10 Things You Shouldn't Buy New, Part 1

Here's a piece from Money Central titled "10 Things You Shouldn't Buy New" that begins with the following:

Why waste money on shiny packaging and a fancy store when you can get it 'pre-owned' for a fraction of the cost?

Obviously, some things are best purchased new; lingerie pops to mind. But lots of other stuff depreciates quickly while still having plenty of useable life left. Here are 10 items where the cost vs. use equation strongly tilts toward buying used.

Interested? I was when I saw the piece. I'm going to run it in a few parts so I can make some comments along the way. Here are their first couple suggestions for items that are better to buy used rather than new:

Books -- Now this is awkward, because I just wrote a book. But the reality is that most books don’t get read more than once, if that, and they’re astonishingly easy to find used at steep discounts -- if not absolutely free.

Your local library, for example, may allow you to reserve titles online and then deliver them to your nearest branch for pick-up. Used book stores abound, both in your town and online. If you’re looking for a potboiler to get you through your next cross-country flight, just stop by almost any yard sale and pick up four for $1.

Exception: Reference books you’ll use again and again. For example, I bought a deeply-discounted copy of Cheryl Mendelson’s excellent “Home Comforts." That was after checking the book out at the library and running up a small fortune in fines because I couldn’t bear to part with it.

Here's what I do: I check out the book from the library, read it, and if I think I'll want to re-read it again, put notes in it, refer to it, or just need my own copy for some reason, THEN I buy it. I used to buy everything new all the time and was spending a fortune on books. Now I read more than ever but spend about 1/20th of what I used to on books.

DVDs, CDs and videos -- The list price for Quentin Tarantino's most recent film, “Kill Bill, Volume 2,” is $30, and you can get it new for about $20 from Amazon.com. Buy from one of the retailers selling it used on the same site, though, and you’ll save at least $10. You can find similar deals online for videos and CDs (yes, Virginia, some of us dinosaurs still buy CDs). Other good hunting grounds for purchase of used items: movie rental chains like Blockbuster; used record stores; yard sales.

Exception: When you simply must have the latest release by your favorite singer/director/actor, right now. It can take a few days or weeks for the used versions to show up, and perhaps a few months for the price to get discounted enough to compensate for the greater hassle you might face trying to return a defective or unsatisfactory purchase.

This one's easy for me: I don't buy any of these. (I don't have cable either.) No, I'm not the entertainment grinch, it's just that I rarely want to see a movie more than once and if I do, I can rent it. As for music, I can check out a wide variety of music at the library. Again, the library saves money!  (And there are even more ways to save money at the library.)

Click here to read part 2 of this series.

Comments

[javasoy]

About the book part, I never bought anything new since 2000. I found most of the information I need on the internet. In the case of an interesting book like "Freakonomics", I check places like half.com, amazon, or froogle to see if anyone is unloading their copy. I recently bought a Jeremy Siegel book for just $3 plus shipping (another $3). I think I told my wife a thousand times that it was the best money I ever spent. It's astonishing the amount of intelectual wealth you gain by parting just $6.

[g]

Thought you were going to talk about used cars. Shouldn't that be at the top of your list?

[javasoy]

patience, young jedi knight, it was only part 1.