For reasons I really shouldn’t bore you with, I found myself watching television at some ungodly hour of the night last night. In between paid ads for Ron Popeil’s latest kitchen wonder, dubious-research supported medication like ‘Extenze’ or land-lots for sale somewhere in Arkansas I chanced upon ShopAtHome TV and their collector’s knife sets for sale.
Now I know we are a collectible nation: Beanie babies, Barbie Dolls, Comic books etc. but who needs a 129 piece knife set? I’m still slightly aghast at the fact that 7-11 believes its jumbo 54Oz. plastic cups are ‘collector’s items’ just because they’ve got a screen printed picture of different NASCAR drivers on them.
But back to the knife sets. So who exactly is buying knives en masse in the first place? I can see someone who is an avid hunter or outdoorsman picking up one, maybe two knives but do you need 128 of them? I was paying attention to the sales presenter and they were saying “[G]et this 128 piece set, you’ll save now and be giving gifts for years”. Who gives knives away as presents? And even if you do give them away as gifts, do you know 128 people that are lumbering around town saying “All I want for Christmas is a titanium-edged, faux-ivory handled Bowie knife?”
