|
SoCoder -> Blogs Home -> Blogs |
|
|
|
|
Mog
|
Why are things so expensive?!?! |
|
I've been playing around with PSPDisp, which is a display server for PSP that allows you to peek at a desktop and control it remotely using well, your PSP. So i had the idea of using Dualview on my video card to use it as a small 480x272 monitor (for whatever reason- besides the point), but lo and behold, you have to have something in the head port for it to recognize a device. Fired up google, found this thing:  -- A VGA Terminator. Just a simple 15-pin female jack with 3 75ohm resistors inside bridging the RGB channels to ground. Know how much it costs? 21 USD.Fuck that. I went to an electronics store, and picked up the materials- know how much it costs? 2.88 USD. I know people can gripe about 'well, i don't know what i'm doing' or 'i'm too busy', but is it really worth paying the extra 20 dollars to save yourself the effort of reading a quick guide to how this stuff works? I put this thing together in 5 mins, and it works just fine. Seriously, why must it cost so much for something so damned simple?! |
|
|
|
|
Comments |
|
| Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 01:49 | |
Jayenkai
|
Because "normal" people are out to earn as much money as is humanly possible in as short amount of time as they can. .. "Normal" people piss me off.. 
|
| Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 14:23 | |
|
Tikihead |
@ Jay - sounds like Capitalism
|
| Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 16:18 | |
|
Stealth |
These aren't in high demand and therefore manufacturing costs are high.
|
| Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 18:37 | |
Mog
|
And thus Supply and Demand breaks down in such a scenario. Why should manufacturing costs be so high? The raw material is very low cost - Although since demand is low, you have to make up the bulk by selling high. Stupid system... Just do it yourself.
|
| Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 19:57 | |
|
mindstorm8191 |
I think this is a situation I refer to as 'convenience fee'. Sure, you could build your own soluton, but that's a lot of work. They just want to offer you a simpler / quicker solution. It seems thats how gas stations still sell so much inside the stores.
|
| Wednesday, 21 April 2010, 22:49 | |
|
Stealth |
Manufacturing costs are generally extremely small anyways. It costs Coke very little to make a bottle of soda (about $0.10), but they sell it for a lot ($1.00).
|
| Thursday, 22 April 2010, 05:32 | |
|
Mog
|
Like mindstorm said, there's that stupid element of 'convenience', but still- is it really worth paying 2x, 3x, or even 10x more than the damned thing is worth, just to save a hassle? In this case, would it have been convenient anyways? I would have had to wait on shipping. Sure, their presentation is heaps better than mine, but my solution worked. I guess it's like cooking a steak. Yourself, it's fairly reasonable in price but you have to do it yourself, versus a restaurant which will charge you much more but all you have to do is sit and demand food.
|
|
|
| |||
|
| ||||