eVGA's Step-Up Upgrade program for Expensive Video Cards

[Sensor]

What's your opinion on eVGA.com's upgrade program for pre-orders? I understand, through nvnews.com, the people who took part of this program when the GF3 line was introduced are now getting free GF4's. Think it's worth it? I mean, it's practically a free GF5...?

http://www.evga.com/products/preorder/default.asp

--Ed

 

[Rand]

<< What's your opinion on eVGA.com's upgrade program for pre-orders? I understand, through nvnews.com, the people who took part of this program when the GF3 line was introduced are now getting free GF4's. Think it's worth it? I mean, it's practically a free GF5...?

http://www.evga.com/products/preorder/default.asp

--Ed >>




Well even after you trade in the GF4 Ti4600 after the GF5 is released you still have to pay the difference between the Ti4600 your trading in and the GF5... so it doesnt seem like an especially good deal to me as you can probably sell your Ti4600 and get a better deal on PriceWatch then whatever e-VGA would give you. Besides that I'm not terribly fond of their cards personally.

 

[tsapiano]

Sounds like a good idea, I just don't see exactly the business sense on their end of doing this - yeah it'll get them more customers now, however when the next card comes out they have to effectively give you the new card assuming there was no inflation of the cost of the upper end card. Obviously they have to make money from somewhere, and when deals are too good to be true they often are. The main thing that bothers me is that one of the conditions in the buy back program is:

"eVGA.com® retains the right to revoke or revise the eVGA.com Step Up Service at will. If so, participants shall be informed within 30 days prior to any such change."

So essentially, if they can the program before the next generation of cards come out you're screwed and there is nothing you can do about it That's not to say that they will do it, however they did leave the door open - and if that is one's primary motivation to buy the card from them it could be a major caveat. I've certainly never heard of them, so who knows how reliable they are - how effective their cooling implements are (looking at the HSF on their GF3 card I'm not too impressed).

Of course, this could potentially be legit - and they are just a new company that needs some income now to get started in the market, willing to defer profits at a later time for initial starting revenue to cover their costs. The above clause may just be there so that they can get out of it if things go catastrophic and they need to cover their butts If it is so, then they certainly do care about their customers enough to provide such a beneficial offer to future proof user's purchases - however I would take it with a grain of salt either way.

 

[Rand]

<< Obviously they have to make money from somewhere, and when deals are too good to be true they often are. >>



They do make money, if your GF4 Ti4600 has depreciated in value to say... $200 when the GF5 is released then you have to trade in the Ti4600 and pay the extra difference between the $200 and the cost of the new GF5.

I figure you could sell the Ti4600 for more then their likely to give you for it, and then by the GF5 for cheaper then they'd sell it to you via PriceWatch.

 

[tsapiano]

<<

<< Obviously they have to make money from somewhere, and when deals are too good to be true they often are. >>



They do make money, if your GF4 Ti4600 has depreciated in value to say... $200 when the GF5 is released then you have to trade in the Ti4600 and pay the extra difference between the $200 and the cost of the new GF5.

I figure you could sell the Ti4600 for more then their likely to give you for it, and then by the GF5 for cheaper then they'd sell it to you via PriceWatch. >>



That would make sense, but from the trade in program conditions they say:

"The price paid by the participant for the new trade in product, shall be the difference between the price paid for the e-GeForce4 Ti4600 video graphics adapter, less all applicable tax, during the eVGA.com e-GeForce4 Ti4600 Pre-Order event and the list price for the new trade in product + s/h and all applicable tax. "

ie at least the way I'm reading it, you pay the difference between the GF5 then and the current price of the GF4Ti4600 later (ie $399USD) minus S/H and taxes on both. I agree it doesn't make much sense, but that sounds like what they are explaining. Of course it is possible they're charging an arm and a leg for S/H fees - but it'd be hard to get that kind of margin

Now if they did what you commented, it would be a feasable plan - although you could sell it for more, some people may want to avoid the hassle. What I could see as a logical progression would be some type of subscription program (ie estimate costs and have you pay a fixed fee every 6 months or so, and swap your cards whenever a new, better card came out). However from what I'm reading above it sounds a little shaddy - please do correct me though if I'm reading it wrong

 

[Rand]

<<
ie at least the way I'm reading it, you pay the difference between the GF5 then and the current price of the GF4Ti4600 later (ie $399USD) minus S/H and taxes on both. I agree it doesn't make much sense, but that sounds like what they are explaining. Of course it is possible they're charging an arm and a leg for S/H fees - but it'd be hard to get that kind of margin
>>



I interpret as meaning you pay the difference between the GF5 and the depreciated value of the GF4 Ti4600... if they were to use to release price/pre-order price of the Ti4600 then they would effectively be giving you a free GF5 basically.... and obviously there is no way they could manage to do that in any volume for any length of time.

