By John Toth
The Bulletin
My hunt for a newer cellphone for a good price took a turn for the worse before taking another turn for the better.
I found one online with more than the specs that I had in mind, and I thought that I hit the jackpot. But when the phone was delivered, it lacked some features that I needed. I could work around most of it, and it was worth a little inconvenience, considering all the memory I was getting, I thought.
I didn’t give up and resolved many of the issues. Then the game changer popped up.
It was not reading my external drive and wanted to reformat it. I have worked on many old mainframe computers and know what reformatting means. It erases all information on the drive.
That was a deal breaker. I was one button push away from losing all my photos dating back a couple of decades.
When a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. I boxed up the Chinese knock-off phone and returned it for a store credit refund.
I went back to the Internet machine and continued my research on phones under $200. Yes, not $1,200, but only $200. I’m not spending all that money on a phone just to get a few features I don’t need and probably won’t use.
It took a couple of hours, but I found a Motorola late model Android phone (Moto g power 5G) for $179. It had less memory than the phone I returned, but still enough that I won’t have to worry about it for years to come.
The next day it was at my doorstep. This was the chosen one, mostly because it did not try to erase my external drive.
On the outside, it looked brand new. I loaded in all the programs and started going through them one by one to make sure they all worked. It was a keeper.
I had to stay up late at night to get this all done, because the geek inside me demands that I make the phone perfect, just the way I want it, before I can get any sleep. It’s a bad habit. I’m sure that continuing to set it up the next day would be more than acceptable to most people, but I have always had problems doing this. It needs to be done right now.
You may ask, “John, why don’t you buy one of those beautiful brand new, shiny cellphones just released?”
I can’t, even though it is a write-off for our business. The point is that all our needs are covered by these “gently” used phones that are a lot cheaper.
If I break or lose a $179 phone, I’ll feel bad about it, but it’s not all that big of a loss. If I lose or break a $1,200 phone, I’ll feel a lot worse. I’m sure I could buy some insurance for it, but I never do. It’s just an added expense, the way I see it.
Many others are buying those new, shiny phones. The companies won’t go broke. The masses are standing in line when the new models come out. I come into the picture later, when those phones are turned in for new ones.
It is nice to have 5G service, but it’s not all that important. My old 4G phone was as fast as I needed. Most programs don’t need all that speed, at least not the ones I use. The only reason I started shopping for a newer phone was because the old one was running out of memory, and I ran out of apps to delete. I needed the ones I kept.
Whether for business or personal use, I don’t believe in spending money for something that does not have a useful purpose, can do a lot more and is more efficient than the item it replaces.
A good friend of mine, Terry Wade, who used to own 21 Subways in the area, but started as a pot washer in Galveston, told me one time why he didn’t buy fancy cars. He could afford any car he wanted.
“What would my employees think if I drove up in a very expensive car?” He asked this as he parked his run-of-the-mill SUV.
That’s not being cheap. It’s being smart.
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