Note to self

(Attention Conservation Notice: I could try to dress this up as some sort of commentary on modern capitalism, but it's just me comparison shopping. This is boring EVEN FOR ME, so feel free to skip this entry.)

I've been buying some interesting point'n'shoot cameras (...for certain low values of "interesting"...) - and they each need batteries. Sometimes I'm lucky, and it runs on ubiquitous (and cheap) AAs - but sometimes it takes something preposterous like the now-rare "223", or a PAIR of 123s.

So I buy a $3- or $5 camera... and then I need to find a $10 battery to see if it works.

A 123 lithium cell is:
- $14 for two at my corner drugstore;
- $12 /2 at Home Despot;
- $10 /2 at Walmart;
- $9 for one ($14/2) at Walgreens.
(All these prices are plus my local 8% sales tax.)

All of those options are pretty ridiculous to fire up a camera that was $3 in a thrift-shop, or a $5 camera from eBay .

Going on line, I bought eight of these 123s for $18.95 delivered. Say, $2.38 each. Let the record show that that that is less than half the price at Walmart, about a third of the price of my local drugstore. And if you're willing to try weird-ass Asian brands (and wait for delivery from Hong Kong or someplace), you can get these for less than two bucks a piece in small quantities.

Now, this little hobby of picking up amusing cameras at thrift shops becomes a lot more viable when it takes only an additional buck or three to power it up. Seven dollar 123s or $14 2CR5s are just untenable.

The downside is that I have a new cute little Canon waterproof WP-1 that arrived Friday - but I have to wait a few days now for batteries to come in the mail. Because I simply could not bring myself to spend $10 on batteries for it.