This is my first diary. I've always heard "write what you know," so here goes...
I'm an out-of-work graphic & web designer and I've been trying to make ends meet by selling off all of my possessions on eBay. Yesterday, I sold a stereo and the buyer paid a lot of money to have it shipped 2nd day air so that it would get to him before his wife returned from a trip. I had to rush to get it packaged and to UPS. It turns out I didn't have the right size cardboard box and I'd also run out of black ink for my Epson inkjet for the label.
Since I was in a hurry I made a trip to Staples, instead of scrounging and going through eBay. Big mistake! Can you guess how much a bundle of three empty cardboard boxes costs? Yes, they cost $11!!! And one black ink cartridge cost $25. Holy shit, is the only thing I can think to say about those prices.
Economics is not my area, but, seriously, what are the mark-ups!? 1,000%? How much could three cardboard boxes possibly cost Staples? I'm guessing 25 cents at the MOST. Is it price-gouging? Is it inflation? What the hell is going on? Are there laws against marking-up items too steeply?
And don't even get me started on the printer ink. How many standard ink pens can you buy for $25? I understand that they sell the printers cheap and make their profit on ink and paper, but still, these prices seem beyond outrageous to me.
Has anyone else seen examples of clearly outrageous prices when they've been shopping recently?