Last year, at the end of summer, I bought my wife bought a $200 or $250 table and chairs set for our deck for at total of $50.00

How did she do this? 

Well, she bought the set at the end of the season, and it was the display model.  We usually don’t buy such sets, but for the price it seemed like too good of  a deal to pass up.

So what’s the catch? 

A few of the non-critical screws were missing, and the plastic end feet for the table are missing.  So for the time being, we used felt feet for the table.  this won’t last long, but it will prevent our deck from getting too scratched up.  Eventually I’ll buy some screws and plastic feet that will work with the table.

Both my wife and I enjoy getting bargains on the things we buy.   An example would be the WII pokemon game that we bought my son for his birthday.  He wanted this (at the time) expensive pokemon game, but I just didn’t have the heart to buy a $50.00 game that I knew he wouldn’t play for long.  So instead, I fired up my old friend Mr. eBay and searched for the game.  Surprisingly, all of the new games were still $50.00…  So I found a slightly used one for $12.00.    Which ironically would be about 25% of the in store price of $50.00

While I spent full price for for my son’s DS, I bought a slightly used on from my buddy at work for $50.00.   You might be wondering why I bought a used nintendo DS for my daughter.?.  Well, it’s electronic and I heard that the nintendo DSi was coming out soon at that time.  Technology typically only have a lifespan of perhaps 4 or 5 years, before it becomes obsolute.

I find tha tI have a hard time paying a premiun price from what I think it’s worth.  I’m usually the last to buy technology, because I know that the price repidly drops each year the purchase is prolonged!  This is why we still have CRTs instead of flat screens.

The key is to look for bargains during off seasons times so that you can get the best deal, or buy the product slightly used!

-MR