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Buying a gadget is beginning to resemble buying a car. You walk into a retailer and as you pull out your wallet, you are pelted with all manner of service plans, extended warranties, and other tack-ons that can double the price.

The similarity should come as no surprise. Car dealers and electronics retailers both sell products on razor thin margins. Their survival depends on finding a few suckers every day who are willing to overpay for an extended warranty.

The latest brainchild of cash-hungry electronics retailers is the guaranteed trade-in, with clever names like Best Buy’s “Future Proof Your Technology.” For a relatively small up-front fee, retailers promise to buy back the gadget at a specified price, providing consumers some measure of comfort that they won’t waste their money on ever-upgrading gadgets.

The programs tap into perhaps the greatest frustration of tech consumers -- everything they buy is outdated almost immediately, meaning there is never a good time to buy. I call this the Cost of Keeping Up, or COKU, because it drives you cuckoo.  These programs are cleverly crafted to overcome this psychological obstacle to buying a gadget right now.

It must be going well. Best Buy, which launched its version of the program in January, recently announced it will expand its buy back offerings to a variety of new product categories in May.

On the surface, buy back guarantees could offer some value to consumers who perpetually like having the newest thing, much like car leases. You buy an $1,000 laptop, pay $70 extra for the buy-back plan, and in 11 1/2 months you bring it back and get $400 toward a new machine.  Sounds like you are spending $70 today to get $400 a year from now.  What could be wrong with that?

MSNBC has the details HERE!