Lee Valley Tools has really excellent products and their stores are like museums, but you may have have bought into their brand too much. Their stuff isvery high quality, and very high quality is what a luxury good is. It's like flying first class and then treating it as necessary because it's an absurd affront to your humanity to tolerate how poorly everyone is treated. "First class isn't extravagent, it's basic dignity!" goes the reasoning. Personally, I could never afford cheap things either, but often one must.

Some companies have figured out that they can just sell cheap symbols that impress the sort of people who are impressed by that sort of thing, and they use a similar formula where the essential activity is getting attention or going to nighclubs and parties, but yes, your parents collected slightly more rarefied luxury products.