Updated: 07/07/2009 3:26 PM KSTP.com | 
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By: Mark Albert
ALBERT: What makes a bargain?
I've been shopping for an HDTV for a very long time. I'm a picky guy. I've found the two models I think would be best. I've got to have 46" or 47", LCD flat screen, the 120Hz, high contrast ratios, etc.
But knowing when to buy - just like airline tickets - is the great mystery. I've logged the price of my two HDTV models
almost every day since Nov. 1st. The day before Thanksgiving, one of the models dropped to $1379 on Amazon.com. I thought, well, if it's that price the day BEFORE Thanksgiving, surely it will be less. Nope. It has never gone that low again. So now, of course, I cannot bear to buy it at $1499 or $1599 because it keeps eating at me that I COULD HAVE HAD IT FOR LESS!
On a related note, I, like many thousands of others, went to Circuit City a few weeks ago, like vulch
ers picking over the leftovers. But the dirty little secret of liquidation is that a liquidator often jacks up the price to full manufacture's suggested retail and starts dropping it ever so slowly from there. So that HDTV on sale for $1999 the day after Christmas? The day after bankruptcy, it was full price at $2799 at Circuit City. Come again? It's been dropping by $50 here, another $100 there ever so slowly. Again, how can I buy a TV at more than $1999 when I thought $1999 was too much.
So how do you know when it becomes a bargain? Should I have bought the model going for $1379 the day before Thanksgiving? I'm not a big gambler and I guess I didn't have the guts to pull the trigger. Maybe I should have seized the day afterall.
