Probably not many people own today’s Endangered Species, but we once did. Tom ordered shutters for his mother’s house. Usually he is very careful about measuring exactly, but this time they came out the wrong size and couldn’t be used. Since they were custom-made, non-returnable, and paid for they were ours.
So they sat stacked neatly in our basement for years. We couldn’t get rid of them because Payment Depreciation had kicked in. Because we paid so much for the shutters, we couldn’t just give them away until we had gotten our money’s worth. We didn’t know anything abour behavioral economics then.
The new shutters had to sit in the basement until: a. they had “depreciated” in value to the point where they could be discarded without regret; b. another homeowner appeared needing exactly that size; c. Tom’s mother’s windows shrank.
What finally happened was that we donated them to the nearby Habitat for Humanity store. There they could either use them for one of the houses they were building, or resell them and make some money toward other supplies.
It wasn’t a complete loss. It made us paranoid about measuring stuff, a trait we still possess.
So they sat stacked neatly in our basement for years. We couldn’t get rid of them because Payment Depreciation had kicked in. Because we paid so much for the shutters, we couldn’t just give them away until we had gotten our money’s worth. We didn’t know anything abour behavioral economics then.
The new shutters had to sit in the basement until: a. they had “depreciated” in value to the point where they could be discarded without regret; b. another homeowner appeared needing exactly that size; c. Tom’s mother’s windows shrank.
What finally happened was that we donated them to the nearby Habitat for Humanity store. There they could either use them for one of the houses they were building, or resell them and make some money toward other supplies.
It wasn’t a complete loss. It made us paranoid about measuring stuff, a trait we still possess.