That iron triangle

A rule I follow especially when buying tech, is to buy refurbished or second hand wherever possible.

Sometimes it’s quite easy, as there are stores like Reebelo, mResell and OzMobiles who only sell refurbished items, with warranties etc.

Occasionally though, it can be slow. Eg, about a year ago, I bought a refurbished laptop but I’d had to wait until one with the specs I wanted became available, which from memory was a couple of weeks.

When I tell that story to family and friends, some of the reactions are what I expect… They say “I don’t have the patience for that – I just like to be able to walk into JB HiFi, buy the thing, and take it home”.

Patience is a factor for sure, but to me it’s about something else.

You may have heard of the iron triangle: “You can have it fast, cheap, or good… Pick two”. The idea obviously being that something is rarely all 3 of those things.

While they’re not my only criteria for buying stuff, if I stick with just those 3 criteria then to me, going to JB is fast and good (usually), but rarely cheap.

Buying refurbed is good and cheap (usually), but rarely fast.

The only thing I’m really sacrificing is the speed of getting the thing in my hands, and I’ve learned to live with that.

One simple method that’s helped is the 4 stages of owning “stuff” that I share periodically (usually around sale time), which is a quick and easy way of taking the shine off of new things, and making buying decisions less emotional.