Clark's Big Book of Bargains (16 page)

• Internet •

• www.netflix.com
  (DVD rentals)
  

• www.ouraaa.com
  (Discount movie tickets from AAA)
  

* MUSIC *

The outrageously high cost of music CDs actually has caused sales to decline. People are simply fed up. That a CD costs more in many cases than a feature film on DVD is inexcusable.

Now we know the reason. Five giant labels finally admitted that they had conspired to fix prices, setting a minimum price for each CD through a system called MAP. The good news is that CD prices are starting to fall, in some cases. I hope that leads to permanent price reductions.

Because the industry made CDs so expensive and failed to provide an online alternative, the free file-sharing service Napster was born. Unfortunately, the industry defeated Napster in court and drove it out of business. The music industry, better late than never, also sells music for download. For example, you can purchase and download music at www.mtv.com, www.emusic.com, and www.cdnow.com.

If you can’t find music on the Web, the best way around the high cost of CDs is to buy them used. If you go to a used-music store, you’ll be able to listen to a CD before you buy it to make sure the sound is perfect, which it almost always will be. A CD isn’t like an old vinyl record. If it’s undamaged, the sound will be as good as the first time it was played. And prices are much cheaper. A store near me called Disc Go Round charges $5.99 to $8.99 for used CDs. I saw the Beatles
1
album, which retails for $18.98, on sale for $8.

People will often buy a CD because they think they like the artist, but then they find out that they don’t, or they get tired of the CD. Those CDs go to the used-music store, waiting for you. And if you have old CDs you don’t like, get some money for them by selling them to the used-music store near you. Disc Go Round, for example, pays $2 to $5 for your unwanted CDs.

Look for used-CD stores in alternative newspapers.

Another alternative is buying used CDs online. The Web site www.half.com offers two advantages: great prices and a wide selection that makes it more likely you’ll be able to locate a hard-to-find CD, DVD, video game, videotape, or book. It’s not an auction site, because there’s no bidding. But you’re buying from people, not a retailer. Sellers will tell you what condition the merchandise is in, and you buy with your credit card.

If you buy CDs new, you’ll get the best prices at the warehouse clubs, but the selection will be limited to the hottest sellers. For a broader selection, try discounters such as Wal-Mart or electronics stores such as Best Buy or Circuit City. They often use CDs as a “loss leader,” attracting customers with low prices to get them to buy equipment.

If you buy a lot of CDs, you might see a pattern in how retailers price them. Stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy often will market new titles with a sale price their first week out, or within the first four weeks. After six to eight weeks, they’ll discount a title. After two or three months, it might go on clearance. If you can wait that long, you can pick up a new release for a few dollars less than its outrageous full price.

• Internet •

• www.emusic.com
  

• www.cdnow.com
  

• www.half.com
  

• www.mtv.com
  

* BOOKS *

The book business is going through a radical transformation as the independent shops steadily shrink and the chains that thought they could sell everything at full retail discover they can’t.

There’s no reason to pay retail anymore, because Amazon.com and the warehouse clubs are selling books for far less. In its most recent price experiment, Amazon began selling books priced at $15 or more at 30 percent off. Another online seller, Books-A-Million (www.bamm.com), allows you to join its online club for just $5 a year to get an extra 10 percent off all of its books. That’s a great deal for people who love to read and love to save money. They’ll even comparison shop for you. If their price isn’t the cheapest, they’ll show you who is cheaper.

Of course, online retailers can’t offer you the ability to examine a book thoroughly. A great buy on a book you don’t like is no buy at all. Chain and retail stores often offer great bargains, and always offer the opportunity to see and preview the books. You can also get great recommendations from knowledgeable staff. Another place to consider for books is an old standby, the local library, where you can still check out the books you love for free.

The warehouse clubs have really upset the applecart in the book business because, while they stock a very limited number of titles, they sell massive quantities of the books they choose to stock. They start with the
New York Times
bestsellers and discount them deeply, which has forced all the other booksellers to offer big discounts on those books. They also look for titles that they think will appeal to their cost-conscious customers. Reference books, children’s books, and cookbooks are huge sellers at the warehouse clubs. The savings on cookbooks are tremendous. Because the warehouse clubs sell groceries, they push cookbooks. After you look at the ingredients, you buy the groceries.

Another great way to save on books is to buy them used. Think of how many books people buy that they don’t even read. I loved buying used textbooks in college, because the previous owner often underlined all the key things for me, so it was like having a set of Cliff’s Notes.

One of the best ways to buy used is through a new chain called Half-Price Books, which sells used books at half their cover price. There are used-book stores in many cities, but they’re usually kind of disheveled and poorly organized. Half-Price Books is professionalizing the sale of used books, and it’s growing rapidly. As I write this, the company has locations in eleven states. You can find a location at its Web site, www.halfpricebooks.com.

• Internet •

• www.amazon.com
  

• www.bamm.com
  

• www.halfpricebooks.com
  

* VIDEO GAMES *

As the price of high-tech video-game players drops, the biggest cost of playing is the game cartridges, which can run $50 to $80. So the secret to saving money is to buy games that were designed for the earlier generation of equipment, but still play perfectly on the new units. Stores that still sell PlayStation 1 games, for example, may price them at $8 or $14, a tremendous savings from the cost of the PlayStation 2 games. They won’t have the same whiz-bang graphics, but they’re fine. And that’s probably going to be the case for the PlayStation 2 games if Sony comes out with a PlayStation 3. Generally no one wants the last generation of computer software. As soon as the new version comes out, demand for the old version dies.

