Best month of year for parts?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phisherman
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Phisherman

March and April are typically the drop in electronics prices. I know
20 years ago it used to be January. What month is best for CPU,
memory, MoBos, cases, video cards, etc? I thought January would be
the "best buy" month. Anyone know?
 
What month is best for CPU,
memory, MoBos, cases, video cards, etc?
Click to expand...

I thought July was a good month for RAM. I saw Crucial 256 PC 2100 was down to
$29 a stick. As for CPU's I think AMD socket A, they are fazing them out within
the next year or so, right now they seem to be as cheap as ever and will
probably continue to get cheaper. I haven't been comparing them on a monthly
basis but those I remember.

Ashley
 
March and April are typically the drop in electronics prices. I know
20 years ago it used to be January. What month is best for CPU,
memory, MoBos, cases, video cards, etc? I thought January would be
the "best buy" month. Anyone know?
Click to expand...
January on E-Bay when everyone is selling their old kit. Better to be
one step behind leading edge and spend the savings on other things.
 
Conor said:
January on E-Bay when everyone is selling their old kit. Better to be
one step behind leading edge and spend the savings on other things.
Click to expand...

Most of the used computer parts I've bought on ebay haven't been 'kit'.

They have been something that rhymes with 'kit'.
 
Most of the used computer parts I've bought on ebay haven't been 'kit'.

They have been something that rhymes with 'kit'.
Click to expand...

Then you don't know what you're doing...

I've had great luck in getting parts from eBay. It's important to only
buy from people with good positive feedback and to ALWAYS ask the seller
questions before you bid.

I've only been burned a few times out of hundreds of transactions on
eBay.
 
Mini said:
Then you don't know what you're doing...
Click to expand...

I do now.
I've had great luck in getting parts from eBay. It's important to only
buy from people with good positive feedback and to ALWAYS ask the seller
questions before you bid.

I've only been burned a few times out of hundreds of transactions on
eBay.
Click to expand...

Uh huh ... tell us about some of the great deals you've made recently
and why they were better than buying new items locally. Don't forget to
consider rebates from the chain stores.
 
March and April are typically the drop in electronics prices. I know
20 years ago it used to be January. What month is best for CPU,
memory, MoBos, cases, video cards, etc? I thought January would be
the "best buy" month. Anyone know?
Click to expand...

Due to world events and market changes that target is forever
changing. On a regular basis however the best price point routinely
is for items 6 months to 1 year behind the state of the art.
 
Due to world events and market changes that target is forever
changing. On a regular basis however the best price point routinely
is for items 6 months to 1 year behind the state of the art.
Click to expand...

The day after Thanksgiving many places have a "6 hour sale" of some sort and
have huge discounts. My brother and best friend picked up 120 GB 7200 RPM
8MB cache Maxtor drives for $49 after rebates, a LiteOn and a BusLink 52X
CD burner for $9 each after rebates, an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card for
$59 after rebates and more! They both built systems with pretty nice specs
for less than a grand with 3 GHz P4's and 865PE based motherboards from MSI
and Asus. My brother's computer even has SATA RAID, though my buddy's board
has it, but he opted for a single drive. Both systems even have 512 MB
Corsair dual channel memory or more too. That was a steal!

They both bought new eMachines computers too as gifts pretty cheap. They
both bought the same system - 2.6 GHz Celeron, 256 MB DDR, 40 GB HDD - but
my brother got a 17" monitor too. My brother paid $299 after rebates and my
buddy paid $199 for his system without a monitor. The very same system that
my brother bought was on the shelf at the same Best Buy the very next day
for $489, but this time it included a printer too.
 
I do now.


Uh huh ... tell us about some of the great deals you've made recently
and why they were better than buying new items locally. Don't forget to
consider rebates from the chain stores.
Click to expand...

Brand new 160 gig Maxtor hard drive for $91 after shipping. The seller
removed the UPC to get the $30 rebate himself, but the drive was still
sealed. That same drive sells locally for $149 before the rebate.

