{"id":107404,"date":"2026-09-08T22:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T02:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=107404"},"modified":"2026-09-08T22:08:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T02:08:37","slug":"why-do-we-buy-merch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/why-do-we-buy-merch\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Buy Merch of the Things We Love?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>9 Minute, 43 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p>Open a pop-culture trend roundup this month and you can watch fandom turn into furniture. Anime camping collections. Character rings. Gaming headsets and mechanical keyboards built around a series. Sealed capsules with a small figure inside that you do not get to choose.<\/p>\n\n<p>None of it is strictly new. What is new is how ordinary it has become for loving a story to end at a checkout page. So why do we buy merch of the things we love, when nobody on earth has ever needed a character-themed keyboard?<\/p>\n\n<p>The answer is stranger, and kinder, than &#8220;companies are good at selling things.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<h2>Fandom is being sold by the object now<\/h2>\n\n<p>The pattern running through this year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trendhunter.com\/slideshow\/september-2026-pop-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pop-culture trend roundups<\/a> is fandom spilling into categories that have nothing to do with watching anything. Camping gear. Jewellery. Desk hardware. Clothing capsules \u2014 earlier this year a streaming service released a limited anime-styled apparel line built around a footballer, which is three separate fandoms stacked into one hoodie.<\/p>\n\n<p>It is easy to be sniffy about all this. Don&#8217;t be. The longing underneath it is real, and it is actually two longings wearing the same coat.<\/p>\n\n<p>The first is wanting to stay inside a story that moved you. Anyone who has finished a series and felt the room go flat knows this one \u2014 it is common enough that researchers have built a scale to measure <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/post-series-depression\/\">the empty feeling after a show ends<\/a>. The credits roll, and a place you were living in quietly closes.<\/p>\n\n<p>The second is wanting to be found by other people who love it too. That one is not about the story at all. That one is about not standing alone in a queue.<\/p>\n\n<p>Both are decent human wants. The real question is whether an object can serve either of them.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>What we are actually paying for<\/h2>\n\n<p>In 2014, two researchers at Yale, George Newman and Paul Bloom, went through the results of three estate auctions: the John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sale, the Marilyn Monroe sale, and the sale of Bernard Madoff&#8217;s belongings after his fraud conviction. Close to nineteen hundred items in all. Then they asked one simple question of the prices \u2014 did it matter how much the famous owner had actually touched the thing?<\/p>\n\n<p>It mattered enormously. For the two beloved figures, the more physical contact an item had with them, the more bidders paid. For Madoff, the effect ran backwards: the more he had handled something, the less anyone wanted to pay for it. The stain travelled by exactly the same route as the shine.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then they tested why. They asked people what they would pay for a sweater owned by someone they admired \u2014 and then what they would pay if the sweater were sterilised before it reached them. The price dropped. For the disliked owner&#8217;s sweater, sterilising it pushed the price up. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/full\/10.1073\/pnas.1313637111\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The study is published here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p>Psychologists call this contagion: the quiet, mostly unspoken belief that a person leaves something of themselves in what they touch, and that it can pass to whoever holds it next. The pattern held even after the most expensive pieces were set aside, so it was not simply a few wealthy people bidding up jewellery.<\/p>\n\n<p>Nobody in that room would have said out loud that a dead woman&#8217;s essence was sitting in a cardigan. They bid as though it were.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Why do we buy merch when nothing in the box ever touched the story?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here is the strange part, and it is the part the shelf never advertises.<\/p>\n\n<p>Contagion needs contact. That is the entire mechanism. Something has to have been near the person for anything at all to travel.<\/p>\n\n<p>A character ring has been near nobody. The character is not a person \u2014 there is no body that wore it, no morning it was pulled on, no essence to carry. A capsule figure was moulded last quarter in a factory that also makes bottle caps. The story it points at happened in a script, on a screen, and mostly inside your own head.<\/p>\n\n<p>Which means the merchandise industry is selling the <em>feeling<\/em> of contagion with none of the mechanism behind it. Proximity, manufactured. The object is not a relic of the story. It is a picture of one.<\/p>\n\n<p>That is not a reason to feel foolish for owning any of it. But it does explain a small mystery every collector knows and rarely says: why the shelf never quite settles the feeling, and why the next thing always looks like it will. If an object could hold it, one object would have been enough.<\/p>\n\n<p>It also explains why the free things work better than the paid ones. <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/why-do-i-keep-rewatching-the-same-show\/\">Rewatching the same show<\/a> puts you back inside the actual thing. So does the odd, specific ache of being <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/personal-growth-and-life-skills\/homesick-for-a-place-that-doesnt-exist\/\">homesick for a place that never existed<\/a>. Neither one costs anything, and both get closer than the box did.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The one job merch does brilliantly<\/h2>\n\n<p>Now the part that genuinely works, because a lot of it does.<\/p>\n\n<p>An object is an excellent flag. A pin on a bag, a keyring, the shirt worn in a queue \u2014 these are readable from across a room, and what they say is: <em>I am one of you, you can talk to me.<\/em> That is not a small function. It is one of the few ways adults still signal availability to strangers without having to say anything.<\/p>\n\n<p>So merch is very good at telling people who you are. It is very bad at keeping a feeling alive. Almost all disappointment with a collection comes from quietly handing it the second job.<\/p>\n\n<h2>An old story about a box<\/h2>\n\n<p>There is a very old story about this exact confusion, and it does not end gently.