That’s a question we have to ask ourselves all the time. It struck the Antiplanner as I was grating Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for my home-made Neapolitan pizza. Those little wedges of parmesan cheese you can buy at any supermarket cost about $10 a pound. But genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano, aged 18 months, typically costs $15 (though I get it at Costco for about $11). Many people probably couldn’t tell the difference after the cheese has melted on the pizza, but the flavors seem very different to me, and it is worth a little extra to have the genuine stuff.
In this case, I am paying 10 percent more for something that seems to me to be twice as good. Is it ever worth paying ten times as much for something that is only 10 percent better — or even 1 percent better? That’s a question I sometimes think about when I am cycling on my 2001 Trek 5200 bike with its Ultegra components.
