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Big(ger) Ticket Items
By Molly's Brother | July 25, 2006
I broke my VCR this weekend. Or–more accurately–my VCR died this weekend. (Memorial services will be held at the Los Angeles County Landfill.) Granted, I know the letters “V” “C” and “R” haven’t been uttered by some readers in quite some time. But I still had my VCR and I still have some of my favorite movies on tapes. Well, with the slowly whirring death and a final kaput of my little black box, I decided to head on down to Best Buy and upgrade my life a bit.
With screwdriver in hand and as I was taking my VCR apart, I was wondering, “now that my VCR is broken, what am I going to possibly do with all those family memories and elementary school plays that are recorded on that half inch strip of magnetic tape?” I decided it was time to buy a combo recordable DVD/VCR machine to transfer all those tapes to DVDs. Obviously, I didn’t want to spend too much money. Here’s how the entire episode unfolded:
1. Research, Research, Research Aw, my mantra when it comes to spending a chunk of money on anything. So I clicked on my go-to sites: BestBuy.com, Overstock.com, Target.com, Ebay, CraigsList, among many others. I did some research and figured out what machine I wanted. I decided that I would get something from an electronics store. Even though I would pay more money for the machine, I would benefit from the manufacturer’s warranty.
2. Scourge the Urge I learned this lesson recently in NYC, but it bears repeating. I did my research and I was all set to rush on down to my neighborhood Best Buy to purchase my new toy. Thankfully, it was 8:50 PM. Best Buy was closing in ten minutes. There’s no way I could make it to the store in ten minutes. (Employees don’t know how lucky they were because if I had had 15 minutes, I would have walked in to the store two minutes before closing, causing everyone to go home late. Yes, my friends, sometimes I am “that guy.”) But, alas, I couldn’t make it before closing time. It forced me to sleep on the issue and weigh my options.
3. Be Flexible The following morning, I walked down to the store and I noticed that some other machines were there that weren’t mentioned on the website. I talked to a floor rep and again did some on-the-spot research. I finally decided on which brand I was going to buy. As I was picking the box up, a lady says to me, “Sir, if you are willing to pay less, there are opened boxes over there. They have that brand available.” Flexibility kicked in and I walked over to the returned items. Not only did I find a better brand, but I found it for roughly 60% off!
4. Ask More Questions If you buy a refurbished product, the floor model, or a returned item as the customer service reps necessary questions. Make sure that the warranty still applies (it did). Make sure all the necessary items are inside the box (they were). Make sure the return policy is still in effect (it was). With the Triple Crown in my favor, I purchased the item and saved a total of $120.
5. Gloat Make sure when your friends come over you tell them how much you spent for the top-of-the-line item. Regale them with every single detail of the story. (Just kidding. This step is solely reserved for spouses. Friends don’t care. Well, spouses don’t either, but at least they are a captive audience.)
With these things in mind, you can reduce or eliminate your feelings of buyer’s remorse when you plan to buy those big–or at least, bigger–ticket items. And rest assured, my critically acclaimed, sold-out, two weekend stint as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, is now securely archived for future generations to enjoy.
Topics: Personal Finance |
July 25th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Don’t go to Best Buy.
http://www.bestbuysux.org/
Pass it on!
July 25th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Here’s the thing: When I started my blog awhile back I decided that, even though I had complete control over which comments got published, I would green light all comments sent to my blog UNLESS they were outright offensive in nature. So, Anon feels that “bestbuysux.” So be it.