Your child has finally earned enough money to purchase their own PSP system—you know he has wanted it for a long time, but you could not justify in your mind another gaming system in the house. The technology keeps changing faster than you can afford to buy the systems and games that they want. You finally put your foot down and told him he could have it if he earned enough money to buy it.



Well, you thought that your worries were over when you told him that he had to buy the system himself, but you forgot one important thing that he did not. He did buy system, but you did not tell him that he had to buy his own games and accessories. Children are smart today and will use any technicality they can to their best advantage.

Okay, you were a sucker, but such is life. How much could a few PSP accessories cost? Well, you could be surprised because there are more than a few accessories available. So where do you start? To begin with, make a decision on how many are needed-you could go to the poor house if you let your child decided on which accessories he needs. Remember, there is a big different between 'needs' and ‘wants'- but children do not quite get this concept.

PSP accessories are any additional items that are compatible with the PSP. It can include many different types and styles for each of the following:

* headphones,

* speakers,

* carrying cases,

* hand straps and neck lanyards,

* skins, sticker decals,

* memory sticks, carrying cases for UMD, and

* faceplates

Then there is the glare shield, optional lens cleaner, UMD disk cleaner, memory card reader, backup battery, hand grips, AC adapter, cables, battery chargers and the list goes on and on and on. And, you can literally spend hundreds of dollars for these different accessories.

Before heading out to the store, figure out how much you want to spend and make sure that the PSP accessories being purchase are really needed. A faceplate is nice, but not necessary to play with the system and to enjoy it. However, a batter charger and backup is very important to keep the system going and an USB cable is needed to facilitate downloads of games, movies, pictures and other items from the internet.

Okay, now you are really confused and just want to get this over with. Think about whether or not you need to have Sony products for your accessories or whether you can use other generic accessories that are sold everywhere.

Purchase the accessories that are really needed for the system. The others are nice, but really not necessary. Think about what is really needed and talk to your child, making it clear that you are not buying all of the accessories but that you do want to get him some.

Now, off to the store you go. Remember to take your charge card!