On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 21:09:43 -0300, inkleput{at}isp.com wrote:

>"Lloyd Fuller"  said:
>
>>Yes, I watch the sales and the rebates.
>
>This is something that puzzles me.  I see people talking about stuff
>near $75.  I see drives  on eBay for as little as &10.  I have trouble
>bringing the opposites together.  There has to be more to it than just
>finding the cheapest thing out there.
>
I don't shop on ebay.  In fact, a computer retailer that I used to shop at
has started putting their clearance stuff on 
ebay so I have stopped buying from them.  I like to save money, not spend
time trying to save money.  

There is a series of local computer shows in the area.  There are usually
three types of dealers at these shows:  
dealers with new upper end equipment; dealers with new low-end equipment
and used equipment dealers.  The 
used equipment dealers are usally the only ones that I see with drives at
$10 US.  Many of the dealers with low-end 
equipment are selling OEM equipment, and sometimes you can get good
bargains from those usually just after a 
new-type of drive becomes popular, and the old ones are being cleared out. 
For example, a couple of years ago 
when the 8x DVD drives started becoming popular and the retail ones were
coming down in price, a couple of the 
low-end dealers had new 4x drives at less than half of 8x drives.  The same
thing happened when the 4x drives 
replaced the 2x drives, and when the dual-layer drives started coming out. 
New OEM NEC drives were available for 
awhile at $25 or $30 if you would settle for a slightly slower drive. 
Since I didn't need the Windows software, I didn't 
care that they were bare drives.  

Even at the computer shows, though, you have to watch the pricing.  More
and more, I have seen CompUSA and 
Staples or Best Buy beating the prices I see at the computer show.  This is
even true for systems unless you WANT 
a high-end system.  Then you can usually get one put together at the show
cheaper than you can get one at 
CompUSA or BestBuy.  It will still be expensive, but you can get usually
get a decent buy.  For the low end computer, 
though, it is hard to beat the buys that you can get at Staples, Best Buy
or CompUSA by watching the sales and 
taking your time getting a system.  The warehouse clubs in this area
generally don't beat the sale prices and neither 
does WalMart.

And, no, I don't work for any of those.  Just an old mainframe developer
interested in new toys.

Lloyd



 
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