Quote:
Originally Posted by immiketoo
DCStep, slightly off topic, but I have been wanting to join Direct Buy for a while, but I can't find any info on membership costs. When you say membership fees are steep, what are we talking here?
|
You're talking a few thousand (four-digits, around $4,000 depending on a few variables). We were buying lots of furniture at the time and I recovered my investment and then some in the first year of the three-year gig. You have to accept an invitation to sit through a short presentation to get the actual price.
As an example, my 5D2, including the 24-105 f4L "kit" lens cost me about $2800. Savings are larger on furniture, particularly special order pieces. When you compare street prices for things like HDTV LCDs, like Sam's vs. DB, the difference is pretty small. On high quality, good furniture, DB usually beats the sale prices substantially, but not always.
They also run specials quite often. I just paid $25 for a 49-piece stainless table setting from a top name, Japanese maker. Through DB you'd pay two to three times that normally, and in stores you'd pay four to five times that. We don't use DB religiously, but I consider it on any big purchase and I eyeball the specials and jump on those a few times per year. Their brands are some of the very best, but not all of the best.
So, you listen to the pitch and then you look through the catalogs for your prospective purchases. If it makes economic sense, then it'll be pretty clear after your session in the store. If you decide to sign up, you sign up right then.
So, the math is, assuming a 20% savings over real street prices (not full retail), do you plan to spend enough in the next three years that you'd recover around 4-grand and then some to make it worth your while. That's a pretty steep hurdle, but if your remodling, moving into a new house, refurnishing, then it can pay off pretty quickly. We got into the gravy level in the first year, so I feel real good about it. The savings are real, but you really have to know street prices and consider them vs. the DB prices.
Dave