Sticker Shock

Back in the 1980's I learned that digital electronics always rapidly descend in price. Pretty much, if you bought a computer, disc player, or digital camera a month ago then the price would already be noticeably lower. But I recently was told (by Erich as he took the pictures here) that the camera he (and I) love to carry has increased in price since we bought them. I didn't believe him, so I looked it up at Pricegrabber.com and at Amazon. Amazon seems to show the real prices that the (lower) PriceGrabber links jump to. The exact camera that I bought for $160 from Amazon 7 months ago is now a whopping $358! Un-be-(expletive)-lievable. You may remember Erich and I raving about this little gem since he first bought his over a year ago. I shopped independently and at length to select the same camera. One odd feature of it is that it is available in a range of colors. I bought mine in Gold because it was the cheapest at the time, by $5. Now however, the price is about $180 in blue or brown, up to $358 in ... Gold! Apparently, this camera is now a hot item. Possibly one reason besides those we've mentioned on this site is that hackers have been at work. One can download uncertified "patches" to make this camera do even more amazing things. See Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera at LifeHacker.com I feel that this is but another sign of our living in Interesting Times.

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How (corn) ethanol kills: a lesson in basic economics pertaining to fuel supply, fuel demand and price.

In an earlier post, I argued that people need to better appreciate that dollars are fungible (see here  and here).  Why is it important to understand that dollars are fungible?  A case in point is the new American enthusiasm for turning food into fuel. Consider this report from Fortune Magazine:…

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I just bought a $5 million hard drive at Best Buy

What I actually did was to pay $199 for a Western Digital “MyBook” 500 Gb external hard drive.  While comparing hard drive prices, however, I stopped a moment to consider how incredibly far hard drive prices have fallen over the years.  I concluded that I was getting a windfall no…

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