With the holidays upon us, I’m reposting this PSA – which was originally published way back in July, 2006. (RIP Tweeter and Circuit City.)
Stop it! Seriously. It sickens me when friends and family tell me how much they’re paying for cables at retail. Best Buy, Circuit City, and even Radio Shack are sticking it to consumers with profit margins that must exceed 80%.
Obviously we can’t stop buying cables, but we can be more choosy in who we patronize. If you have the patience to wait a few days for delivery, the best deals are (not-surprisingly) online. The other benefit of buying online is there are far more options in terms of connections and cable length. For example, I couldn’t just drive down to my local Tweeter for the 35′ HD15 -> Component cable I needed to feed my recently retired (sniff sniff) projector. Retailers like Amazon and Buy.com are much cheaper than the brick & mortars, but for the best deals look to specialized businesses.
In my experience, MonoPrice is currently the best of the bunch among lesser known vendors. Their prices are awesome and delivery is efficient. I recently purchased BOTH a 3′ HDMI cable and a 3′ DVI -> HDMI cable for UNDER $10. How can you beat that?
Dave,
Here’s a good post/video which pretty much sums up the monster vs. monoprice debate. I point all my friends to this when they ask me if monoprice cables are that good…
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2008/02/20/packing_the_deal/
I totally agree. Monoprice is the way to go. We bought some HDMI cables a while back and they’ve been great.
Monoprice is excellent. The also have great deals on wallmounts, speakers, etc.
I just returned a micro-usb car charger to Verizon ($29.99) after purchasing a $1.08 version at Monoprice.
Yep, I bought an OK wall mount there too for a small LCD (19″). Also was looking at a HDMI switch and iPhone extended battery.
I like monoprice and have used them before. I also like
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/
because of the owner’s good-humored challenge to the monster.
Dave,
My iPhone extender battery is in the mail right now. I’ll let you know how it works…
I couldn’t agree more! I have recommended Monoprice to numerous family, friends and co-workers. The prices at Best Buy, the local retailer in my small town, are obscene.
i don’t bother suggesting monoprice anymore. i either force people to buy from there, or buy it for them.
Ha, I’m the same way, Jon.
Yep, I agree. Monoprice has been a good source of cables and weird hard to find adapters.
i am waiting on monoprice to start selling ‘mini-usb > micro-usb’ adapters or dongles so i can start using all the old chargers i have sitting around with my storm2
I agree, monoprice does have pretty cheap cables, lately I’ve been making most of my computer accessory buys at cyberguys.com due to their customer service and I trust that if something stops working they’ll replace it fast and free.
Monoprice dropped the ball about 6 months ago and couldn’t get the product I bought reshipped when mine arrived defective. Found it at Cyberguys and they had it to me overnight at no additional charge. Not a bad way to convert a new customer.
There is always cheap, but for me I need reliability and a quality product.
Reminds me of the Monster vs. Coat hanger.