Financial & Travel Musings

We’re in the midst of selling our French property and planning major florida vacations as a celebration of the day we receive the cheque.

The only problem is that the sale is taking so darned long that I think the kids have given up hope of ever getting to Disneyworld. Not that it’s stopped them nagging us about it, of course!

Planning has even went so far as us getting one of those US$ prepaid cards for the initial expenses whilst we’re there. At the rate the sale is progressing though it’s likely to have expired before we get there

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If you’re trying to sell sell textbooks it’s often quite a sobering experience as to the value of second hand books.

The problem, of course, is that discounting is rife thanks to the likes of Amazon and that really drops the price of second hand books. However, that’s not always the case and sometimes rarity lifts the price considerably even of something that you would think obsolete.

For instance, just a few nights ago I realised that I needed to refresh my memory of calculus for a course that I hope to start in the new year. As it happens I still have a copy of a mechanics textbook printed way back in 1970. It’s seriously dated and although the theory is fine the practical parts use outdated units. Anyway, I figured that since it was a textbook with origins back to the 1940s there would be an updated edition of it around. There isn’t unfortunately but that same book is available second hand for about twice what I paid for it new 30 years ago yet for half that amount you can get a brand new copy of a similar textbook.

Even more interesting is a course that I looked at as a child in the 1970s which is now on sale for several hundred poundswhereas newer versions of the course are available for maybe twenty or thirty pounds. So, often you’ll find that the value of your course texts will increase over time.

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Amongst the easiest Christmas presents to buy are plasma tvs.

In theory, all you have to do is choose the largest size that’s within your budget and go for it. Of course, with the rapid change in technologies these days the largest that you can afford depends a lot on the time of day that you go to the store. Or, so it seems sometimes.

Last night I was out looking around and found even 50″ sets going for around the £500 mark when in other shops the best you could get for that was 42″. That’s for the same full-HD spec TVs too so it’s comparing like with like.

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