$1000 for floor model P60ST50 a good deal? (1 Viewer)

[mcfunky]

Saw this at Sears, guy said it had been there for 6 months. I estimate maybe it is on 12 hrs per day for 180 days, like 2100 hours of use so far. Regular price is like $1650. Their warranties are $440 for 3 yrs and $660 for 5 yrs, I figure I have to get a warranty for a floor model, but those sound super expensive. Anyone have any advice?

 

[schan1269]

For the sake of the warranty...when you buy it and leave the store with it(or have it delivered) the warranty starts then. (you are the original purchaser, ergo...as far as Panasonic cares...it was "un-boxed yesterday") Considering "turning it on" is the worst thing you can do to it...it has only been turned on once a day. How many times are you going to turn it on and off in the next 180 days?

 

[mcfunky]

My concern was just with the 2000 hours of use it has had so far. I know these are rated for 60,000 or 100,000 hours, but that is until they lose half their brightness. I probably won't use it more than 3 hours per day, so the 2000 hours of use it has gotten so far is like 2 years worth of my level of TV watching! So basically it is a used 2 year old TV, as far as the wear and tear on it is concerned, though without as much on/off. It is a great deal so I'm trying to talk myself into it, though I'm always wary of floor models. Probably it has been running in "torch mode" or whatever the term is, max brightness to show it off for all that time it has been there. I would actually hope something happened to it in the warranty period so I could get it replaced with as much use as it has had!

 

[schan1269]

I sold this stuff wholesale. We had floor samples in our office. When Toshiba came out with 240hz, we immediately put one on display(followed shortly by LG's version)... Those ran 18 months for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week(the perk of wholesale is no weekends...except 1 or 2...typically the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the Saturday before the SuperBowl...) We still sold them for 85% of the wholesale price. Cause for Toshiba and LG...the TV was "still new". They were never purchased. Unless it has replaceable parts(DLP bulb or bulbs in a projector)...3000 hours is irrelevant... Point being, you are safer with that TV cause in "modern parlance"...a TV that doesn't die in 18 months...lasts years. Your "12 month old TV" will be 18 months old by the time the warranty expires.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

My concern was just with the 2000 hours of use it has had so far. I know these are rated for 60,000 or 100,000 hours, but that is until they lose half their brightness. I probably won't use it more than 3 hours per day, so the 2000 hours of use it has gotten so far is like 2 years worth of my level of TV watching! So basically it is a used 2 year old TV, as far as the wear and tear on it is concerned, though without as much on/off. It is a great deal so I'm trying to talk myself into it, though I'm always wary of floor models. Probably it has been running in "torch mode" or whatever the term is, max brightness to show it off for all that time it has been there. I would actually hope something happened to it in the warranty period so I could get it replaced with as much use as it has had!

2000 hrs even in torch mode is just "nicely broken in". The loss of brightness over time isn't linear. There is an initial brightness reduction during the first 300 hrs or so (think "break in period") then things level out until very much later in the set's life when brightness loss will again accelerate. That model didn't hit Sears stores until about June or July of last year so the 6 months estimate as far as use is about right. If the set is looking good now it should continue to look good for years to come. Having a couple thousand hours on it makes it less prone to image retention and burn-in than a new set during it's break in period so you won't have to "baby" it. The 1 year mfg warranty will start when you take possession of the set. Sears "Protection Agreements" are expensive but are the most liberal in the business as far as coverage and the fact that if a set is deemed unrepairable or a "lemon" due to needing more than 3 repairs in a year the unexpired portion of the plan is in fulll force on any replacement set you get. The terms of their plan are the same whether you buy new or open-box/demo.

 

[mcfunky]

Thanks for all the advice, I went ahead and bought it, will get it next Wednesday. Talked them down another $100 so it was $900 plus the 3 yr sears warranty for $440. Pretty excited to see it in my house!

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Very decent deal--FYI Sears prices on open-box items are not consistent from store to store as open-box pricing is at the discretion of the individual store's Electronics dept. manager. Also, thier customary 15% restock fee on non-defective returns doesn't apply to open-box sales so you will have 30 days to return in case something shows up at home you didn't see in the store.