Thursday, June 19, 2008

Pleasant surprise

Until last week I had been using the same Toshiba Dynabook laptop for five years, and every time I had used it in the past year I wanted to throw it out the window because it was so slow. One of the mouse buttons on the computer (hard to explain) broke, so I could no longer do right-clicks. Then one day last week it took me several minutes to open Internet Explorer, and that was the final straw.

R and I headed to Bic Camera and found that the computer I had my eye on for a while had gone down in price! It still was a large chunk of money, though, so we tried to negotiate with the sales clerk to get the price down further (tacky, I know), but all we got for our efforts was a 1GB memory stick and a Toshiba note pad (not bad, I guess). But I went ahead and bought the computer anyway.

I took a week to transfer data and clear files off of my old computer, which took an unbearably long time to do. When everything was complete, we took it to Sofmap to see if they would buy it. It was dirty, and as I said one of the buttons was broken, so I told myself I would be happy if they would just take it off my hands for free. Much to my surprise, they paid me 22,000 yen for it!!!! Wow...completely unexpected, but very welcome.

Needless to say, dinner was on me today. :-)

2 comments:

Gina said...

That really is an excellent surprise! First getting the computer you were eyeing. Also, congratulations on trying to negotiate a cheaper price.: ) My husband is so good at haggling a price down! He's like a true master of doing that sorta thing. : )He doesn't care if we are at a flea market or at an electronics store, or on vacation and trying to get 5 dollars marked off the price of a tourist type thing. He will battle it out with them forever. It gets embaressing at times, but man he saves us money! LOL! : ) Best thing ever was.....I was dying for some hibiscus suitcases when we were in Hawaii. Granted think I woulda survived without them, but I was really dying for them at the time. When I found the big suitcase I wanted, he went in for the kill. He got well over 20 bucks marked off on it. The lady even told my husband he was "not fair" and all sorta of stuff. that she barely made a profit. yet I left with my suitcase. I was thrilled. And my shrewed husband told me..."ahh she still made a profit"!!!! LOL! he's tough! Sometimes I get so red faced I just walk away and let him handle it so I kow what you mean, ha ha ha! : )

He got us a good deal on my digi camera and we also got our digi camcorder for cheap too.

I also think the best part of your story Deenster was not only getting your new computer but *also* that you got 22,000 yen for your old one, to me that rocks! Best deal ever then, huh? Ha ha ha! : ) Have a great weekend! : )

Anonymous said...

now this is inspirational. I need to do the same with my Dynabook, so old it is and so slow. Will transfer all my files and do just the same thing. I'll let you know how much they pay for it, if at all!

 
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