原创 How can this be real?

I noticed that cables can be an utter rip-off – especially for those consumers who don't know what they are doing. Even a little 6-foot USB-A to USB-B can cost you an arm-and-a-leg in the wrong store.

I'm fortunate in that there's a little computer repair and recycling shop called TechStars just around the corner from my office in Madison, Alabama. All of the services and parts they offer are really reasonable price-wise. For example, they charge only $2 for a brand-spanking new 6-foot USB-A to USB-B cable.

I know this price is current, because I purchased just such a cable only last week. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about...

The thing is, while I was waiting for the guy to ring me up, I idly glanced around the shop, and I saw something that I simply couldn't believe – a wall-size display of brand-new standalone scanners for just $5 apiece. I was so blown away that I took a picture of one of the boxes with my iPhone as shown below:

These are billed as 36bit true color, hot plug-and-play, suitable for use with PCs and MACs, and driven and powered by USB. I took a look at one and it really was rather tasty – an A4 scanner about the size of an old telephone directory (but not quite as thick).

Looking at the box we see that it says "Windows 95 / 98 / 2000", so I'm guessing that these are old units, but I have no doubt that they would work with a modern computer.

Only $5!! ... I had to fight myself not to purchase a bunch of the little rascals to give as gifts to friends. The only thing that stopped me is that everyone I know already has a combined printer / scanner / toaster / microwave / whatever (I can't keep track of all the functions these things offer these days).

But only $5!!! ... Give me strength!!! ... I cannot wrap my brain around this. I mean to say, if I decided to create a product ... any product ... it would cost me more than $5 to create the box and packaging, let alone the cost of shipping the thing around the world, and that would be for an empty box without an actual product.

I really don't know what to say (and that's not something you hear me say very often)...