Best Buy offers worst "deal" ever (1 Viewer)

[Bob_L]

In today's L.A. Times Best Buy insert they're offering a deal that is right in there with the white van speaker scams, IMO.

You can get a free Insignia (crap) Blu-ray player IF you buy:

10 Blu-ray discs from a selection of 50 (all priced $5-$10 more than online prices)

An HDMI cable at $79.95 or more (the same cables which can be purchased online for $10 or less)

Furthermore, in the ad, they're identifying the Insignia player as a $249.95 value when they're selling it for $169.99. Sigh.

I sincerely hope not one person falls for this bald-faced ripoff.

 

[NeilO]

I did a double-take when I saw the "deal" as well. But I doubt you can buy for $10 the HDMI cables that Best Buy sells for $79.95 or more. I'm sure you can buy cables that will do just as good a job though.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

this sounds like an awesome buy to me!!!

So what...the player may not be great, but it is very close to free. With the way technology is changing, any player you buy now will be considered crap within a year or 2.

FWIW,
Gregg

 

[Chris S]

The individual prices on the Blu-ray disc don't surprise me since most retail stores are typically $5-10 more per disc. But that HDMI cable (and most cables at BB) is the major rip-off. Already this season I've saved 3 people from making the mistake of overpaying for HDMI cables.

 

[schalkt]

Yeah, I laughed at this "deal" too. It doesn't surprise me though, since most of Best Buy's "sales" are like this. I am somewhat surprised that they're advertising that you have to spend $80+ on a HDMI cable though - I've rarely seen them ever advertise their outrageous cable prices (they usually get the suckers in to buy the TV or player and then try to sell them a nice expensive cable to go with it).

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I'm running a deal- buy my condo and I'll buy you any Blu-ray player you want.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

i dont get you guys...

you buy 10 BD discs (at reasonable prices) and you get a free BD player....this is a great deal!

Or you buy an over priced HDMI cable and you get a free BD player...this is still a great deal.

 

[Steve Lockwood]

I'll take it!

 

[Carl Johnson]

Even if the movies are $35 each it's not a horrible deal. That would come down to about $430 for ten movies of your choice, a HDMI cable, and a player. Ten years ago my first DVD player was $300 and it didn't come with any cables or movies.

 

[hondaclf]

Quoting the BestBuy sales guy, "Don't even look at the Insignia, it's not worth $10." I was just looking at prices a few weeks ago for my dad and glanced at the Insignia and that was the response. It may be a good deal if you didn't have to spend $300+ to get the crappy player(10 movies plus the HDMI cable at at least $80). I think the Amazon.com deal was the best I've seen so far for a good player, other than BF deals.

 

[Chris S]

Do you not have to buy both the discs and the cable? Is it an either/or deal?

 

[Shawn.F]

When people I know mention that they need an HDMI cable, I refer them over to Monoprice.com. I bought two HDMI and one HDMI/DVI cable for the person buying my old set for $25 total, roughly a third of what BB or Circuit City sells some of theirs for.

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah the deal sounds good on the surface, but it's the fine print + details that kill you. I looked at the ad and you have to buy *both* the $79.99 and up HDMI player and choose 10 out of 50 BDs that Best Buy limits you to.

So you're paying $70 more for their HDMI cable, plus an average of $7.50 more per disc (I split the difference of Bob's $5-$10 more per disc, but it's a conservative figure because a lot of the 50 to choose from are catalog titles which are way cheaper online) for 10 discs, that's another now brought the premium for this deal to $$145. You can find deals on "name brand" players like Samsung, Pioneer and Sony for just about $50 more than that [from online or Costco]. Not to mention, you're not trapped into buying 10 of 50 discs of Best Buy's choice.

I have family/friends who are getting into Blu this Christmas (this is why I think that this year and next is the "make or break" year for BD, my "Joe Six Pack" friends/family are now seriously pondering it) and I won't be recommending this deal to them.

This may not be the "worst deal ever" but it's pretty bad. For $50 more (and likely less when you consider the deals that can be had) you can get 10 discs of your choice, an HDMI cable and a name brand player.

 

[hodedofome]

I wouldn't want the player, but at least the selection of movies is good. I got 6 free movies from Amazon when I bought my Panasonic BD35 this month; although the movies weren't horrible they also weren't my first picks. However I got it for $210 for the whole deal.

 

[NeilO]

I just noticed that when signing on to HTF one of the Home Media Magazine stories is about this offer.

 

[Jason44]

This is lame haha

 

[Timothy J Wolfe]

I am surprised usually Worst Buy has really good deals. Ok so maybe they don't really.