Saving Money

Best Christmas Deal Of 2015: A Sound Bar For 60% Off!

The sound on our TV is certainly loud enough under normal conditions, but when we play moves through our Blu-Ray player the sound for whatever reason is much quieter. My wife has commented several times that we should get a sound bar to enhance the audio experience while watching movies.

As much as I prefer to do my Christmas shopping online, I wasn’t going to buy a sound bar without hearing it in action first. I did some research online, and then headed to a nearby Best Buy and proceeded to spend ninety minutes going between sound bar displays comparing specifications and listening to how they sounded. When I had narrowed my choices to two, I flagged down an employee and asked for his opinion. He was of no help, basically telling me that the two were comparable in every way, so if one sounded better to my ear then that’s the one I should go with.

I then started to think seriously about cost.

Both were normally priced at $499 on sale for $349 (discounted $150), so I took one last listen to both products. One had much deeper and pronounced bass, which was the final factor in making my final selection. Next I looked to see if the product was in stock.

Skimming the shelves, I found that there was one of the sound bar I wanted in stock. I noticed there was a yellow sticker on the box, which warranted closer investigation. The sticker indicated an “open box" price because the product had either been a display model or returned by a customer.

My eyes lit up as the open box price on the sound bar was $272.00.

I have no problem buying an open box item. Typically what happens is someone purchases the product, takes it home and for whatever reason it just doesn’t fit what they wanted. It gets packaged up, and returned. It would still have the same manufacturer’s warranty, it’s just heavily discounted.

Without hesitation I picked up the box and headed for the checkout counter.

Here’s the breakdown of the cost of the sound bar:

• Original price: $499
• Open box price: $272

I also had $70 in Best Buy rewards from purchasing my mother-in-law’s iPad on my Best Buy credit card. She gave me the money and told me to go buy her an iPad. I charged it on my card, got a promotional 10% Best Buy Rewards, and then immediately paid it off.

• Final price: $202

I purchased a $499 sound bar for $202 for a savings of $297, or 60%!

I was anxious to tell my wife what a great deal I got on the new sound bar, so much so that I almost started telling the story several times that evening. But that’s a story that will have to wait until we open up our gifts!

What do you think of purchasing open box items? What’s the best deal you’ve found this holiday season?

Brought to you courtesy of Brock

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