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About 16 months ago I bought a new RCA home theater system. Surround sound, Internet content, the works. Brought it home and hooked it up to my antiquated (22 year-old) RCA TV by way of its RCA cables and was thoroughly enjoying it.
About 30 minutes after the warranty expired it began giving me problems. Eventually it quit working altogether. My son Googled the symptoms and found a lot of people were having the same problem and that RCA wasn't especially concerned about it.
This past weekend I headed off to Walmart to purchase a new system. I absolutely was not going to buy another RCA unit and finally settled on a nice Phillips system for $179 out the door. I spent the next hour unplugging all the speakers and related misc from the RCA and then wired up the Phillips. That's when reality set in. My old RCA TV didn't have an HDMI connection and the Philips system didn't have RCA jacks. Carelessness on my part.
I couldn't really afford a new TV, so it was off to Gold Mine Pawn and Gun to see what kind of deals they had on a decent-sized flat screen TV. Came home with a 32" Samsung with all the toys for $120, and stopped back at Walmart to grab an HDMI cable. Now we're ready to roll, right?
The Phillips was defective out of the box. It'd power up, but never finish booting itself or whatever Blue Ray systems do. It was essentially a brick. By now I was frustrated enough to eat scrap metal and spit nails. Back to Walmart I go to exchange the Phillips - after taking it all apart and boxing it up. Walmart is decent about exchanges and refunds so I quickly had my money back. I almost went back to get another Phillips, but instead bolted out the door and returned to the pawn shop.
The nice young lady remembered me from earlier and asked if the TV had malfunctioned. I explained my situation and she guided me to a brand-new, never opened Samsung system. Seems that the original owner had purchased it a week or so back, and his car engine went down literally on his way home with it. The retailer (not from Walmart) wouldn't take it back so the poor guy pawned it to have money to fix his car. It retailed for $249. I got it for $175... four bucks cheaper than the Phillips.
Hooked it all up and it worked great. A better system feature-wise than either the Phillips or the RCA. Later that day however I was running an errand and suddenly steam was billowing from beneath the hood of my trusty old '89 Jeep Cherokee. Ended up having to replace the plastic coolant reservoir which had cracked. This caused me to wonder if perhaps the Samsung system was cursed, given the previous owner's similar problem. Have not yet inquired at the local Catholic church about having an exorcism performed on a Blue Ray player. 
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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Whatever you do, don't call in the Exorcist[^] - pea soup will destroy the new TV!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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Alan Burkhart wrote: Came home with a 32" Samsung with all the toys for $120
That's a cheapo 
Germany -> 379€ (reduced) / 559€ (regular)
Prices in $ 465$ / 686$
How the hell do such prices work  ?
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HobbyProggy wrote: How the hell do such prices work ?
Over here we call it "off the back of a lorry"
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"Second hand" or "Preowned" goods are always cheaper than new.
Except on FleaBay, where the idiots will bid more than the value because...because...um...nope, dunno why.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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eBay used to be a great place to sell stuff until they figured out they could take whatever the idiots bidding on things paid over the odds for themselves.
Listing fee, final value fee (30% for electronic stuff the last time I sold a laptop), then fees to PayPal.. you can lose up to a third of your sales price these days 
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Well okay, second hand stuff is usually cheaper thats right ^^
I didn't get that one.
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One of my ex-wives became partially disabled awhile back and started an Ebay store. She's beginning to turn a profit and plans to support herself with it. She raids local garage sales and then resells people's junk. Amazing.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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What an adventure! What dedication for home entertainment. 
Maybe it is cursed. Hope the setup works out for you.
"Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul."
-Douglas MacArthur
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It's working great so far. Never had a TV with all the built-in content before (I know,I'm behind the times) so I had a lot to learn. But it's been fun. Definitely got to get a keyboard for it though. Searching YouTube with the remote is a major pain.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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Alan Burkhart wrote: Walmart is decent about exchanges and refunds so I quickly had my money back
I have no problem recommending Walmart for electronics. Unlike actual electronics stores, Walmart employees "partners" have no interest in trying to find out what's wrong or trying to blame you for anything you might have done wrong.
