Cables and Power Strips...That's where they make the Money!

[W9GT]

My wife and I recently purchased a new home theatre system including a large flat-panel TV from a well-known nationwide retailer.  Not the greatest thing to be doing, I suppose, in view of the economic downturn our country is facing at this time.  It was, however, something we had been planning for a long time and included and followed some remodeling work in our family room.

Anyway,.....just an observation...the prices for interconnecting cables for the various components and for a "surge protected" power strip were astronomical!
I ended up returning some of the HDMI interconnecting cables, because I found some elsewhere for 1/2 the price!  I also learned that the cables and power strips can also be purchased at various sites on-line for a fraction of the cost.  It seems to me that the retailer(s) are making their margin on peripheral items such as these and offsetting some of their discounts on the TVs and components.  Kinda similar to fast food places making money on the soft drinks. 

I realize that the quality of these items might vary all over the spectrum, but I was able to find perfectly good cables for 1/2 the price, just by shopping around.  Just an observation on my part.  If you are planning a similar purchase....beware!!   

73,  Jack, W9GT

[K3ZS]

Exactly, I get my HDMI and other cables at:

http://riteav.com/

I got this site from someone else on this board, $5 for 6 ft HDMI.   I got some optical cables and UHF antenna feedline at good prices.     No, I have no financial interest in this place.

[W1JS]

Check out these guys:

https://www.cablesforless.com/c-276-hdmi-cables-accessories.aspx

When I installed my new HD TV and DVD/home theater box a year ago, I was appalled at the prices the retail outlets wanted for HDMI and other cables.  It was probably a good thing they could not hear me swearing in the accessories aisle or they would have thrown me out.  Even Walmart charges outrageous prices. 

Anyway, my good friend and video/audio-phile put me onto the above site.  The $5 cables work just as good as the $30-$50 + cables from the retail stores.

Good luck,
Jack

[W1RKW]

Yeah, but are they O2 free copper and are they broken in? 

[Mike/W8BAC]

I picked up a small color printer to take with me on the road. Nothing special about it really. It was priced right so I took it to the check stand at the office outlet.

As I checked out the girl asked me if I needed a cable to connect to my computer??? I asked her if one came with the printer and she was sure none was supplied BUT next to the cash register was a good supply at double the normal prices.

"How about ink cartridges" she said. She volunteered that the ones supplied would only last a few days. Sure enough, the supplied tanks didn't even have a replacement part number. Really small but really big ones hung on a rack behind the register of coarse.

What a ripoff. I feel your pain Jack.

[WBear2GCR]

Nowadays the biz model for printers is to make all the profit via the disposables.
The printers are pretty much sold for no profit by the printer co's and the retailer makes hardly enough on a single sale to make it reasonable to even stock the item, much less have a salesperson on hand to sell it and ring it up... think about it...

                _-_-bear

[Mike/W8BAC]

It's exactly that business model that has me peeved Bear. The sales help was prepped to ask me to buy a cable because it was left out strategically.

Same thing goes for the airlines. The little add ons are not good business, again, in my opinion. Just raise the price and don't add the gotya's. I'm not amused.

[WB2YGF]

This is old (but still valuable) news.  About 20 years ago, I bought my first (and last) printer cable at a retail store.  When I found out later I could buy the same cable at 1/5th the price at a computer show, I never bought another retail store cable of any type. (Except for free-after-rebate power strips!!)

This is one reason I think CompUSA went under.  A store full of overpriced parts and software being sold by under-educated sales people to an increasingly savvy consumer, (thanks to the Internet), is not a viable business model.

Circuit City is nearly as bad.  Their only plus is the occasional loss leader I can order in my PJ's for later pick-up.  (Best Buy is just Circuit City with even higher prices.)

/rant

[WB2YGF]

Nowadays the biz model for printers is to make all the profit via the disposables.

This is also the business model for cell service.  Give the customer a "free" phone in return for a $1,000 - $3,000, 2 yr contract.

[Opcom]

It's all the same, like the used car business. There are several deals going on and the customer should seaprate them out, and make each one separately when possible. Not all are required. You being able to pick and choose puts you in control.

I'll say how I dealt with the last used car department of a local new car dealer.

1. the cash price of the car you and the salesman agree on. write it down. Arrive at this figure first.

2. the cost to borrow the money. that is the interest rate. write it down. They will be pleased to tell you the rate and how much the payments are for x years, well before the sale. So then you know what the money costs.

