Yeah, it does. But then it has helped me spend it in a much smarter manner.
Chris Sims (@theisb) once tweeted he was “buying the hell out of this”, and the link took me to the woot! shirt of the day, which was an intensely clever Shakespeare design. I, too, bought the hell out of that. Twice, as I wasn’t so stupid as to not buy one for my wife. At the time, it was only $10. It’s $15 now, which is still cheap for such a cool shirt.
Then Web comic luminary Bully the Little Stuffed Bull (@bully_thelsb) starts working me. First announcing that Barnes & Noble dot com is selling the two volume MAD’s Maddest Artist Don Martin, formerly $150, for a mere $20. I had always looked at that beast with desire in my eyes and lust in my heart. Even with shipping… and I have handled granite counter tops that are lighter… it was still like 1/6th the original cost. That’s an 80% discount. I think.
Then the pernicious little plush toy sends out a link proclaiming that the very same Barnes & Noble site is selling Criterion DVDs for half-price. This would have been the ruin of a lesser man. And it almost was, for me.
Well, not ruin, but drama is coin of the realm for me, doncha know.
I’m definitely on a budget these days, but I had a bit that could go for such a worthy cause. The Criterion discs are the whole reason the digital format was created, and anytime I can glom on to one for twenty bucks or less is a micro-Golden Age for me. I limited myself to three, one being a stripped-down Art House Essential disc, which was already reasonably priced, but suddenly became downright cheap (and how I had gone my life without owning a copy of Cocteau’s Beauty & the Beast is beyond me).
All well and good. Until I was going over my online bank account and noticed I had gotten charged for the discs twice, kinda negating the half-priciness of the whole thing. I immediately shot off an e-mail to their customer service department (the 800 number is a masterpiece of robot uncaringness) and this morning the offending charge was erased. Customer service is not just a legend, and B&N has insured they will continue to get my money, the clever fellows.
So. Almost-ruin. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m ranking that under first world problems.
That Criterion sale is still ongoing, should you be interested, and not afraid of ruin.
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