[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[Tyneras]

Video games, alternate worlds with alternate franchises. Use your homeline wealth to bribe, buy and bully the locals into adopting console/programming standards that are compatible with yours and you get a steady stream of games you don't have to pay a single programmer or artist for!

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Another not-especially exotic commodity that would be distinctly different between worlds is wine.

Great call! Smuggling booze, when do they meet the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh angry at the competition?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

A use for the trained linguist-anthropologist even in games where language fluency isn't normally cared about. Every PC is fluent, but not culturally or accent free fluent.

You commit an egregious taboo based around a myth you were trying to learn more about. Death defying comedy right there.

Your insight is clear and your understanding deep.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Another not-especially exotic commodity that would be distinctly different between worlds is wine.

I think wine is in the same general situation as art.

Connoisseurs who will pay you $1000 for an especially nice tasting wine are still out there, though the supply is up so they may not pay as much, but the speculators who would have once paid millions for the world's last case of something with no intention of ever reducing its value by opening it, let alone actually drinking one of the bottles, are gone with the disappearance of that uniqueness price premium.

[Drifter]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I think wine is in the same general situation as art.

Connoisseurs who will pay you $1000 for an especially nice tasting wine are still out there, though the supply is up so they may not pay as much, but the speculators who would have once paid millions for the world's last case of something with no intention of ever reducing its value by opening it, let alone actually drinking one of the bottles, are gone with the disappearance of that uniqueness price premium.

I don't agree with this premise. I think the Homeline public would not view alternate timeline products as "duplicates", or somehow non-genuine. Instead I think they would see them as imports, some carrying more cultural importance than Homeline products, carrying a matching price-tag.

For example, the most expensive bottle of champagne is Heidseick Gout Americain 1907, known as "Shipwreck". 2,000 bottles were salvaged from bottom of the Gulf of Finland, from a freighter, bound for Tsarist Russia, sunk by German subs in 1916. One bottle sold for $275,000.

The logic behind that pricing, aside from the fact it is a good drink, is the uniqueness of its total circumstance. Tsarist Russian, German subs, WWI, it was the same one as served aboard the Titanic - all these factors lead to a rarity that is not diminished by other timelines.

First off - which other timeline(s) would have this bottle? It would have to be one that diverged after 1916. An echo is out - you'd be changing history to some extent if you just snuck in and grabbed those bottles. Maybe not a lot, but do you want to take that chance? The Patrol would likely take a dim view of someone poaching an echo, and so the price of any bottle from there would just go up.
Is it from a Hell world? It has to be safe to import from, so Infinity and/or the UN and national governments would have import inspections and certifications in place for that sort of thing. If it is safe, there is the added panache of such a bottle coming from a Hell World. Heidseick "Hell World" has the same purchase logic as "Shipwreck", if not more so. AND if the purchase helps fund refugee services, all the better; the buyer is not only getting a rare and cool bottle, but he is also helping the needy - a win-win. Those Hell World services (resettlement, medical, archival) have to get funding from somewhere.
Is it from a divergence after 1916? If not a Hell World then very likely the Homeliners are going to have to pay for the bottles. They might sneak to the shipwreck sight and loot it, but that is legally questionable. And that adds to the price of the bottle once it gets to Homeline. If legally purchased, say from very close parallel, it would still cost a heck of a lot to get, then transport to Homeline and marketing costs, you wouldn't really add anything to the panache or hype of the item. So you might get the same price as a Homeline bottle, but you wouldn't make a profit.

None of this effects the logic of the price placed on the Homeline bottles. There are still only 2,000 of those bottles and there won't be any more. You might ship them in from a world killed by atomic wars, but those are different bottles, with different circumstances. The imports might go for less, but I doubt that. For $275k, you are not buying a bottle for its taste.

Things like artwork, literature and movies, from divergent timelines, could be even pricier than the Homeline version. Say, a version of the Maltese Falcon with a storyline not hacked apart by censors, Shakespeare plays not written in Homeline history, golden jewelry from Rome-3 and Ezcalli. All would have markets in Homeline, not only for the "weirdness factor" but also from serious collectors comparing and contrasting works by known Homeline artists with their counterparts.

[Astromancer]

Drifter has the point here. Many fine works of art and luxury items would retain or gain value. Take alternate versions of Hollywood films. Media studies types would have a ball. New films with stars like Bogart, Mitchum, Kathrine or Audrey Hepburn, Monroe, Dean, ect, would both be valueable in and of themselves and would make the Homeline works of these performers more interesting to fans.

On a closer level, picture the parallel where, instead of killing a profitable line, the studio leaves Eden Studio with BtVS and Angel and both Elditch Skies and Ghosts of Albion launch well and profitablly. All of Eden Studio's products would sell better on this parallel. When these products got back to Homeline, they'd create more of a demand for Homeline's Eden Studio's product.

Just think what it would do to Steve Jackson Games business if The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game: Powered by GURPS or Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Powered by GURPS got back to the parallel we live on.

Alternate wines would also sell very well because they would be selling to an audience that wants novelty within a specified range. The wines of alternate Frances, Californias, and Cretes, would do this very well.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Drifter

I don't agree with this premise. I think the Homeline public would not view alternate timeline products as "duplicates", or somehow non-genuine. Instead I think they would see them as imports, some carrying more cultural importance than Homeline products, carrying a matching price-tag.
....

Except that's canon. They don't consider alternate people really real, so why would they do so with mere objects?
That Da Vinci isn't the "real one", so his works aren't as valuable.

[Drifter]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Except that's canon. They don't consider alternate people really real, so why would they do so with mere objects?
That Da Vinci isn't the "real one", so his works aren't as valuable.

Homeline just gets worse and worse. Why do they (Miracle Workers for example) bother with refugees if they're "not real"? Seems contradictory.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Drifter

Homeline just gets worse and worse. Why do they (Miracle Workers for example) bother with refugees if they're "not real"? Seems contradictory.

Not everyone is the same across a planet?
Most Americans don't consider foreigners real people or at least anywhere near as important as us. I don't see why Homeline should be intrinsically better than us.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Except that's canon. They don't consider alternate people really real, so why would they do so with mere objects?
That Da Vinci isn't the "real one", so his works aren't as valuable.

Do you think Da Vinci would paint the same pictures in every world? Picture an alternate image of Mona Lisa. Perhaps Da Vinci had a different take on what he wanted us to see. Maybe Mona Lisa lived a different life and Da Vinci saw who she was differently. These different painting would give incredible insights into Da Vinci's art and the painting itself.