Best Buy Buyback Program Genius for Them, Horrible for Consumer | Hacker News Reader

Best Buy Buyback Program Genius for Them, Horrible for Consumer

bestbuy.com

15 pointsnhangen15 comments

For most Internet/technology savvy folks this won't be appealing.

A few years back I realized that most of my technology purchases were actually "rentals." I purchase them at full price, use them for a year or two and then unload them on eBay or Amazon marketplace. This goes for cameras, cellphones, laptops, etc.

The rental price is basically the delta between what I purchase it for and what I sell it for. I've found that savvy decisions about when to sell a piece of technology can minimize the depreciation.

A popular example is selling an old iPhone in May in anticipation of the latest and greatest coming out in June. By selling in May I minimize depreciation.

The mistake I see many of my friends make is holding onto a piece of technology for too long under the false belief that they'll "find a use for it someday." Over the long haul the monetary value falls to zero (or near zero in the case of an old 2nd gen iPod shuffle I discovered yesterday) as does its usefulness.

I make exactly the mistake your friends do--I still have the first smartphone I ever bought, from, I believe, 2000. I also have a 3g I should've sold shortly after getting the iPhone 4.

They'll give you 10% of the original price for a 2-year-old TV? Or 50% after 6 months? Come on, who can pass up that deal!?!?!?

// end sarcasm

// you could get a lot more via Craigslist

// But I bet this is targeted to folks who "rent" from Rent-a-Center or other such outfits...

From what I can tell the buy back program for a TV is like $99.99 up front, given I bought my TV for $800 (42" Sony Bravia) I wouldn't even get my money back at 10%. This is 100% unadulterated scamming.

>// you could get a lot more via Craigslist

I could get more via the bulletin board in my apartment building's laundry room. Shit, go to the local college campus' and put up a couple of fliers on their bulletin board.

Who even replaces a TV after 6 months or 2-years unless it's a complete lemon? This must be targeted to the limited subset of people with no common sense, disposable income and a severe lack of anywhere else to spend it (IE not in college or university, not struggling to pay rent, don't have kids). So basically this is aimed at morons in the 25-35 range who are either incapable of finding a partner and accidentally get pregnant, or who somehow managed to be "just-that-stupid" but also somehow managed to comprehend the consequences of sex.

Personally I'm even amazed this has an applicable market. I mean I know it's parasitical in nature but really this is like trying to poison the world by lacing all the worlds supply of caviar with a less than lethal dose of arsenic hoping we'll gradually reach a lethal dose.

>// you could get a lot more via Craigslist

Not only can you get more by selling it on Craigslist but you also get cash instead of BestBuy store credit.

I can't stand people who get the latest kit because they want to be "cool". I take a functional attitude to buying things, and unless there's a compelling reason for me to upgrade them (more pretty graphics, a new OS that my hardware cannot run, my old stuff is breaking), I don't see the point of chasing the latest and greatest. I guess we have early adopters to thank for driving innovation in a way, however I'm sure there's a lot of people out there with iPhone 3s who queued up for iPhone 4s purely because it is a status symbol.

Out and out materialism is a delusion of modern society.

Smart of them to offer the program "free" right now while there's buzz about it. I can't find anywhere on the site what the up-front cost would be on, say a laptop or a cell phone.

Lack of clear pricing makes it hard to successfully criticize the program while it's new and fresh in the news, and later on they'll do what they probably intended all along and charge $100 up front to let you sell your $1300 TV back for $130 3 years from now.

$99 for 4 years of buy-back.

Is that $99 per item purchased, or just $99 to be part of a 'buy back' club? If the latter, for people who buy a lot, it might almost not be a horrible program.

I was interested in this because I bought a netbook and recently bought a Macbook Air because I got tired of the former. It's been over a year, but I'm sure I could get more than a paltry $50 for it, and worse, having to buy it at time of purchase is an additional expense that makes little sense.

On the other hand, BB can lure people into buying these, then giving them reduced cost hardware that they can profit from a 2nd time. Genius.

I'm sure the same people who trade in their cars to dealers and buy new cars will take advantage of this. People seem to value convenience and simplicity over actually making smart choices or pocketing money (which is probably why debt levels are so high)

Interesting but here are my questions: where are they unloading all this used merchandise? How do they grade equipment?

Is this going to be like the cash4gold.com shenanigans?

How do they grade equipment?

Just get the extended warranty as well and you'll be covered.

Don't forget your extra Monster HDMI cables while you're at it.

Ultra High Fast, no less. Personally, I only use Ludicrous speed cables.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com