By the time you unwrap it, they’ll be making a better one

Way too many choices.

That’s what I kept saying to myself and to my wife Saturday as we were out doing some Christmas shopping.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t know what I was looking for. No siree. Not this guy. You wouldn’t call what I do shopping.

Buying would be more accurate.

Shopping is what all those weary-looking people with blank stares have been doing. They go into stores with maybe a vague idea of what they want to buy their kids and Aunt Sally and spend hours upon hours looking at everything from bikes to Zinfandel. (I couldn’t think of anything clever that began with an ‘A.’)

Me, I know what I want, go into the store, find it, buy it, have it gift-wrapped and get out.

Saturday was to be no different. My wife had already bought most of the presents, but there were a few items that she needed my expert advice and financial backing on.

The list was relatively short and simple: iPod, cell phone, digital camera and Xbox.

We pretty much knew there wouldn’t be any X-boxes available, but planned on asking just in case we walked in a store just as they received a shipment.

We were right about the availability and our timing was off by a few days on the last shipment, but we did get to see the demos in action.

Things sure have changed since the last time I played a video game. Pong, I think it was called. As in ping-pong. Two white lines that can be moved up and down to hit a ball — a point of light that goes back and forth across the screen. Very intricate game.

The X-box demos were hooked up to HD (high definition for the unhip among you) video screens. Unbelievable. I can see why people play these games for hours.

We tore ourselves away from the X-box demo and made our way to the digital camera section.

Having purchased several digital cameras to use here at the Ledger and having used one for several years, I items. Also, I had done some research on the Web and decided on the perfect camera for the recipient (can’t give away the name, now can I?).

I even had the Web page printed out.

I promptly handed it to the clerk and said, “This is the one I want.”

She looked a bit puzzled and finally said, “Oh, these have been discontinued. But we have a lot of others with the same features.”

How many?

She swept her hand along the display rack.

About 60 or 70.

On one side.

We started looking at the various cameras. When we started, no one else was in the area. In the next 10 minutes, it seemed everyone in the store was looking at cameras. The herd instinct.

Shoppers see someone else who obviously knows what they are doing (Me!) and rush to make a similar purchase.

We finally decided on one. “They are all good,” I finally told my wife. “Pick the one you think looks the best.”

Then we went for the iPod. (For my older readers, an iPod is a fancy portable tape player without the tape.) I wanted the 30, the one with the video screen.

“We’re all out, but we do have some 60s. (For $100 more!)

“What’s the difference, other than the price?” I asked.

“The 30 only holds 7,500 songs. The 60 holds twice that.”

15,000 songs. I figured it out. At about three minutes a song, that’s 31 days of continuous listening. Not to mention the $1 per song cost of downloading (kinda like recording). That is, if you go legal.

I bought the 30, which was scheduled to come in the next day and it did.

Then it was on to the phone store. Again, we knew what we wanted down to the model number and color.

“Sorry, that’s been discontinued, but we do a lot of others with the same features.”

Again, way too many choices. And what’s with this discontinuing products before they’ve even been on the market for a year?

We looked and looked. After talking to the recipient (via the old cell phone) we decided on another model. It was in stock, alright. But the thing about buying cell phones is timing. You can get a new one for a few dollars if the timing is right. The same phone could be a few hundred dollars if it’s not time to UPGRADE.

Our timing was off.

Oh well. There won’t be a new cell phone under the tree and there probably won’t be an X-box under there either.

Which is probably for the best, because by the time they got unwrapped, a new and better version would be in production.

There is something, however, that will never be discontinued or go out of date, yet gives us all the choices we want.

And we all know who He is, don’t we? (Cody Sossamon is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger. You can contact him via e-mail at cody@gaffneyledger.com)

Then we went for the iPod. (For my older readers, an iPod is a fancy portable tape player without the tape.) I wanted the 30, the one with the video screen.

“We’re all out, but we do have some 60s. (For $100 more!)

“What’s the difference, other than the price?” I asked.

“The 30 only holds 7,500 songs. The 60 holds twice that.”

15,000 songs. I figured it out. At about three minutes

song, that’s 31 days of continuous listening.