[alphasubzero949]

When I first bought my Nikon Coolpix 3200 at an Apple Store a few months ago, I didn't know any better about digital cameras (although I looked up some sites and studied the different offerings at Apple). Since they did not have a 256 MB card available at the time, I had to settle for a 128 MB card - a Lexar Media card. The price? $80. Today I went over to Best Buy to check for the accessory kit (my camera has already been banged up a bit and it would be good to have a case for it). I also felt the need for more memory. I found a SanDisk 512 MB SD card.......for $80!!!

Okay, hold up for a minute. Apple sells Lexar 128 MB cards for $80, yet I can get a 512 MB card for the same price. What is going on here? I didn't see anything special about the Lexar card that makes it equally expensive as the 512 I bought at Best Buy. As a matter of fact, the Lexar 512 card is the same price as the 128 at Apple!

(BTW, Apple charges $99.95 for the same SanDisk card that I bought at Best Buy)

[GILBERT948]

Originally posted by alphasubzero949:
When I first bought my Nikon Coolpix 3200 at an Apple Store a few months ago, I didn't know any better about digital cameras (although I looked up some sites and studied the different offerings at Apple). Since they did not have a 256 MB card available at the time, I had to settle for a 128 MB card - a Lexar Media card. The price? $80. Today I went over to Best Buy to check for the accessory kit (my camera has already been banged up a bit and it would be good to have a case for it). I also felt the need for more memory. I found a SanDisk 512 MB SD card.......for $80!!!

Okay, hold up for a minute. Apple sells Lexar 128 MB cards for $80, yet I can get a 512 MB card for the same price. What is going on here? I didn't see anything special about the Lexar card that makes it equally expensive as the 512 I bought at Best Buy. As a matter of fact, the Lexar 512 card is the same price as the 128 at Apple!

(BTW, Apple charges $99.95 for the same SanDisk card that I bought at Best Buy)

Okay, let's see. For the price you paid for a 128 mb card a few months ago, you can now buy a 512 mb card? Did you just wake up today? Technology is always moving quickly. By Christmas you will be able to buy a 1GB card for the price you paid for that 512 MB card.

For the price I paid for a 128KB original Macintosh in 1984, I could today buy a 2.5 Ghz dual G5 with all the trimmings. I guess I should gripe about that.

Joe

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by GILBERT948:
Okay, let's see. For the price you paid for a 128 mb card a few months ago, you can now buy a 512 mb card? Did you just wake up today? Technology is always moving quickly. By Christmas you will be able to buy a 1GB card for the price you paid for that 512 MB card.

For the price I paid for a 128KB original Macintosh in 1984, I could today buy a 2.5 Ghz dual G5 with all the trimmings. I guess I should gripe about that.

Joe

With inflation and everything I would be able to get a Ferrari with the first computer we had

[TailsToo]

Everything is at a MAP or higher price at the Apple store. They make margin on that kind of stuff. You're better off checking price watch or local ads for memory.

[new newton]

So you didn't do your homework about prices, and paid too much. Why are you upset with Apple? You're the person that forked over the money. It takes about two minutes to get a feel for the flash memory market online. Why did you fail to do that?

[Luca Rescigno]

Going to the Apple store online, they seem to be selling Lexar 128 MB, 256 MB and 512 MB SD cards for... uh... $80, $60, and $80, respectively. Yes.

This is weird. These are Apple's current prices, and with some of them I was also able to check up on the prices that NewEgg has listed, so those are listed second if applicable:

Lexar 128 MB SD: $80
Lexar 256 MB SD: $60 ($43 at NewEgg)
Lexar 512 MB SD: $80 ($55 at NewEgg)
SanDisk 256 MB SD: $70 ($31 at NewEgg)
SanDisk 512 MB SD: $100 ($45 at NewEgg)

Lexar 64 MB CF: $40
Lexar 128 MB CF: $70
Lexar 256 MB CF: $100 ($31 at NewEgg)
Lexar 512 MB CF: $200 ($63 at NewEgg)
Lexar 1 GB CF: $150 ($96 at NewEgg)
Lexar 2 GB CF: $750
SanDisk 128 MB CF: $40
SanDisk 256 MB CF: $60 ($28 at NewEgg)
SanDisk 512 MB CF: $80 ($48 at NewEgg)
SanDisk 1 GB CF: $150 ($68 at NewEgg)

That's messed up. What I find the strangest isn't that most of NewEgg's prices are half that of what Apple's charging, or even that Apple is charging more for a 128 MB SD card than they are for a 256 MB SD card. Apparently they think someone's going to pay $750 for a 2 GB compact flash card. They're under $200 everywhere else.

[new newton]

Apparently people are willing to pay those prices, such as the OP.

[alphasubzero949]

Originally posted by new newton:
Why are you upset with Apple? You're the person that forked over the money.

Because Apple is the one charging the prices that they are. Think about how many other people who don't know better (aka average Joe Buyer) are getting ripped off because a salesperson grabbed a Lexar SD card for them. I wasn't aware that the salesman grabbed the most expensive 128 MB card for me...I thought that there was no difference among them.


The prices have obviously not changed over the last few months.

[alphasubzero949]

Originally posted by new newton:
Apparently people are willing to pay those prices, such as the OP.

Willing my ass. How the hell is Apple going to expand its business when they're milking the average Joe Consumer high and dry? I don't want to hear about the "you get what you pay for" and "premium" arguments here because this is not a Mac we're talking about here.

