Author Topic: Cheapest place to find monitors?  (Read 55243 times)

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Offline Sintpinty

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Cheapest place to find monitors?
« on: Wed, 29 January 2020, 09:34:31 »
I need a good monitor that will last me a long time, preferrably 2

Would it be possible to find some good monitors from the thrift store?

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 29 January 2020, 11:25:27 »
What's the total budget for 1 monitor,   and for 2 monitors

Sitting at your computer desk, hands on the keyboard, what is the distance between eyes and wall,  if you're not facing the wall, take the distance between eyes and the end of the table (forward).

Offline Leslieann

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 29 January 2020, 18:45:32 »
In my experience, you rarely if ever find actual deals on monitors.
People use them until they're dead and monitor prices, companies being liquidated sell them cheap but but the liquidators expect to get paid and the slow moving pace of monitor tech means there's no significant depreciation and they can get good money on them.

I've seen liquidators selling them at 80-90% retail, at which point, spend the money and get new. Buying used like that makes sense if you need 300 of them, have an IT department and know you have the power to push back if there's an issue, but you don't have those things.

As for thrift stores and such...
Sometimes you can get lucky but a lot of thrift stores and pawn shops simply refuse to touch computer equipment because it's such a volatile industry.  They do get them sometimes, but it's pretty rare and the prices are often way out of line for what they have.

I typically start at Newegg, Microcenter and occasionally Best Buy to find something I want then cross shop it on Amazon just to make sure the prices are reasonable. I wouldn't buy there though, too many shady sellers and I want an easy return if there's an issue.
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Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 30 January 2020, 05:26:17 »
In my experience, you rarely if ever find actual deals on monitors.
People use them until they're dead and monitor prices, companies being liquidated sell them cheap but but the liquidators expect to get paid and the slow moving pace of monitor tech means there's no significant depreciation and they can get good money on them.

I've seen liquidators selling them at 80-90% retail, at which point, spend the money and get new. Buying used like that makes sense if you need 300 of them, have an IT department and know you have the power to push back if there's an issue, but you don't have those things.

As for thrift stores and such...
Sometimes you can get lucky but a lot of thrift stores and pawn shops simply refuse to touch computer equipment because it's such a volatile industry.  They do get them sometimes, but it's pretty rare and the prices are often way out of line for what they have.

I typically start at Newegg, Microcenter and occasionally Best Buy to find something I want then cross shop it on Amazon just to make sure the prices are reasonable. I wouldn't buy there though, too many shady sellers and I want an easy return if there's an issue.

Ah i see. Planning to get a viotek monitor and then a vertical monitor on top

Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 30 January 2020, 05:27:11 »
What's the total budget for 1 monitor,   and for 2 monitors

Sitting at your computer desk, hands on the keyboard, what is the distance between eyes and wall,  if you're not facing the wall, take the distance between eyes and the end of the table (forward).


About 400 or possibly 600 CAD which is not what i desire

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 30 January 2020, 09:08:41 »
About 400 or possibly 600 CAD which is not what i desire

That's $454.44,

Definitely don't need to go to the thrift store. Hahaha.

Are you allowed to move the desk to the middle of the room, so you can use a TV as a monitor.

Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 30 January 2020, 16:14:55 »
Buy used one's from local office sales

Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #7 on: Fri, 31 January 2020, 05:54:36 »
About 400 or possibly 600 CAD which is not what i desire

That's $454.44,

Definitely don't need to go to the thrift store. Hahaha.

Are you allowed to move the desk to the middle of the room, so you can use a TV as a monitor.


No

Its too heavy

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 31 January 2020, 10:42:36 »
No

Its too heavy

$450 For serious pr0 gaming, the Viewsonic XG270 is best go-to as of late.

$300 For non-serious gaming + Movies,  get something like Samsung 32-Inch CJG56 144Hz Curved

The Viewsonic has much higher motion clarity, but it's an IPS, contrast is low, blacks don't look very black, so overall the image will lack depth. But for hardcore gaming, motion clarity may be more important.

