>>>My advice to guys trying to sell me stuff is the same as the one they give to their candidate workers: don't call us, we'll call you.
>>>
>>>Actually, we've spent quite a lot of money recently, but not on stuff that was advertised.
>>
>>Damn, that's too bad. There's a great new product I know you would love but I won't mention its name out of respect for your principles. You would probably twit filter me for the unsolicited mention of a brand name.
>
>Asking one's peers is my preferred method. You've seen a bunch of threads here when people were asking about which satellite/cable/whatever to take, which GPS etc etc. Though I don't exactly remember whether I initiated any of those, I read them quite often. The early adopters are my heroes. The progress of mankind cannot be imagined without the guy who ate the first sausage. The guy who made it was the sine qua non, but so was the guy who ate it.
>

Does sine qua non translate to "sick as a dog for three days"? ;-) He was a braver man than me, I know that.

>>Out of curiosity, what are these things you bought that aren't advertised? And how did you hear about them? Maybe sellers have a new approach of putting products on the shelves and not telling anyone about them. Surely consumers will walk by and notice them, right?
>
>Note the "don't call us, we'll call you" above. I searched the web and looked for the stuff. Read professional and customer reviews. Googled for "x sucks" websites and read first few just to see which kind of negative reviews does it get (if it's coming from illiterate morons who don't know jack about the stuff, ignore). I do abide by my own guidelines, I'm not Microsoft.
>
>This is how I got, in the last few years, let's see:
>- two desktops rebuilt
>- two flat monitors
>- two new laptops
>- a surround system
>- scanner
>- printer
>- digital camera
>- roof rebuilt
>- three pieces of furniture (and then went to the local store to actually see it and buy from there)
>- steam cleaner (after going through several shops and finally hearing from a girl at Sears that they are called steamers but don't actually make steam as such, only hot water at no more than 60C)
>- embroidery machine (which is actually a programmable robot shaped as a sewing machine) with software
>

The stereo, computer, scanner, printer, etc. -- you didn't look at any ads or manufacturer web sites for any of them? All word of mouth? If so you have a better WOM network than I do.

>Stuff I bought off the shelf:
>
>- groceries, anything from Lowe's or Home Depot (but did look up a few things on the web first)
>- computer chairs (you have to try them, never buy online)
>- garments, shoes (but some shoes came online)
>- car parts (daughter gets all of it online for her car - the UPS guy says we'll probably get some UPS stock :)
>- dining table
>- phone (the old one just kept killing the batteries)
>
>Why ads are basically pointless? Because they are trying to make me buy stuff that I don't need. If I'm about to buy something, I know what I want, I don't go shopping for shopping's sake (I know, un-American, so shoot me). How can they knowing know what I have in mind? They're shooting in the dark. I'm only trying to recycle the bullets.
>
>If they would just restrict themselves to honestly announce the new product as is, without "every Gypsy praises his own horse". But no, we've all caught each one of them lying at least four times. So there's the "can't trust those guys" angle, there's the "they're shouting at me" angle, there's the "they just want to get my money to pay for the cost of production, cost of yelling at me, and to make a profit on it - all of it out of my pocket" angle, and then there's the "if I buy this now, they'll think the ad worked (maybe it really did), and then they'll try to repeat the trick 'cause it worked, ad infinitum" angle.
>
>So - I don't trust the ads, and don't want to encourage the malpractice.

The point where we disagree is at the most fundamental: that ads are "pointless." I don't believe they are. We disagree about this, no problem and no need to bat it back and forth.