Re: Kudos to the Salvation Army



<polymorph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1159472256.809744.108280@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
Homer J Simpson wrote:
Like eBay : if it says "Looks good but I haven't tested it so sold as
is"
means "I did test it and it doesn't work".

I once saw a free VCR on a local mailing list. Since I knew the person,
I called and got it from them. I took it apart, removed the dried
coca-cola,
cleaned the heads and replaced the main drive belt.

I did not fix the dim flourescent display, as I really don't care
too much about it.

Since I knew the person I sent her an email thanking her for it, without
going into the amount of work needed to get it going agin.

The next time she advertised a piece in similar condition, she wanted
$25 for it.

Friend of mine gave me a 32" Sony TV for free. It was an overheated
mess. He'd paid $175 to have it repaired, all they'd done was replace
one electrolytic and resoldered half dozen solder joints on the main
board. The main board had many cooked capacitors and grainy solder
joints, the entire power supply board had every single joint looking
grainy and every single electrolytic on the main board was bad.

Since I was fixing it for myself, didn't matter how much labor I put in
it.

But I knew he'd ask... sure enough, he was over one day and noticed the
set working beautifully. He asked for the TV back, but I was prepared.
I pulled an invoice off the side of the set and said as soon as he
settled the $350 bill, it was his again. ;')

I knew he'd only given it to me because he thought it wasn't worth
fixing, and figured he'd trick me into hauling it away and paying the
$10 "recycling" fee to throw it away.

I had a boss try and pull the same thing. Gave me two sets he thought
were unrepairable, I fixed them. He looked quite surprised about it,
then two days later demanded them back, saying he had buyers. I said
forget it, he gave them to me (one had been sitting outside), was he
going to pay me for fixing them? No, he wasn't. Too bad, I already sold
them myself.

Back on the original topic, the OP should be saying "Kudos to Salvation
Army" for giving him store credit. They -don't- give cash refunds.

I'd -never- pay $35 for an LCD monitor without testing it! Others have
already pointed out his faults in logic.

Good deals? I bought a Graphtec 18" vinyl cutter for $25 at GW. It gave
me warning beeps, motors never budged. Took a chance, all that was
wrong was backing from vinyl had torn off and jammed the motors,
blowing one fuse. Separate fuse on motors, and electronics. One 25 cent
fuse and a good cleaning later, I have a nice working vinyl cutter.

I was in a Salvation Army outlet store. Just from luck, it was 99 cent
electronics day! I got an electronic car cooler, an ethernet to
parallel print server, a USB to Ethernet box, and a bunch of other
stuff, plus... wait for it... a 15" LCD monitor with power supply and
cable! The LCD monitor has a problem, only intermittently turns on, but
for 99 cents, I'm happy! Only reason I got it was because I was
incredibly lucky, I was standing in just the right spot when someone
burst out of the back and set it down right next to me. By the time I'd
picked it up and looked up, others had already taken several steps
towards it.

If they are asking too much for something when you consider the risk vs
benefit, I just don't buy it.

You get bees with flowers, and they make honey. With shit you get
flies, and they only make more flies.

Make sure you put a lid on the honey. I hear it can draw flies. ;')

Steve Greenfield


When buying used - try to keep these questions in mind:

1. How bad do I "need" it?
2. How bad do I "want" it?
3. Can I "use it for parts" if not repairable?
4. Can I "repair it"?
5. Can I "afford it at the cost"?
6. Does it have "any chance of producing value or investment to me"?
7. Can I "afford to lose the money" if questions 1-6 are either questionable
at best or NO?

I use that to filter out many items............

Most "Thrift", Goodwill's and others are not giving CASH BACK anymore. Its a
credit slip - so if you goofed - make GOOD USE of the credit slip.


.



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