Have you seen those lines that form at stores when they have some big sale going on? People waiting for hours, traveling great distances, and jumping through hoops to get 75% off something they don't really need?
I always thought I was above that until Dell lured me with a couple of computer bargains recently. I took pride in not having upgraded my computers in a couple of years (I used to upgrade every six months or so). My old computers were perfectly functional in every way, except one -- they couldn't play the latest games.
I don't even like playing computer games, and I haven't played one in 8 years or so. But I found the need to upgrade very compelling -- I wanted the option to play these stupid games even if I had no need.
And then came Dell. Offering coupons and their refurbished outlet. I found last year's desktop model in their outlet equipped with a powerful graphics card and a kick-butt CPU. Only $300. Would have cost me at least $800 at a computer store. Sold! $300 gone, but my itch finally satisfied.
And then I found some more Dell coupons. $750 off any $1500 laptop. I've got a bunch of laptops, all perfectly good for how I use them, but hey, I could play the latest games on these new laptops, and I've never seem them this cheap before. Sold!
Oh, look, another coupon. I guess I should get a new laptop for my wife too. Sold!
And so it went for a week or two. A few grand later, I had three new laptops, a new desktop, two new laser printers, a photo printer, and a few other gadgets to boot. All for about 50% of what I thought was fair market value. Some of them justified by ideas of either selling them on eBay or by selling my old gadgets to offset their price, making them effectively free.
In short, I went temporarily insane.
And I know it's not just me. I see thriving sites with 100,000's of members who are just as compulsive about finding value.
If these things were readily available at the prices I paid, I wouldn't be the least bit interested. It's the idea that I bought low with the opportunity to get out even or better that compelled me to purchase. And I'm really impressed by the sales and marketing tactics used by Dell -- they feed off this bargain hunting impulse by artificially raising their list prices and giving you the opportunity to game their system in an effort to find/create the best bargain you can.
Why am I telling you this? Mostly as a cathartic act, to purge this compulsion from my system. But also because I think a lot of us hit ER through a compulsion for value, and I thought it'd be nice to share the dark side
