviels this years prize court shoe that comes complete with metal carrying case and CD. But $200? Thats a wholelota Doritos yo!
posted by Brilliantcrank on Feb 4, 2002 - 54 comments

Best. Auction. Ever. Check out the details here. Basically, the Scottish whisky makers Chivas Regal is auctioning off 450 "lots" of some of the coolest and most unobtainable things ever: like an audience with the Pope, and performing with the Moscow State Circus. Which would you choose?(via fark)
posted by thewittyname on Sep 7, 2001 - 16 comments

Why bother with insurance forms--go to the Luxury Hospital. And they're helping Medicare costs stay low too!! (?)
posted by aflakete on Feb 4, 2001 - 4 comments

I got in!!! Remember that link to Quintessentially a few weeks back? Well, after countless hours of anxious waiting, I finally received my acceptance letter (the complete text of which is inside). At last, I can enjoy the finer things in life - it'll only cost me $600 a year .
posted by aladfar on Dec 14, 2000 - 9 comments