Treadmill Desk, Day 3

Today we had a guy with power tools in the bathroom so any attempt to activate the treadmill resulted in blowing a fuse.

As a result I only got in about :40 today. I don't seem to be suffering too heavily from my exertions, however, and a lot of what I do--maybe 90%--is just fine on the treadmill desk. Still need to try more serious "mental exertions", let's call them.

I've been monitoring treadmills on Craig's List and Ebay. Craig's List gives you the best deals but also the riskiest ones. An interesting thing about Ebay is that it's rife with refurbished treadmills with starting price 15% or so lower than the "buy it now" price. What I've noticed is that most of the treadmills are not selling.

This comes as no surprise: Exercise equipment in general, and treadmills in particular, is the most disposable category of consumables. Not because it doesn't last, but because people get bored, or don't find the inspiration they think they're going to, or in some cases because the equipment isn't suitable.

And at that point, the exercise equipment begins to mock. Yes, you know it does. It sits there in the corner, sneering at you, at your lack of committment, at your lard bottom, at your pint of "Chubby Hubby". Cover it with a jacket--go on! You can still see it watching you. Baleful, recriminating, judgmental.

And soon, you'll do anything to get rid of it. But you have to get something for it. You paid so much. If you just give it away, the equipment wins. If you can turn it into a financial windfall, then who's the winner, smartguy?

Or, at least, that's what I imagine goes on in people's heads. As a result, there's always cheap exercise equipment around. But the companies that sell refurbished stuff on eBay seem to position a bunch of stuff at prices that aren't going to sell, which is something I think would be prohibitive given listing costs. It'd be interesting to see how many of these listings actually do sell, and figure out what sort of profit they'd have to be making to break even. You could probably negotiate a good price as a result.

But you'd have to be more obsessive-compulsive than I am.