Search, Research, and Research Again

I guess I'm a research buff. Particularly in the preparation and selection of an upcoming purchase, I invariably feel compelled to examine every last design detail, and anal-retentively nitpick at the features or flaws that I believe will irritate me in the future. (Sometimes it's just even knowing that there's a flaw in it -- even if I'd never notice it as a user -- that would eat at me.)

Example 1: before getting my GTI back in 2001, I visited 4 different VW dealerships in two countries (where I happened to be anyhow), and scoured the VWvortex forums daily for six months before I signed at the dealership.

Example 2: I studied the workings of several "perpetual motion" watch technologies and browsed watches online for weeks on end, before finally setting my sights on the Seiko that I got.

Example 3: After double-digit visits to different consumer electronics stores, taking some 50+ photos with two different cameras, and even borrowing a model for 1700+ photos over 3 weeks, I'm still in the middle of deciding which digital camera to get.

And so far, for each of these purchases I've made in this method, I've been overly happy with the decision I've taken. I can only hope that in the future, such a lengthy process continues to reward me!

That said, I did buy my Powerbook G4 17" on a whim.
And my SonyEricsson W800i was quick too.
But my hurried purchase of the Panasonic FX07 was a big $300 mistake.

Huh. Interesting.