geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: Elias Camber on Sun, 18 May 2014, 05:32:39
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howdy guys,
not sure if this has been introduced in here by now.
Ever since I bought a TV for a real bargain price on amazon warehouse, I've been checking on warehouse deals for items I want, but am not willing to pay full retail price for. Back in the day the warehouse deals were even more hidden from the items page than they are today. You had to click a link in order to even see if there is anything from warehouse to second party offers for the item at all.
I'm located in EU, germany so I don't know if this works the same overseas.
A lot of people seem to order stuff knowing there is a big chance they'll be sending it back to amazon. It's basically those guys beeing careless with items or packaging but still sending the item back in time (in germany this is within two weeks) that fill amazons warehouse. Recently I was looking at the KBT-Pure and Poker2, two of the samll boards that are actually available in german layout, which is awesome. The initial price was about 105€ to 112€, depending on switch choice an backlight color. One day however I saw there was a used offer/warehouse deal for the Poker2 with black switches (black is one of my favourite anyways) for around 70€. I checked the offer and there was one second party offer for about 110€ (which seemed rediculous) and one warehouse deal for the 70€. I imediately thought: wow, what a steal... but didn't feel like getting it at the time. Over the years I realized that those warehouse deals are pretty much regulated automatically, without regard on what the item is worth. Also for germany at least I think amazon is the wrong place to sell geeky keyboard stuff on... people who don't know anything about keyboards look at a board like Poker2 for 100 bucks missing a lot of keys and just think it's a joke.
So after some days the price dropped again to 62€ and I thought... well let's see how long this is going to available. Obviously someone who want's a (like new) Poker2 in EU layout would snipe this imediately for such a good price... but, it didn't happen. After one more week I monitored this, telling myself to be patient (which also turned out to be a nice field-test) all of a sudden the rpice dropped again (I think a total of 12 days after getting listed on warehouse-deals) to 40€. Well, what can I say... seeing that price I bought it right away even afraid some overseas crazy guy would snipe this from me (still being a steal with 20 bucks of int. shipping cost).
So in a nutshell: a place where items get sent back and no one knows their value and they sometimes go comletely unnoticed is a f****ng great place for people who are well aware to buy them. Yet patience and self discipline is required.
The Poker will be delivered (free) next week, but I don't expect anything to be wrong with it since amazon has a very strict policy stating exacly what's wrong with the item if there are any scratches or whatever.
So check those warehouse deals once in a while... it's totally worth it and for me I bought cheaper stuff there than I ever did on ebay.
Also if you experienced anything similar it would maybe be fun to hear about it.
Cheers.
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I've never noticed the price decrease like that. Might be rare for that odd item. Hopefully not. I have bought PC stuff like GPUs. I guess I never monitored the price really closely but I have checked some items over time. I don't think they even sell poker 2's on amazon here. Wish they did.
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depending on where you are, you could check other countries amazon page.
Both UK and german amazon sell poker/pure in at least three or four languages (all ISO EU of course).
So there is a chance a neighbour country with acceptable shipping cost has them.
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i had been "looking" for old RD HHKBs and an m0110 and managed to get them both within 30 seconds of each other with no prior planning or intention of actually buying either that day, or ever, tbh (didn't put that much effort into hunting).