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Comment by dougmwne | Hacker News Reader

I used to chase these kinds of deals, but if you stop to think about it, spending hours to optimize for $10 is almost certainly a terrible waste compared to what you could have been doing with that time. Deal seeking always eats up many hours of time for these small gains. That analysis skill applied to any kind of business problem is easily worth thousands.

No offense intended if this is pure stamp collecting.

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When I was salaried, the marginal value of my time was $0. Thar extra thirty minutes shopping costs me nothing and gives me satisfaction. Now that I'm retired, my marginal value is still $0. Taking longer to spend money is in itself valuable. If I get discouraged by the shopping and don't buy the item I was looking for, that's the best outcome for my wallet.

The marginal value of your time was not $0. You could have been doing something other than shopping with your time. That thing could have afforded you pleasure or had some other utility. The dollar value of that utility was not zero.

Even resting has some benefit to you. Unless your only alternative is some mildly unpleasant activity which doesn't allow you to rest, that time was not valueless.

> Unless your only alternative is some mildly unpleasant activity which doesn't allow you to rest, that time was not valueless.

So you're saying I shouldn't be playing MMORPGs all the time?

Entertainment is useful. Excess entertainment is wasteful. Keyword being excess. I calculate the waste as: cost of the entertainment plus potential loss of income from missed opportunitys of work and training. Of course if your entertainment is bring some other tangible benefits, like exercise, then that needs to be factored in.

I run an e-commerce business and see the opposite as well.

People who earn, say, $30/hr won't take literally 2 seconds to scroll past the sponsored listings and save $50+.

How do you know the incomes of random people visiting your site?

I don't, it's basically just a "normal wage" for non-professionals in Australia.

My point was that people will spend an hour working to make $30 but won't spend a minute looking around to save $50.

I’m probably one of those people that don’t bother with the sponsored items. I’m not much of a spontanious shopper, if I buy something then I most often know what I want before I even go to the shopping site. Example is if I’m buying a tv then I don’t care if Samsung has an equal model at half off if I’m already set on getting a specific LG. I do look sround to see who has a better deal on the item I’m looking for however.

That only works if the use of that time towards a more productive activity actually pays off in that short duration; sometimes comparing shops and making sure you're getting the best is the most fun part, so there's some utility derived from there as well. At least for myself, I only really deal-hunt during Black Friday and anytime else I get what I need when I need them.

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