What’s in a name? AKA – Mr Market Who now?

First off, I can see you all scratching your heads.  What is a Maven?  Is it a one-eyed raven?  Sorry to disappoint all you GoT fans out there, no it is not.

Let’s see…
Is it a bird? – No!  Is it a plane? – No!
It’s actually Superman.  I am superman.

A maven is “almost pathologically helpful”, someone who “wants to solve other people’s problems, generally by solving their own”.

The idea for this blog came about when I was reading a fantastic book called “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell

In it he describes market mavens in the terms outlined above, and explains us as “information specialists” or “people we rely upon to connect us with new information”

And as I read it, it dawned on me.  Holy Crap, I’m a Maven!  My friends ask me what new tech or lifestyle products they should buy,

“Hey MrMarketMaven (not my real birth name unsurprisingly, I’m just kind of the opposite of a fame seeker) I’m in the market for a new (insert gadget here), which one should I get?”

Even if I haven’t been in the market for that thing myself, I take it upon myself to pore over the details of all the best contenders.  I look out for any niggling issues, I weigh up the spec sheets, I consider the price, I check a bunch of sites to find the cheapest price, and then a few days later I see them and maybe drop a one liner on what they should get and where they should buy it from.  Like it was nothing! Like I didn’t spend hours on it for them.

But wait, there’s a whole world of people out there!  I can help you all, not just my family and friends!

I can be a genuine bona fide maven of all things in the market.  What should I call myself? MarketMaven (Price tag $2,000) – hmm, no thanks, MrMarketMaven (Price tag $20) – Hell yes!  And so, this blog was born at 6.46pm on the 3rd of April 2018, weighing in at a healthy 633 words.

OK, so it’s taken me 33 years to sort my own blog, but hey, better late than never right?!?

Break it down for me – you’re taking too long, I still don’t get it

Here I’m not going to review each and every gadget, lifestyle product, item of clothing, perfume, whatever.  I’m just going to put the best product available in my humble opinion at three price points.  Low, medium and high.  I’m also going to recommend when I think you should trade up and treat yourself and when I think you should trade down and save your cash.

The benefit to you:

I may try and save you money, I may try and save you from yourself.  I love new stuff, I don’t like paying a lot.  I’m originally from Yorkshire in England and I’m an accountant.  That’s as much personal info as you’re going to get from me.  The take away is this, I’m frugal, tight, but know the difference between something that’s cheap and something that’s good value, and I’m here to impart my buying wisdom to you.  I’ll have buying links below each item which probably earn me a commission.  I’ll try and recommend the cheapest sites, but I may also recommend one that’s not strictly the cheapest due to the speed with which they deliver, or general user friendliness.  I might be tight, but sometimes cheap isn’t everything.

Don’t forget to recommend me to your friends, family, grandparents or anyone who just doesn’t have the time or the inclination to do the research I’ve so diligently done.  Bookmark this site, new recommendations are coming all the time.

Remember, I’ve done the research so you don’t have to.

Enjoy.