How long do you tend to shop for gadgets?

[ToomuchStuff]

I have two items I am and have been looking at, for six months to a year (so far); an ereader (narrowed down to the Nook simpletouch with glowlight, and the Kobo glo) and a bluray player. (have two bluray's so far and would like the Netflix ability since it should be cheaper then dvd's).

Neither has hit my pricepoint for the amount of use I think I will get from them. How long do you tend to shop for "gadgets" and such?

[rodeosweetheart]

It seems I circle around them a long time--have been wanting an undercounter radio for 5 years and saw one other day and could not bring self to buy it. . .

But I am a slow gadget adapter--probably spent hundreds on fabric in that time period.

Did just buy a cuisinart to replace one I lost 15 years ago in divorce--took me about 4 weeks of shilly shallying before found the perfect one for more money but what I wanted at our buy local hardware store.

Makes me nervous to buy gadgets, like I am going to get it wrong.

[SteveinMN]

Depends on the gadget and the price for me.

We bought a blender a couple of months ago after my wife determined that making a protein shake for breakfast each day was a good way for her to eat. We had a food processor, but that doesn't blend very well. She made shakes in a manual shaker for a couple of weeks while we researched models. We actually bought one at Target but found out in reading reviews post-purchase that it was -- umm, substandard. We shopped around craigslist for a week or so and finally found a high-quality blender at a good price from a family much higher up the consumption chain than we are. In that case, it was identifying the need, doing a trial for a while to make sure it met the need, and then buying wisely.

As for electronic gadgets, that's more of a moving target. New products and models are introduced all the time, and so thinking for too long may leave you settling on a product only to find it's no longer available. I bought a smartphone when it was plain to me after several months that it had features it had that "dumbphones" did not have and that I would use them almost enough to justify the monthly cost. I bought mine knowing it had a finite life span; we'll see where we are when it's no longer functional and whether I will revert to a dumbphone -- especially if another device will fill in for what I do with the smartphone. My wife got an iPad (Wi-Fi only) after her old laptop was damaged severely; since she is far more a "consumer" of data than a creator of it, the size and lower price (relative to another MacBook) made going for an iPad worthwhile (she loves it, btw). We might buy the next one whenever with cellular capability, but nothing is pushing that purpose except maybe the fact that her iPad cannot use skype (no camera).

We're really thinking hard about such things now, though. My wife used to have digital cable and its DVR before we married; we don't have either now and don't think we'd pay the monthly bill for it, either. Even buying our own DVR really doesn't have that hold anymore. I've been paring my audio gear back considerably. It's nice to have a couple around the house for wherever we are. But, honestly, we're not in those rooms often enough to justify all those extra items in the house.

[Dhiana]

We are not early adaptors so usually when we are interested in a product it takes a while before we're willing to put out the money for it. Of course we wanted a beautiful plasma flat screen when they first came out but refused to pay the high prices because our current box tv worked just fine. We continued to read about the technology updates and watched the prices falling.
But it wasn't until last year that we finally layed out the money for a nice LED flat screen...that was about 8 years from first look to final purchase :)

[iris lily]

I hate electronics and despise "shopping" for them. The thing I am replacing is usually so outdated that anything new is an improvement, but not always. More on that in a minute. In Best Buy my time limit is about 10 minutes because I quickly grow bored. When we bought a new tv a year ago (after criminals kicked in our door and ran off with our tv) our friend was excited to go with us. She LOVES shopping for tvs. She even offered to go across the river to get one for us that she had scoped out on a sale. To me, a tv is a tv, just get it in the size you want and let's go. She went with us to Best Buy and kept pointing out "features" but I wandered off after ten minutes to let she and DH decide.

Now the sad thing is that this tv evidently has a feature where it automatically darkens or the background gets dark or something. I thought it was the dvd player and I threw out a perfectly good and solid dvd player to get a new piece 'o crap blueray/dvd player. My old dvd player was many years old and it had a time display feature. The new one doesn't have it plus it is cheap, it takes forever to respond to remote commands, it often gets overloaded with commends, etc. I weep for my perfectly good dvd player now at the bottom of the landfill.

I did one day's worth of camera shopping online but in the end didn't require anything fancy and bought a Canon on sale at Best Buy. It doesn't seem to be a complete piece of junk, that's nice. With my attention span of a gnat, I was unable to listen to the entire pitch for an upgrade. The upgrade he tried to sell me was TEENY TINY, I can't grok how I'm supposed to use it anyway.

