$300 Camera Now Sells for $30 (New)

Less than five years ago, we purchased a digital camera. It sold for $300 and we purchased it for $170, because we snapped up a floor model at an Office Depot store that was going out of business in Downtown Miami.

With our 43 percent discount, the digital deal seemed like a pretty savvy, very frugal move on our part. But fast forward to the 2006 holiday shopping season in which we spotted our camera (or a model pretty close to ours, with the same memory and features) selling new for $30.

That steep fall -- from $300 to $30 -- shows how sharply the prices of must-have objects drop given the steady pace of innovation and consumer demand. I've seen the same trends in video games for kids. Hot, hot, hot games that sell for $50 to $70 are sold used for less than $15 --just weeks or months later.

My teenage son just told me that games for GameBoy Advance are now selling for 2 bucks each.

Those sharp price drops make me think about the real value of so-called must-have gadgets, games and gizmos. Sometimes it pays to wait for a newer, cheaper model. Maybe.

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The Frugal Duchess Boutique
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