Stop buying overpriced cables
April 14th, 2008 | Spending
Plasma TVs, surround sound stereos, iPods, and video game systems are quickly become a staple in the average American home. But what many unsuspecting shoppers fail to forget are the cables needed in order to use these expensive gadgets. They assume that the most expensive cable is often the best one, and they blindly purchase a $120 cable when a $10 cable would have done the same job. Let me show you a few examples of how you are getting ripped off at the store, and what you can do to save hundreds of dollars.
HDMI cables
HDMI cables are the latest technology used to display an HD signal on your fancy new HDTV. If you recently bought an HDTV and hooked it up to a cable box or satellite dish, odds are you own an HDMI cable. HDMI sends signals digitally, meaning that there is no loss from one source to another. Salespeople will try to sell you a $120 Monster Cable brand cable if you are shopping in a Best Buy or Circuit City. But if you shop online, you can find that same cable for $5. That’s $110 saved, and you won’t notice a difference in picture quality (despite what the salesmen tells you).
Optical cables
Do you have a fancy surround sound system? If you do, odds are that it’s connected to your DVD player with an optical cable. Optical cables transmit digital sound information optically with using a fancy technology called fiber optics. Best Buy employees will have you believe that you should spend upwards of $50 to get the best possible sound. But you can buy an optical cable for $5 online, and enjoy the same sound quality.
Line-in cables
Does you car have an auxiliary in jack so you can plug in an MP3 player? My wife and I were at Target the other day and were looking for a cable to plug her iPod into her car’s stereo. The cheapest one we could find in the store was $10. When I went home and looked online, I found it for $1.50.
The markup on most cables in brick and mortar stores can be insane. Salesmen will have you believe that the prices are justified, and that you’re paying for quality. But what you really helping pay for is the overhead of the stores expenses. By shopping online at stores such as Amazon and Monoprice, you can quite easily save yourself hundreds of dollars. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
I bought a Monster Cable for my new plasma last year. I spend $100 for a cable, and thought it was worth the money.
A few days later, I was browsing Amazon and saw a similar cable for $10. Needless to say, I returned the Monster Cable. They’re an amazing ripoff.
I think overpriced cables sell well because electronic gadget purchases are exciting for most people. And during the excitement, we forget to step back and analyze the “small” purchases that go along with a new TV.
Aaron Stroud’s last blog post..Investing is like good intentions
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