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when shopping, do you care how popular something is?

Depends. When it's an option, I may compare top picks sorted by popularity VS sorted by highest review average. This is just part of research. I might buy the most popular or highest reviewed. I might choose something else as well.

Usually you can't put to much weight in the ratings. Compare result across multiple sites and the results vary. The same thing frequently happens if you look at webpages that give you their recommended best buys. Seem to be more BS than not.
 
Sometimes I wonder a little about the long-term reparability of something if it's bespoke/unique (which, of course, would mean that it isn't *popular* in the pure numbers sense). For example, The Peavey VB3 was never super popular (in the numbers sense, at least not as far as I'm aware) and finding a knowledgeable tech for it might be a challenge depending on your geography. Conversely, a boutique amplifier can be "popular" (i.e., well-respected, venerated) but hard to find knowledgeable repair techs for - WW amps are becoming notorious for this, for example. You can also apply this to boutique basses which may be well respected, but finding a competent luthier for some repair (for example, if a crack forms) may be a challenge too depending on geography.



But of course that's not going to completely stop me from GASing and buying boutique stuff anyway 🤣
 
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Maybe the idea is that, for those who don’t want to do their own research or don’t know what to look for anyway, you could hope everyone else knows what their doing and go along with it.

Or, maybe they’re hoping to get something of a sneakerhead culture where the product is almost like a stock. Buy now, because everyone else is and you don’t want to miss out!
 
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i was browsing basses on sweetwater, and as is common on a lot of sites, their sorting defaults to most popular.

i've never cared about the popularity of an item or whether it's trending, so this baffles me. today or this week's most popular item could be based on a short-term marketing campaign, a press release, a single large influencer, an article that appeared one time on CNN or in rolling stone, or the manufacturer could make a deal with a group of influencers. it has nothing to do with quality, features, value, whether audiences will find it compelling, or anything i consider when it comes to buying... well, anything. i don't buy basses, paper towels, cameras or decide what to watch based on popularity or trending.

sometimes an overall product/show rating or user reviews can be useful to me, depending on a number of factors. but even then, quality, price, features, weight (when it comes to basses, cameras and lenses), and lack of animal products or toxic chemicals (particularly in art supplies) are what i focus on. quality of customer support from a manufacturer or retailer is a huge plus.

do people actually buy things, consider buying things or watching things based on popularity or because they're trending? is there something to this beyond herd mentality that i'm completely missing? inquiring minds want to know!
No.
 
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I think the rationale for setting up sites this way is less because they think customers themselves prefer to know what is most popular, and more because the merchant wants to identify what is most popular and get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible, the same way that best selling items might get priority placement in a physical store. Every customer is going to see the first items that come up on a page, and very few are going to see the last items if the products span multiple pages, so they want to keep the better selling stuff toward the front.
 
One potential reason to be interested in popular instruments: Availability of multiple copies to choose from. This is kinda specific to SW, but being able to choose from different actual items is nice. Especially from a weight standpoint. Less-popular stuff is going to be only one available, or even "We can get it!" on the SW website.
 
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Not at all. I like to buy up the weird $#!? That no one wants when it's available, and wait till it's not produced and people realize it's awesome. That's most of what I own that I didn't make.

My only precision isn't even made by fender.
 
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