Finding Deals at CompUSA Doesn't Get Any Easier

CompUSA continues to go out of business, and it seems that they are going to be at it for a while longer. The signs on the corner say that the discounts have reached 20-40%, and if you step inside, you’ll see that some of the shelves are now bare, but there is still a lot of merchandise left. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll see that even though the discounts aren’t going down very quickly, the real reason that the merchandise isn’t moving appears to be because the prices on the items left are actually going up.

That’s right, the product left on the shelves is actually being marked up while the discounts are ever-so-slowly drifting down. Not too long ago, networking equipment was at the 10% discount level. One item in particular – a Belkin Bluetooth adapter that was recently $29.99 has now been marked up to $39.99. So you could have had it for about $27 ($29.99 * .9) or now you can get it for about $32 ($39.99 * .8). Sweet.

The box actually has a $39.99 price tag pasted over the $29.99 one. And it may have been a mistake – but there were another half-dozen or so of these boxes on the same shelf. There were also two others that were left at the $29.99 price, so you could score those for just under $24. I decided to pick one up, since you can buy them on Amazon for only a small amount less, and as it’s under $25, you’d still have to pay shipping.

My first thought is that someone thought that they were the next model in the line, which sports a 300-foot range. If this was $29.99, then the price wouldn’t be bad – you can get it online for just $25. But at $39.99, it’s the same price as it is at Belkin’s own web site (you do get a discount, of course. And then there’s the problem that it’s not that model. Add in the fact that there are other items on the shelves that are also being marked up and you just have to wonder what in the world is going on. I’m all for CompUSA – or the liquidator, or whoever – to get as much money as they can out of things, but isn’t this just a little ridiculous?


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4 responses to “Finding Deals at CompUSA Doesn't Get Any Easier”

  1. Chad Everett Avatar

    Hi Dino –

    Thanks for keeping me up-to-date. I’ll admit that I haven’t been by, but it doesn’t surprise me to find out that they are again raising prices. I did pick up a game for the kids a couple weeks ago, and so far as I can tell, it was never marked up (they must have figured that no one would ever buy it). Since it was only $7, and then 30% off, I figure it was worth it.

    I think that now it’s interesting to see just how high they will mark prices…

  2. Dino Avatar
    Dino

    Just checked today…they increased their discount on video games to 40% now, so I went to see if they still had Halo 3 for the XBox360. Guess what? They increased the sticker from $60 to $70! Sure, I suppose that the discounted price of $42 is a pretty good deal…but that’s just plain unethical. What will they do next, raise the price to $80 and then discount 50%?

    I also like the half-emptied boxes of batteries that have been marked up to $11 and the racks of failed repair job items that have been discounted an addition 10% because they are known to be broken. Wow. 10% for something that’s too ugly or big to be a doorstop. That’s enough to pay for the sales tax!

    I am giving up wanting to buy anything regardless of the “discount”, since it’s pretty much an insult to my intelligence at this point. I am morbidly curious, though, to see if they will try selling video games that have been marked up to $199 for 80% off in the last days!

  3. Chad Everett Avatar

    Hi again, Dino –

    Sure enough, it seems to be getting worse as the “sale” goes on. Just yesterday, there are at least half-a-dozen items (many of the few that we picked up) that had new prices on them.

    What is perhaps the worst is that they are obviously caring less and less about where they put the stickers now, so it’s even more obvious than it was – instead of just a mass of piled stickers, it is now even more apparent that they are simply marking things up prior to marking them down. Nice.

  4. Dino Avatar
    Dino

    I knew it! I noticed they had tagged a single pair of Rayovac AAA rechargeable batteries at $8 or $9…which is about what you might expect to pay for a package of 4 batteries at any other place. Even with the highly vaunted 30% discount, that still give you a price of over $3 per AAA battery! I know, any sane person would wonder why it would only be 30% off after..what…8 weeks of liquidation now? My only guess is that the liquidators know that batteries are something everyone needs, so they’ll sell even if they rape ignorant buyers in the process.

    I think the liquidators are bloodthirsty vampires playing what I would consider an unethical find-the-pea-under-the-shells trick on unwary consumers. If this isn’t illegal, it should be!