How Being Obsessive Can Be a Good Thing

Nov 10th, 2008 by Nut

I’ve written about two recent purchases I made that were tough for the cheapskate in me—it’s tough once you’ve done all that crazy math where a simple $20 buy can compound into thousands of dollars down the line. But you still have to live your life.

Anyway, those two recent purchases are a Nintendo Wii and the Android G1 phone. Last week I made another “extracurricular” buy—a Wii game called Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. After I bought the game, I realized that for all three purchases I was totally obsessed with each product. Not only that, I was obsessed for a LONG time.

But isn’t that unhealthy and obsessive and therefore bad? I’m not so sure, and here’s why:

Research: Being obsessed with something means I read every article, every review, every bit of “stuff” I can get a hold of about a product. For the Wii it was pretty simple since it’s been in the news for quite a while. For the phone I literally read a few hours a day before it even came out. I read previews, interviews with the people making the phone, what users thought it would do, etc. I even trolled forums where people discussed the problems and things they were loving about the phone. It was a month or so of just ridiculous information overload. I don’t know what I said to the guy behind the counter when I went to buy it, but he looked at me and made a face, “I just started hearing about the phone last week,” he told me. I knew more about it than he did! With the soccer game it was the same thing: I read every review I could, noticed that the 2009 version would come out next year, and realized that $17 for a used copy was a great deal. These were not compulsive buys, they were well-researched buys.
Time: Lots of people have a rule about buying stuff where they walk away and think on it for a few hours, a couple days, or even a week. Being obsessive means you’re sinking a lot of time and energy into something. For me, it meant I didn’t just whip out my credit card and buy the Wii, the phone, or the game. It gave me that cooling-off period just in case I actually wasn’t that into it. I’m sure I’d be writing about all kinds of other stuff if I didn’t have that time to let myself cool off and lose interest. It’s just that in these three cases, I never cooled off. I’ve built my own computer on Dell.com a whole bunch of times, but then I walk away and lose interest. Obsession+time ≠ compulsiveness.
Price: The two aforementioned bullets give way to this third one. If you research the hell out of something and you take your time, you’re going to get a better deal. In the case of the Wii and the phone, there was no such thing because the Wii’s price is fixed (unless you go used) and so was the phone’s. But if I would’ve waited on the phone I could’ve gotten it at Wal-Mart for $30 cheaper. I’m still trying to hassle T-Mobile into giving me some sort of rebate or something for that. Why? Not cool, that’s why. The soccer game is a better example: I went to Gamestop to buy a game for my brother in law and noticed they had a used copy for $17. This is kind of like having a watch list of stocks—if you see something on the list at a great price you don’t have to do additional research (you’ve already done it if it’s on your list), you just go ahead and buy it at that “great” price. That’s what I did and when I saw it on the shelf for that price, I knew it was a go. As they say, “You stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.” All I had to do after that was make sure it came with a manual and that I could return it if there was any problem. So far there hasn’t been.

When you’re in the throes of an obsessiveness, it’s tough to imagine that it’s actually a good thing, but when you think about it, it’s a way to protect you from buying things you don’t really need. It can actually turn you into a smarter, more responsible shopper.

I’m curious to hear other people’s stories of obsessing over something to the point where it got you a better deal or saved you money.