Roughly every year a new model of the iPhone will be released, and the mall will be packed with lines of people just dying to get their hands on the shiny, new device. In fact, many of these people will buy more than one. When I was in high school, I had a classmate who would be one of those people: he would skip class to stand at the front of the line. Just like those behind him, he had camped out in front of the store overnight – except he was not purchasing the new model for himself, but rather reselling it for a higher price overseas.

When I read Lily’s blog post, I remembered a conversation I had with this friend. I asked him how much he made from reselling the phones, and why he did it. Why would anyone want to buy the new model from him at such a high price? “We live in a world revolved around money and unfullfilled desires” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much I price it – there is always going to be people who want it before everyone can get it.”

I, myself, also had the newest model of the iPhone (until recently, but that’s a different story), and bought all the latest gadgets. I think consumers like myself have been conditioned at a young age the simple equation that more + new = better – but that does not give any of us an excuse to be ignorant as adults and continue this reckless behavior. There are lots of resources for us to go to in order to be more informed consumers, and not be ‘preyed’ upon. We just have to take the first step and become educated.

Further readings:

http://www.inc.com/vanessa-merit-nornberg/why-2014-is-the-year-of-the-informed-consumer.html