On my way into town, I had brought $2 in change with the original intent of treating myself to a couple of candy bars, because I hadn't had candy in a while, but as I left my street, a huge fluorescent pink sign caught my attention, advertising a huge yard sale. Then I thought, "Hm, maybe I should skip the grocery store on the way home and go straight to that sale." And so, on my way back home from a meeting with one of my clients, I stopped at that sale, and it turned out to be one of those where any money made during the sale goes to a local charity. I ended up using that $2 in change to buy:
- A silver original Game Boy Advance and a small handful of games. Original price was $10.
- A Casio battery-powered adding machine, for 50˘.
- Another stereo RCA dubbing cable, for 25˘.
Even if none of these devices actually work, I have no regrets. In fact, I feel better about giving my $2 to a charity rather than to either the Mars Corporation or the Hershey Company.
EDIT (10-9-2016): The printing calculator works as a typical four-function calculator, but it will not print and instead throws a "printer error." I'm not sure if it had to do with anything, but when I opened the case, I noticed a blown-out transistor and some damaged traces on the circuit board underneath the transistor. While I could theoretically buy a replacement transistor and repair the traces, I feel that it's really not worth investing $2 into repairing a 50˘ calculator, so I'll just use it like a desktop calculator. The Game Boy Advance, the games, and the RCA cable, on the other hand, work flawlessly, despite having to pull a piece of toothpick out of the Game Boy's headphone port. Why that was in there, I'll never know.