Using costsheets.com to get the bottom $

[BEC]

There have been a few posts that briefly mention costsheets.com. (e.g. here's one http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/002225.html )

It's a web-site that lists the retail and dealer price for all sorts of AV-HT equipment and hardware so you can get an idea how much the stuff "really" costs and how much the
dealer is making. The site has a lousy interface, but the information seems pretty useful for would-be bargain hunters. Anyone else use this site?

In my own case I was trying to chose between NHT Superones and Paradigm MiniMonitors. The mini's were a $100 more! My Paradigm dealer would not come down, claiming the Mini's were more valuable. From costsheet, I found the dealer price for the Mini's was slightly LESS than the Superones - they just had a bigger mark up! When I confronted my dealer, he got mad and called the manager. The manager groused and then offered me the Mini's as manager special for the same price as the Superones!

I wasn't trying extortion - but fair is fair. If the two speakers cost the dealer the same amount, they should cost the customer the same amount.

Anybody else use this site to save some bucks?




[This message has been edited by BEC (edited March 28, 2000).]

[RightD]

Interesting stuff... thanks for the link.

Unfortunately it was too late to help me with my recent receiver purchase (an Onkyo 676) but it was nice to find out that I only paid $60 or so over dealer list cost.

- RightD

[pter]

I checked it out too. Thanks for the link.
I found out that I paid about $250 over cost for my Denon. Oh well...

You're right about the site being hard to navigate. What a pain... all those .gifs are wayyyy slow on my modem (hehe).

[BEC]

Some extra info:

Costsheets is associated w/WorldExchange, an online/mail order company.

Prices are, of course, subject to change, especially for an older costsheets. If you call them or email, they can give you more recent prices. Something about to be discontinued (like Infinity RS3) is alot less now than in 1999.

Some companies don't like the costsheets being shown, so their sheets have been pulled from the site. You can, hypothetically, still get the info by phone or email, but be careful about posting this info publically. If XXXXXXXX doesn't want public posting of their prices on costsheet, they probably won't like public postings on DVDTalk or any other chat room. I'm not sure there are any problems acquiring this info, but making the specific numbers public doesn't seem like a good idea. Read the warnings from the picky companies.


[This message has been edited by BEC (edited March 29, 2000).]

[Ulianokr]

I've used Costsheets before and I'd do it again. No one and I mean NO ONE would match their $$$$. I bought Paradigm Monitor 3's and a PS1000 sub and a CC350 and also a set of NHT Super One's for the rear. I paid 41% less than I could get from any dealer in the state of CT. THe down side is they go out and get a dealer that will work with them and the waiting makes you nervous. Costsheets will tell you 2 weeks but it might end up 6 weeks but like I said before. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[BEC]

I think you're talking about purchasing from
World-Exchange.com, the company associated w/costsheets.com. (They do have pretty good
prices.) I was originally refering to the
online archive that has the dealer cost sheets for AV equipment which you can use to find out what your dealer's mark up is.