Jun 5, 2006

Hey, Want To Buy A Good Watch?

Our finances would be so much better if we would just buy more used stuff, or at least calm down before we rush out to spend our hard-earned dough. This may creep you out but yesterday I bought a wedding band at a pawnshop. This was no hole-in-the-wall joint full of shaking junkies unloading their ill-gotten gain. Nope, it was a place that sells new jewelry, but also deals in pawn. Last week at the airport I lost my wedding ring. Saturday my ring was hurting my too fat finger, so on the way to the airport I took it off and put it in my pocket. Somehow it vanished. I checked around for a new ring and the best price I could find at the mall was $300 or so. This is for a plain 14K gold wedding band. On a lark I went into the pawn place. The guy there showed me a brand new ring for $249. Then he brought out an identical ring and told me it was $99 because someone had pawned it and not reclaimed it. The ring looked brand new so I bought it and saved a couple of hundred bucks. Perhaps that is not sentimental enough for your taste, but the ring itself is just a symbol, but not a status symbol, so it doesn’t really matter to me or the lovely Mrs. Sneed that it is used. Another thing. I was looking at a website for a car dealer located here in my fair city. This dealer has made his reputation selling good quality used cars for a decent price. This dealership has been doing this since 1933. The first car listed on their website is a 2006 Ford Taurus SEL for $12,995 with 9,000 miles. It is still brand new for all intents and purposes. The MSRP for this car is $23,665. An identical car can still be purchased new at a dealer today. So, why would anyone buy a new one? Perhaps you are even asking yourself why would anyone buy a Taurus? Well, if you want good reliable transportation at a bargain price, this is your car. Unfortunately, most people want to impress others so they buy some car they can’t afford, or they are upside down on their last bad deal and need to get out of it by rolling the deficit into a new deal. Almost anything you need can be had used and in good condition. I know someone who bought a year-old $3000 plasma TV for $1200 because the seller didn’t like the picture and had bought a different model. The picture looks terrific to me. The world is full of perfectly good used stuff being sold by others for various reasons. Buy some of it you will be glad you did. Tag:

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