This is a blog post I did in October of 2008 on iembracechaos.com, and the one post I send people to most frequently.
is it coffee or an investment?
Anyone that knows me well, knows that I cannot live without my latte machine. It’s a Pasquini machine, basically a smaller version of the ones in the trendy coffee shops.
This is a pricey machine, but after doing a cost analysis on how much I was spending at Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, Caribu Coffee and many other coffee addict hangouts, I decided it was time to make a purchase. (Yes, I did the cost analysis, I used to be a financial analyst) Being the thrifty person I am, I had to price shop it to death.
The best place to buy beans, is also the best place to buy a machine. wholelattelove.com I bought this machine about 4 years ago. It retailed then for $1700. Again, being “one of those people” who will not pay full price, I bought it refurbished from whole latte love through eBay for $1300. Yes!!! A great deal.
I use this machine everyday. (mine looks much cooler than the stock photo, hey?) And then some. So due to heavy use, one of the knobs broke. I had to buy my Lavazza beans last week and decided to look up my machine to see if they had parts. I was shocked to see my machine out there (exact same one, I checked) selling for $2699.00!
So the takeaway here is that coffee IS an investment. :)
Now here’s the December 2010 update…
The price dropped, but just a tiny bit. It’s still one of the best purchases I ever made. It’s 6 years old now, the only minor issue is the brew timer mechanism doesn’t turn off automatically, it has to be stopped manually. Not a big deal though. The machine new is probably worth more than my car now. If it breaks, I will fix it. :)
And just for fun, a coffee addict photogram…
