As mentioned many times, usually when you see sale signs indicating that an item is say 50% off you still have to do your due diligence as that sale price may not be all that it seems. As many of you may know, the business Linens N’ Things has recently started a going out of business sale and stores are advertising a 10% to 30% off on all the products in the store.

I must have passed at least two of these stores here recently and they sure know how to draw a crowd with these big yellow signs plastered everywhere about them going out of business. From my experience though, this is one of the most expensive retail places there is to buy stuff. Even with the discount, from what I saw it was still more expensive than other places most of the time

Someone then just recently forwarded me this video about one of the stores in the US and it was a pretty interesting watch. Essentially, it looked like someone got lazy in the company and in the process of changing prices they simply just stuck a new price tag over the old one. That sure didn’t make them look too good. You can watch the video at

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/17851557/index.html

In all fairness, sometimes a business does have to mark up prices in order to adapt to the market condition. While that may have been the case here too, this was a great possible example I thought on how you have to be careful in not placing all your trust and judgment on those sale signs to be certain that you are getting a good value.

I was just researching about various add-ons for a camcorder to allow better shooting in say very bright settings and looking at the prices for these add-ons and accessories was kind of amazing. They almost cost a much as the camcorder itself in some cases such as buying different lens.

In some ways I’m not too surprised as accessories are usually marked up like crazy as a way to generate revenue from selling the main product with a very low profit margin. One thing that I usually try to do if I don’t know anyone that specifically specializes in the field to know how much the item is marked up by is to try and find wholesale price lists.

Usually they are meant for companies wanting to buy products to resell, but from a consumer point of view is often gives you a very good idea in terms of trying to find a good bargain. Example, if you were looking to buy a cord of some kind that was $10 and you see from a wholesaler that they sell twenty for $10, then at least you know most likely there is a better deal to be had.