Super Computer sale question

[luttersj]

I don't know if this is a regional thing or a nation-wide thing or what, but there's a "Super Compter Sale" coming to my area this weekend. I'm in need of a video card and I was thinking about heading over there to see what they had. My only question is, is this all new merchandise or is it refurbished?

 

[sdemaio]

That would depend on the companies selling. No doubt some of the less reputable companies will refurbs, but a lot will sell good stuff too. Just be careful when you look for a card and keep your eyes open and be wary of "deals."

 

[splice]

a lot of those traveling sales shows charge a door fee and most of the time there isn't anything that "hot" of a buy when you get there. Best bet is to look online for a cheap card or a refurb from NewEgg.com

 

[MedicBob]

Ditto what Splice said. Unless you are looking for older componants they really don't have any great deals. At least the few I have been to in Wisconsin.

Go take a look though and havean idea of what prices, including shipping, will be for what you want. Then you know if it is a deal or not.

 

[Hyperfocal]

Expect to pay $8 - 10 at the door.

They used to be pretty good, but the way things are going today, you will probably do better ordering over the net.

Be cautious. I once used a credit card at one of these sales and some fraudulent charges appeared on my account shortly afterwards. I can't be sure it was someone associated with a vendor, but it was pretty suspicious.

 

[SSibalNom]

the real problem with buying from these kinds of shows is, if you happened to get bad hardware, where you gonna find a lot of these people? also, most the things can be found cheaper online, at least compared to the LA and SD shows

 

[luttersj]

all good points. I think you guys are right. I'll just search around the net for the best price on a 9600pro. Thanks a lot!

 

[Soulkeeper]

they had some cheesy computer sale thing come to my town and it was pathetic (the commercials made it look better than it was)
they charge you like 10 bucks at the door and then all you find people selling is old Pentium 1 chips, simms, and overpriced laptops

also there were a bunch of people selling non-computer stuff like tools, knifes, toys, etc
kinda a waste of my 10 bucks when i could just go to the swap meet for like a dollar

 

[EeyoreX]

I've been to the same "Super Computer Sale" in my area (Chicago) and found it to be pretty good. I didn't mind paying the admission (in fact, I have been back several times). In the past couple years I have bought lots of hardware, including monitors, CPUs, motherboards, RAM and optical drives. The only things no longer in current use are some of the motherboards, as I have upgraded a number of them. They all still work, and a couple are waiting for re-use. I've also bought parts for other people at these sales, and never had any problem. Of course there are people selling old laptops and pentium II computers. You don't really think any computer advertized at $99 would be anything but old? That doesn't detract from the good deals you can find at other booths. Also, many companies have internet sites or phone support. Once, my sister bought a monitor to have it go bad after a week. The booth she bought it from had phone support. They had her try some things to test the monitor (she's not computer savvy, and I was unavailable to help) and she had a replacement shipped to her within a week. The company shipped to her first, to send a packing slip/postage and to allow her to reuse the box. Sounds "reputable" to me. I am sure there are dealers there that are not, but if you are reasonable carefull you can probably tell which are which. Don't disparage the entire show because some dealers may be shady. If that's the case, you should disparage the internet, brick and mortor stores, mail order catalogs, etc. You get the picture.

\Dan

 

[vegetation]

These are just traveling junk shows. Nothing good here unless you like to look for old junk, and even then be careful. Talk about misleading ads, $5000 system for $300? Yea, that 486 laptop sure was worth that much ten years ago but is now not even worth $10. And as someone mentioned, a lot of the booths will have non-computer related sales like low quality clothing, toys, and other lame stuff that you become incensed at for having paid money just to get in.

 

[CQuinn]

vegetation, you must not be talking about the same shows, or else they have changed a lot in
the past year or so since I last went to one.

My experience is pretty much the same as that of EeyoreX. These shows are put on by a promotional group that
gets together local computer companies that are interested in manning a booth. They add in a traveling group
of merchants that have set up to do several of the shows in a row; that go from city to city selling off inventory
from thier main store, and having new stuff shipped in if they run out of partitcular items.

When I was going on a more regular basis, all the companies involved had to be selling some type of computer
hardware / software or service. The only exceptions were in related areas of technology, like book sellers,
cell phone vendors, and (one time) high effieciency air purifers.

There are companies that sell only new stuff, and try their best to get the latest chips, memory, motherboards and
other accessories to sell. Other companies make their business selling scratch and dent, or refurb items.

Most of the prices (on new stuff) at these shows are fairly even with the small computer stores in your area.
(because some of the seller will be from the small computer stores in your area). You can sometimes find
deals, if you have a good idea of what you are looking for.

 

[EeyoreX]

These are just traveling junk shows. Nothing good here unless you like to look for old junk, and even then be careful. Talk about misleading ads, $5000 system for $300? Yea, that 486 laptop sure was worth that much ten years ago but is now not even worth $10. And as someone mentioned, a lot of the booths will have non-computer related sales like low quality clothing, toys, and other lame stuff that you become incensed at for having paid money just to get in.

