Anti-Gear Deals, or, Bridge For Sale
Posted on 21 June 2009, at 8:46 pm, by Carly Z
We try hard at Gear Diary to share with you awesome deals around the web…but what about times when shopping somewhere WON’T save you money? There are some instances where pricing is so out of whack it’s like a train wreck, and you won’t believe it. Want to know what devices are commanding over 100% premium to their initial release price? Click the read link and find out…
Remember the Palm TX? It originally retailed for $299. It has developed quite the cult following as the last “power user” PDA made by Palm before they switched entirely over to a smartphone lineup. However, unless the device also washes your bathroom and takes out the trash, it’s hard to justify a 100%+ increase in price…but that’s what you’ll pay if you look on Amazon.com for a Palm TX+Hardcase. Of course, you could also skip the hardcase and pay $479 for just the TX. They’re going for significantly cheaper on Ebay, so try there if you’re desperate for a new Palm.
Think that’s bad? It gets worse…how about $399 for a Palm Z22? Your cold, hard cash will get you 32 whopping mb of internal storage and a blazing 200mhz processor with a 160×160 screen. For reference, the same device debuted at $99 in 2005. So this is 400% increase in price…or if you’ve got a new in box one lying around, a 400% gain if you sell it! Again, Z22’s are much cheaper on ebay, so be sure to shop around if you have a burning desire to own a low-end PDA.
How much would you pay for an electronic device that’s been discontinued? Let us know below!
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June 22nd, 2009 at 4:48 am
I have paid more than I did at retail to ‘rebuy’ new & boxed units of discontinued things I sold to buy the latest & greatest and then regretted it. One that comes to mind was a Sony UX-50. Fortunately I was able to recoup pretty nicely within a few months of remembering why I sold it in the first place …
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:33 am
Excellent point – I see these types of weird pricing problems all the time… Hopefully there are no unsuspecting buyers for these mis-priced items. I guess they’re pricing mistakes in reverse – instead of being priced too low they’re too high.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:36 am
Maybe this is Palm’s new business plan in case the Pre fails? Resell the old hits for a premium?
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:44 am
I answered the question without addressing the point of the post …
I see these sorts of things on Amazon all the time from 3rd party sellers – stuff priced way over retail. I’m sure some of it is just hoping to grab sales on stuff Amazon no longer has in stock … but I hope not too many people do this.
I’ve also seen it on eBay with folks claiming just about *everything* is ‘Rare’ and then jacking up the price. I was looking for a second cradle for my old Psion Revo and found a PDA-only listed as ‘rare & collectible’ and selling for over $500 …
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 am
To address Carly’s question: I usually look to replace a PDA for less than my initial investment, but I did once pay $1000+ for a Samsung Palm smartphone that was never technically released, but if it had been it would have been for substantially less.
It was an amazing device at the time…