White Lake gold and diamond USB thumbdrive

Filed under: "Products Designed to Test Your Willingness to Throw Money Away." This certainly isn't the first precious-metal-infused, diamond-encrusted gadget that we've seen, nor is it even the first iced n' gilded USB drive to pass through these pages, but when Luxist deems a product worthy of mention, well, we sit up and take note. The White Lake gold and diamond USB stick is a 14k or 18k gold storage device, available with or without diamonds, designed by Dutch goldsmith Erwin de Vroome. No word on storage capacities here, but when you're in the market for a $3500 vanity jump drive, we imagine that specs like memory, read/write speed, and U3-ability don't really factor into your purchasing decision all that much.

[Jeremy @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:20AM]

Their is one here as well, I think it is pretty cool all it needs is a platinum version.

http://sybarites.org/2006/03/03/gold-usb-memory-stick-accented-with-diamonds/

[Tommymang @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:38AM]

For the snobs ... ;-)

[SuperFly @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:44AM]

What a tragic waste of money. I can just imagine the person buying this in a jewellers, and after being told by the suave sales assistant that it holds a 'massive' 16MB. A look of amazement will appear on his face and he'll exclaim "My goodness Jeeves, that's over 11 floppy disks worth of storage for my word documents!!" PAH.

[PEZ @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:03AM]

An absolutely pointless product.

[E71 @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:27AM]

When there's people starving in the world, how lame is it some anus breath wastes $3500 on some usb thumb drive.

[DT @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:04AM]

#5: When people make comments like that, it shows how little they know about economics. What do you think happens to that $3500 when he spends it? It magically dissapears off the face of the earth? It goes to the jewelry designer, who pays a little to his precious metals dealer, and a little to his shopworkers, and a little to the electric utility, etc, etc. Each person who gets a little of that $3500 now has the option of spending it as well, and the chain starts over and over again. At every step of the way, taxes take a little snippet, the economic health of the government is enhanced, and social services (like feeding the hungry) are possible.

Would it be better for that $3500 to be sitting in that rich guy's bank account, doing nothing but earning him a little interest? (Yes, I know that if it's in the bank it can be loaned, but loans are a very "expensive" way of generating economic growth...spending is cheap)

So whenever you hear of some "anus breath" spending an obscene $15 million on a Gulfstream V, thank him for supporting all the people who work in that Gulfstream factory, the carbon fiber manufacturer (and the people who work there), the engine manufacturer (and the people who work there), the pilot he needs...you get my point.

[RM @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:27AM]

#7 is right. We've created an economic system where people are so rich that if they don't buy diamond encrusted thumbdrives, the poor don't eat.

[blore40 @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:36AM]

Finally, a device worthy of celebrity porn!

[Haasim @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:51AM]

I totally understand what DT is saying and I have used a similar argument in the past to rationalize teenagers (eg. Frankie Muniz) owning over a dozen sports cars. But really, the thing to do would be to donate that money to charities. And the fact that a millionare kid would rather buy cars (and possibly gold, diamond encrusted USB drives) is a sign of a seriously sick and uncaring society.

[DT @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:14AM]

#10 Haasim: We don't know for sure that celebs and multi-multi-mutli millionaire captains of industry aren't donating lots of money to charity. But we have to be real...in this society (which, as you said, has many ills), the choice is either sit on that money, or spend it. Giving it all away isn't going to happen. I give a full 10% of what I earn (after taxes) to charity. That's about as much as you can expect from someone (after a point the incentive to earn more is lost when you're giving it all away and there's no real reason to work harder). So if someone gives their fair share to charity, let them buy golden toilets for all I care. The money is much better spent than saved. (Which, as a side point, is why economies of spenders [ie, the US] are stronger than economies of savers [Japan])

[Peter Meyers @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:18AM]

You know, regardless of the fact that I think the product is obscene and wouldn't ever consider buying one, I do like sexy tech. Unfortunately, this isn't it. It looks like an out-of-style cigarette lighter. When will we learn that gadgets and bling don't mix.

[kenny @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:55AM]

you know, when i first saw it, i thought it looked like a nice lighter...

sad, i don't even smoke

[E71 @ Mar 3rd 2006 11:23AM]

DT, did you stop to consider as the money goes down the chain who gets their grubby hands on most of the money? It's certainly not the hard working factory workers (who earn low wages) but the fat cat executives who earn way more than they should.

So next time you see a rich guy buy that ultra unnecessary diamond-studded, gold-whatever know that the majority of its cost is going down to execs so they can send their kids to fancy schools and eat lobster every night.

[RS @ Mar 3rd 2006 11:52AM]

#14, you ignored DT's point. It's an alternative-based determination of degree of lameness. Either the 3500 is spent....or not. At least when it is spent others are helped, if not minutely. Sure, we'd all applaud fatcat who's buying the thumb drive far more if he gave the 3500 to charity, but like DT said, we have to be realistic.

[invaderluj @ Mar 3rd 2006 1:17PM]

Finally, the perfect complement to my 24k gold diamond encrusted computer case and solid platinum desk�

[Dane @ Mar 3rd 2006 3:38PM]

Lame.

[bob @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:14PM]

what a waste of money, and u would expect atleast 4 or 5 gigs

[Kyle @ Mar 14th 2006 6:32AM]

Nice design, but definatley a waste of money. I agree with DT. #13, even if the "fat cat executives" get the money, the point is that they will still spend that money somewhere else, passing the economic buck. Its rare that I run across a discussion on my two favorite topics.... tech and economics! :)

[roi @ Jun 26th 2007 10:32AM]

you can see a better one at e-jewel.net !