FiveCentNickel (a great personal finance blog, I suggest you visit it if you haven’t yet and definitely bookmark it) posted a great resource for all you bargain-hunters out there (well, bargain-hunters who buy books and CDs instead of borrow them from the library or friends) – it’s Amabuddy.com. All you do is call their number at 617-712-3574, enter in the ISBN number (easy to find out if you have the book or CD, instructions on Amabuddy’s site), and then wait for the computerized voice to respond. They will tell you the title you chose, the average Amazon.com review rating, the list price, the Amazon.com and its lowest used price available. It then stores the data on the Amabuddy site so you can retrieve it later. This service is going to get a spot in my address book.

It’s rare to see an article putting down hybrid vehicles in this day of $3+ per gallon gasoline but I just read one today by a CNN/Money staff writer by the name of Peter Valdes-Dapena. The article, titled Hybrids: Don’t buy the hype, takes considers total cost of ownership, something that I and many other bloggers have mentioned, in addition to straight fuel consumption. While you will consume less gasoline with a hybrid, the total cost of ownership difference between a traditional and a hybrid vehicle is too large. Besides the attention grabbing hype-ish title, the article doesn’t really put forth a terribly strong defense for his argument.

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Listed rather prominently on the Yahoo! Finance homepage is the announcement of eight new columnists (though nine biographies are listed, I’m assuming Suze Orman is considered an “old” columnist). If you look at the biography list, it has a few of the recent personal finance highfliers – David Bach of The Automatic Millionaire fame, Robert Kiyosaki who authored Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Suze Orman, Jeremy Siegel (Stock for the Long Run) and famed television star – Ben Stein. Three of the nine have Ph.D.’s, most of them have written a book or two, and each will probably be able to provide a good reason to return to Yahoo! Finance after the market closes. The ones I didn’t immediately recognize include Professor Charles Wheelan (he wrote Naked Economics), Laura Rowley (author of Money & Happiness: A Guide to Living the Good Life), Ken Dychtwald (he’s written a bunch of retirement books), and Daniel Pink (he wrote A Whole New Mind). If you have the time I suggest hopping on over as each one has written an introductory post to give you a taste of what he or she will be trying to offer. It’s rare that you get in at the ground floor of a column but here’s your chance.

My friend Melissa, a rabid Baltimore Orioles fan, told me yesterday about a designated driver program available at Camden Yards. There is a booth operated by Aramark where if you present a driver’s license, are over twenty-one, and sign a document indicating you won’t drink then you will get two free coupons for soft drinks. Details from the Baltimore Orioles website:

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There are a lot of websites out there that blog about Mad Money and recap the entire show in painful detail for you. Some go as deep as listing every call in the Lightning Round and indicating Cramer’s opinion. TheStreet.com Staff writers also produce a detailed recap each show which probably guarantees that their recap is complete and correct (something difficult to believe when it’s one person typing furiously at their computer day after day). In addition to listing every company Cramer is bearish or bullish on; they discuss the interviews held, the opinions expounded, and the other little things mentioned on the show. If you’re a fan of Cramer, who looks perpetually on the precipice of an aneurysm, you’ll want to make these recaps part of your daily read.

It’s predicted by practically everyone that’s capable of reading the legend of this CNN map that the price of gas is going to go up. By 1AM Sunday, according to NOAA’s prediction of its path, there will be seventeen large refineries and twelve small refineries within its influence, not to count the number of offshore refineries not represented in this map. According to Michael Schlacter, the chief meteorologist for Weather 2000, it doesn’t even matter where Rita makes landfall because “Anywhere within 60 miles of the eye will get clobbered.” Comparatively, Katrina shut down fifteen refineries which represented 3.3 million barrels a day of refining capacity. Read the full CNN article for yourself… they (and Peter Beutel of an energy risk management firm named Cameron Hanover) are predicting $5 a gallon!

Perhaps this will spur on more discussion of our heavy reliance on petroleum (rather this than some terrorist event/attack, right?). Read onward for a list of specific refineries affected and their typical outputs:

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I’ve never sold a house so I don’t entirely understand their side of the process (so take this article with a grain of salt), but I do know what I looked for as a buyer. I do know that not a lot (percentage-wise) of buyers go online and search for homes on the For Sale By Owner websites so as a seller your potential market is already smaller. I also know that a buyer agent, which most buyers will have, has little or no incentive to show their clients an FSBO… that’s another factor decreasing your potential market. Finally, even if you do find a buyer, they will have to bring “buyer agent-like expertise” to the closing table (if they even make it that far) which is something a total novice probably won’t be able to do, let alone feel comfortable doing. But ignoring the final point expertise point, which was the main thrust of the previous article, you’re still betting that an educated buyer (or buyers preferably) in search of a FSBO will find your house and put in a competitive offer. I think that is a dangerous bet to be making.

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One of the books I started reading recently is titled Hot Property : The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization, which is all about counterfeiting and how it affects… well, basically everything. The books starts off by throwing a bone to the fake Rolex’s and Louis Vuitton bags, then delves into how it affects you (airplane part manufacturers selling parts not to spec, re-dated perishables like rubber, etc), how pervasive counterfeiting is, etc. Well, this brought me to thinking about Chinatown, NY and the sale of counterfeit products. Would you buy something that’s fake?

Here’s how it works if you want to buy a fake purse or shiny thing in Chinatown… you go down to Canal Street in Manhattan and nine times out of ten, someone will approach you and drop a brand’s name (Tiffany? Louis? Prada?). If you’re interested, you’ll perk up and look at them. They’ll flash out a catalog (or a large semi-glossy page) of products with prices listed underneath. If you say yes, you basically follow them down an alley to a back room where they’ll have boxes full of this fake stuff.

The alternative is you walk to one of the storefronts, preferably one of those incredibly narrow and deep stores that already sells Proda, Lovis, and Tiffony’s (Po1o is popular too) stuff anyway and is “not quite” counterfeit. Walk up to the guy running the show and ask him if he or she has other, better purses. They’ll look at you and probably will take you back into a room. It’ll be behind a pseudo false door (the walls are all slotted so you can hang stuff off them, the one in the back simply opens up to the storeroom) and the tiny room will be PACKED with cardboard boxes. He/she will show you a few purses, haggle briefly, and either you’ll buy it or they’ll shuttle you out.

I’ve actually never bought a fake purse (I don’t carry a purse and its ridiculously bad form to give it as a gift to a girl when you’re a guy, but somehow awesome if you’re a girl giving it to a friend though, it’s a horrible double standard!) but I’ve been on many a trip to the nebulous black market of high end accessories. I would say most people don’t realize how easy it is to get counterfeit products in the States (everyone knows of the $1 DVD movies or $10 for Microsoft Office 2003 in Hong Kong, but that requires a trip to Hong Kong and some sweating in customs)… so would you buy a fake purse if it meant chopping 80-90% off the price?

Also, from what people tell me, quite often when you go to Asia and see products really cheap, it’s not because the products are counterfeit but because they are stolen. With all the production in Asia, often times the workers steal a few to sell. Either way, it’s still illegal stuff. Incidentally, I wrote this article because I thought people would find it an interesting read on how simple the infamous “NY Chinatown black market” is and this isn’t meant as a guide or anything to help you buy illegal goods. Since it is illegal, you could get in serious trouble for buying stolen goods or counterfeit products.