<\/p>\n\n<p>An army was losing a battle. So its leaders sent home for a chest \u2014 the one object their entire nation associated with God being near. It was carried to the front line. When it arrived, the soldiers shouted so loudly that the ground rang, and the other side heard the noise and was frightened.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then they fought anyway. The army with the chest lost far worse than it had the first time, and the chest itself was captured and carried off.<\/p>\n\n<p>What makes the story land is that those men were not wrong about the history. The presence really had been near that box. They had not invented that. They were wrong about where it lived. It had never lived in the box. It lived in a relationship \u2014 and a relationship cannot be loaded onto a cart and driven to wherever you happen to need it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Something that has been near a presence is not the same as something that contains one. That was true of a sacred chest. It is true of a shelf.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What actually holds a feeling<\/h2>\n\n<p>Not much, honestly \u2014 and that turns out to be the useful part, because the things that do hold it are mostly free.<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Go back to the source.<\/strong> Rewatch it, reread it, replay the soundtrack on the walk to work. The story is the thing that moved you. It still works, and it costs nothing to return to.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make something out of it.<\/strong> Draw it badly. Write the scene you wanted. Cook the dish from episode four. A feeling attaches to what you <em>do<\/em> with a story far more reliably than to what you buy about it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Follow the flag to the people.<\/strong> The pin works \u2014 so use it. Let it start the conversation, then let the conversation outgrow the pin. The object is a doorway, and a doorway is not a room.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Keep the shelf. Buy the ring if you want the ring; wanting beautiful things is not a character defect. Just don&#8217;t hand it a job it was never built to do.<\/p>\n\n<p>Because the thing you are actually chasing was never for sale \u2014 and it is not gone, either. It is renewable. It comes back every time you go back to the story, and it multiplies every time you find someone else who loves it too. That is a considerably better deal than the shelf was offering.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Questions people ask about buying merch<\/h2>\n\n<h3>Why do people buy merchandise of shows, games and books they love?<\/h3>\n<p>People buy fandom merchandise for two different reasons that often get mixed together. The first is an attempt to stay connected to a story that moved them after it has ended. The second is social: a pin, shirt or keyring is a visible signal to other fans that says &#8220;I am one of you,&#8221; which makes it easier for strangers to start a conversation. The second reason is the one merchandise actually delivers on reliably.<\/p>\n\n<h3>What is contagion in psychology?<\/h3>\n<p>Contagion is the intuitive belief that a person&#8217;s qualities or essence can pass into an object through physical contact, and then transfer to whoever owns the object next. A 2014 study by George Newman and Paul Bloom, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysed close to nineteen hundred items from three celebrity estate auctions and found that greater physical contact with a well-liked owner raised bids, while greater contact with a disliked owner lowered them. Participants also said they would pay less for an admired person&#8217;s sweater if it were sterilised first.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Is it normal to feel empty after finishing a series?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. The flat, slightly bereaved feeling after a long series ends is common enough that researchers have studied and measured it. It tends to be strongest when someone was deeply absorbed in the story world and attached to its characters. It usually passes, and it is not a sign that anything is wrong with you.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Does buying merchandise make someone a bigger fan?<\/h3>\n<p>No. Spending is a measure of disposable income and marketing reach, not of attachment. Someone who has rewatched a series six times and never bought a single item is not a lesser fan than someone with a full display cabinet. Fandom is measured in attention and affection, both of which are free.<\/p>\n\n<h3>How do I stop buying merchandise I do not really need?<\/h3>\n<p>Ask which of the two jobs you are asking the object to do. If you want it because it is genuinely beautiful or because it will start conversations with other fans, buy it \u2014 it will do that. If you are buying it to recapture the feeling the story gave you, it will not work, and the next purchase will not work either. In that case, go back to the story itself or find the people who love it, both of which are free and both of which actually deliver.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What do you think?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Which has done more for you over the years \u2014 the objects on the shelf, or the people you met because of what was on it? There is no correct answer here, and plenty of people would say the shelf. Tell us in the comments; we read them.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share this<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>Found this interesting? Here are a few ways to pass it on:<\/em><\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Researchers found people will pay more for a famous person&#8217;s sweater \u2014 and noticeably less if you sterilise it first. Which raises an awkward question about my whole shelf of figures: <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/why-do-we-buy-merch\/\">why do we buy merch?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The reason the next collectible always looks like it will finally settle the feeling: if an object could hold it, one would have been enough. <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/why-do-we-buy-merch\/\">Really good piece on this.<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Merch is brilliant at telling people who you are. It is terrible at keeping a feeling alive \u2014 and almost all collection regret comes from confusing the two. <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/why-do-we-buy-merch\/\">Worth a read.<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"107404\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\" title=\"\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"twp-count-percent\">\n                                                    <span style=\"display: 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A study of nearly 1,900 auction items shows what we think we are buying, and why the shelf never settles it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-personal-growth-and-life-skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107406,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107404\/revisions\/107406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}