New Monitor (Sort Of)
Goddamn do I hate real estate brokers.*
Where was I? Oh yeah: Despite my visceral aversion to the site, lately I've been poking around the For Sale section, searching for things that I've often dreamt of buying, but only for really, really cheap. Like, it'll be 2am--still early in the insomnia cycle--and I'll grab my laptop and search for "iPod shuffle," then sniff indignantly when I can't find one for a dollar. "It's the size of a stick of gum," I loudly proclaim to no one, "and should be priced as such!"
And yes, 90% of the time it's Apple stuff. I'm not one of those people who's blindly loyal to Apple, but I enjoy using many of their products. And I often look for them used, because I totally agree with the contention that Apple products are overpriced for what they are.
One of these products is the Apple Cinema Display. I use one at work occasionally, and after watching my China videos on it one day, I became convinced that I needed to get one. It's one of the higher-quality displays out there, for technical mumbo-jumbo reasons, but there's nothing unique about the technology it uses.
What is unique, at least to pre-2008 models, is the low-profile aluminum housing. I think Apple must have filed a patent on it, because from what I can tell, all other manufacturers kept churning out beautiful displays wrapped in fat, ugly, socially awkward molded plastic. Yes, I'm kind of shallow like that.
So is everyone else, apparently. People regularly paid a 40% premium for aesthetics and branding. And, in turn, the resale value was incredible. Stupid-incredible. 5-year-old monitors were going for more than the price of new ones from other brands.
But today, on Craigslist, a gentleman put his 23-inch Cinema display on sale for a completely reasonable price: About 100 bucks less than the lowest price I'd previously seen. It was a great price for any IPS monitor, really. (There's some of that tech talk.)
His reasoning: "It's old, and I got a new iMac."
As a Craigslist For Sale newbie, I was overly cautious, and Googled the heck out of him to make sure he was a real person, or at least an axe-murderer who was being up-front about his identity. Turns out he's the CEO of an advertising agency and lives in a giant apartment with his hot, personality-free wife, and young son. Actually, I didn't know the last three quarters of that statement until I showed up at his building earlier this evening.
And I swear, while I was there, I tested out the monitor in every conceivable way, minus licking it. It wasn't until I got it home that I noticed that the top and bottom of the display have a discernibly pinkish hue. Most colors look very uniform (especially compared to my cheap old HP monitor), but on web sites with boring white backgrounds (ahem), it's pretty apparent. You can sort of see it in the picture above.
The pink has actually faded a bit now, or my feeble brain is compensating for it.
But I bought it for video, and in that capacity, it really shines. For the price I paid, I can't really complain. I'm a skinflint, pure and simple. Not the best match for Steve Jobs and Co., but they've already got quite a bit of my dough.
And, as I've said, I'm not some mindless Apple-addict. I can quit anytime I want. There's lots of other technology companies who deserve my business. Er, can you excuse me for a second?
Mmmmmmm...Apple-y.
*This is a New York thing. If you are a real estate broker in Omaha, carry on.
