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Finding Holiday Discounts on iPods?
jeffy124 asks: "I was hoping to get an Apple iPod for Christmas. Alas, it's too expensive and out of the budget. So I'm forced into purchasing it for myself. Hoping to cash in on a holiday season bargain, I've been keeping my eye on the sales circulars that come in the newspaper. I've seen plenty of discounts for MP3 players of all kinds (Rio's, Dell's new HD-based player, etc), and the iPod has also shown up. Christmas does not yet seem very merry to me. They're always at the regular $299/399/499 price, never at a discount of any sort. You read that right, it's 'for sale' at the *regular* price. Stores guilty of this include Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and CompUSA. Why do stores do this? How often? And does anyone know why Apple has been singled out while their competition has gotten their products discounted? Anyone know who *is* granting discounts on iPods this holiday season?"
"The other day came in the mail a 10% off coupon for various items at Best Buy, including 'MP3 Players' as indicated on the front of slip. Hoping this was how I was gonna get that discount, I set aside time this weekend to drive to Delaware in order to skip out on my local state sales tax too. I turned the coupon over, and in the legal disclaimer was the phrase 'Excludes Apple iPod Players.' Needless to say, a Merry Christmas is still aways off."
;) of course, you may find yourself needing to replace a battery.
The only time you will find Apple products for sale is when Apple passes along end-of-life discounts. (i.e. right before the new model comes out)
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Have you considered a refurb unit? Checkout the Apple Store and look for the big red "SAVE" tag on the left. I used a refurbished iBook for quite a while and it never gave me any trouble..
I used to work for Apple, and I know first hand that Apple forces resellers to their pricing structure.. You won't find any apple products for less than they sell for at the apple store.
Because Apple does not allow you to sell Apple products below the pricing offered by Apple themselves.
Apple does, however, let you bundle things- so your best bet is to look for the best bundle(free case etc). Smalldog and MacConnection are among several catalog companies who regularly do these deals, because it's the only way to be competitive(and not a terribly good one, either.)
Do get a case; mine was scratched all over within a half week, and I was excruciatingly careful with it. Also, DO get an extended warranty, and DON'T GET IT FROM APPLE, it's shorter and MORE expensive than Best Buy's(for example.)
FYI- don't bother looking for an iTrip. I placed my order two months ago with Griffin and they have yet to ship me mine. It's getting cancelled tomorrow, I'm fed up of waiting, and I hear the FM adapters all suck anyway.
Please help metamoderate.
It's called Minimum Advertised Price.
Apple sets it. You can't re-sell Apple products below this set level. Nobody can.
Yes, Apple has been sued for this. (not successfully IIRC).
In fact, Apple HAS successfully sued resellers for selling under MAP. They put some of them out of business - they were called "Grey-market" MACs, they were bought overseas, and sold into the US market. (some people ended up frying the power supplies because they were set to 240 instead of 120).
Other industries have also been sued for MAP, and gotten their asses handed to them. But since Apple is *NOT* a monopoly, they can get away with it. Don't like it? Buy a competitor's product.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
The parent got modded up as flamebait, but the statement is in fact true. There IS Apple price fixing for it's authorized resellers.
I work at an Apple Authorized Reseller in Los Angeles, and Apple has made it pretty clear that if we drop the price by more than $50, we aren't going to be an authorized reseller much longer.
Personally, I think it's terrible, because there is quite a profit made on Apple hardware by us, particularly G5 desktop systems, and iPods.
Basically, we could knock a good 74-100$ off the iPod without losing money. And I think if we did such a thing, we'd get a pretty healthy customer base very quickly.
Then buy it via Apple or the Apple store. They offer a 14-day price protection policy for just this very reason.
BB, CC and their ilk will beat prices or match them. I have never had a problem getting them to match a price up to 30 days from the purchase date.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Sure, but because Apple doesn't have a monopoly on MP3 players, it's legal. If apple contacted all the other MP3 player manufacturers, and they agreed (in a smoke-filled room, no less) to fix the price of all MP3 players everywhere, THAT would be illegal.
:)
This is the difference between vertical restrictions on price (i.e. Apple the manufacturer, and downstream retailers) and horizontal restrictions (all oil-producing companies and the price of oil).
