Scrounging For Bargains At CompUSA

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When the announcement was made that CompUSA was closing its doors, most of us thought there would be hardware deals aplenty. Unfortunately, even days before the stores are closing forever, that isn’t the case but the folks at C|Net say maybe you should be looking at software instead. Anyone else have any luck rummaging through the remnants of what used to be CompUSA?

During a recent stroll through the downtown San Francisco store, I found desktops and notebooks discounted 20 percent, and in many cases there was only a well-used demo model for sale. There were also printers (some new in box and some demo machines), but I suspect one can get a PC or printer for a better price just by shopping the weekend circulars.
 
I loaded up on Xbox and Wii games for the kids at really good prices. Looked through the software but did not find much for the PC a few weeks ago. I did also get Xbox LIve points cards for 20% off as well....
 
Power supplies at 40% off weren't bad, got an HX620 for $101. Problem is, even the Phenom 9500 at 40% off is still $173.
 
Bleh, I found absolutely nothing. Everything that could be sent back for credit was gone. The only things left for sale in the store were some routers, used demo computers, software, and so VERY well used and yellowed pc's that looked like they came from the store's office or conference room. They were trying to sell a p4 1.6 ghz, 256 meg of ram, 13 inch crt, 5 gig hard drive for $500. Insane.
 
Store closings don't mean what they used to. You have companies who purchase all the merchandise and then run the sales for the stores. What they don't sell at the store gets put into their sales channel and gets sold online, refurbished or at those liquidation sales that popup at convention centers sometimes they will package it up and sell right to competing stores. They don't need liquidation pricing and calling it a closing sale just gets people excited that they might get a deal.

When the store in my town closed during the first round of closings the prices weren't even lower than bestbuy which less than a block away.

Not only are the prices crappy but they try to claim that all sales are final. I asked if the item I was buying was broken if I could bring it back and the guy said no. I left without purchasing anything.
 
Hardware was garbage, most of their deals were garbage, but 2 weeks before they closed they had 360 games for 40% off, that was a decent deal. Couple mobo's had a good price but not anything you couldn't find elsewhere.
 
The CompUSAs in St. Louis closed a while back and I snagged Vista for 40% off...
 
Snagged a Cooler Master case. It was about the same price as it would have been from the Egg with shipping (I live in Alaska and shipping is stupid expensive). I also picked up a Cooler Master heatsink (OK, but not great) that was about the same as the Egg + shipping. Everything else was NOT a deal. Hard drives were at least 50% higher than online, bare DVD drives were $50-100 after discount, 17" flat panels $220 after discount, and almost no software or games left. Doubling the price and knocking 40% off isn't exactly a great deal. It's no wonder they went out of business.
 
I was just there (Fairlawn, OH) this last weekend and the prices on power supplies and tech stuff like fans, cables, coolers etc was still higher than I would pay a Newegg even with shipping included. No wonder they went out of business. Funny thing though the store was packed with bargain hunters and many were buying. I guess those 20-50% off signs work on some people despite the inflated original prices.
 
As someone noted inthe original story, the discount prices were off the full retail. My girlfriend worked for compusless when they closed the arizona stores. The liquidation company reset all the prices on the shelf to full retail or MSRP before even starting the discounting! g/f got a few cell phone accessories, I think I got a remote thermometer.
 
Yeah, I got a good deal there - the first weekend, went to the Compuseless at 100 Oaks in Nashville, TN.
They had 2 dozen F730us Compaq laptops ( AthlonX2, 1gb ram, 120gb hard drive, 15.4 in screen) for $429.99. Not too bad a deal - By the time I got mine and had looked throughout the store - they had 3 left. Realized by going to the Cool Springs store they were not to sell them for 429.99 but for 829.99.

The Microsoft software (some at 40%- last week) are good buys, as you probably wont get a deal like that anywhere.

I also noticed how fast Apple pulled their stuff out of there...

Any new deals worth the drive over there?
 
The SF store is mine as well, right now the onlydeals to be had look to be probably NEXT week on Software (VISTA=40% NOW) and Blanks.
By then they should be 1/2 off.
As for other stuff not really, they STILL have the MOMO going for $95 which I can get online for 75.

For you console people it does look like that will be a good deal this/next week.

BTWY: SF store now looks like end of THIS month for closing, since they are STILL (2 days ago) getting in stock.

ME: I'll pick up Vista, some blank DVD's and a set of blank CD's too, If the burners drop again I might switch to a SATA drive to keep air flow clean.
 
check their as is stuff,

got a supposed "dead' 320 gig seagate sata II drive for 50 bucks, took it home and it worked fine and is still under warranty

picked up an x-fi xtreme audio card, went on ebay for more than i paid for it

got that zalman copper cpu cooler (the one with the blue fan) for 20 OTD, packaging was open but everything was there

got the creative xmod thingy for 40 bucks.

if you look at their supposed broken stuff, most of it is labeled as such because they simply no longer have a way to test it.

also almost got an open box 939 4200 x2, but someone scammed them and replaced the chip inside with a 3200...nice move, wish i would have thought of it
 
its no wonder compusa went out of business. everything at their store sucked :p

i did strangely enough find another data cable for my digital camera. the camera is 8 years old and the cable was in a pile with other cables, snagged it for $5. how random is that :D
 
its no wonder compusa went out of business. everything at their store sucked :p

Ditto, I would sometimes look at the Fairlawn, OH store, everything was higher priced than bestbuy which is like 1/2 mile down the road, and definately overpriced.

