Try this one on. Roll it around the mind for a moment.
A customer calls. He’s having a problem with his GameCube, specificially with the power supply. It’s burned out, and he wants a replacement.
We don’t sell replacement power supplies. The only place I know to get them is direct from Nintendo. I recommend that the customer give Nintendo a call or visit their website–they would be happy to sell him another power supply.
He tells me he had called Nintendo. He didn’t want to pay the thirty-odd dollars they charged, after factoring in shipping.
I said I thought that sounded like a fair price for what the power supply did.
Would I take the system back in trade? he asked.
Because it had a bad power supply I could take it back, but as a broken or incomplete system, I replied. I could give him thirty dollars toward another GameCube if he were interested.
How much would that make a new GameCube with the trade-in credit? Seventy, plus tax. For a pre-played system, forty, plus tax.
He said he would think about that–it sounded better to him than buying a new power supply from Nintendo. He rang off.
The guy was willing to pay seventy dollars to replace a piece he could buy for thirty. Some things in this world just don’t make sense.
Well… that’s $30, plus the weird screwdriver, plus labor, plus the risk of screwing something else up. Between those, springing for the used one instead for $10 more isn’t that bad of a trade if the used system is still in good condition.
That said, I’m surprised that a piece of Nintendo hardware died like that; I thought they were pretty darn near immortal. :p