This concludes the daily antitrust lesson
beware the jabberwock, my son! the jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Alright, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut... But I work retail (at EB) and this has always been an annoyance - especially over the holidays.
On sale means that items are being sold...for example, "On sale now!" means that the product is currently available in stores for your purchase. Not necessarily that it is available at a special, lower price.
Yes, I realize that "on sale" can also mean that you've got a new, temporarily lower price...but it doesn't have to.
We get signs up all the time for new games and products that say "on sale now", and then people get upset when we're charging the same price as our competitors.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
What you are seeing is an example of "price control." Price control is a relatively common practice, especially for companies that create higher-end products and have limited (or no) direct-to-customer distribution. Essentially, Apple has the ultimate discretion as to which retailers it will sell iPods too. In order to qualify to carry an iPod, that retailer, be it Best Buy, Circuit City, or any other, must enter into a binding agreement with Apple as to the pricing of the unit. Under that agreement, discounting of the units is generally either completely disallowed, or allowed only with manufacturer approval. Thus, the Best Buys and Circuit City stores HAVE to sell the iPod at whatever price Apple tells them to.
Where it starts to get shady is when a retailer that hasn't signed a price control agreement with the manufacturer gets their hands on the price controlled units, and starts selling them at a price below the manufacturer's price point. This generally happens when a retailer that has an agreement with the manufacturer unloads some overstock or demo units, when a retailer goes bankrupt, or when a shipment "falls off of a truck." Many manufacturers that use price controls get very, very unhappy when this happens. Most price controlling manufacturers will cut off sales of product to retailers that sell overstock to discounters. This can lead to shady, under-the-table dealing, units with serial numbers ground off so the manufacturer can't trace who sold it to whom, and general malaise. Most manufacturers won't honor the warranties on items purchase through third-party discounters.
If you think Apple's price controls are nasty, take a look at the high-end watch world. Companies like Rolex won't even allow retailers to advertise the prices of their watches AT ALL. Take a look at a jeweler's ad in the newspaper for Rolexes- they'll always say something to the effect of "call or visit for pricing." Watch companies are also well known for forbidding internet sales. And they put out propaganda to the effect that all watches sold by discounters are counterfeit.
It's the manufacturer's world. We're just here to consume.
--Use this space for notes--
I bought a 10gb model at Target.
I signed up for the Target credit card and got an instant 10% off. That saved me $30 right there.
Then they gave me a smart card reader, and another 10% off my next credit card purchase, plus another 10% off any on-line purchase.
Wow. I'm done. It was easy, and to be honest I haven't used their card since. Maybe I'll start using it if my current "favorite" card continues to screw me with their crazy rules.
Goddamit.
Let's get the facts straight right now. the console gaming industry, on average, does NOT work on the Razor/blades economic system. the GC is sold at a profit, not a loss.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Keep an eye out for Dell's stackable coupons... they often have $35 off $350 and $45 off $450 pretty regularly. Many times, they will have these in addition to a blanket %10 off all peripherals. As of a few months ago, they were not excluding the iPod although they will occasionally exclude some items. Keep an eye on this site, as they usually report any Dell deals on a regular basis.
For most DVDs, video games, and CDs you are far, far off. Disney DVDs that retail for 14.99 the first week, are wholesaled at 18 bucks. No, I'm not kidding. Video Games wholesale at about 40 bucks for the ones that sell for 49.99 (only a 20% margin). CDs that sell week one for 9.99 cost between 9.09 and 12.04 depending on manufacturer
I bought mine and the same thing happened, but then I noticed my school's bookstore had it for 25% off. Apparently there is an education discount on these suckers.
So get yourself to your local college bookstore and either find an oblivious checkout clerk or contact a friend who has a friend who is still in college.
You save at least $40.
Check for iPods that are "Open Box." They are usually returned by someone who upgrades or downgrades size. They can't be sold as new, so must be marked down. Just bought a 20GB this past weekend - $339. Added in the 4-year Best Buy warranty for $40 to cover the battery and basically anything else that goes bad within 4 years. Also persuaded a fellow customer to take the iPod over the Nomad, even though it still cost him more and had a smaller hard disk. I don't think that Apple needs to drop prices to increase demand.
You can strap it to your arm with the included holder
I'm sure someone makes an armband-style case for iPod owners who want one.
