Saturday, February 27, 2010

Consumerism at its Best

So the Wii Fit Board is quite a popular thing as some of you may know. The weird thing is this has been out for over a year now, but there is a little shortage of them around WA. Let me explain.

We started looking for one when we got our Wii (on a trade, we traded a guitar for a Wii) because I had heard its a great tool for working out and staying active.
So we started seeking them out online on places like Craigslist or Amazon.com and amazingly there wasn't any. Eventually we found one at the store and James bought 2 thinking he could sell the other one for some extra money.
Well that one additional Wii Board turned into about 10 more that we bought and sold again at a higher price. People are crazy wanting these.
We had someone this week drive from Ellensburg to our house here in Puyallup which is about a 3 hour drive AND you have to get over the Pass in the Mountains. That's crazy.

People are just not willing to wait for items to return back into the stores so they are willing to spend whatever to get what they want WHEN they want it. And of course, they want it NOW.

We discovered that Nintendo and other game makers are not making a whole lot of any video game accessories or systems due to the Chinese New Year. So production is a little delayed. And getting items from overseas like China and parts of Asia where nearly all video game items are made take awhile to get to us. Slow boat from China type of thing.

But thanks to the great American need for stuff NOW, I have my Wii Fit Board paid off in full and I had some extra grocery money this month.

I know you are probably thinking that's extortion to be buying something for around $100 and then selling it for an "X" (I'm not telling you HOW much we made, just know it was enough) amount more then the retail price. But you know what? It worked and while we are done doing that it just goes to show that consumers are CRAZY when it comes to wanting something.

Imagine if consumers were like that about paying off their debts? I don't think we'd have such a high rate of consumer debt if they had the same passion to pay off their debts as they are about getting MORE stuff.

Just crazy.

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