I'd say screw them! It was never a good store to begin with! Even the one in cleveland did the same thing when the last bunch of closings happened.

As for the people buying the things they think are 20% off, they deserve to get ripped off for not looking elsewhere and just believing compUSA.
 
Guess Ill go check out their software selection. Hopefully I can find Ultimate for 40% off a, hopefully un-inflated, decent price.
 
I picked up an Antec NeoPower 650 Blue for about $115- after tax, so it was a bargain.

Other than that I've not seen anything worthy. CF cards are WAY marked above anywhere online. The only RAM left was overpriced junk. Cases are still above what it would cost @Egg+Shipping total.

I've been checking back every 2-3 weeks for stuff. One of the 2 locations in my city are along my route home everyday, so its no hassle.
 
As someone noted inthe original story, the discount prices were off the full retail. My girlfriend worked for compusless when they closed the arizona stores. The liquidation company reset all the prices on the shelf to full retail or MSRP before even starting the discounting! g/f got a few cell phone accessories, I think I got a remote thermometer.

I said back when all this started going down that they had raised their prices on the stuff and then tacked on the xx% off. No one believed me. I remembered a lot of prices from going in there a lot and I knew there were many prices higher than before.
 
These are the prices at a Houston store I visited yesterday to check if anything went down from week before. Figures nothing went "down" :

Samsung 46" LCD 120hz 1080p HDTV $1750~
Gateway 30" monitor $1189
AMD X2 4000+ $100
Phenom 9500 $180
Geforce 8800GTX $650
ATI 1900XTX $300
Samsung BD-1400 Blu-Ray Player $400
Samsung BD-1200 Blu-Ray Player (display) $425
Sharp AQUOS Blu-Ray Player $400
 
The compusa around my area were actually trying to literally sell their shelves and the metal brackets that hold them up LOL. and glass display cases.
 
thats common....lots of mom n pop shops (of any variety) will buy the shelving units.
 
exactly, liquidation sales mean NOTHING any more. just another scam.

same thing in the kansas city area. i went in there to see if there was anything on a descent discount. everything was 5% off, and people were carrying stuff out by armfulls. i went back a few weeks later - still 5% off, and the store was about 1/3 full of stuff. idiots... and a BB was across the parking lot, which had the same stuff for cheaper.
 
When the one by me closed last year, I went in once a week looking for anything worth buying. I found nothing, everything good was sent back for credit or to other stores..

Even on the last day they were open they had big-screen tv's marked down 20% which was more expensive then some of the other retailers had as sale prices, and you would be able to return the product if there was a problem...

The best was the on display laptops marked 5% off with scratches and key missing and color fading on the lcd...
 
These are the prices at a Houston store I visited yesterday to check if anything went down from week before. Figures nothing went "down" :

Samsung 46" LCD 120hz 1080p HDTV $1750 - GONE
Gateway 30" monitor $1189 - GONE
AMD X2 4000+ $100 - GONE
Phenom 9500 $180 - 4 left
Geforce 8800GTX OC $650
ATI 1900XTX $350
Samsung BD-1400 Blu-Ray Player $350
Samsung BD-1400 Blu-Ray Player (floor model) $ 360
Samsung BD-1200 Blu-Ray Player (display) $425 - gone
Sharp AQUOS Blu-Ray Player $350

CORRECTED as of now

They are selling shelves for $80 and those are +10% according to their signs that they had to add 10% premium to fixtures, etc.
 
CompUSA was a rip off when they were open and now as they are closing they are still a rip off..... just DIE already.
 
Well, there are a finally a few deals...all software including Office07 & Vista are 50% off in the Des Moines store. I snagged the last Corsair 620HX for $84.99 (was 50% off). That's a steal to me! :D

Also, they have 40% off cooling/fans...picked up a couple of Aerocool Streamliner 140mm case fans for my CM690. They were $8.50ea (good deal & great reviews) but are $17 shipped at the Egg.
 
I went to the CompUSA in Brentwood, TN (Cool Springs) about 3 weeks ago.

I grabben about 4 APC Ups' s .. got them for 30% off ... lot cheaper then newegg with the shipping costs ....

Was kinda weird being there since I worked at that store for 3 years (2002-2005)
 
Phenom 9500s are now 50% off at $145 each at our Houston store! Still the same amount left!
 
No CompUSA where I live. If anyone finds a copy of PREY on the cheap let me know! :)
 
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