Reducing the cost of technological experimentation...

eBay has done me a great favor.

Before eBay (and CraigsList and Freecylce), if I wanted to test out a new gadget, I had to do 1 of 2 things.
1. only buy cheap gadgets
2. buy a more expensive gadget and be prepared for the fact that I could lose the entire investment (a term I use loosely)

Now, however, my risk is mitigated. I can buy something, test it out, and then, if I find that it doesn't work for me or I don't see the value, I can recoup most of my money via eBay or Craigslist.

Best example is a GPS receiver I bought from my PocketPC phone. It worked fine, but I just didn't use it that much. It was cool, but the business value wasn't there.

Sold it on eBay and recouped 70% of my money. I got to test it out, play with it, understand the technology (all of which I consider to be expenses that are in line with my passion and career goals), but didn't have to fork over all of the cash in the end.

What this does is put even higher priced items within my range of risk tolerance for technology experiments.

This is yet another huge benefit to the Internet.