You really stretch your dollar if you buy past-generation games. You might be able to buy four or five games for the cost of one new game. A good part of the fun for kids—and the kid in all of us—is being able to try different games. Instead, parents will blow $60 on a game for their son or daughter, and the kid will play that game until their eyeballs pop out. Then they’re bored, and they want the next game. But parents can’t always afford to drop $60 on a game. Instead, you could buy two PS1 games instead of one of the PS2. Or get one PS2 game and five PS1 games, instead of two PS2 games. You’ll have to figure out what works in your family. But the savings are gigantic.

I went to one of the warehouse clubs in Florida, and they had a giant display of PS1 games and the old Nintendo games. The bins were bursting with games, and they were incredibly cheap. I watched these boys, their minds shaped by advertising, walk right past them and go to a locked cabinet with the PS2 games. If these PS1 games were worth clamoring for a year ago, are they suddenly worthless? I don’t think so.

Just make sure the old game will play on your equipment.

Another alternative is to buy the current games, but buy them used. Stores that sell video games often will take used games back as a trade-in toward new games, then resell the used ones at about half their original price. Wait a month or so after a new game is released, until people get burned out on it, and used copies of the game will start showing up at the video stores.

As far as the equipment goes, buy a new unit. The current generation of video-game players—the GameCube, the Xbox and the PlayStation 2—is phenomenal, and the cost of the machines is very reasonable. As I write this, the suggested retail prices are $149, $199, and $199. The PlayStation 2 was $400 at one point, so they’ve come way down in price.

One warning for parents: Some of the new-generation games, particularly the violent ones, are so realistic that you should read the box carefully. They have blood and guts that look like real blood and guts, like something you would see in an actual war. It’s very graphic, and you might not want to buy it for your children.

* THEATER AND SPORTS TICKETS *

One of the best ways to save money on tickets is to do what I do—refuse to pay a junk fee to the monopoly ticket seller Ticketmaster. I won’t buy tickets to an event through Ticketmaster under any circumstances.

Ticketmaster got its monopoly by going to arenas and concert venues and offering to pay for something the arena wanted. In exchange, it gained the exclusive right to sell tickets for the arena. Over the years, I’ve heard again and again from listeners about the poor service they’ve received from Ticketmaster. It makes the federal government seem like a customer-service-driven organization.

A listener named Dain Ferrero ordered a pair of tickets to a Robin Williams performance by phone through Ticketmaster, then got concerned when, three weeks later and just a couple of weeks before the show, he hadn’t received his tickets. He called his local Ticketmaster office, and was treated rudely by a representative who said he was a manager. The manager offered to leave a replacement pair of tickets for Dain at the “will call” window, but Dain thought that was too risky. What if he went to the show and the tickets weren’t there? Dain called the local office again and talked to a different manager, who was more cooperative. This manager told Dain what had happened—his tickets had been sent to the wrong address, an address that was not even remotely similar to Dain’s. It was a different street and ZIP code. The manager tried to be helpful, but he said the matter was out of his hands. He advised Dain to call Ticketmaster’s corporate office in Orlando. When he did, the representative from the corporate office told Dain that tickets get sent to wrong addresses all the time. He deactivated the old tickets and sent Dain a new pair, which arrived in a few days. But it took three phone calls to clear up the mess.

Dain also had trouble when he bought tickets to a Billy Joel/Elton John concert through a Ticketmaster outlet in a local supermarket. Ticketmaster now uses a lottery system to prioritize ticket buyers, to discourage people from camping outside the store all night trying to be first in line. Unbelievably, Ticketmaster’s store representatives told prospective customers that if they took a lottery number, then didn’t buy tickets, they would call the police. I’d love to know what the charge would have been. The store reps also advised customers that they would be pulling the $200 seats first, then the $140 seats, then the $90 seats. They said customers who drew low lottery numbers would have to buy the $200 seats, even if they wanted cheaper seats. Dain and his wife drew a low number and had to buy the $200 seats, even though they wanted the $140 seats. When they called Ticketmaster to complain, Ticketmaster blamed the errors on the supermarket representatives, who they said were poorly trained. The tickets turned out to be very good, so Dain and his wife decided to keep them.

You can avoid these kinds of hassles by buying tickets from the venue’s box office, if the box office sells tickets directly. That’s what I do. Buying directly saves me the Ticketmaster fee and the potential hassle of dealing with an organization that doesn’t care about its customers.

Many cities now have discount ticket booths, modeled after the famous TKTS half-price ticket booths in New York City’s theater district. Like TKTS, these booths offer half-price tickets on the day of the performance for cultural events, concerts, the symphony, and plays. You may not be able to get tickets for the event you most want to see, but you’ll save a lot of money, and if you’re really into theater, you’ll get to see a lot more theater for a lot less money.

Another way to save on movies, theater, and other kinds of entertainment is to use the Entertainment coupon book. It’s available around the country, but has different discounts in each city. Before you buy it, check www.entertain ment.com to see what discounts are included in your local book.

I save money on sports events by going to the stadium without a ticket and buying at the last minute. At a football game, for example, I might have to wait until kickoff. Once the game begins, whether it’s the tipoff in basketball, the first pitch of a baseball game or the face-off in hockey, any tickets that remain become spoiled goods. I find that I can buy tickets outside the event, even for a team that’s a contender, for 25 to 50 percent of the face value of the ticket. It doesn’t work for a narrow number of events—a championship game or playoff game for which the demand is overwhelming. I avoid the professional ticket sellers, because then you pay a middleman’s markup. Instead, I go to where the season ticket holders park, and where they walk to the stadium, and I hold up a few fingers representing how many tickets I need. That’s illegal in some places, but it’s usually legal—even in places where scalping is illegal—as long as you’re paying less than the face value of the ticket. When you buy direct from a season ticket holder, usually a corporate type, they’re stuck with the ticket and they’re happy to get anything for it.