this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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A lot of the deals on Black Friday are actually cheaper quality products. A TV specially made to be cheaper than the regular model. Less HDMI ports, lower quality parts. And the item/model number is slightly different.
That’s why I love deal communities like Slickdeals, if the deal sucks someone will be calling it out
I also like tools like Honey or CamelCamelCamel, which show you the actual price changes over time, and you can decide when the right time to buy is. Obviously, you never know when something will go on sale in the future, but it at least helps you see how good the current price is compared to the past month or year.
Keepa makes Camel x 3 obsolete, it shows far more information
when you pay.. which costs more than prime itself does.
I think even the free version of Keepa is better to use. I see that for free accounts there are restrictions, but I haven't noticed any at least with the Firefox addon.
This is very noticeable on Amazon especially. So many “deals” from budget brands or one-off Chinese brands that nobody has never heard of. This is especially noticeable on Prime Day too.
When I buy (PRODUCT) I always buy UTUING!
I have worked with buyers at Best Buy that negotiate these “deals”. The manufacturers will create a near identical version of a higher quality product, but the model number will be a sub-model (like -a). When uninformed consumers are bargain shopping for a deal they will see that the “same” model is more expensive elsewhere and think they are getting a deal. This sub-model product will have cheaper components and fewer features and a higher product margin.
Some of these products would have very high failure rates but the companies still keep doing this because it helps to push their extended warranties. Then people buy them even when they buy higher quality products because they remember the failure on the other one.
Long story short, don’t shop on Black Friday for deals in electronics.
I got bit by this earlier in the year. I needed a smaller TV for the bedroom. I narrowed down the line I wanted. Target and Best Buy were the only two local stores to carry it. BB had the 2023 model, Target had a 2022 model with a sub-designation that was $50 cheaper. I went with Target because I didn't care if it was an older model, just needed something good enough. Well, it wasn't good enough, not even close. The color accuracy was so bad that the tint adjustment was useless — it was both too pink and too green no matter what. I dug out my old calibration disk and tried to adjust the color by isolating red/green/blue channels. The best-effort adjustments made it better, but still awful. I even connected it to the network (hardwire only, fuck "smart" appliances) just in case a firmware update helped. It did not, so back it went. Had to wait, multiple times in line and for someone to pull from the back, for like 45 minutes because they "don't do exchanges" so I needed to do a song and dance to get the sale price on a replacement purchase. Got the replacement home, same deal. At that point I suspected it was leftover Black Friday junk.
Took it back and went to Best Buy. Spent the extra $50. Perfect color out of the box. Lesson(s) learned.
i ended up with a cheapened 'walmart' model that was also a "last year's model". was the cheapest, smallest 1080p in the store a couple years back when prices were inflated and selection was weak. but i couldn't take it back, it was a gift.
i'm stuck with only 2 hdmi, no bt or 3.5mm, and rca analog inputs i'll never use... but at least i got the better remote than a co-worker that has the next year's model--and i'm still grateful i was able to finally dump the 19 inch tube and the equally-small monitor that were serving as my "TVs".
Or know what you're getting.
Micro Center is just epic every way. I love those guys.
Wouldn't it be noticeable because this new "-a" model would have no ratings/reviews?
This practice is most common with in-store "doorbuster" type deals.
Generally an observant person will notice this, especially if they actually read the box. The model number extensions will vary though, some are 6 characters for example.
That's undoubtedly true in general, but there are exceptions. For example:
It's a little hard to tell just looking at specifications without directly comparing in person, but I think the Costco Black Friday-specific version of the Roland FP-10 digital piano actually manages to be better than the normal version (even before you consider that it's cheaper and comes with a bunch of accessories). Specifically, it has 128 voice polyphony instead of the regular 96, and the only other difference I can find is that it advertises "a custom selection of tones curated by Roland and Costco exclusively for the FRP-2-ACR," which I hope doesn't mean they're worse.
I got a smart TV about 10 years ago on Black Friday. It was fine until a few years the screen "bruised". Everything now has a purple hue and that is the "guest" tv. No other lcd tv I've had has had the same issues.
I had a TV do that. The LED backlight was dying. It cost me £10 and an hour or 2 to fix.
Some are more of a pain than others to fix, but it's worth checking out.