Delivery by drone

Several years ago, at a moment the market was in a crash mode, I called a Myrtle Beach financial adviser and, only half jokingly, asked if I should remove my 35 cents in savings and put it under my pillow. Wouldn't it be safer there?

There was a long pause, uncommon for this guy.

Finally: “Bob. I can't even joke about that.''

He assured me the market would come back -- which it did, of course, in torrents -- and spoke words I've never forgotten:

“There's always gonna be a better mousetrap.''

In other words, there will always be reasons to invest, invest, invest.

And that was before Google and Facebook and Twitter and a few dozen other new mousetraps that have helped so many purchase 65-foot yachts.

I tell you this not to explain my own millionaire status; fact is, my 35 cents is today worth about 36 cents. So it goes.

But now I see that Amazon is on the verge of bringing us one more wonderful mousetrap.

The company announced this week that it is in the planning stages of delivering its packages by drone, and if I had, oh, about 40 cents instead of a measly 36, I might try to get in on this coming bonanza.

Not that I expect drone deliveries to become commonplace in my lifetime.

Amazon's embryonic plan has a long way to go.

Well, there's that whole Federal Aviation Administration approval thing. Then it has to figure how high to fly the drones, how much to charge for a drone delivery, how to deal with that poor out-of-work UPS guy and his family.

Or am I underestimating drone technology given the high-speed pace of other newly created mousetraps?

Is it possible that in just a couple of years we'll be walking into the nearest Drones 'R' Us to buy our first PD (Personal Drone)?

Wow. And I haven't even bought my first iPhone.

Contact Bob Bestler at bestler6@tds.net.

This story was originally published December 6, 2013 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Delivery by drone."