I must emphasize, you must be really serious about gaming to take an IPS panel. Otherwise, it's worse for every other usage scenario.

The Samsung is a VA panel, it has much deeper blacks, so images will look more 3 Dimensional and vivid, but it does not have the motion clarity of the Viewsonic.


NOT ALL IPS have good motion clarity, only the Viewsonic XG270,   

There's an Acer model named XG270HU, that is NOT the same as Viewsonic XG270

If you can stretch your budget a bit to $600usd, $793cad, there's also the XG270QG, it's the higher end model with quantum dot and higher resolution than the vanilla XG270. again, this is a gaming IPS, bad contrast ratio, not great for movies, youtube.


Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 31 January 2020, 11:58:20 »
No

Its too heavy

$450 For serious pr0 gaming, the Viewsonic XG270 is best go-to as of late.

$300 For non-serious gaming + Movies,  get something like Samsung 32-Inch CJG56 144Hz Curved

The Viewsonic has much higher motion clarity, but it's an IPS, contrast is low, blacks don't look very black, so overall the image will lack depth. But for hardcore gaming, motion clarity may be more important.

I must emphasize, you must be really serious about gaming to take an IPS panel. Otherwise, it's worse for every other usage scenario.

The Samsung is a VA panel, it has much deeper blacks, so images will look more 3 Dimensional and vivid, but it does not have the motion clarity of the Viewsonic.


NOT ALL IPS have good motion clarity, only the Viewsonic XG270,   

There's an Acer model named XG270HU, that is NOT the same as Viewsonic XG270

If you can stretch your budget a bit to $600usd, $793cad, there's also the XG270QG, it's the higher end model with quantum dot and higher resolution than the vanilla XG270. again, this is a gaming IPS, bad contrast ratio, not great for movies, youtube.




thanks king

Yeah i have about 1030 in the bank so ok

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 31 January 2020, 17:07:30 »

Yeah i have about 1030 in the bank so ok

I'm not suggesting you spend ALLz ur $$,

If you think $200 or $300 is better, then do that.

Just throwing out the -current selections-.

Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 02 February 2020, 10:31:25 »

Yeah i have about 1030 in the bank so ok

I'm not suggesting you spend ALLz ur $$,

If you think $200 or $300 is better, then do that.

Just throwing out the -current selections-.


ok

Offline typo

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 04 February 2020, 08:09:49 »
Google CDW Outlet, Make sure you are on the outlet page. Click price low to high. Can get a good 24" for $79 often. I got a $48,000 photo color match display for $2,700. It was factory sealed.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #13 on: Thu, 06 February 2020, 21:29:48 »
Google CDW Outlet, Make sure you are on the outlet page. Click price low to high. Can get a good 24" for $79 often. I got a $48,000 photo color match display for $2,700. It was factory sealed.

Why didn't you turn around flip the monitor, and pocket the difference ?

Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 07 February 2020, 12:25:43 »
Google CDW Outlet, Make sure you are on the outlet page. Click price low to high. Can get a good 24" for $79 often. I got a $48,000 photo color match display for $2,700. It was factory sealed.

Why didn't you turn around flip the monitor, and pocket the difference ?


?🤨

Offline typo

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #15 on: Sat, 08 February 2020, 05:28:15 »
I needed that monitor for my job. I was specifically on the hunt to find it for less money. I would have had to pay the full price in the long range anyhow. The price I got it for was a godsend. Since it grossly added to the bottom line of my business that year. I pretty much made an extra 40 grand that year. I invested it as usual and that extra $40k is like $70K today. Of course I made more than 40K anyways. I would not have a display like that if my business were not profitable. So I have that flanked by a nice NEC 32" on either side. The interesting thing is the top NEC's are certainly not the Eizo but they are very stout monitors in their own right.

I had another thread no one answered but luckily I fixed it myself. I got a JDM Elecom Thumb Ball. It was only expensive because it is not sold here.  I had to make multiple hacks to the registry to go across 3x32" 4K displays. Then it got super slow. I fixed it though luckily. I am only mentioning it because not even gaming it takes me 28,000 DPI just to be usable with that much landscape.