3. the trade in value of your car. write down the middle of the road "book" retail price, not the pittance offered. After all you are paying retail to the dealer. They don't get to double dip.

4. any so called extended warranty. It is not a warranty but an insurance policy. This is usually a bundle of other stuff rolled up in the price, 90% of it is worthless crap. Make them unbundle it by breaking out the cost of each part of it. Pick what you want (like the 75K mile policy covering everything from camshaft to car radio) and then write down on your papers (oh yeah, always bring a notebook and pen) a figure that is half of the price of that.

Note that any poor decisions of monetary deficiencies on your part will be cheerefully rolled into the loan amount, making the deal cost thousands more than it needs to..

so now you know what you are going to:
pay for the vehicle
pay for the money
get for your vehicle
pay for the "warranty"

So, for the vehicle, whatever is fair retail price. That's pretty much obvious. If it is too cheap, there is something wrong with it.

for the money, I told them up front I don't pay more than 5.5% interest on loans. They ignored that until they'd printed up all the papers and I was in the closer's office and saw it along with each of the other items.

More on the closer later. These 3 things happened in the closer's office. That is where you fight for the money.

To the interest: I told them, "I don't understand how that figure got on there. I told the salesman and the finance guy what I would pay for the loan. I have to go. Please call me if it can be straigntened out." After some discussion, he told me he'd fix it, and he did that right there on the computer, whining that he'd have a hard time finding a company to finance it for such a low rate. I said, well, you writing it there is an agreement with me to somehow accomplish that, so there must be a way or you couln't agree, right? He said yes of course. (therefore the video and audio recording, and a verbal deal (computer printout as well) having weight in Texas) Note: you must have an excellent credit rating, with which there can be no argument, to work it like that.

For the trade in, my car was in obvious excellent condition, so I told them so and I could sell it for $13,500 in a week just by parking it at a friend's house in Highland Park (the snooty part of town). They wanted to give me $6500. I owed $11500, a little upside down since the car was a 2002 crown vic in 2005. So I just laid it out, saying that I don't -need- a pickup truck that bad, I can wait and do something else, and I'd let them have the car for $10,000 if they wanted to sell me the truck. The guy didn't say anything and indeed once I was in the closer's office, the 6500 popped up again. So I laid it out to him as well. He would not agree to it.

For the warranty, you'd be surprised at all the worthless crap they bundle in there. $350 for a set of those indicating valve stems that show if the PSI falls below 32, for instance (besides the truck already had them on it and they cost $10 in the auto parts store). In the closer's office, is where all this came out. After I whittled it down to the only thing I wanted, to extend the coverage on the entire vehicle from 35000 to 75000 miles, he wanted $2500. I told him no. I told him it is worth only $1000, because the car is halfway there, and now that it is past the the infant mortality curve yet far away from the beginning of failures part of the curve, it is highly unlikely that things are going to go wrong with it. He would not agree to it.

so those were the discussions with the closer about the three remaining deals, interest, trade in, and warranty.

Now I will tell about the personality of the closer. This is a pushy, slick, fast talking person who pretneds to be your friend and sits in an office and his only job is to make people sign the papers. He can be rude and ugly too. This one was a big feller as well. Very nice suit and tie and spiked up crew cut hair, gold watch, and a twinkle in his eye.
There was a video camera and audio recording mike in the office. I asked him about it, he says, it is so there is no question about what anyone says later, people make all kinds of claims.
Now, this rube didn't want me to leave without signing. I was not going to agree to those terms. So, it was 2 PM and I had been in that office about 3 hours, and I said I have to go back to work and i'd be back later, and he got up and almost was blocking the door, asking me to wait, but had this really mean look, he was really tweeked off!.
I said no and excuse me and was just pushing past when out of the next room came another guy, even slicker. This guy says "I'm the general manager, can I help here?" and gived the closer a little look, and the closer excused himself and left. Only then i noticed the big mirror in the closers office was a 2-way. I asked the GM if he had been sitting in there the whole time? He said no he was out on the lot, but I think he was fibbing.

