Knock-off: A Stocking Stuffer Tale of Frugality

[ehowton]

Both my kids want iPods for Christmas this year. But I don't want to spend the $100 it would cost for me to get them each a Shuffle. Then I saw an ad on TV when I was at my dad's house a couple of weekends ago:

http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/Inno-22.html

That's a $12 cheap Chinese knock-off with a $7 coupon. $5. I bought two (coupon applied only to one), one black, one pink. Shipping was $10 for both. They failed to send the black one, replacing it with a silver one, but shipped two 2GB models at no extra charge.

Here's a side-by-side comparison with my authentic iPod:









It doesn't use iTunes, rather it shows up as a drive in Windows. You simply populate it and it plays whatever you throw at it. drax0r got one of these as a vendor gift the last training he had which was the first time I've seen one. I can't speak on its battery life, but last I heard his wife was using it as her primary portable mp3 player.

My kids will be thrilled and are too young to know the difference.

Go me.

Comments

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, you amaze even me.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Its fantastic! A couple of days before Christmas, I'm going to load'em up with all their favorites and full charge them. They came with a USB cable, an A/C outlet charger and headphones. BAM!

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

That AC adapter is going to come in mighty handy not having to tie up a USB port to charge. Just make sure it doesn't overheat the player or the charger.

[anakngtinapa.livejournal.com]

Wow. Very very clever.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I have my moments.

[panacea42.livejournal.com]

Very impressive deal, FTW :-)

It'll be interesting to see how long they last, but at $5 ea. you can afford for them to be disposable!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

My research prior to purchasing didn't turn anything up nefarious, but yes, if they don't last long, nothing lost! Mostly I wanted to be able to use these as a tool to ascertain the level of responsibility of my children. They both have a Nintendo DS, but those aren't allowed to leave the house. This will be an inexpensive assessment.

[bry-the-heretic.livejournal.com]

My boys keep failing miserably at responsibility assessments. I began testing them ,on this most important of life tools, after I caught one of them using their Game Cube as a surfboard. A month later the Cube was dead. I won't even go into the conditions or the locations of the games.

Maybe I should reassign the cat upkeep duties to their mother???

[bry-the-heretic.livejournal.com]

You are a master Frugalogist!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Everything has its season.