How To Easily Decide What Expensive Tech To Buy

There’s some tech that no matter how hard you look, it will cost you a significant amount of money. Some items include television sets, wireless phones, and so on.

Concerning computers, unfortunately there is nothing that has the build quality of PCs made years ago. For example, when Radio Shack sold Tandy branded computers prior to the MS-DOS era, they were built like tanks. Big, heavy, rock-solid construction. And nothing ever broke on them. In fact the only thing that would happen are things that would wear out rather than break, such as the paint coming off the keyboard keys or the monitor getting burned-in.

In addition to that, tech has such a high turnover rate that there is no confidence left in whether anything will stay current any longer.

There is a way to decide what to put money towards concerning your expensive tech however.

Future-think six months in advance.

A few examples:

There is a cell phone out there you want to buy. It costs $150. For a cell phone, that’s expensive. But it does all the things you want it to do. Look at the phone closely. Understand that in six months, some paint will be worn off. There will be scratches and nicks. But if you are okay with that, buy it. If not, don’t.

You have your eye on a new computer monitor. It is two inches larger than your current one. The resolution is better and you can read stuff better on it. And it fits on your desk just fine while still having the size you want. Being that LCD monitors last at least a bare minimum of 5 years, go ahead and buy it. It will still operate exactly the same in six months as it did when you bought it new.

There is a digital camera you’ve been eyeing. Everything is great about it, save for the fact it’s missing a few features you really want. But the price is right. Should you buy it? NO. You will regret not having the features you wanted the moment you start using it. Don’t cheat yourself like that. Spend the extra cash for what you want to do.

Should you be concerned with resale value?

Never. Being that tech is such a throw-away type of product now, resale value should be the absolute last thing on your mind. In fact you shouldn’t be thinking about it at all. Buy with the intention of keeping it until it’s so unusable that it has to be thrown away.

Consider new tech to be just like buying a new car on a smaller scale

Those who have bought new cars before understand that the moment any car is driven off the dealership lot, it loses 30% of its value. Tech stuff operates the exact same way. If you paid $200 for it, received the item and opened the box, it’s now worth $140.

Things you can safely assume that spell "cheap" in a bad way.

1. If it comes in choices of color, it’s built poorly.

The only time anything tech is offered in color choices is when the item is losing sales. This usually happens with entry level smaller items, such as cell phones, GPS devices and so on.

2. If it’s silver, it will probably break sooner.

Silver is used instead of black for one reason – it’s cheaper to produce. Anything with a black case costs the most to make. It is no coincidence that black-cased items usually last the longest while silver-cased breaks much sooner.

3. If it’s labeled as a "gamer" product, stay far away from it.

You can safely assume anything labeled as a "gamer" product is nothing but absolute junk. Sure, it’s got "wild" colors on it and pretty stickers, but the tech itself is usually garbage.

4. If it’s included in a "combo" deal, that means it’s not good enough to sell on its own.

Combo deals for physical products are found routinely at many vendors. But what this usually means is that they will take two cheapo products and put them together in the hopes that some suckers will buy that junk.

Remember: Ask your six-month question about any expensive tech you buy, and watch for the telltale signs of cheapness for others.