Why?  Because of this.

This stupid little cable lets you plug your iPod into receiver that has a CD changer you’re not using.  (This stupid little cable is actually pretty ingenious, but anyway.)  I found it on eBay, which will put one in my mailbox in 3-5 days for $2.68.  Not bad at all.

Just for fun, I called Radio Shack to see if they carried them.  It’s worth a small premium to be able to put one in hand now and everybody likes the idea of being able to do business nearby to support their local economy.  Radio Shack has them for $7.49.

The nearst location to me wouldn’t even bother to pick up the phone this afternoon.  (They did have the same answering machine as my parents, so I was tempted to leave a message that said, “Hey Ma, call me back.”)  That puts me at the next closest location, which is about 7 miles away.  I thought about hopping in the truck, but then I thought about time, gas and rush hour.

14 miles at the federally-suggested 50.5¢ a mile is $7.07, which is almost as much as the plug itself.  Add in tax at Radio Shack and this $3 gizmo ends up costing $14.93 and that’s before you factor in an hour worth of time to fight traffic, a mall parking lot, and getting the kid behind the counter to actually find the part.  I think I’ll sit here and wait on the mailman.

Saved any money lately by shopping on line?  Tell me about it.

Aside from food and gas, almost everything I’ve bought over the past 5 years or so has been online.  The real deals don’t exist in brick and mortar stores.  Of everything I’ve ever bought online, I haven’t had a problem with anything except a single unimportant missing gasket on a set of tail lights I bought for the truck years ago.

Sometimes I will opt to pay more to get something now.  Last week I bought an iPod.  I could have saved a decent chunk of change online, but I was in no mood to be patient.  I cancelled Sirius and was about to go nuts trying to appease myself with broadcast radio.  I ran up to WalMart on my lunch break and grabbed a black 4th gen Nano.  I have really enjoyed it a lot.

I came home and setup iTunes and started transferring songs.  I also started shopping for accessories.  The first thing I ordered was an iTrip FM modulator.  Locally, they’re about $50.  On eBay, I paid $10 including shipping.  (Make him an offer for $6.01and decline the insurance.)

I also wanted a case.  The first thing I found was the waterproof Armor Case but they’re not actually available yet.  In the mean time, I settled for the Naked Case.  Direct from the manufacturer, they are $22.99 shipped.  On eBay, I found one for $12.50 with free shipping.  I ordered it Saturday and it came today, even though Sunday and Monday no mail ran.  That was incredibly fast!

Unfortunately, it arrived with scratches inside of it.  It came in retail packaging but it appears to be slightly used.  The seller was listed as Shao Xia Ma from San Francisco, CA.  He had 100% feedback and claimed to be an official distributor for the product’s manufacturer.  Everything seemed legit, but this is what came today.

I know I was just eventually going to scratch completely destroy the case myself, but it still sucks to get something halfway worn out that you expected to be new.

I’ve contacted the manufacturer to see if they’ll hook anything up and I’m getting ready to e-mail the original seller who has conveniently disappeared from eBay.  We’ll see what happens.

*UPDATE*

On 2-18-09 I received an e-mail back from the seller.  It reads:

please return the item back to us and we would process a replacement for once we get the origiaal back,sorry for the inconvenience.

Sounds simple enough but I’m completely leery of sending anything back to a seller that doesn’t exist anymore.  I’d rather have a scratched case than no case, and getting something used for $12.50 is definitely better than getting nothing for $12.50.  Besides, this is just a temporary case anyway until I can get my Otterbox.