Value

A friend at school recently started a new business and made a really good looking green and black cycling jersey. The first thing I thought of when I saw the jersey was that I had a pair of Briko Stingers from the mid 90s that would match the jersey very well. The sunglasses have green reflective lenses and black frames with a little piece of green between the lenses. I paid $100+ for those glasses about 15 years ago. They were a prized possession like a pair of Oakleys, except I seem to follow a different code of style. Anyway, I gave my friend this pair of glasses. No charge, no big deal. In fact, I was sort of happy to get rid of them so I can have a little less 'stuff' in my house. I hope he likes them. I think it has been long enough that they may be back in style as a sort of 'retro' thing.

We have an umbrella stroller that folds up nicely for outings with the kids. Most of the time we use our big stroller that will haul LOTS of stuff, but sometimes the foldability of the umbrella stroller is priceless. Anyway, our stroller is falling apart, so my wife bought a new one. She found it at a garage sale and paid $4 for the stroller. It was perfect... until it was forgotten at the park. Sure, we've got the $15 or whatever to buy a new umbrella stroller, and if not I'm sure someone would get us one for Christmas, but there was more value in the one we had. The beauty of the stroller that my wife found was that it was already used, so we didn't have to buy a new product. That means a lot to us. (So if you want to get us a stroller for Christmas we are in the market for a small USED stroller).

I find it interesting that I gave away one of my prized possessions from high school this week and I am distraught over losing a $4 stroller. I hope that with the current economic crisis it changes what we place value on. Really, sunglasses should not be 'worth' $100.