 

[Sensor]

They "credit" you the same price that you paid for the card. They do not consider depreciation.

I remember seeing it when the GF3 TI500 came out. Last month a guy on another message board said they gave him a GF4 for only shipping!

--Ed

 

[osaurus]

i think this is a great deal, a GeForce4 and GeForce5 for $400.00. i'm sure evga has covered thier manufacturing costs on both cards at this price( about $75.00 more than the cost of a retail GeForce4 ti4600) and they increass thier market share as well, couple this with the late shipping date(end of March) and the fact they have your money in hand now, makes this a great deal for evga. but is this a good deal for you and me? well, on the plus side you get 2 top of the line Geforce cards for $400.00, within 2 years when your buying a new mobo and cpu just to keep your gaming system current you won't have to shell out more money for the dang video card. you will have to send your card in before they send you a new card back(that could get evil quick). thier installation program sounds good although i haven't tried it yet. i really liked the acs on thier G4 440mx(hey, these guys try new things). i don't know how well it will overclock, evga cards aren't included in many reviews(yet) so you just have to cross your fingers and go for it(at the minimum you get a G4 which is better than anything elese on the planet right now). on the minus side, evga is located in Brea,CA about 40 miles away from me, an area long overdue for the big one(read hugh earthquake) a moot point for me, living so close, but something you might want to consider. all in all, this is a win win situation for you and evga. note: unless you heard this same thing, exactly, word for word while playing music backwards, you will need to make up your own mind.

 

[stephpar]

One other thing worth noting is they wont ship to Canada, so considering yuorself out of luck if you live north of the border. That's a real bummer for me, since i do think it's a great deal, and i read it the same way too. I don't think they look at depreciation at all, but give you full value for your $400US anytime over the next 2 years. The thing you will not like is the idea of sending in your old card, waiting around 2-4 weeks for shipping to get their butts in gear and send you a new card...meanwhile, you're basically out a computer. That would be really lame. It doesn't matter for me...i'm out living here in BC. Good luck.

Steph

 

[tazdevl]

Even if they take depreciation into account... it's still a better deal than going out and buying a new card straight out.

 

[rickn]

I think it sounds to good to be true, and it probably is

 

[tazdevl]

Depending on what their costs are, the model could work out. No retail incentives involved, their marketing costs are pretty low based on what I've seen, I'm sure they recycle the cards and give them to a school for a tax break or sell them on eBay after you trade them in. Also, they are charging for the pre-order before it ships, which means they aren't carrying the inventory, so they can gain a few bucks here and there in interest before the card ships.

The other thing to consider, is that it's more cost effective to retain a customer than go out and get a new one. This program accomplishes that.

 

[jiffylube1024]

<< shall be the difference between the price paid for the e-GeForce4 Ti4600 video graphics adapter, less all applicable tax, during the eVGA.com e-GeForce4 Ti4600 Pre-Order event and the list price for the new trade in product + s/h and all applicable tax. "
>>



It sounds good but remember, they charge you tax again, and I'm quite sure they'll totally gouge you on s/h. Probably $50+ for shipping and maybe state tax, who knows. They aren't just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, that's for sure!

 

[rgowen]

The program sounds like the way to go if you are going to spend full retail on the GF4 Ti4600 anyways. But remember, the step-up program is only valid on preorders. Since the card is coming out in the next couple of weeks, if you really want to take advantage of it, you better do it soon. As far as what you have to pay for the upgrade, remember that you may have to also pay shipping of you original card back to them. But even if after tax and shipping and the return shipping on the old card, it is around $75, I really don't see you getting anywhere near that if you were to sell you old card on ebay and pay the difference to upgrade to the newest card. Also, the step-up program runs for 2 years from the purchase of your card so you may be able to even hold off on the GF5 and trade it in on a GF6 if they are out in that time. With Nvidia's short product cycle, that will be more than likely.