Hello there, my fine feathered Cheaplanders.
I’m going to be starting up a new type of post. Well, I guess it’s not really new because I’ve posted about thrift stores before. But I decided that I should try and do those type of posts more regularly. We spend quite a lot of time at the thrift stores, and I like writing about it.
So I’m going to start doing “Tuesday Thrift”. I won’t be doing it every week, but I’ll try and save Tuesdays for thrifting stories if there’s one to be had. This is partly inspired by Andrea’s Tuesday Tips. You might wonder why I didn’t choose “Thursday Thrift”, since the alliteration is of a higher quality.
I just liked Tuesday Thrift better.
Anyhow, this story is about buying USB cables at the thrift store. But it definitely applies to nearly any type of cable that you might need. I’d never really thought about getting these things at the thrift, until this past week where I discovered the new HP printer we bought for my inlaws didn’t come with a USB cable.
Now, I don’t think I’ve bought a device yet that didn’t have the USB cable if one was required. So, I guess I wasn’t thinking about it when we went to set the printer up at their house and the cable wasn’t in the box. The sneaky bastards - the only place they acknowledged there was no cable was in small letters on the box. The instructions gave no mention of it.
I was wondering why in the world they wouldn’t include one - but maybe it had to do with the fact that the printer itself cost only $50. “Oh well,” I said. “How much could a USB cable cost at Staples?”
Staples was down the street, so I went the next day to pick up a cable. How much was it? Well, the “generic” Staples brand of 6 foot USB cable cost $21.
$21! That’s nearly half the cost of the printer! At this point, you’re wondering why I didn’t just order one on Amazon - well, we sort of wanted to hook it up right away. I also didn’t have any spares at home. So, I went ahead and bought the cable.
Then I had a little change of heart. I figured I’d take a look in the thrift store for one.
There were hundreds of USB cables at the three thrifts I visited.
They cost between $1 and $3.
Many were brand new, with the cable tie still attached.
It sure is hard to purposely destroy a cable.
I bought two of them. They worked perfectly.
I returned the stupid Staples ripoff USB cable.
I smiled at the clerk - it wasn’t her fault.
I then decided to take a look for a car cellphone charger.
I went to the thrift store the next day
I found a Nokia charger for $2.
It worked fine.
There is no moral to this story, only a collection of short sentences at the end of a medium sized post about USB cables.
Now: fly, fly away to the thrift store, you birdies…
[Editor’s Note: We only bought them a new printer after we discovered it was not possible to hook up an older HP printer that had a parallel port to their computer. Yes, newer computers do not have parallel ports.]
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June 23rd, 2009 at 9:41 am
I know you were in a rush to get the printer working, but if you weren’t you could have ordered cables online. For example:
link
For 1 of those it is only about $3 shipped. With their costs and shipping rates I can order 20 (yes, TWENTY) of those to my house via standard (3-5 day) service for the same $21 it costs to buy ONLY ONE at Best Buy.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:04 am
@EW - This is totally true! We usually do buy things on Amazon or some other online store for much cheaper. Wow, that is very cheap for a USB cable. I had gone to the physical store thinking, I’d just get a cable just in case I couldn’t get one at the thrift, because I wanted to get the printer setup the next day and didn’t want to wait for them to ship. I figured I would just return it if I found one later. I guess I just didn’t think that a cable would be THAT much! I’m thinking that they’re jacking up the price really, really high to snare the type of people like my inlaws or parents who don’t buy things online and need the cable IMMEDIATELY to get something to work.
But also, a big un-kudos to HP for not adding a USB cable to the box. I mean, it can’t cost more than a few cents for them to throw it in… and they’re going to make it up on the ink we buy anyhow.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 am
Monoprice.com is a great resource for cables like that and they are quality stuff. I don’t recall EVER seeing a printer come with a USB cable. It really is stupid. Retail markup on them is ridiculous.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I know what you mean about USB cable. When I moved from VA to Fl at the first of the year, I had limited space in the car. So I opted for a new printer for my laptop instead of dragging my printer here right then. Wouldn’t you know , of course there’s no printer cable in the box. I was ticked when I had to pay 15 bucks for one. When I knew I had at least 3 in VA. But I couldn’t wait that long. And I manage a thrift store. And you find that very few printers come with cable these days. When I go to buy another one, the salesman alwasy ask if I have a printer cable. I smile and say I work in a thrift store. I can get them for $2. That’s what all my electrical cables sell for.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I can’t be sure, but I think that cables aren’t included with printers as a form of waste saving. These days, most people who buy a printer already have a printer and can just use their old cable. I’ve only ever seen printers fail to include cables (and yes, in Japan, it’s like that as well).
I’m surprised that you saw a USB cable for such a high price. I can buy them at 100 yen stores for between a dollar and $5. I can’t imagine there’s a huge quality difference in such cables.
June 24th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Hooray for Tuesday Thrift! That’s a fabbo idea!
We use monoprice too for all our cables. The shipping is quick and the price is amazing. Especially for high quality cables needed for tv and such.
Good point about thrift though! I never even thought to look there but it makes total sense.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:19 am
@jonathan, andrea - I had no idea about monoprice, I’m going to have to remember them the next time I need to buy something like cables.
@charliestreasures, orchid64 - I never realized that printers did not come with the USB cable. This is probably because the last printer I purchased had both a parallel port and a USB port - and I figured it didn’t come with the USB cable because at the time it was a new technology. It probably makes sense they don’t want to introduce needless waste - and nearly everyone has had a printer in the past. However, I seem to recall our scanner coming with a USB cable. I would think they might want to do the same thing, but maybe not as many people would have a scanner. Actually, the biggest waste in my opinion is the insistence on printer ink cartridges that you have to keep buying. I could be wrong, but it seems they’re basically making most of their money off the ink which is basically a “subscription program” in disguise.