talkingDigital

Piled on some of the flat surfaces of my desk, I have a Marie Osmond fashion doll, a Ronald Reagan mask, a visible man model, a box of vintage bow ties, some Ken Struck toys from the 50s, a Canon Rebel xti, an Asus Eee PC, and a cool Homer Simpson Rubic’s cube.

At my house, this is known as my eBay fodder pile.

I save up unique items for several months and then put them up on eBay when I want to buy an item that doesn’t fit on my wife’s list of budget approved suppiles.
This pile has been gathering dust for a long time now. Not because I don’t have anything on that unapproved list, but because I don’t have any outlet to sell these items. Read the rest of this entry →

Cheap computers are everywhere. I say this knowing that cheap is relative. $600 to one person is different than $600 to another.

Some may think that $600 is high considering that the same $600 can buy you other items that will last much longer than 4-6 years and those things typically won’t break down or crash.

Is $600+ for a computer high when you compare it to a nice piece of furniture, art or a pretty good tuneup on your car?

Once you’ve purchased a computer, how much is too much to spend on a repair? When do you fix it and when do you replace it?

Sometimes we over simplify this decision process. We try to come up with formulas like, “If the repair cost is higher than one third the price of new, and the system is more than three years old, you should replace it.” However, there is much more to consider than a basic formula can offer.

No matter how much you spend on the purchase of a new computer or how much an upgrade or repair may cost, the true value of a computer is in the information, not the components.

If you suddenly lost your address book, how much would you pay to get it back? If you suddenly lost all of your photos, how much would you pay to get them back? If all of your financial and business data were suddenly gone, how much would you pay to get it back? Chances are that the value of one or more of these things exceeds the value of the computer.

The more I work with people and computers, the more I realize that computers can not be compared to anything else. Yet, people try.

People try to compare their computers to cars, appliances, and other items that we use in day-to-day life. Being a computer repair guy is far more stressful than being a washing machine repair guy. If the washing machine guy can’t fix the problem, does your entire wardrobe disappear? If he makes a mistake while replacing a belt, is there a chance that it will tear your clothes to shreds? Not really.

Working with computers is quite different. I have seen entire family photo collections disappear in an instant. I have seen years worth of financial data accidentally deleted. These are daily mistakes that have no equal in the world outside of computers.

There are two costs to every computer and both are equally important. There is the cost of the system itself and the cost of maintaining that system.

Buying a top of the line computer is worthless if you don’t spend a few dollars on a backup drive. Spending a few dollars on a backup drive is useless if  you don’t use it. Be honest with yourself and evaluate how important the data on your computer really is and how significant of a role it plays in your life.

This may be an eye opening process, but the sooner you realize it, the more you will take care of the information that the system holds.

I am still all worked up about eBay raising its final value fees.

When I first began with eBay their philosophy was to stay out of the transaction as much as possible and allow the community to self regulate. No one really cared that eBay took a small percentage from every sale because it was less than five percent and the listing fees were cheaper than a classified ad.

Over time eBay has raised their fees again and again in order to increase profits. How can they be shocked to see profits and membership declining?

I mentioned in the article above that eBay began as an experiment in capitalism. It is fast becoming an example of how over taxing kills off a society. Rather it is proving that capitalism works by demonstrating what happens to a market when capitalism is removed.

In addition to higher final fees, eBay also announced more restrictive selling policies. The company has resorted to babysitting its users. A complete 180 degree turn from the original hands-off governing policy.

It is sad to see eBay die, but I really hope that someone else sees the open door and starts up an eBay killer. For over a decade, other companies have tried to compete with eBay, hopefully a few brave folks are still out there because this would be the perfect year for eBay to meet its match.