Possibly more so than in any other area of technology, a used computer can often get you some fabulous deals. As most people know, that high-tech, state-of-the-art computer that you buy today, will be nothing more than so-so in a few months. That's after spending top dollar to get the 'cutting edge' technology.

I've been guilty of buying the best that I could get on more than one occasion. I always regretted those decisions down the road.

It's great having that blazingly fast PC with a hard drive that you're sure will never be filled up. Ah, just wait a couple of months and things start to look a little differently. All of a sudden those 512megs. of RAM don't quite cut it when even the average equipped machines are now shipping with 1gig. of even faster RAM. Also, that 'huge' 80gig. hard drive just doesn't compare favorably to your friends new 250gig. SATA drive.

Hey!!...what happened to my 'state-of-the-art' dynamo ? Well, it's the same thing that's been happening to them for the last nearly (30) years now. They're nearly outdated by the time they leave the dealers shelves.

As I mentioned, I've been lured in more than once by the impressive stats and the burning desire to have the ultimate in computer hardware, also in other areas...cars for one, but this is about computers though.

I'm sure some, many ?, of you may not remember the original Amiga 1000 computer. It was released just after the Commodore computer had been discontinued. I'm not going to bash the machine in any way, on the contrary. I bought one and I loved it. At the time, it really was an impressive array of computer technology...for it's time. However, as with getting the cutting edge components today, there was a price to be paid. If I remember correctly, and unfortunately I do, I paid $1,995.00 for that seductive, luring, must-have beauty. I had to have one even though I couldn't really afford it. I say couldn't afford it because I had to charge it. If you have to charge it, and it isn't going to be paid off anytime soon...you can't afford it. I finally learned that after many, many years of spending literally tens of thousands of interest on credit cards. I did eventually learn my lesson...the hard way.

Anyway, back to the Amiga, which I still have by the way. It was cool, way cool, way high-tech. It had 256k of RAM, plus I got the 256k expansion!! It even came with not one, but two serial ports!! This was in the day when a serial port was an addon option on any other machine of the day.

Now I will say, something that still amazes me to this day...the operating system. It was Windows before Windows was Windows. I remember seeing photos of many opened windows on an Amiga display and that was nearly enough to get my order. I can remember getting my machine home and set up, and one of the first thing I did was to see how many windows it could open. I don't remember exactly, but it was impressive.

Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked here, my point...even though, in my opinion, the original Amiga was a true work of art, as well as a machine that was at least 'almost' ahead of it's time, after I had owned the probably $3,000.00 dollar machine, including accessories and software, for just a couple of months, I realized that I had just an average box for an above average price. One that I got to pay for over a few years!!

Was that the only cutting-edge, high-tech., I'll have the best for years to come computer purchase that I made ? Nope, not even close, I'm sorry to say.

Remember the Apple IIs ? I do...man do I remember. At the time, circa 1984 I guess, the Apple IIs were still at the top of the personal computing heap. Although the IBM PC had been released, the Apple had been out for long enough to be very popular, have tons of software available, and to just still have tremendous staying power.

I decided that I'd go down to the local Apple shop during my lunch break from work. Secretly I knew I was going to buy one. I had tons of money so I could just whip out some 'c notes', a bunch of them and pay for it, right ? No, not right. Again, I whipped out the plastic and a little while later I was packing in what seemed like tons of Apple hardware and software into my Mom's basement.

I wish I didn't remember what I paid for this piece of the future, but I do, pretty close anyway. It was like $2,600.00 for the 'base' system. This was a monochrome, single hard drive (single sided, single density no less) system no less. A real screamer with the 6502 8 bit microprocessor and 64k of RAM. I want my money back!! The thing I remember liking best about my Apple IIe, I didn't mention it was an 'e' did I ? Ah yes, it was the 'enhanced' model, light years ahead of the old technology Apple II. The original Apple II didn't have lower case characters built into the character ROM, the high-tech. IIe did.

Anyway, the thing I liked best about my Apple IIe was a cool game called Miner 2049er. Man, I'll never forget that game, it was great. One reason I'll never forget it is the fact that I never completed it!! I STILL HATE THAT!! It really was a fantastic game, especially for the day, but again, after I started to get that 'I've got a small fortune in this computer feeling', I decided to sell it and recoop some of my money. Well, it would probably be worth more today than what I sold it for. Actually I don't remember what I sold it for, but I do remember that I took a beating on it. Plus...my Miner 2049er is gone...probably forever. I have looked for that game a time or two online, but I can't remember if I ever found a PC port of it or not, I'd pay handsomely for a copy that I could run on this machine right now.

Obviously these examples of buying very expensive computers, only to watch the value plummet, aren't exactly what you're up against as a consumer today in the computer market, but they are somewhat similar.

My point, hopefully obvious by now, unless you have lots of money to throw around, why buy the fastest PC, with the biggest capacity hard drive and the most memory, when you can buy something at least in the ball park, often a very small ball park, for many times less than the 'ultimate' ?

I've bought several new machines since my Amiga, my Apple IIe, my this, my that, but one thing I've learned is this...I never, ever, buy the absolute top of the line machine available. I'm not sure that I ever will, even if I do ever have the money, it's really a waste.

Also, just as you can save some serious bucks on a new model that's a couple of levels down from that cutting edge machine, if you venture into the used computer market, you can truly save some ungodly amounts of cash.

For what you might pay for the top of the line, new machine, you can go with a computer that will still run all the same software, do all the same things, for much, much less money...and guess what...get (2) or (3) of them!! Why spend the several thousand dollars on the pretty PC in the store when you can get something very similar, albeit a few 'generations' behind in processor speed, maybe a smaller hard drive and a little less RAM, but get enough of them to set up an entire network in your house or office.

Take your money, go to the best auction site or dealer, buy computers for the family, get printers, software, some other accessories and have enough cash left over to take the family out to dinner where you can spend the night explaing to everyone that you're going to destroy them all on the cool network compatible games that you just purchased with some of the money that you saved when you DIDN'T buy the latest high tech., cutting edge, blazingly fast, soon to be 'just another Amiga/Apple IIe' reminder of all the money that you didn't have to spend.