Obviously, you didn;t read my post, or did and chose to ignore it. perhaps it was my lack of specific items I purchased? Here are some examples: Several Abit motherboards, all new (at the time, a couple years ago) I have (all working) 2 KR7A-RAID boards, and an AT7-MAX in my server. The Athlon 1700+ in the server was bought as this show. Still working like a champ. All three 256MB sticks of Corsair RAM in my server machine, still working, never a flaw. My KDS 17" monitor, you guessed, my server's primary display, my "main" rigs secondary. Several routers from various manufacturers like Belkin, LinkSys and D-Link. My sisters entire computer was purchased part by part there and has never been a problem, other than the monitor, which as I noted, was replaced fast, without hassle and free. Do they have old stuff? Yes. I mentioned that too. So does eBay, that doesn't make all sellers on eBay purveyors of "junk". people sell there old 486s and 500MB hard drives on the AT FS/FT forum. Obviously there is some demand or desire for old hardware. And of course, if you don't want it, don't buy it. They have booths that sell old software (like Office 95, CorelDRAW 9 or DOS 6.22), and booths that sell new software like Office 2003, CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP. The products sold (unless it's old/used etc) come with warrantees. Since no one bothered to check it out, there is also a website (oddly enough I found it right at supercomputersale.com) that answers many questions.

\Dan

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: EeyoreX

These are just traveling junk shows. Nothing good here unless you like to look for old junk, and even then be careful. Talk about misleading ads, $5000 system for $300? Yea, that 486 laptop sure was worth that much ten years ago but is now not even worth $10. And as someone mentioned, a lot of the booths will have non-computer related sales like low quality clothing, toys, and other lame stuff that you become incensed at for having paid money just to get in.

Obviously, you didn;t read my post, or did and chose to ignore it. perhaps it was my lack of specific items I purchased? Here are some examples: Several Abit motherboards, all new (at the time, a couple years ago) I have (all working) 2 KR7A-RAID boards, and an AT7-MAX in my server. The Athlon 1700+ in the server was bought as this show. Still working like a champ. All three 256MB sticks of Corsair RAM in my server machine, still working, never a flaw. My KDS 17" monitor, you guessed, my server's primary display, my "main" rigs secondary. Several routers from various manufacturers like Belkin, LinkSys and D-Link. My sisters entire computer was purchased part by part there and has never been a problem, other than the monitor, which as I noted, was replaced fast, without hassle and free. Do they have old stuff? Yes. I mentioned that too. So does eBay, that doesn't make all sellers on eBay purveyors of "junk". people sell there old 486s and 500MB hard drives on the AT FS/FT forum. Obviously there is some demand or desire for old hardware. And of course, if you don't want it, don't buy it. They have booths that sell old software (like Office 95, CorelDRAW 9 or DOS 6.22), and booths that sell new software like Office 2003, CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP. The products sold (unless it's old/used etc) come with warrantees. Since no one bothered to check it out, there is also a website (oddly enough I found it right at supercomputersale.com) that answers many questions.

\Dan

The point is, you don't have to pay an entry fee to see what's being offered online, be it new or used. At these fairs, you have to pay money just to get in and don't have a clue as to what's inside (unless you get insider info) until it's too late. If it was free to go in then no harm is done. But in the interest of saving the OP over wasted money, my comments are legitimate. It's nice knowing you got your warrantees honored and such but that doesn't mean everyone else who attends these will too. I've been attending these type of shows since the 80s and back then there were few mail order outfits and of course no online stores, so it was financially worth it but these days you can just log on to newegg or whatever reputable store (with resellerrating as a valid source on info) and buy what you want with confidence that the vendor isn't going to screw you.

 

[CQuinn]

But in the interest of saving the OP over wasted money, my comments are legitimate.

They would have been if you had limited your opinion to simply saying that the OP could probably
find similar or even better deals thru online vendors. You expressed a statement that is clearly
misleading about the nature of these shows and the products that one can expect to find there.

Yes you have to pay to get in to the show... online you have to watch out for
"shipping and handling charges" that vendors will try to get an extra profit from.

If the cost of gas and entry is still less than the expected S&H you might pay for a couple of
motherboards, CPUs, Memory, Monitors, etc.; then you can still come out ahead even by
going to one of these shows. If you have a good idea of what you are looking for.

Some people still like the option of actually touching/seeing the merchandise they are shopping for
before handing their money over.

And I don't know of many online vendors who accept cash on a transaction.

It's nice knowing you got your warrantees honored and such but that doesn't mean everyone else who attends these will too.

Actually, all the vendors I've seen at these shows are clearly advertised as to their business name and location.
Any bad behaviour on the part of a vendor would reflect badly on the promoter. Therefore it is (and has been)
in the best interests of Blue Star productions (Contant info and a comment form available on their web site) to
make sure that customers are kept happy and sales are honored. I too have had situations where I had to
return items (Memory that was the wrong type for my system, and a friend who installed a motherboard improperly
and had to take it back for assistance with configuration) and I had no problems (and a good deal of help)
with getting things straigtened out.

And as I said above (at least for the shows that come to my area) a good half of the vendors are local
(from the same city as the show is being held in, or a nearby town); so it isn't that hard to track them
down. Some of them deliberately sign up to do a show so they can promote their stores and generate
future business for their regular store fronts.