3COM Wireless 802.11B PCMCIA card with X-Jack for $21 after shipping. I
couldn't even find an 802.11B card locally with X-Jack. And everything
else I found started around $39.

Four brand new AMD compatible 500 Watt ATX power supplies for $71 after
shipping. Cheapest I could find locally was $84 for "one" power supply.

Just to name a few. Most of the time I save between $5 and $15 on an
item buying it on eBay (factoring in shipping and local taxes).

The "trick" to successfully getting good deals on eBay is to always bid
the absolute maximum you are willing to pay and NEVER add "just another
dollar" when someone outbids you. If someone outbids you, move on.

On the Maxtor hard drive, I simply bid $82 on every 160 gig drive on
eBay that wasn't already over that amount. Roughly, that was around 50
drives. I lost 49 of them and got lucky on one. It's kind of like
playing the lottery. Every now and again you're gonna win something.

I got my Tivo the same way. I bid on over 300 of them over a 5 month
period until I got one at the price I wanted.

The most interesting thing is all of the times I've been sniped at the
last minute and people have won auctions for 50-cents to a dollar over
what I bid.
 
On the Maxtor hard drive, I simply bid $82 on every 160 gig drive on
eBay that wasn't already over that amount. Roughly, that was around 50
drives. I lost 49 of them and got lucky on one. It's kind of like
playing the lottery. Every now and again you're gonna win something.
Click to expand...

Not at the same time though, I hope. That could lead to one winning,
and having to make good on, multiple auctions.
 
Mini said:
Brand new 160 gig Maxtor hard drive for $91 after shipping. The seller
removed the UPC to get the $30 rebate himself, but the drive was still
sealed. That same drive sells locally for $149 before the rebate.
Click to expand...

I've seen 160G WDs (retail boxed, 3yr warranty) for $60 after rebate a
couple times at OfficeMax. 80G retail WDs are commonly $50 AR lately.

I've seen Kingston 256M PC2100 DDR sticks free AR at least five times
and $10 AR a few times.
3COM Wireless 802.11B PCMCIA card with X-Jack for $21 after shipping. I
couldn't even find an 802.11B card locally with X-Jack. And everything
else I found started around $39.

Four brand new AMD compatible 500 Watt ATX power supplies for $71 after
shipping. Cheapest I could find locally was $84 for "one" power supply.
Click to expand...

Well that sounds great if they were good PSUs and not some
probably-defective junk that somebody was unloading. You didn't mention
the brand name.

Rebates aren't much good if you are reselling though I believe.
 
Mini said:
Four brand new AMD compatible 500 Watt ATX power supplies for $71 after
shipping. Cheapest I could find locally was $84 for "one" power supply.
Click to expand...

Not clear whether you mean $71 each or $71 for the lot.
 
-
Gary Tait stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:
Seems clear, and not out of possibility IMO, a lot of four for $71 the
set.
Click to expand...

Well, whenever you pay $17.75 for a 500W PSU, don't expect reliability and
quality...


--
Strontium

"And, all of your lies weren't enough to keep me....here."

- Goo Goo Dolls
 
Gary Tait said:
Seems clear, and not out of possibility IMO, a lot of four for $71 the
set.
Click to expand...

Why not? They only cost about $2 coming in from China. Do you have any
data on specific manufacturers?
 
Why not? They only cost about $2 coming in from China. Do you have any
data on specific manufacturers?
Click to expand...

Prove to me that they only cost $2! I don't think you can. Once again,
someone full of information he can't substantiate...

If you but a cheap power supply, it's your own fault when you get
instability. I but Antec only because they are top notch.
 
Not at the same time though, I hope. That could lead to one winning,
and having to make good on, multiple auctions.
Click to expand...

Not likely, but yes, all at the same time. If I won 40 of them at that
price, I could *VERY* easily sell them all for a profit.
 
Well that sounds great if they were good PSUs and not some
probably-defective junk that somebody was unloading. You didn't mention
the brand name.
Click to expand...

Antec. Great power supplies in my opinion.
 
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