captaincrash
<font color=darkorchid>!!!Surrender over yer LOOT!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 10,508
On a side note - this always happens to me - we were coming back from lunch when we saw a warehouse sale on luggage. Anybody heard of the Ricardo's of Beverly Hills?
Well they have this awesome piece that I just saw in Sam's Club/Costco. It was a 12 # rolling suitcase with a built-in scale on it. It was about the size of a 26-in regular suitcase. Anyway, they were selling it for $110 +tax. They had it on sale for $60.
I got a 4 piece light pink set for $40. They were selling it for $60 this morning but as they were getting ready to close - they were dropping the prices. They also had a rolling duffel backpack which they were selling for $30. I didn't get that one but a couple of people in line did get them.
I bought 2 small rolling 'computer cases' in the brilliant color or red with a padded slot for the laptop and wider slot which may fit my camera and accessories. I've been looking for a combo suitcase roller thingy that might work and I believe this might if I can get past the 8" width on Iberia. This one is 10". I'm hoping that the travel agents don't notice especially if I have someone stand back and away. What do you all think?
Anyway, those pieces were $20 and then on the way out I found an elite computer style with 3 zippered slots and is a bit tougher. The problem with it? The zipper compartment which housed the retractable handle was sticky. Someone had returned it. Since all sales were final I asked - how much were they selling it for. The "guard" said - oh I think they were selling for $20 (keep in mind I'd just bought 2 red ones for $20. But the man then went on to say - but I think they can sell it for $15. I then kinda picked up on the fact that this may be the man to deal with. So I asked - how about for $10? His reponse? Elise - sell this item to this lady for $10!
Now, I can go and return about $250 dollars worth of suitcases to Marshall's!
Good thing Marshall's has a return policy!
Well...
Having seen this I thought it would be OK to share one personal "recovery" of some merit. I had purchased a rear projection HD TV more or less on impulse about 3 years ago. It was Christmas time and I had 2K I needed to get rid of quick as my spouse had just given me grudging encouragement to get my big TV since the old 48" Mitsubishi litterally blew up a week or so ago.
SO there's this Philips HDTV at Costco with an old style 4:3 square screen (but HD) - it had a mail in deal for a free surround sound system with DVD player and "I bit"... so after getting it home (they don't deliver and it weighs 260 pounds) .... and after about 3 months I noticed it had a strange projection artifact - a triangular rainbow that appeared periodicly in one corner - and the alignment of the 3 projection guns kept drifting out of alignment! I found in the next 3-6 months the artifact in fact appeared in 3 of 4 corners - and the guns needed MANUAL realignment every 1-4 weeks! It was maddening! SO at 9 months I inquired of what my options were and they said if I were unhappy I could RETURN IT!
I thought... oh, NO.... I don't wanna lug this thing back to Costco - and if I did how much would I get back? They said it was a reduced price without the receipt ~ which I did not have. Well... after another 4 months of mulling it - I selected a replacement HDTV - and arranged for a delivery service to pick it up and return it. SO - I was ready to take a 40% discount in returning it - when my spouse (bless her organized heart) produced the original receipt! That saved me about $800!
So I returned the 60" Philips square screen for a FULL REFUND after about 14 months of use! I then bought an Epson 57" rectangular screen HDTV for about the same money with an employee discount from an old friend. The new HDTV was a true HDTV format with a current street value of near $4K which I got for less then $2K... since it was a damaged box second... which was HAND picked for me by a friend of my friend. This model is a digital photographers' super toy ... as it has an intergrated dye-sublimation printer and CDRW drive for viewing, buring CDs for storage and printing photos! And, of course, I am an avid digital photographer!
So I returned an $1800 defective 60" Philips for $1800 less a delivery fee of $100 = and bought a open/damaged box $3900 Epson in 57" size with a 16:9 rectangular screen with an employee discount for $1900! THEN - I found 2 replacement bulbs on eBay for under $100 total ... and a couple dozen printing cartridge packs for 1/4 retail... I bought them all and now have 2 dozen plus packs ... enough to print 1200 prints!
Anyways... I am happy to have NOT been stuck with an ill conceived initial purchase ... and the new Epson is a newer technology 3 LCD panel rear projection system with an inexpensive method of renewal through the user replacable projection lamps.... normally $400 each but I got 2 for $50 each!
Since then - Costco has changed thier return policy to 90 days to return or exchange HDTVs.... instead of the unlimited furation satisfaction guaranteed policy I exploited! And I still have the free surround sound system with DVD player! It's not the best but better then any 'in TV" system!
So - that's one of my "fun" salvage deals!
. 
The Pirate Queen 
