But there is no way you could have known that internet will take away the need for your books.

I think that investing in knowledge is never a bad thing!

Two things brought it home for me. First, I moved last fall and had to box and haul ALL of them. (Yes, I moved myself, for the last time.) Second, I had to unpack them.

Horrible investment, but years of good entertainment.

MITBeta, if I had a car/transportation, I would GLADLY give you $7 for your Bowflex! I would even give you $10 for it – and I’d use it, too!

Hannah, my walkman works just fine, even with the introduction of ipods. I therefore see no reason to rush right out to buy an ipod. As long as CDs are available (even if only through garage sales, I can use my walkman. Heck, as long as the CDs I currently own are good, I can use my walkman.

I see no actual point to regretting what one has purchased, when something cheaper follows on its heels – most especially if it’s something that would never have occurred to you, such as the Internet v. encyclopedia development. Way Back When, my Dad bought a calculator. Since he bought it in the very beginning of its introduction to the general public, he paid several hundred dollars for it. Now calculators can be found on keyrings and as prizes in cereal boxes. He never regretted what he spent on it, even as the price for a calculator dropped steadily. I know, because I asked him. He told me that it paid for itself many times over, and it was well worth his having it when he did. I think the only way to avoid swimming in The Sea Of Constant Regret is to determine if the purchase you made was one you could afford when you made it, and if it fulfilled the need you had for it when you bought it. Otherwise, your options are to live in a state of miserly misery – “I coulda bought it cheaper if only I had waited!” – or to not buy ANYTHING, on the grounds that the price was bound to come down – eventually. At that rate, people would still be pecking away at manual typewriters. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a manual typewriter – or even a pencil, for that matter – but I like using a computer for document production. (Of course, when the power cuts out, it’s nice to have that manual option, too.) I will say that it has been my experience that any time I make a major purchase, it is the signal for the price of that object, whatever it may be, to drop dramatically – AFTER my purchase has been made, of course. I HAD to stop thinking in terms of “if only I had waited!” – otherwise the constant regret, day in and day out, would eat me alive.

And I love how people just assume that just because you paid by credit card, you paid tons of interest. Anyone think of the possibility that you paid it off right away or soon after?

At the same time, people tend to lose tremendous amounts of money on things like credit card debt, worthless purchases (e.g, cigarettes) or loans that could’ve been avoided. Even still, in these cases where people have actual mistakes to learn from, many of people seem to forget to actually do.

My bet is that most of us have spent more than $500 on stupid purchases (perhaps accumulated) that we truly could have avoided, which perhaps we haven’t even looked back to realise were absurd (but should’ve known then).

[...] J.D. is talking about the changes that come over you as you shift from spender to saver.  I’ve noticed the same tendencies in myself (though D- would disagree) as we have paid off debt and worked closely on a budget.  There’s also a classic post about how to turn $500 in $7. [...]

Whether it did me much good or not is another question…but I do know that the idea of keeping a computer by the toilet just doesn’t have the same appeal.

[...] Rich Slowly experiences encyclopedia depreciation [...]

My sister and I used them all the time. I have great memories of laying on a sofa and reading each of them methodically from cover to cover while eating homegrown tomatoes. I couldn’t be happier.

My mom had a similar experience to yours on the “free” section of CL. Her encyclopedia set was donated to an artist looking for images to farm. (And affirmed my mother’s belief that hoarding is justified because someday “an artist” will probably want this….)

Great post!

Thanks JD!

Oh, and next time I can turn that $500 into $7 for you much more quickly. Let me know if you need any help.

If I could ever bring myself to sell my 11th Ed. Encyclopaedia Britannica, I could probably get at least $200 for them. It’s a complete set of the cloth-bound handy volumes in decent condition, with the beautiful maps, and entirely readable. I paid $15 to get a missing volume; a friend gave me the rest.

Now, as research into the way the world is, they’re largely useless. As research into the way we thought it was, though, they are priceless and fascinating. And yes, they are public domain and the Gutenberg Encyclopedia has them online — but that makes them even better, because I can do keyword searches, too.

That’s something I wasn’t even aware of and would certainly consider. Thanks for mentioning it.

Like Bonnie above me though I’m young (well sort of, I’m 28) but a bit old school like that. I’m completely comfortable with computers and electronics, I use them every day and I’ve even done some minor programming for pay, but digital/electronic doesn’t automatically mean better to me.