Impulsive Me (Or, Why PayPal Should Have a Breathalyzer)

Once a year or so, I get the itch for a big-ticket purchase. Sometimes, I go years without scratching it. In 2006 it was a big French-door refrigerator. In 2007, it was a range, microwave and dishwasher. In 2008 and 2009, I cooled my jets (though there was a new computer in there somewhere). In 2010, even in these economic times, I got a new car, but the old one was eleven years old, and I'd owned it for nine. So that was not particularly uncalled for.

As recently as mid-2010, I got some "found money" of about $650 that wasn't expected, and I really couldn't think of a thing I wanted, and I just put in in the bank. Well, it's spent now! On Friday night, after a night of food, drinks, games and more drinks at a friend's house, I came home and sloshed into my desk chair. When checking my email, I came upon a Google alert that I have set for a particular model of HDTV that I've had my eye on. See, our old HDTV (yes, they've been around long enough to be old) was purchased for $2000 or so in 2004. It still works, but not without quirks. The panel on the front doesn't work, so you have to use the remote at all times. The picture has lost much of its clarity and some of its brightness. There are bars burned in on the sides from 4:3 shows. And when the picture is filled with a light color, you can make out "MSNBC" burned in at the bottom!

Mitsubishi WD-60738, my new toy

Anyway, I've sort of been wishing for my TV to die, so that I could justify the purchase of another. But it keeps hanging in there! And then I got that email alert on Friday night. It wasn't the first. I've let several of them go by. But this time, it was exactly the set I wanted, it was about half the price the set goes for at RC Willey or Fry's, it was tax free, and had no shipping charge! If I'd waited for a sale here in town, I doubt I'd have gotten it even close to that price, I'd have had to pay tax, and would have had to figure out a way to get it home. Filled to the gills with red wine as I was, there was none of my usual pragmatism to worry about, so CLICK! Right on that PayPal button!

So, sometime in the next week or so, we'll be wheeling the old 55" Mitsubishi (all 4-foot by 4 1/2-foot by 2 foot of it) out to the garage, awaiting a friend who's going to use it for salvage. Then, I have to find a piece of furniture to set the new one on, since it doesn't have a base. Then, I have to figure out where to put the cable box, Blu-ray player, center speaker, right speaker, receiver and cd player. Oy. I always forget how much work new stuff is when I'm lusting over it! But the good news is, my total cost for the new set was about a third the price of the set it's replacing.