One thing which I think is essential here is your income and expenses.
Let me exaggerate here to make a point:
- suppose you are a very poor kid who lives with $10/day but yet you wanted these speakers and saved for years and years to reach that amount of money and bought them. Then yes, you should now regret your purchase was so early, because the amount you could have saved would have allowed you to do much more in your life, and the few months of more wait are nothing compared to the "years and years"
- on the other hand if you were a billionaire, that money was probably something you give to your maids for a tip if they dust your instruments in the way you wanted, without asking -- and saving it would make zero difference in your life
I am sure you are (like all of us here) somewhere in between, but your "feeling" will depend mostly on your current status, and perhaps on the way you grew up (for example I grew up in a situation more similar to the poor kid and had to save for 3 years to buy my first keyboard -- and today I have to constantly fight myself for not wasting time and mental energy in penny-pinching which today I don't need at that extreme level I grew up with).
David Lai If so, maybe next time I need to reconsider my upgrades, and time them well so I don't have to pay as much?
Did you have to stretch yourself quite a lot to get these speakers or was it a regular purchase which you could do by living within your means? If the latter, just be happy and carry on. If the former yeah, maybe next time consider timing your upgrades to have more money for groceries....
David Lai So, do you think I've been "ripped off?"
Stores need to make a profit. As much as we would like to pay just for the thing we are buying, the matter of fact is that we are paying for their rents, their janitors, and many other things. Some of these prices are quite volatile, and we see that on Amazon, where prices are quite volatile too (unless they are "forced" by the manufacturer to be "stable"). Sometimes stores realize that a product is not as profitable as it needs to be, and it's only taking floorspace from other things they need to have on stock, and hence they sell at a lower price, often even at a loss (this might be the case here). So I don't think you've been ripped off, just that you missed a possible discount. Have you been enjoying the product for the last 3 months? Would it make you feel better considering that extra expense a rental cost for the additional time you had the speakers? Are you satisfied with the store you bought it from? Are you happy to contribute to their profit and hence their existence, rather than contributing to their losses and hence the possibility of sending them out of business? Of course the answers to these questions will be weighted differently depending on you being in the "poor" or "rich" category.
