Have you looked in the sale papers for a PS3? It seems that the demand is high enough that most stores don’t run sales or when they do it’s not much of a discount. It can be annoying if you only have a set amount of money to work with and it’s not quite enough to make the purchase.
I know how you feel! I’ve tried to justify the purchase in so many ways. To start building a PS3 fund I thought I would begin by selling my old PS2 games. I’ve given serious thought to cleaning out my closet, trying to find some of those old jeans that now seem to be in fashion and see if I could sell them on eBay. I dug through the basement in the junk room looking for old board games and stuffed animals to auction off online. I even once had a garage sale to sell all my old junk so I could fund the purchase of the PS3. After doing the math I had made about $5 an hour or a measly $50. I don’t recommend garage sales as you’ll end up getting less money for your stuff! I definitely recommend auctioning your old stuff off on eBay, you’ll make much more money.
It’s not just you, I feel the same way. There really is no comparison with other gaming consoles. The fact that it is Blu-Ray is a huge selling point for me. Obviously, the games are awesome in HD and I just upgraded my Netflix membership to include Blu-Ray/HD movies as well. That’s a hard-sell to the wife! Honestly, once we got HD and my wife watched it a few times we really only watch HD shows or movies. In the end it wasn’t that difficult to get her on my side for the PS3 purchase except when it came to the price.
I’ve done my homework in this area and I simply haven’t been able to find a better value for the money than the PS3. Even when it’s not on sale! You’ll spend $200-250 bucks on a basic Blu-Ray player anyway. Unfortunately for Microsoft, HD-DVD was not the chosen format going forward and this will ultimately hurt their sales. Still, the challenge is getting a PS3 at a discount if at all possible.
I searched on eBay and some other traditional auction sites and found that there really aren’t any PS3 Sale Prices out there. You have to get a bundle with the console, games and accessories that costs way more than just buying a console outright. It just doesn’t add up when I’m trying to save money, not spend more.
In the end I had to get outside the box. Somebody told me about unique bid auction sites and I started researching them. There are a few decent ones out there but the one that stands out to me is www.auctions4acause.com. They have more everyday items available for auction, including the PS3, than any of the other sites. You’ll find cars, boats and vacations on the other sites. That’s all well and good but I just want a PS3!
After I found that site I know it was exactly what I needed. Two thumbs up as they had the exact item I wanted and I could get it for cheap. I went there and created an account. I rung up 3 bids and knew I had the lowest and unique bid. I was only slightly discouraged when I didn’t win the first time. It was another week before I could bid on another one. I placed a few more bids and slept well that night. Bingo! I won this time. After a few days I was wrapping up the PS3 as a gift for my nephew. At the end I had dropped less than $60.64. Not bad, huh?
It can take a few minutes of reading to truly grasp the concept of the lowest unique bid auction style. Once you get a handle on the concept you may not want to stop. Since that time that I won the PS3 I’ve bid on and won 3 other items including an iPod Nano (they have the best iPod Prices) and $400 gas card. In total I’ve spent about $350 there and won over $1,200 worth of stuff.
I wouldn’t suggest the big box stores to find the best prices. Create an account at Auctions4aCause and see what kind of deal you can get.