How To Buy A Plasma TV, Cheaply

My quest to buy a wide screen television turned out to something that I had not anticipated. After checking out the various flat panel televisions I settled for a plasma, even though there are not as many plasma models as there are LCD's. With a budget of $2,000, I choose to buy the 50" Panasonic HDTV as it was within my price range.

My first step before buying the TV was to ensure that my store credit limit was enough to cover for the purchase. With my Circuit City store-card, my limit is $3,800 as opposed to the $1,900 limit that I have with Best Buy. For that reason I decided to increase my Best Buy Credit limit so that I could have a choice of buying the plasma in either of the stores.

Being a Best Buy fanatic, I decided to get the TV at Best Buy instead of Circuit City. Lo and behold, when I got to my local Best Buy store, the TV was going for $1,900 instead of the $1,800 that they had advertised online. The store associate explained to me that the $100 difference was because the online price does not come with a 3 year no-interest financing plan. Reluctantly, I paid $2,014.54 for the TV on the 3 year no-interest plan. Not wanting to take the TV with me, I arranged that I collect the TV later.

When I got home, I decided to check out the same TV on Circuit City's website. Unlike Best Buy, they were offering the same model at $1800 with 3 year no finance plan if purchased online. In addition, they were offering a 10% discount for in store pick-up. For $1,740.68 I bought the same plasma TV online as compared to the $2,041 that I had paid at Best Buy. A cool $300 difference and with the 3 year no-finance plan for my troubles.

This was a no-brainer. All that was required of me was to go to Best Buy and cancel my order. Instead, I went into the Best Buy store to see if they could match Circuit City's price. Like most retail stores, Best Buy offers a price match guarantee for their products if you can find it cheaper elsewhere. In addition to this, if you bring with you a receipt they will not only match the price but also an additional 10% of that difference.

Within minutes of handing the Best Buy customer service associate my receipt, I walked out of the store with my purchase for $1,710 for the same TV that I had paid for $2,041 in a span of less than 24 hours. For the $332price difference, I still got to keep the 3 year no-interest financing plan. So now I'll be paying less than $50 per month over the course of the next 3 years while we enjoy the purchase.

What is remaining now is to buy a larger TV stand wall mount to accommodate my purchase and all the paraphernalia that is required to connect the TV onto my cable box/DVD recorder. I have no plans of upgrading my cable service to HDTV, until after my contract expires early next year and I switch to a different provider. Even then, I might still not take up the HDTV service as it's an additional $15 on top of the regular cable price.

My plan is to keep the TV upgrade under the $2,000 limit and the way it's going I'm still below budget. I am yet to cancel my online purchase at Circuit City.

PS. I just realized that the Best Buy CS associate erred in the price match and I will have this rectified when I go back to the store. Oh well, I now 'have' $287 to spend on the add-ons. Sigh.

PSS. Two days to the Christmas break and there's hardly anyone at work. During my trip to the strip mall, I saw a number of colleagues who are NOT on vacation. Makes me wonder why I came to work today. At least I get to finish up on my project in preparation for a new one next year.

Here's to wishing my blog readers a Merry Christmas and a Blessed 2008.

Done it update:

Plasma TV = $1,710, Mount = $246; Total Spent = $1,956. Extra's: Borrowed neghbors pick-up to carry the TV. Spent almost 3 hours setting up and mounting the TV.