TV prices are all relative. I remember going TV shopping with my parents in the early 1990's. A 27" color tv was $700 out the door. Today, that would get me a cutting edge 40+" HD tv that is much more energy efficient and more compact, without saying anything about quality of image. Not dirt cheap, but not exactly expensive. ?
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I remember the first TV we bought in 1980, shortly after we got married. A glorious 25" Sylvania console, which set us back $550. Our new home was empty, and that console qualified as furniture to help fill up the empty room.
My first PC purchased in 1985 was $1750 before tax, and before I spent another $400 to add a 30MB hard drive plus an additional 256MB RAM.
Now, going to the stores, I keep shaking my head at how cheap things are. Yet, I have not taken the plunge to get that a replacement laptop, which at $750 is a technical marvel. Why? Because the one I am still using, an IBM T23 circa 2002, refuses to croak.
I think that's the difference between LBYM'ers, and the normal populace. A LBYM'er buys the lowest-cost items that gets the job done. A non-LBYM'er buys as high as he can afford.
Talking about TV, my mother is still watching an old 27" CRT TV. She has talked about upgrading to an LCD. She kept mentioning that perhaps she would
need at least a 48". I tried to point out that with the layout of her comfortable home (1600sqft), she would have to really move the furniture to adapt to the new TV. Perhaps, the sofa will have to be moved into the hall, in order to be away from that TV. And she is not the type who goes to the front rows of movie theaters for that "total immersion" experience.
I do not know that I will prevail, but she definitely thinks a 32" would be too small, having seen the colossal 60" TV that my brother has. I think my mother has succumbed to the philosophy that "the more, the better".