So, I sat back down, and talked to the GM, and said the deal was not right for me, and told about the trade in and the warranty, and that guy that I already talked to (closer) was pretty pushy and got mad at me and I didn't like his sort..
So he apologized for the closer's rudeness and all the misunderstandings (blaming the salesman) and said, well what will it take to sell you that truck right now? and so I told him, just as I had made note of what I decided before.
He took the impoverished nice guy approach and bemoaned how he was loosing money on the truck even at $20K, and that he really couldn't afford to do the trade in and warranty deal.
So I said, well I don't want you to lose money, but come on, you couldn't have paid more than $12000 wholesale for that truck, or someone should be fired. But I'm paying retail on that truck, and I expect the same for my trade, otherwise I am really wasting our time and I'm sorry and I should go sell the car and come back later. But the warranty, it's really not a very big risk at all (repeated reasons explained to the closer), so why worry about it? It's not like I drive my vehicles 100 MPH up and down the highway, and you have probably seen my car by now, how well kept it is - -and it has the upgraded factory stereo - available only in the mustang -that plays MP3 CDs too, I put it in my self, it plugs right in stock -that radio is $1200 retail. If it's a bad deal and you don't want to do it, I should go, besides I have to go back to work. I can come by again later, and if you sold the truck there are always others here.

In a few minutes the deal was done. according to what I specified. He didn't want to pass up the sale. It took about 8 hours of work on my part from first talking to the salesman, to signing the papers. I cut about $8000 of fat out of that deal.

So I figure I made $1000/hour. I saythis because later I found out from the somewhat shocked finance guy who entered my loan that 90% of people leave that used car dealership with an 18% APR and a 6 year note, and woe be to them that take the bundled warranty and give up the pristine trade-in.

Are used car salesmen thieves? No. Did I cheat the used car salesman? No. A willing buyer and a willing seller. 

The same for your printers and phones, but why whine about those, the cost isn't much compared to how you'll be impaled by Count Dracul when you buy your next car if you don't take heed!  MOOOOOHAHAHAHAhahahahahaaaa!

[k4kyv]

I never finance a car through the dealership.  I pay them cash, and borrow the money through my bank or credit union, tossing in as as I can afford out of my savings account, reducing the amount I have to borrow to the absolute minimum.

[ab3al]

I pay cash too don.  I run a small business and the cars (trucks) i buy tend to be a little pricey.  Currently driving an 06 crew cab ram deisel 4x4 i bought new.  My trick is to go in with no trade (cause i keep them till they rot or give them to a family member)  tell the salesman that i have terrible credit (my fica score is 0 cause i pay cash for stuff)  They immediatly think 19-25 percent and thats what comes up.  On a loan like this the dealer makes about 10%  I haggle the price. always telling them that i cant afford the payment.  when they get the 42k sticker price down to 32.5 which with a little research is dealer pac price (what they really pay after their rebates)  I sit down with the closer.  when they hand me the financing papers after they have signed the agreement to sell for 32.5  I say "sorry i changed my mind on the financing" and hand them a certified check from my bank.  I love to make grown shysters cry.  Last time i did this i was 29 wearing an ac/dc t-shirt and was coverd in greese from running fiber optic line between manholes.  Got some real looks of disbelief.  They even accoused me of forging the check.  Told them well if you can wait about 15 minutes my bank is accross the street and my account manager can bring over cash.  But i will make sure he delivers it in ones.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I go to the post office almost every day. And, every day, with generally the same people, I get asked if I need stamps, shipping supplies, etc. While standing in line, I notice they ask the question(s) with every person who comes to the counter. When working at Lafayette, waaaaaaaay back in the old days, we had our best profit margins on the accessories

[K3ZS]

The last time I was out to purchase a new car with cash, I showed up at our local Nissan/Mercedes dealer with my 25 year-old Chevy beater and grubby clothes.   I could not get any attention from the sales staff.    I left, an bought a brand-new Honda Accord from the Honda dealer.   I guess I was way down on the sucker list at the Nissan dealer.

[K1JJ]

"Nowadays the biz model for printers is to make all the profit via the disposables."


Yep.

There's a great way to beat the prices of buying new and expensive ink cartridges. Buy the recycled ones. Last year they were only $2.95 each for an Epson Stylus 4200 printer. I grabbed 20 of each color. Never had one fail yet. They are in sealed envelopes and look like new.

Do a Google search for "recycled ink jet cartridges" and maybe add your printer model. You will find many vendors at many prices.

