.

.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Antique


While the rest of the world has upgraded their TV viewing technology to digital recorders and the such for recording TV shows, Nathalie and I are still rocking the high-tech VCR technology of the 1980's. This had been working fine, until my $30 El Cheapo VCR I bought from Wal-Mart (my favorite place for cheap crap) finally died and went to electronic heaven.

Well, the easy solution would be to run down to the local electronics liquidator and buy another one. But apparently, while that would have been a great plan in the 1990's, it's not so feasible now. It turns out that buying a standalone VCR is an impossibility because nobody makes them anymore.

VCRs nowadays come bundled with a DVD player. At an increased price, of course! How aggravating. We already have enough DVD players. We definitely don't need to spend money on more.

Instead of being able to buy a VCR for a measly $30 or so, I have to shell out nearly two to three times that amount for one that's a VCR/DVD player combo. So I'm forced to spend more money and buy something I don't need in order to get something that I do. It reminds me of how legislators will add on all sorts of riders to an attractive bill in hopes of getting unpopular legislation passed. Or how the pretty girl sitting at the bar comes packaged with a mean, untrusting friend that thinks you're a creep.

So I turned to eBay, but while the cost of used VCRs are reasonable, the shipping costs definitely are not. As a last resort, I turned to craig's list.

I keep forgetting that the people that populate craig's list have absolutely no idea about how to price their used crap they're selling. One seller wanted $75 for his used Sony VCR.

Yes, yes. Sony is a good brand. And I'm sure the VCR was quite expensive back in 1993, but asking $75 for it in 2008? C'mon!

Look's like I might have to either go for the VCR/DVD player combo or upgrade to a TiVO like the rest of my friends. I can't believe I'm going to go waste a sixth of my economic stimulus rebate on a stoopid VCR.