How will you sell the thing you just bought: A strategy for smarter shopping
I’ve bought a Samsung LCD ultra-wide monitor “34” Samsung Ultra-Wide monitor C34H890, for roughly $350. I was super happy with the choice and the screen’s look.
I found a new screen still for sale for double the price so I messaged the guy, but I wasn’t lowballing too much. By then, I already saw myself having the screen in my study.
The guy accepted my $15 less offer and I drove to nearby town to pick it up. So far so good.
The screen looked great but I made a mistake. I didn’t even want to see the screen on. I just took the guy’s word for it, gave him the money, loaded the screen into my car and headed home. I was still thinking I was getting an amazing deal.
To be fair, I had a great experience buying second-hand electronics recently, which made me feel like buying second-hand stuff is a risk-free activity.
When I connected the screen at home to my M1 Max 16" Mac, the text was blurry. Blurry!
I thought it had to be the cable, so I ordered five different cables (display port, USB-C 4, thunderbolt, HDMI) to try them. The next day, I tried them one by one and found that the issue was in MacOS.
I tried to return the screen to the guy, but he stopped taking my calls.
Shortly after, I found that a brand-new model could be bought only for a few dollars more. That lowered the price I could re-sell the screen for.
When I realised I had become a seller instead of a buyer, my mindset changed. And this mindset is something I want to remember and talk about.
When I’m about to buy something new, I’m excited. I see myself using the thing and I’m in a state of mind where the thing is the missing piece to my happiness and once I get it, my life will be amazing. This is never the case but I feel that way.
I buy the thing, excitedly unpack it, play with it for a while and then it starts gathering dust. The dust gathering is especially strong if it didn’t replace an item I use daily (e.g. laptop, phone, or watch).
If I use it seldom enough, I’ll try to sell it and the difference between how I feel when I’m selling it couldn’t be bigger.
| buying | selling | |
|---|---|---|
| price | The price is a bargain | I’ll sell it for much less to get it off my hands |
| utility | I need it so much | I’m not using it. It has a low value |
| value to others | everyone needs one | nobody will probably want this |
There is a new behaviour that I’d like to try. Imagine that I already have the thing and try to sell it before I buy it.
- Go to Craigslist and see what the selling “competition” is. How much lower I’ll have to go with the price?
- Imagine dealing with people who are lowballing me + all the spam that’s happening on the FB marketplace
What helps with taming the buy beast
- Buy things second-hand (when I’m inevitably selling, the value won’t drop as much as for a new thing)
- Buy common items with a large customer base (they are easy to sell quickly). I still remember buying a niche Ergodox EZ keyboard for $450 and then trying to sell it in the small Czech market.
- Try to mainly replace existing items (laptop, headphones, phone, watch..). That way, you know you’ll be using the thing.