Or, you know, we genuinely like the pets.

Ask yourself this: if it was like the pink elephant, and only you could see it, would you still buy it?

There are a lot of pets and mounts in the game. I don't believe people so many people really prefer the ones that cost money. I think when they pick the pet, there's an element of, hey, look what I just bought. That's what conspicuous consumption is about. It isn't a intentional decision to flash your money, it's being happy because you have something other people want.

Why yes, yes I would buy them even if only I could see them.

Why on earth would anybody only buy them to "show off" that they can afford to buy them? They are $10-$20, not really Ferrari material. And anybody can buy these pets, the are one of the more common ones really. A firefly... you need either _a lot_ of time or luck to farm it yourself, or spend some serious ingame money on the AH. A Blizzard store pet... just drop some cash and tadaa, you have it. So, there is really absolutely no "show off" aspect in a Blizzard store pet. They are pretty and fun, and that is that.

That's the point: trotting out one of those pets is announcing that
$10-$20 dollars is insignificant to you. For me, this isn't true,
and I don't want people thinking it's true. So I won't be buying
one of these moggies on the AH.

Being cheap is it's own vanity.