However, if you do want a little business going, CDW outlet might be one way to do it! Almost everything is brand new and you can see markdowns of 90+%. I especially like the UPS battery backup  deals. For nothing. I am not sure about the shipping if you are not local though. They weigh a lot.  Macbooks, Tablets. You could feasibly sell this stuff. Se their policy is if something is returned they will not sell it again like for instance Best Buy would. They are serious business. So they just give it away. The longer it has ben there they mark it down 5% more every week up to 95% off. So you could get a $4,000 MacBook for $300 often. Plus if it is no good, 15 days to return! I always check if what I need is there first. They even have the website hidden. You must google it.

I am just trying to help you folks out. If you need stuff or want to resell it. I actually needed that display to answer your question :)

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #16 on: Sat, 08 February 2020, 07:43:04 »
So they just give it away. The longer it has ben there they mark it down 5% more every week up to 95% off. So you could get a $4,000 MacBook for $300 often. Plus if it is no good, 15 days to return! I always check if what I need is there first. They even have the website hidden. You must google it.

I am just trying to help you folks out. If you need stuff or want to resell it. I actually needed that display to answer your question :)

$300 macbook?

Right now their macbook match amazon's price,

You're saying in a week it will be another 5% off  on all macbooks ?

Offline Maledicted

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #17 on: Sat, 08 February 2020, 22:44:34 »
I need a good monitor that will last me a long time, preferrably 2

Would it be possible to find some good monitors from the thrift store?

I see 5-10 monitors at Goodwill every single time I go there. Sometimes I pick up decent 1920x1080 displays there for $30 or less. On Craigslist, I see nearly new 4k displays going for $100, or less, from time to time. Maybe a lot of people in this area have more money than they know what to do with though. Recycling facilities around here seem to always have boatloads of really high quality business class displays as well.

People use them until they're dead

Are we talking about the same people that sell pallet loads of perfectly-working 1-2-generation-old i5+ systems for scrap at salvage yards?

Offline typo

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #18 on: Mon, 10 February 2020, 01:10:12 »
I live in a very poor area. Absolute junk at Goodwill here.

CDW outlet: $10,000 MacBook just for instance. It is probably brand new. Companies order too many and return some, many. It hits the outlet at maybe $5,000. 50% off to go. every week if that unit does not sell they mark it down another 5%. Just click low to high. Often there is one that has been there 2 years. So it is a bit older machine but it is still top of the line so now maybe $300-$500. This is not limited to Macbooks. It is all IT equipment. You must google "CDW OUTLET"  It is a bit hidden. I always check there first. Also, little known. If you are making a "decent" purchase at regular CDW you can ask the sales person for a discount and they will usually give you 10-25% off depending on what you are spending. We are in business so we have an account there and get many fair deals. I think it is a good company. If it is your first time and you are spending $20 do not expect anything.

Some things are great deals if you are local. Due to weight shipping kills the deal. We run several BladeUPS. They must be delivered and installed by an electrician. So you get those local. Anyways if they had a dead battery they were not worth a penny. Overall CDW outlet, right place, right time. If you luck out which is often you will be satisfied.


Offline Darthbaggins

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #19 on: Mon, 13 June 2022, 10:47:26 »

 bkrownd:"Those damned rubber chiclet keys are the devil's nipples."   >:D



Offline Maledicted

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Re: Cheapest place to find monitors?
« Reply #20 on: Tue, 14 June 2022, 10:20:01 »
There are a lot of monitors with different parameters on the market now. It is best to buy your monitor from an official distributor because they will give you at least a year's warranty. You'll also be able to buy extra insurance for a couple of years.

Or just go to the local recycling facility and find whatever number of whatever you need for dirt cheap and bring it back to the recycler if you need to replace it. lol.  I pick up nice monitors at my local recycler for $30 each all of the time. They usually don't have stands, which is a win/win for me since arm mounts are better anyway.

Most recently, I got 3 identical 1920x1080 optical touch ViewSonic monitors. Maybe 21-23 inch screens. I have no use for touch, but that's all they had 3 of. $30 each.