No movable parts so no skipping unlike the ipod
The iPod has 32MB of cache. The average song encoded at a 128K bit rate is 4MB. So about 6 to 10 songs should fit into the iPod cache. I suppose skipping could become an issue for the iPod if you strap it to a running paint shaker and listen to it for a while.
The Ipod is overkill in terms of storage (The Iriver can hold 5-50 cds depending on the sampled bitrate but normally I'd say around 6-10)
Says you. I have a 30GB iPod, and I like being able to carry around my entire CD collection in my shirt pocket. No matter where I am, I can listen to any song I want, any time I want.
The Ipod is too big & heavy
The size of a deck of cards and the weight of 2 CDs is too big and heavy? Do you have severely atrophied muscles because you've been in a coma for the last 10 years, or something?
The Ipod battery fails after about 18 months and costs over $100 to replace
Lies, all lies. Some people have had battery problems, not everyone. The majority of people with original 5GB iPods who posted when this was brought up a week or two ago are having ZERO problems. And if $100 is too rich for your blood, you can replace the iPod battery yourself for $50.
The Ipod is just a notebook/laptop hard drive in a clean looking case but just as fragile as any other hard drive
I haven't read of anyone who has had issues because of drive fragility. People who are really concerned about it can buy a case. I prefer to just take good care of my stuff.
I've read nothing but excellent reviews for the Iriver mp3 player and own one and it's the best I've ever had.
I've read nothing but excellent reviews for the iPod, and own one, and it's the best I've ever had. Neener neener neener!
I don't agree with the argument that you get more storage for the same price from an Ipod. What's the use if it's overkill? If it was an external hard drive or something along those lines I'd agree but it's not.
Ummmm, the iPod is an external hard drive. You can store anything on it, you can even install an OS on it and boot from it. For someone who claims to have had an iPod, you sure don't seem to know much about them.
~Philly
A longtime mac bloggish site is linking to amazon, and offering actual discounts on a variety of apple hardware. Including the iPod.
Click on over to MacInTouch for a little bit off. It's linked off towards the bottom of the home page. It's not a huge discount, but the only one I've seen:
iPod 10GB: $284.05
iPod 20GB: $379.05
iPod 40GB: $474.05
Anyone seen my low uid? last seen 10 years ago while panning the #@$# out of Taco's 'web based discussion system'
I just asked Froogle, Google's product search engine, and it offered these results for a 40 GB unit. The best price on a new iPod it found was $464.00, which is about 10% off.
http://www.darrenbarefoot.com
Words. Words. Words.
It used to be a little known clause in Best Buy's store policies that any item purchased as Open Box was given a free 4 year warranty. A lot of times the sales guys would try not to give it out, but when reminded of the policy, they would.
Bought a tv, vcr, stereo, speakers, car gear of the same and a couple other random things that way from them a few years back. Never got a chance to use the warranties.
SmallDog.com - Good people...great prices and service.
Actually, the contracts can specify selling only at MSRP. Stores can purchase iPods at lower prices, but Apple pulls their supply if it catches them discounting. They do this to assure stores a good profit margin so they spend their own resources advertising the product.
Say Best Buy sells an iPod for 399(MSRP), and Joe's DisKount ElectroniX sells it for 349 next door. Best Buy spends money advertising the availability of iPods, hires salesmen, etc. Joe is a 1-man shop with no ads, except for a big sign on their front window that says "IPODS: 349". They're located right next to Best Buy.
From Apple's perspective, Joe is freeriding off the efforts of Best Buy. Best Buy is pissed off because it loses sales to Joe from keeping it's retail price up, so it stops promoting the product and drops it's price. Apple is pissed off because no one knows about its product except for tech nerds who scour the internet review sites. Therefore, antitrust law tends to allow retail price maintenance in the absence of monopoly.
I think you're exactly right - the reason Nintendo got in trouble was because it colluded. I thought it was about the price of cartridges also, not about systems, but i could be wrong.
beware the jabberwock, my son! the jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
I have about 5 of their products, including a
hard drive based MP3 player. What a waste of
money. I am not buy another Creative product.
I have owned an Apple ipod also. Nice mp3 mplayer.
I am loving my new Rio Karma though.
And there's where the iPod fails: 90 days is a joke
The iPod now comes with a 1-yr warranty.
(I would rather it was a 3-yr, since it's a 300-500 device...)