My best example yet of this sort of thing: Computer bought by a friend at Walmart, started freezing on disk I/O after less than a month of usage. SpinRite spent an entire day working through the first few hundred sectors and was simply not progressing (the hard drive manufacturer's own diagnostics tools also reported all sorts of errors, if they ran at all). Got the whole machine exchanged, no questions asked. Based on my experience, all local computer stores would've had me run virus scans, uninstalling anything that hadn't shipped with the machine, roll the OS back to its original state, etc.
Sometimes you're better off buying your electronics from places that you know will treat returns like a faulty toaster.
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I buy most electronics at Walmart but not computers. The partners generally lack product knowledge. Otherwise Walmart is my 1st choice. The Best For Less and all that.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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Alan Burkhart wrote: I buy most electronics at Walmart but not computers. The partners generally lack product knowledge.
When I buy electronics, if I have questions I haven't already managed to get answers to before walking into a store, they're not questions most employees in the store with a "sales" title will be able to answer anyway...which is exactly why sometimes I'd rather buy from a place where the employees will think of a product I'm returning as nothing more than a broken toaster.
Ever talked to a Geek Squad member from Best Buy? I'd rather talk to someone who won't pretend to know anything about anything.
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 I think between my 19 yo daughter smashing my cars up and my wife nagging the elephanting out of me about here smashing up cars, I'm going to have a heart attack.
My wife even made the comment that she's noticing I'm drinking more... well duh
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Buy your daughter a already smashed up car (yet still save of course) that way it won't matter if she hits something
That's what I did for my first car (k the main reason was I couldn't afford anything else but still...) and I had a blast in that car.
Never having to worry about where to park it and such was nice.
Tom
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Tom Deketelaere wrote: Never having to worry about where to park it and such was nice.
Yep! My second car was bought specifically for driving round London. A Simca gawd-knows-what I bought for £10, it started, stopped, and looked like the veteran of a couple of dozen accidents. You could park it anywhere and not get boxed in (because it was obvious that it just shoved it's way out anyway); cars always gave way at junctions rather than lose a wing; it was brilliant. For a total heap of junk. I sold it after a year, for £10, to the bloke I bought it off!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Hmm mine was a bit more costly, but did sell it for half the price again after 2.5 years.
Here we have a rule that the person entering a road from the right has priority (stupid rule I know) but I loved to do that in the city I worked. It's know for having a lot of rich people there, so making all the Ferrari's and Bentley's and what not break like hell was fun, and the look on their face when they realized they almost crashed (at low speed) into a car that only costs as much as their bumper (probably) and that I was in my right, that was just priceless
I miss that car. With the one I have now (company car) I keep checking if I locked it, I'll even avoid parking in certain area's.
Ah well I guess that's progress in live right?
Tom
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OriginalGriff wrote: You could park it anywhere and not get boxed in (because it was obvious that it just shoved it's way out anyway); cars always gave way at junctions rather than lose a wing; it was brilliant.
I have always enjoyed that about having an old clunker. It gave the message that I didn't care about another scratch or dent.
People gave way on the road and didn't park too close because they knew I would just bang their car on the way out of a parking spot if I was boxed in. 
Once you lose your pride the rest is easy.
I would agree with you but then we both would be wrong.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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Has car wrecking become a sport for teens? 
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
There's a fine line between crazy and free spirited and it's usually a prescription.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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Hang in there and keep your chin up.
It's all temporary and will work itself out. Doesn't make it any easier, I know.
edit - I would figure out "why" she is wrecking cars? Is she that bad of a driver, or is there something else at play.
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Slacker007 wrote: It's all temporary and will work itself out
Yes, with children the first sixteen years are the worst...
[edit]Except in Spain, where the first eighteen years are the worst, apparently[/edit]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
modified 8-Dec-14 5:37am.
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Quote: the first sixteen years are the worst
So far, I have found the first twenty-six years are the worst.
Note: My son is twenty-six tomorrow!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Yeah - but at 16 you can throw them out and change the locks...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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No you can't. There is the Missus to reckon with...
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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