The Cheap Guy Volume 1. - Costco Electronics

I talked about this on Facebook a few days ago but finally got around to be taking the time to blog about this deals. This will hopefully only be the first in a long line of posts where I try to inform my friends and family and anyone else who might be paying attention of what I believe are truly great deals for consumers. Being the holiday season, when all of us will be spending a lot of money, I thought this would be an excellent time to kick it off.

I recently purchased a Panasonic 50 inch plasma television at Costco. If you know me, you know I spent months researching this purchase both in terms of reading up on it and in going into various stores to see what was out there. I have a subscription to Consumer Reports online which always helps. But truth be told the TV itself is not the issue here. It's Costco. If you are already a member then you know that they provide tremendous customer service, are wonderful about returns and all that. You also probably know that Costco is currently offering to automatically double the manufacturer's warranty on most electronics including TVs. As most TVs come with your standard 1 year warranty, you get a 2nd year without doing anything. Costco's prices are nearly always competitive with any store you go to and in most cases the others stores' "We'll match any price" guarantees come with fine print that excludes matching Costco.

Costco is also currently offering to extend the warranties to an additional 3 years for what amount to about 10% of the purchase price. So by purchasing your new entertainment centerpiece is now covered for 5 full years. Virtually all stores offer this kind of warranty extension but to get 5 years of coverage generally cost 3-4 times as much. For example, my Panasonic 50 inch cost me $599 and I purchased the 3 year extension for $59. At Costco. I looked at the exact same TV at another store which shall remain nameless, for $699 and in order to get a TWO year warranty extension I would have had to pay $110. And that two year extension is no extension at all as this warranty runs concurrent to the manufacturer's warranty, which means what you would really be doing is paying $110 for basically ONE additional year.

So in summary:


Panasonic 50 inch plasma TV

At Costco - $599 + $59 with 5 year warranty = $658
At _____ - $699 + $110 with 2 year warranty = $809

So as I said on Facebook, you would have to be an idiot NOT to take the Costco deal. Even if you're not a member, it will cost you $50 to join and you can STILL make out cheaper if you never set foot inside Costco again. If warehouse shopping aint your thing give the membership as a Christmas gift!

Until next time.. The Cheap Guy.