When I first boot up a newly-installed recycled cartridge,  there is always a warning from Epson that it is not one of theirs. Too frickin bad... :-)


I did try refilling my own for awhile, but it was difficult and messy, at best. But these recycled, ready-to-go cartridges are no different in quality than buying them new, as far as I can tell.


Tom, K1JJ

[KB2WIG]

There's a guy at most of the local 'fests selling ink and a  plactik hypo to refill printer carts... I bought and now refill  cheeep...

klc

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I gave up on recycled and refilling ink-jet cartridges several years ago. Besides being messy, annoying to constantly re-fill, and waiting for full sheet color prints to dry, the over all quality of the print left a lot to be desired. Moved over to a Kyocera color laser printer and never looked back. Besides being fast, non-messy, instant dry, very efficient toner usage, no requirement for "special" paper, no bleed-through on high color volume on a sheet even using plain multi-use type paper, it's does double-sided and prints on just about any variation of paper, vellum, or transparency type stock.

I'm now authorized to print and distribute the Flex operating manual (roughly 200 pages) in high resolution full color, and I do it all on this printer. This is the PDF: http://support.flex-radio.com/Downloads.aspx?id=246
If you tried to print this document with the typical inkjet, they would go belly-up real quick. I can print stuff like the figure below all day long without the printer breaking a sweat.

[W9GT]

Ya know...I thought of a few more of those expensive "accessories".  
1. Replacement filters for such things as humidifiers and shop vacs.  (expensive!)

2. Batteries ( especially the unusual ones or funny shaped ones that aren't used in anything else.

3. Ink cartridges and "photo grade paper" for those photo printers.

4.  Ah, yes...and software for your computer...as well as virus protection and other "needed"  extras.  Of course, they don't tell you that a lot of stuff is available free or much cheaper "on-line".

5. And....who could forget extended warranties?  They even tried to sell me one of those when I bought a $50.00 power tool!

I'm sure you can think of more.  It's interesting marketing strategy.....go for minimal profit margin on the main item and then gouge the heck outta them for the "needed" extras.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[W1JS]

Ya know...I thought of a few more of those expensive "accessories". 
1. Replacement filters for such things as humidifiers and shop vacs.  (expensive!)

$99 for the replacement hepa filter in our Sears air cleaner     (I don't think the whole unit cost more than $200 new).    I have been cleaning the filter with a vacuum for a few years now...   

[WA1GFZ]

We have 3 trac phones in the family so know the real cost all the time.
No stupid rip off contracts.
I'll never buy another new computer.

[WB2YGF]

The last two Sonata's I got were loss leaders advertised in the paper.  The 5 speed base model nobody wants except it's exactly what I wanted.  The last Sonata I paid for with credit cards so I got lots of points and paid off the cards right away so 0% interest and then used the point for lots of free meals. 

The last car I got was a loaded Elantra GT.  I negotiated the price by email, walked in, and paid cash. 

Hyundai's used to have no trade in value, so I ran them till the TCO/mile bottomed out and then give them away.

[K6JEK]

You guys missed my all time favorite.  For awhile one of the large computer companies was charging to remove all that free crap the comes on new computers.   That's right, they were charging to remove all that junk they loaded on that you didn't want in the first place.   They may still offer this service.

[Opcom]

that was my old pals at Sony. They offer it free now cause people got ticked off.

[W3SLK]

Last night I did what Jack W9GT did, purchase a new LCD TV and home theater system from Circus City. The only reason I went there was because my son's dorm-mate from college works there and had been advising us on what to get, (he wasn't even at the store when we bought it and he said he didn't care). Anyway the salesdude, (sans LARGE earrings), said I needed Monster HDMI cables, surge protectors, etc. I told him that if he didn't stop selling me snake oil, I was going to walk out and go up the street to Bust Buy. I also told him I worked selling TV's while in school and I know all the tricks. He had to try one last parting shot and that was the offer for $150 to stop at the house and check to make sure I had everything hooked up correctly. Its funny, the destruction manual has everything color-coded so you would have to be either color blind or a kindergarten drop-out in order to screw it up. (My apologies to those on the board who may have dropped out of kindergarten. I meant no offense)


BTW they wanted $94 for a 6.5' HDMI cable!!! I got out of that one by telling the salesdude I didn't have anything that was HD compatible.

[KL7OF]

Saw a program on the tube the other day about counterfeit cables and power strips that are coming into this country....some were very poor quality and could be a potential fire hazard...most were sold over the net....how's a mother to know?..............