NCIX grand opening sale

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
| Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:54:41 -0400

| They will be opening at 9:30.  No one was in line yet. :)

Apparently the first person in line showed up an hour after you posted
this.

I lined up at 7:45.  I would not have done so if I had known how long
it would take.  Not only was the line long, it moved very slowly.

Service inside was quite good considering the backlog.

I bought a number of things that were at good prices.  Most purchases
were about $10 less than good sale prices (eg. 8-port 1G ethernet
switch for $9.99, WD Green 2T $89.99).  Best bargain I got: Acer Revo
R3610 for $199.99; best price on shopbot.ca $325.28 (so tasty that I
bought two).

The freebies were not worth the bother but they did break up the
monotony of the wait.  They were essentially swag from
manufacturers. I got an AMD ballcap that I put to good use in
the hot sun.

There were draws, but you were only eligible for real-time draws while
in the store (generally a short period), not while in the lineup.

My impressions of stores:

- NCIX and Bewawa have good sale prices.  Not so sure about regular
  prices.  Bewawa delivery is great (free in GTA, same day if ordered
  before 15:00; credit card on delivery -- a lot like pizza delivery)

- Canada Computers sales are less often exciting, but their normal
  prices are reasonable.

- Tiger Direct sometimes has good deals but you cannot tell from their
  ads -- they emphasize mediocre prices as much as good ones.  Their
  normal prices, especially when including shipping, are bad.  But
  they do have stuff that others don't.

- Newegg.ca sometimes has good sale prices.  My impression is that
  their normal prices are better than Tiger Direct's.  They too have a
  very large set of products.  Shipping adds friction but a subset of
  deals throw in "free" shipping.

- Dell sometimes has a good deal within sales.  Lots of that stuff is
  not Dell branded (pace, Lennart).

- I haven't bought anything from PC Village, Sonnam, Filtech, or
  Infonec in a while but they are worth considering (probably in
  reverse order).

- once in a blue moon, Future Shop, Best Buy, Staples, or The Source
  accidentally have a good sale price.  Future Shop has a good price
  match policy, but when I've found a good example to use, they refuse
  to apply their policy.

- there are lots of amusing cheap junk available mail-order from Hong
  Kong and China.  I've dealt with dealextreme and focalprice.  I've
  had to RMA some things.  I was recently warned that cheap some green
  lasers may emit an eye-damaging amount of (invisible) infrared.

There is a correlation between the money you "save" and the time you
spend bargain hunting.  If you value your time, bargain hunting may
not be worthwhile.
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