I found a 5D Mark II for a reasonable price on Ebay and pounced when the seller offered to allow me to pick it up sameday not far from where I worked.  I met him at a gas station and received the camera for six hundred dollars cheaper than the equivalent new in box but with the caveat of no accessories.  How much could replacing the accessories possibly cost? Well, 5 D Mark II batteries are apparently fashioned from the tears of the pope and cost $120 for battery plus charger.  The neck strap is made from the breath of fish, the roots of mountain, and the noise of cat chiming in at $30.  Finally, Compact Flash cards are forged by union dwarves that fashion them with potent runes of storage costing about $130 for 16 GB storage.  Oh, also, the camera’s from Australia so the normal two-year limited warranty and 100k shutter actuation warranty is also void unless I want to remail it from Sydney.  I determined the value of this by checking what a homeowner’s policy rider would cost to cover the same thing.

So how much did I save?  $12!  This final dose of savings was removed by the gas spent driving to the location and the extra money I spent on getting lunch out that day.  Another amazing move like this and I’ll lose a corner from my Personal Management merit badge card.