“Opportunity Cost”

It’s about time, not money.

The concept of Opportunity Cost is a key principle in the field of economics. For me, it’s most relevant to my free time.

A few days ago I sold an old printer on Craigslist for $20. It had been sitting in a box for months and I was never going to use it.

Without checking the printer first, I handed it over and took my $20 bill. Frankly I was just happy that someone was picking it up from my condo so I would haven’t to A) feel the guilt of throwing it away or B) have to drive all the way to the salvation army to drop it off.

Two days later I got a text.

“Alo the printer was broken”

“What seems to be the issue? Did you get new ink cartridges?”

“Its broken in the back doesnt close”

Ughhhhhhhhhh! Granted this situation was my own fault since I didn’t check the printer before actually selling it, but I didn’t want to waste any more time on this situation. It wasn’t worth the $20. Though obviously it WAS to the buyer.

I asked if I could just paypal a refund to the purchaser. Not only that, I offered a 25% bonus on top and made it $25 for their troubles. They couldn’t do paypal for various reasons and I had to waste an hour driving to meetup with the buyer to return a $20 bill.

Tonight confirmed something I guess I’ve known for a while, I will gladly throw cash at a situation if it saves me time.

I hate wasting time.