When I first bought my digital camera (at Apple), I bought the memory card with it on the advice of the salesperson. I didn't see the memory cards on the rack to know better; I let him go and get it like they usually do when someone is buying a new comp there. I didn't realize that he was going to stick it to me with the most expensive 128 MB card (their excuse was that they ran out of 256 cards and the only other ones they had were 64s).


Apple lost my business by charging a premium for their 512s, now that I am more informed on the subject of digital cameras. Apple is the one who set these ridiculous prices, so I have every right to vent my rant towards them. And you're going to just sit there and say that people are WILLING to pay for those prices?

Get off your high horse as if this was a PC user arguing about Mac pricing.

[new newton]

You obviously were willing--you bought it! So you paid too much, and now you're upset. Why aren't you placing the blame where it belongs--on yourself. You made the decision, you paid the money. Did anyone coerce you into it? Did they force you? No, they didn't. You did it of your own free will. Just because you were ignorant with regards to pricing doesn't mean you didn't make the choice. Take some responsibility for your actions, eh?

Oh, and if you bought your camera at Apple you paid more than you had to as well. Is that somehow Apple's fault?

I'm hardly defending Apple here. Change the name to Walmart or Best Buy and the song remains the same: if you purchase an item for more than it sells for elsewhere, that's your fault--don't blame the person who sold it to you. They're there to make a profit. They have no responsibility to give you the best price available.

[tooki]

Apple, like every other retailer of unregulated goods and services, can set its prices however it likes. If Apple wanted to mark up every item by 100,000%, it could. That's the beauty of a free market. They don't because they have done the math and determined that they will make the most money at the prices they sell at.

Apple is not a discount retailer. They seldom sell things below the MSRP.

You had the choice to shop around, and you didn't. Tough patootie.

The fact is, Apple has a lot of rich customers for whom it's not worth the time to shop around -- they prefer to spend more and get it all on one stop. Maybe you're not one of them, so you don't have to shop there.

I think that the moral here is that it pays to shop around. (Yes, that's the anticlimactic moral.)

tooki

[alphasubzero949]

I think it's funny how much you all defend Apple to no end. Seriously, please remove the RDF glasses and postpone your continued worshipping of the mighty blue Apple on your monitor for a minute.

Yeah, I fell for the trap by getting stuck with the $80 128 card. That's a non issue at this point.


Let me return back to the issue at hand for those caught up in the RDF and missed it:


Apple continues to price this certain 128 card at $40 above the other 128 MB offerings.

I have not seen this anomaly with other retailers. If you do find this is the case please correct me on it.

So far no one has bothered (except for Luca Rescigno's price check)
- aside from the usual flames - to explain what the hell makes this Lexar card so special that Apple is charging the same price as a SanDisk 512.

Oh, but it's a free market!

[tooki]

Go to any retail outlet and look at the flash cards that aren't on sale/rebate/discounted -- they are expensive, too. The anomaly with the 128MB card is something that just happens -- you see the same thing (with all manner of items) with other resellers like CDW, MacMall, etc. I guess they weren't selling many so they don't update the price much.

Either way, what does it matter? It's bizarre... so what? It's not the Apple RDF, it's simply that sometimes resale doesn't go the way you want. Big whoop!

Nothing makes the Lexar card special. I guess they bought too many of them, and then the price dropped. Or something like that.

tooki

[alphasubzero949]

Who knows then...

[maxx9photo]

Even If I have money I won't buy at applestore, I'd buy somewhere else with better deal as I've done so far and save thousands of dollar of my hard earning saving. Last time I bought applecare for $200 for my PB and I saved $150 plus tax. Do your homework and browse around and if buy online check reselleratings.com for prices and stores feedback check. Ebay is good too if you check and recheck the seller feedback and most of my apple items I bought there and so far is smooth. But again experiences may vary, good luck on your future shopping!.

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by alphasubzero949:
So far no one has bothered (except for Luca Rescigno's price check)
- aside from the usual flames - to explain what the hell makes this Lexar card so special that Apple is charging the same price as a SanDisk 512.

Lexar's tend to be quite a bit more expensive than Sandisk cards. For one things Sandisks have a tendency to fail really early and they are also _really, really_ slow. Certain tests I have seen have shown Lexar cards to be anywhere from 3x to 20x the speed of the low-end Sandisk cards. Now they have an Ultra and Ultra II line where the differences aren't as great, but they are also priced on par with Lexar and Panasonic cards.

Every forum I go to where lots of SD cards are used (digital cameras, PDAs, etc.) the people there always have a really low opinion of Sandisk (I hear them called "scamdisk" all the time

That said, Fry's sells the same cards you are talking about for way less than either Bestbuy or Apple.

Jeez, I just noticed that you said you bought this card a few months ago. A few months ago the going rate (at Fry's) for a Lexar 256 was $85, I bought one. SD and CF memory has dropped like a rock in the last few months. I just bought a 1GB no-name SD card for $80 at Fry's last week... The weird thing about it though was that most of 512s were still running ~$100.

[bmhome1]

Zipzoomfiy.com has the Lexar 32X 1GB SD card for $114 with free 2nd day shipping, no rebates. Buy.com had the Lexar standard 1GB SD for $49 after $30 rebate several days ago. No one in their right mind would buy any memory at retail stores anymore unless price doesn't matter whatsoever.