There’s nothing wrong with being frugal.  I believe when one needs something, (s)he should do the research and make the purchase based not only on the price alone, but also on the combination of reliability, aesthetics, ergonomics, appeal, etc.  When one doesn’t need anything now or in the future, one should not buy an item just because that item is cheap. 

Case and point – a friend of mine.  He runs a mediums-size hospitality business with a fairy constant demand for reliable IT solutions.  There are around 10 people performing administrative tasks, along with 10-15 more performing day-to-day tasks on IT-related equipment (scales, keypads, scanners, digital copiers, etc.)

Yesterday I stopped by to see how he was doing.  As we were conversing, he was standing in the pile of printers, cables, Nortel phones, computer parts, monitors, towers, power supplies, and other random crap.

- What’s with all this? – I asked.
- Oh, this … I got a really good deal on all this.  There’s some inkjets here, one little laserjet, about 6-7 telephones and 2 telephone switchboard systems.
- What about those? – I asked and pointed to the misshapen heap of computer towers.
- Those are computers I picked up at the same auction.  The company that sold them went belly up.

Knowing my friend, I recognized that he got excited about picking up “all those computers” for just a couple of hundred bucks.  However, I knew for a fact that his computer network a) was not going to expand b) was up-to-par with the tasks at hand.  I knew that because I set it up for him.  All machines were at least 1GHz Athlons with 256Mb of RAM.  The all ran Terminal Services, so it really didn’t matter how fast they were – the server did all the stepping.

- So what are you going to do with all this?
- Upgrade! – was his answer.

I tore into the first tower.  AMD chip, 512Mb of RAM, everything small profile, the tower was actually a little cube.  I plugged it in – not a peep.  I measured output voltage from the power supply – steady 5.03V.  Voltage from the motherboard – anywhere from 3V to 6 V.

- Your motherboard is shot, – I said authoritatively. – I’d pull out the memory and the drives, and throw the unit away.
- No, I can’t throw it away.  They’ve only used this computer for a year.
- Well, you can hire a repair guy at $50 per hour to take a look at this, but there goes your “good deal”.
- I’ll look at it later. – he said.  The tower started a new pile.

After examining 4 towers, 3 inkjets, 6 phones, and a box of keyboards and mice, I recovered 2 decent computers, 2 phones, 1.5 printers, 2 sticks of 256Mb RAM, 2 CD-RW drives, 4 optical mice, and 4 keyboards.  The rest was junk – though probably fixable, it was not worth anyone’s time.  His total bill was around $700.

Would I do something like that?  Hell no. 

I would never in a million years buy more crap while my systems are perfectly operational and do not need any upgrades.  I revel in the fact that all of my machines would be identical, with identical settings, peripherals, wallpapers, and screensavers.  They would be easy to upgrade and maintain.  I will never have to remember which machine has what type of RAM and hard drive because, that’s right, they would all be the same.

You will not “always get a good deal” because “you just know how to shop”.  If you go for a misshapen pile of computer crap, you are going to end up with a smaller pile of computer crap.  Even if “this one thing alone is worth, like, seven hundred when bought new”.  Wanna guess why it’s not worth that much NOW when you bought it from the back of a truck? 

The big picture is always this – you get what you pay for.  Exceptions don’t count – they are like winning a lottery.