anyone know where i can get the best price on an ipod?

4/19/2006 7:45:35 PM

no, i have a sandisk. the g/f IS a conformist, however

4/19/2006 7:51:19 PM

i hear the bookstore has the best prices for anyone with a student ID.. somethin like $50 off.


However at best buy for $50 more you can get the 3 year service plan... Apparently the battery will stop holding a charge after 1-2 years. With the service plan they will give you a brand new Ipod because it's cheaper for them then just replacing the battery... I'd recommend that, seems like it's worth the investment

4/19/2006 8:06:42 PM

sometimes it's good to be a conformist.

especially when what you are conforming to is the best and easiest to use.

4/19/2006 8:42:54 PM

^^ haha, you can get the apple extended service plan for less than that with education discount, and at best buy you'd be paying the normal retail price for the ipod (30 bucks more) AND 50 bucks for the service plan. at the bookstore or through the apple education section of their store, it'd be about the same for the ipod+apple care as it would be to just buy the ipod at best buy...

[Edited on April 19, 2006 at 8:53 PM. Reason : ]

4/19/2006 8:52:47 PM

I bought mine for $530.67 3 months ago.

Now it has gone down to $466.40.

4/19/2006 8:56:52 PM

Quote :

"Conformist"

Apple is run by ZIONIST JEW NAZIS!

[Edited on April 20, 2006 at 12:03 AM. Reason : Probably communists, as well.]

4/20/2006 12:03:00 AM

OK, now i'm convinced that overthrower is NOT salisburyboy

4/20/2006 1:11:55 AM

i dont trust apple after my ipod got an aim virus the other day

4/20/2006 3:48:39 AM

maybe Amazon?

Your best price will likely come from it being 1) used or 2) from a site with NO SALES TAX. i.e. not the bookstore or Best Buy

4/20/2006 7:15:53 AM

^^ That was totally Apple's fault.

4/20/2006 10:27:37 AM

on ebay you can get 3rd gen ipods for like $100-$150

4/20/2006 11:08:41 AM

although after using a scroll/clickwheel ipod (nano, 4G/Picture, 5G/Video) I would never go back to a touch-button 3G

4/20/2006 11:15:02 AM

Quote :

"Your best price will likely come from it being 1) used or 2) from a site with NO SALES TAX. i.e. not the bookstore or Best Buy"

Apple tightly controls their pricing and websites that charge neither sales tax nor shipping are not likely to offer the education pricing. How does apple do this? They sell their ipods to retailers at the price the retailer will sell it for then give the retailer a comission upon sale. That makes it nearly impossible for a retailer to sell it for less than a price apple allows them to. Therefore, your best price is almost certainly going to be at the bookstore or apple's education website. If you buy it from a place that is not a legitimate reseller, you may void your warranty (ask smoothcrim about this, it happened to him.) You may be able to get a used, refurbished, or stolen ipod for less than the standard education price, but it is unlikely and you also may not have a warranty with it.

Now, if you live outside of NC and are a student, you could order an ipod from NCSU bookstore without sales tax and have it shipped to you, and shipping will be slightly less than tax would (insurance is required on items like that so shipping is going to be about 15 bucks.) Also, in past years the bookstore has classified the ipod as a computer/PDA for the purpose of the sales tax holiday. Therefore, in the first weekend of august, you could purchase an ipod at the bookstore at the education price with neither tax nor shipping. THAT is probably the cheapest you could get a new ipod through a legitimate distributor.

Amazon.com does sell enough volume of them though that they are able to sell their ipods below MSRP (not education pricing though) and offer free shipping and still make some money. After taxes, you'd end up saving 4.89 over what the bookstore or apple store would charge you. If that's worth having it shipped (although for that 4.89 more you'd pay though apple you'd get free engraving) then sure.

[Edited on April 20, 2006 at 12:16 PM. Reason : ]

4/20/2006 12:13:28 PM

^alot

yeah the bookstore probably is a better deal... but not when i had over $200 off on mine at best buy b/c i had store credit... and honestly i'd rather deal with BB for service than Apple.

regardless the guy at BB convenced me that it's worth the service plan. he didnt try to sell it to me b/c he made no more money either way, but why not protect a $300 investment when something probably will happen during the next 3 years

4/20/2006 3:21:33 PM

yeah if you've got 200 in store credit... hard to beat that. of course if you had 200 left on your all campus account at the end of a semester...

4/20/2006 3:42:52 PM

or u get a "free" one from a freesite like premiumipods.freepay.com. granted they arent "free" since u do have to shell out some money but they cost far less in the long run. just finished my free ipod nano offer so i'll be gettin that soon.

4/20/2006 3:54:36 PM

^how many of those dont require referrals or signing up for lots of programs that cost money?

4/21/2006 12:38:09 AM

0

-ZiP!-

4/21/2006 1:00:12 AM

Quote :

"Apparently the battery will stop holding a charge after 1-2 years."

This may happen here and there, but it is not common in my experience.

My 20gig 2G ran for more than three years error free with consistent charge...then I dropped it in the Coliseum deck and FUBARed the HD .

4/21/2006 3:49:42 AM

^ i'm pretty sure apple actually had lawsuits against them bc of the batteries failing so much. best price on an ipod would probaly be to try circuitcity open box deals. generally when ipods come back we take 10-20% off the price no matter the condition and genrally they are pristine, like new conditon i've seen 60gb vidoes for as low as $339. and yea the service plan is a good idea just for the battery replacment.

4/21/2006 7:43:23 AM

Quote :

"^how many of those dont require referrals or signing up for lots of programs that cost money?"

the nature of the program is to get referrals. for my nano i had to get 5 people to sign up which isnt bad. i did an ipodshuffle offer and needed only 3 people. a lot of the times there are free offers that only require a credit card to sign up and have to be cancelled within the trial period. the expenses are far less than what a retail ipod would cost.

4/21/2006 8:11:50 AM

I've had bad luck with cancelling a credit card from one of those trials. When I cancelled it they listed it like they dropped ME instead and fucked up my credit. I got it straightened out, but not after a huge headache.

4/21/2006 8:23:58 AM

you gotta pick and choose your offers. i think he meant signing up for a trial with a credit card and then canceling said trial.

i dont do it cuz i hate calling those bitches up.

4/21/2006 9:01:23 AM