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Children’s Toys
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The Great Battery Rip Off >>
Children's Toys
The key to buying children's toys and accessories is finding not just the right price and selection but a reliable retailer or merchant.
If you want to be really thrifty with your money look on eBay for used but virtually new items. If you're looking for the ever popular Thomas the Tank Engine trains and accessories eBay is a gold mine.
You can search on eBay for New or Used items.
Sometimes it's just the place to go to find the popular character toy or car that's always sold out at your local Woolworth's or other toy store.
On eBay look at the delivery cost and check the sellers feedback is good to go i.e 95% and above. Does the seller offer a returns policy.
There is an abundance of new and used console games. Many have 'Buy It Now' offers
saving you having to bid and wait on an auction ending. All you need to do is hit
the 'Buy It Now' icon and pay with a debit or credit card via PayPal (you don't need
a PayPal account to just buy an item).
There are many bargain games to be had for handheld and big console games. I have found cheap Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii games, particularly used ones in mint condition for my boy and my wife who is now hooked on the Nintendo DS.
As for me I really do like the novelty of the Nintendo Wii's interactive keep you moving game play. It's fun for folks like me who aren't fussed on sitting down with a traditional games controller.
Watch those ornaments and other breakables, well worth encouraging the kids to tighten up that wrist strap to stop any unwanted damage, to your new LCD TV as it won't be the same again after being hit by a Wii Controller as a friend of mine can testify!
Don't forget Amazon which similar to eBay has a market place for new and used goods.
Amazon market place isn't an auction site but does sell used as well as brand new
items from merchants big and small from all over the UK.
Postage unlike eBay is a fixed amount depending on the category which the item is listed. If you happen to buy from two separate merchants, postage is not combined as it's like buying from different stores but under the protection of the Amazon umbrella.
Read more, in Amazon dedicated article 'Much more than Books'. Amazon like eBay is certainly a favourite in our family with padded envelopes and boxes conveniently arriving round the back of the house and the odd one through the letter box.
Traditional High Street Stores - Online
Of course traditional brick and mortar stores are now falling over themselves to win back business lost to a multitude of online stores. This brings us benefits with high street stores re designing their web sites to be far more user friendly complete with wider product and service ranges.
So it's worth browsing the traditional high street retailers online stores, such
as Boots, ELC and Toys-
As touched upon the high street online, has a more extensive range of toys than found
down town, with special web discounts into the bargain.
Delivery is often very reasonable
if not free over a certain value. You also save parking and lugging awkward items.
I would love to see a retailer who offered to assemble some of these toys on delivery. Who knows in the near future some entrepreneur reading this might just deliver, saving a lot of frustration and head scratching having viewed 20 pages of diagrams only to find you still have bits left over! I'm sure that sounds familiar to many of you.
With all those toys and gadgets devouring batteries and the contents of your purse / wallet. Please do read the enlightening article ' The Great Battery Rip Off ' for sound money saving advice.
The Great Battery Rip Off
Down at your local supermarket have a look at the stand with all the big brand alkaline batteries. At eye level you have the most expensive packs of four AA type batteries.
So you are probably thinking OK I'll buy in bulk perhaps a pack of 12 or 20 lower down the stand, as it works out cheaper than the small packs at eye level. You're right, good thinking but it's still a rip off and the supermarkets want you coming back for more disposable batteries, week after week.
We do this to satisfy power hungry toys, cameras and gadgets that devour batteries at an alarming rate all over our home.
There is a little known secret the supermarkets don't want you to know. There are high quality rechargeable batteries which last 4 times longer than standard alkaline batteries in a digital camera. These out perform alkaline's in all power hungry toys, gadgets and devices.
If like me you found Ni-
So what are they, and why do the supermarkets not stock them?
Ok these are high capacity Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries not
to be confused with weak Nickel Cadmium (Ni-
Recharge times are very fast depending on battery charger / battery capacity.
Modern battery chargers using common AA & AAA batteries can fully charge batteries in as little as 90 minutes some 60 min and even 15 minutes.
Look out for automatic chargers which cut off after a set time or even better monitor the batteries for when they are full, then reducing the charge to a trickle. So there's no problem leaving the charger on for longer than required.
What's the catch why don't the supermarkets stock them?
Some don't stock them and
those that do place them on the bottom shelf. The will likely be low capacity versions
of these batteries often bundled with a slow charger that would take many hours to
charge.
Don't forget they would rather see you return for those black and gold top
alkaline's that end up in the bin faster than a box of corn flakes.
So what capacity of Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable battery should I look for, if supermarkets sell low capacity versions?
For AA size -
Small AAA size look for a capacity of 900mAh or 1000mAh or above.
C and D size -
You rightly question whether a smaller AA can have the same power as a C or D battery? Believe it or not 2500mAh are more than adequate in most applications. I use these very handy Uniross C & D size battery converters in all sorts of kids toys including remote control trucks and the like.
You'll find high capacity Nickel Metal Hydride batteries and converters on sale from
the likes of Mymemory, Directfoto Amazon or Maplin. Mymemory have very keen prices
as they are based in St Helier -
Are they expensive? No.
As you'll have seen from the web sites above they are not expensive considering they
can be recharged many hundreds of times. In fact brand leader Uniross and Energizer
both claim up to a 1000 times! So no need to stop at the battery stand in the supermarket,
more of a bargain really!
It's interesting here that Energizer who still sell disposables realise there is a big market for quality high capacity rechargeable's and have entered in to what Uniross dominates. I wonder if other big brands will follow soon. I use both brands above and have enjoyed saving money ever since.
The only down side and I'm hard pushed to find one is Ni MH rechargeable batteries
which are left for a long time, very slowly lose a little of their charge. So alkaline's
would be better for a torch left for years in the car in case of emergency.
So that's
the low down, you can't however beat 4 times longer in a digital camera. I even use
them in TV remotes AA & AAA which aren't high drain but last for about a year before
longing for a quick charge.
And honestly they do last, I have an Olympus SP550 digital camera which devoured it's supplied set of Panasonic AA alkaline batteries in a week. I was not impressed. However I was amazed when my Uniross rechargeable's 2700mAh lasted over a month, that included a two week summer holiday and an Air show.
So that's 'The Great Battery Rip Off'. I hope you've found this article enlightening and should you take the positive step of using these rechargeable batteries it will be money saving too.
You'll also save the environment, by not throwing away countless disposable alkalines, for them to end up in landfill poisoning the ground.