I bought a low end portable dvd player recently and it is another piece of junk, one that is worse than the inexpensive one I got rid of. The old one stopped working.

I believe that a new item made now is so very much cheaper than an item made just 5 -7 years go, the quality is very different in the feel of the materials.

[jp1]

If I need it or strongly want it I'll buy it in a matter of a few days to a week, just long enough to find the best price and order it. I'm not an early adopter, nor do I want a lot of gadgets, so if I'm in the market to buy it's either because 1) the one I have has just died and I want to replace it, perhaps with a more up to date model, or 2) it's something I'm pretty sure I'll use a lot and I just heard about its existence, or have finally convinced myself I actually need one.

Price point doesn't enter into it for me, unless it's something where I've always thought "it'd be cool but it's way too expensive" and now because it's a new model has come out and it's no longer the latest or greatest or whatever, the price has dropped by half or something. In that case I'll probably get it per my timeline above.

[ToomuchStuff]

Depends on the gadget and the price for me.
We might buy the next one whenever with cellular capability, but nothing is pushing that purpose except maybe the fact that her iPad cannot use skype (no camera).


I thought you could just use Skype with voice as well? (at least that is my understanding from a friend who might have to skype to his daughter when she is in a third world country with limited bandwidth/access)



Now the sad thing is that this tv evidently has a feature where it automatically darkens or the background gets dark or something. I thought it was the dvd player and I threw out a perfectly good and solid dvd player to get a new piece 'o crap blueray/dvd player. My old dvd player was many years old and it had a time display feature. The new one doesn't have it plus it is cheap, it takes forever to respond to remote commands, it often gets overloaded with commends, etc. I weep for my perfectly good dvd player now at the bottom of the landfill.

Slow response is a big part of what negative reviews I have seen out of most bluray players. I received a dvd player for xmas one year and pulled it out of the box four? years later. I do in general, prefer dvd's, due in part to being able to play them on my os (Linux) and only bought the two blurays, due to subject and cost (one concert, and one doctor who one for $1) and not being able to get the dvd's for that price (patience). I do expect I may get someones upgraded player, before I get my own (still think netflix on a month to month basis, would be cheaper then the occasional dvd). I didn't go into the dvd replacement, that I know other vhs owners did. (started simplifying then)


If I need it or strongly want it I'll buy it in a matter of a few days to a week, just long enough to find the best price and order it. I'm not an early adopter, nor do I want a lot of gadgets, so if I'm in the market to buy it's either because 1) the one I have has just died and I want to replace it, perhaps with a more up to date model, or 2) it's something I'm pretty sure I'll use a lot and I just heard about its existence, or have finally convinced myself I actually need one.

Price point doesn't enter into it for me, unless it's something where I've always thought "it'd be cool but it's way too expensive" and now because it's a new model has come out and it's no longer the latest or greatest or whatever, the price has dropped by half or something. In that case I'll probably get it per my timeline above.

I don't know of any tech that really falls into need, range. A computer MIGHT be the closest, but with an older one and Linux (or even a bootable disc or usb key and someone elses), I could do what I need to. Price is ALWAYS a factor for me (has to be factored in verses my estimated use. Cost benefit analysis) This is why I haven't had the consumer debt that drove some to simple living.

[Kestra]

Luckily it's DH's job to shop for gadgets. He does all the research, looks for sales etc. Takes weeks to months. This is for stuff for me, for him, or for joint use. It's good he's so thorough as it balances my attitude of going into stores, saying "That's shiny. Here's my money." ;)

[Alan]

I'm quick to want, slow to buy. I shopped for well over a year for an LED TV with wireless internet capabilities before finally buying a store display model which was steeply discounted. For the past several months I've been looking at wireless helmet intercoms for use on the motorcycle. Many of these units have ranges up to 800 yards and can pair up with your cellphone and GPS units as well as having built in FM radios. Bluetooth is so cool! I'll probably shop around all winter and choose a set in the spring.

[SteveinMN]

I thought you could just use Skype with voice as well?
You can, but if you're going to just use voice you might as well get on the phone and call. :) It's the element of actually seeing the long-distance godchildren that makes it popular here. However, we just tried it out on my smartphone and it worked fine, so we may have postponed an iPad upgrade for a while yet; I can live without my phone for an hour or so. :|(

[Tussiemussies]

The other good thing about Skype is that making overseas phone calls are for free if you have the other person's user name. All calls are for free with the user name, an added benefit!:)