This gold-plated HDMI cable--and $7--can be yours if you don't mind waiting on a rebate.
(Credit: Circuit City)Update: Sigh. Sorry, folks. Barely an hour after I posted this, Circuit City bumped the cable's price up to $20. So there's zero point in taking advantage of this rebate--not when you can buy an HDMI cable for $3 shipped.
In light of yesterday's lively and enlightening discussion about rebates, I could not let this pass by: Circuit City is offering a 6-foot HDMI cable for $5.97, plus $6.99 for shipping, minus $20 after a mail-in rebate [PDF].
In other words, when all is said and done, you'll walk away with $7 and an HDMI cable. This rebate actually refunds 100 percent of your purchase price, and then some.
So let's assume you're in the market for such a cable. Even taking the rebate out of the equation, $13 out the door is not a bad price.
Of course, as regular Cheapskate readers know, you can buy a 6-foot HDMI cable for as little as $3.19 shipped. (In fact, that same deal is now down to $2.99: a penny for the cable, $2.98 for shipping. Crazy!)
So which is better: Three bucks now and no rebate hassles, or $13 now and the promise of a $20 check in 8-10 weeks?
Tough one! Either way, the song remains the same: Don't overpay for HDMI cables! I've used both cheap and pricey ones, and the audio-video quality was always identical. Your thoughts?
Pay more than a few bucks for an HDMI cable and you're getting ripped off.
(Credit: Amazon)
As regular Cheapskate readers know, HDMI cables are insanely overpriced. Pity the uninformed consumer who walks into, say, Best Buy, and walks out $40 to $90 poorer. Happens all the time.
But it doesn't have to. Help me spread the word: Eforcity (via Amazon) has a 6-foot HDMI cable for just $3.19 shipped. (Actually, the cable's only 21 cents, shipping costs $2.98. That drives me nuts, so I stayed focused on the total price. Which is awesome.)
Update: I'm not sure why, but sometimes that link takes you to the same cable offered by a different vendor (and for a slightly different price). If that happens, look for the Eforcity deal on the right side under More Buying Choices.
In case you're not familiar with them, HDMI cables carry digital audio and video signals between your TV and gear like game consoles and Blu-ray players.
Are they all created equal? No, but there's ample scientific and anecdotal evidence that dirt-cheap generic cables perform just as well as their pricey big-name counterparts (cough *Monster* cough). Don't get suckered into buying the latter.
Need more proof? This particular cable has a whopping 1,863 user reviews on Amazon, and the average score is 4.5 stars out of 5. 'Nuff said.
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