Cheaper to Trash and Buy
Way too many times I have been told or simply realized that it is simpler, cheaper, more expedient, etc. to buy a new item and throw out the slightly damaged old version, than to try to get it fixed.
This was horribly apparent when I took my Cannondale mountain bike years ago because a small part was damaged. This small part was no longer made and in fact they resized the part it fit into that suddenly this $10 part rendered a $800 bike practically unfixable or rather unpracticle to fix.
That bike still hangs in my garage waiting for me to find the part on e-bay or repurpose it or something. I just can't bring myself to part with this almost perfectly good machine.
I have several laptops and CPU's and various drives waiting to be worked on and "fixed" litering hallways and our office. Cindy's been begging me to just get rid of them, but I keep telling her that they're not ready for the landfill or E-wastefield.
My latest adventure into "fixing" an almost ok product is my 2cnd Generation Shuffle which had a failed battery. I went online, found that I could purchase a replacement battery and replace it, saving probably like $50 not factoring in my time of course.
So I ordered the battery.
I needed some special tools to get into my Shuffle, so the $50 saving would be closer to $40, but I would have some new tools which is always a good thing.
It turns out the battery I had was for the older Shuffle. I didn't realize this of course until I had taken apart the devise and could compare the two batteries. Now at this point I could try and find the right battery and hope that I could successfully install it, which after taking apart looked doubtful. I could try to return the battery, which would mean postage both directions. And more of my time.
I slid the battery and parts into a rubbish bin. At least it wasn't as big and expensive as a bike or computer.
Lost time, money, effort, shuffles, which were already broken, but mostly proved the point that it is more often than not more sensible to toss than fix, which is completely non-sensible.
Way too many times I have been told or simply realized that it is simpler, cheaper, more expedient, etc. to buy a new item and throw out the slightly damaged old version, than to try to get it fixed. This was horribly apparent when I took my Cannondale mountain bike years ago because a small part was damaged. This small part was no longer made and in fact they resized the part it fit into that suddenly this $10 part rendered a $800 bike practically unfixable or rather unpracticle to fix.
That bike still hangs in my garage waiting for me to find the part on e-bay or repurpose it or something. I just can't bring myself to part with this almost perfectly good machine.
I have several laptops and CPU's and various drives waiting to be worked on and "fixed" litering hallways and our office. Cindy's been begging me to just get rid of them, but I keep telling her that they're not ready for the landfill or E-wastefield.
My latest adventure into "fixing" an almost ok product is my 2cnd Generation Shuffle which had a failed battery. I went online, found that I could purchase a replacement battery and replace it, saving probably like $50 not factoring in my time of course.
So I ordered the battery.
I needed some special tools to get into my Shuffle, so the $50 saving would be closer to $40, but I would have some new tools which is always a good thing.
It turns out the battery I had was for the older Shuffle. I didn't realize this of course until I had taken apart the devise and could compare the two batteries. Now at this point I could try and find the right battery and hope that I could successfully install it, which after taking apart looked doubtful. I could try to return the battery, which would mean postage both directions. And more of my time.
I slid the battery and parts into a rubbish bin. At least it wasn't as big and expensive as a bike or computer.
Lost time, money, effort, shuffles, which were already broken, but mostly proved the point that it is more often than not more sensible to toss than fix, which is completely non-sensible.
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