Cr** offers

[Blue Hills]

The bargains thread is of course (at least in normal times) a wonderful place.

But as a cautionary note to folks who might click too quickly on supposed offers, and to maybe shame some retailers who are just perhaps taking the P and so we should be wary of in future, I give you the *** offers thread.

I'll kick off with this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133567979632?epid=1737938334&hash=item1f1945a070:g:81YAAOSwLKxfpT-P

from the esteemed (at least in the past) Blacks.

They really expect us to believe that original price on a Vavert tube?

Easily available from all sorts of other places of course.

 

[fossyant]

Oof, £5.95 is expensive - seen them much cheaper.

 

[fossyant]

Hate it when web sites put stuff 'on -sale' and when you click on an item, there is actually no stock, so why can it be 'on-sale'....

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

On Blacks' own site https://www.blacks.co.uk/equipment/cycling/components/inner-tubes/ they are £3.5 reduced from £7.

But the £5 reduced from £10 on eBay does come with free delivery rather than the £4.95 delivery charge on the main site (which seems to be per order not per item).

It also seems that they have pretty much their entire range on eBay, I lost interest after 4,400 items.

Given that Blacks aren't a cycle shop £7 doesn't sound too bad, if Blacks is your only option to buy in person.

Bye

Ian

 

[si_c]

It's worse, scrolled down the blacks website a touch, the 29 x 1.75/2.125 tubes are £2 on their website, and £6 on ebay.

 

[Blue Hills]

It's worse, scrolled down the blacks website a touch, the 29 x 1.75/2.125 tubes are £2 on their website, and £6 on ebay.

Quite a lot of shops do this double dealing and charge bizarre prices for postage on eBay.
I learned about the tube offer by the by from a mailing - blacks send them out all the time.
Re above comment, no way I would spend £7 for a bog standard tube.

 

[Cycleops]

This trick is as old as the hills. Even used by the big supermarkets. You mark something up and then take it off so it appears to be a bargain.
An even bigger con is the '50% (or whatever) off'. 50% off what?
You just need to have your wits about you and compare real prices.

 

[bikingdad90]

Planet X are particularly bad for this.
Their London Road was £699 pre brexit then is sold for £799 except for New Year’s Day when it was up for the RRP but save 15% with the discount code and is now up for £749. Saving £150 may backside!!

 

[matticus]

I don't see the problem - if it's something available in the free market (the PlanetX example is arguably different) then it's just down to consumer choice. Same as if they didn't claim some huge discount.

After all, somewhere else might have it with a 60% discount!

 

[rogerzilla]

I doubt DFS have ever sold many sofas at "full price". They advertise them for 6 months at 50% off, then they disappear from showrooms. They do remain in the catalogue for a while afterwards at 100%, if you look hard enough, but they aren't in any way promoted. It's legal but hardly ethical.

 

[Blue Hills]

Oof, £5.95 is expensive - seen them much cheaper.

yep that was my point really - apart from the, er, questionable discount, £5.95 is no sort of bargain whatsoever.

 

[Jenkins]

There's also the Currys method - a recent example was a TV that was being sold at £330 for months on end. They then put the price up to £360 and offered a £30 discount code to make it seem like a bargain. I've also seen them put the price up on other items by £100 for the minimum period of 30 days and then have it on 'special offer' with £80 off making it £20 more expensive than it was just over a month ago.

 

[Jenkins]

Planet X are particularly bad for this.
Their London Road was £699 pre brexit then is sold for £799 except for New Year’s Day when it was up for the RRP but save 15% with the discount code and is now up for £749. Saving £150 may backside!!

I'm convinced that Planet X have an ERNIE like random number generator for some of their prices.

 

[Blue Hills]

I'm convinced that Planet X have an ERNIE like random number generator for some of their prices.

I save my planet X purchases up because of postage which can be quite substantial.
Once I have my eye on something I keep a note of its prices - up and down up and down and roundabout.
In truth I find the planetX thing more amusing than objectionable for they are I think very good and very good value.
They do of course very regularly indeed sell Vavert tubes for somewhat less than £5.95
In fact am pretty sure I've bought the odd tyre from them for less than that.

 

[further]

The last tyres I bought from Planet X were £3.99 each