What's Up With the Asus G1 at Best Buy?

Curious if anyone knows what the deal is with the Asus G1 at Best Buy. It has been out of stock online for a while, and most of the stores near me don't have it any more.

Moreover, they had previously been selling it at $1799, but they currently list the price at $1999, but I can't see any reason for the $200 price increase (especially since I don't think Best Buy even gives you the backpack and mouse).

Any ideas?

 

Basically, it was originally $100 lower than say someone like us as an introductory price to get people to buy them.... As Asus told us, the G1 BB is/was selling is missing more than $100 worth of value compared to the rest of their dealers, starting with the Targus Backpack, which is at least a $75 value, and then I forget exactly what the other thing was, but I believe it was the gaming mouse which is about $35, but there was at least one other thing that was also slightly different..

The point of this game is to really have two totally seperate avenues to sell these systems... BB buyers are usually looking for something cheaper and don't care about certain other things, but I know most people unfortunately didn't know the difference and were surprised to find out what they didn't get.

 

Cool, thanks for the explanation.

I guess I still don't completely understand why Best Buy and/or Asus think that it is a good idea to raise the price to $1999 while still not even having the "bonuses" that you can get buying the same model online.... and that's not even taking into account sales tax, etc. The only benefit I can see would be being able to take it home from the store rather than having it shipped.

Although I guess presumably the people buying it at Best Buy aren't the people who know they could go and buy it online from a place like proportable.com.

-Zadillo

 

Actually, the other thing that surprised me was how little the Best Buy salespeople seemed to actually even know about it. Heck, it took me 5 minutes to even explain the brand I was talking about was Asus and not Acer, and that it was a laptop.

You'd think that if they are only going to be stocking these at a limited number of locations, they'd at least train the salespeople better to be able to answer questions about it, etc.

 

The other thing is that the G1 from BB, the writer does not have lightscribe technology as most dealers have.

 

I was fortunate enough, I got my G1 a week before they raised the price to $1999. How do I know or how can I tell if my burner is lightscribe or not?

 

Also BB price is like that, because they need higher profit margins. This way they can make a good amount of profit per sale, otherwise it wouldn't be worth selling.

double007 you can check by getting the model number of your optical drive and then googling it.

 

ya the light scribe model is 851 the non light scribe model is 850

 

I had the exact some expierence at the BB here right down to the brand confusion.
Me-"Do you have the ASUS G1?"
BB- "Yeah, we have Acer"
They didn't know anything about it untill I filled them in.

 

even @ 1799 the price is still unatractive becuase you DO have to pay sales tax in many cases upwards of 150$.

 

I have to pay sales tax whether I buy it over the internet or at a store.

 

at best buy yes because they have a store in every state. with most other vendors you do not have to pay tax upfront as long as their store is not in your state

 

I am lucky because in my state I have to declare any purchase made without sales tax and pay it later. But, this is the exception.

 

I THINK, everyone is SUPPOSED to do that way in his/her state, just no one wants to declare his/her purchase.

 

.
Riiiight. You probably post a lost and found sign every time you find a dollar bill?
Fact: the government looses counless billions in revenue of sales tax due to untaxed internet transactions over state lines.
Fact: You HAVE TO declare unpaid sales tax on your return and pay it then
FIction: someone actually audits this for homer or any other joe.

 

Maybe I am too honest.

 

thats not honest thats just the equivalent of giving the govt a tip for doing such a good job.

 

No, that is honesty. I have not lied on my taxes yet and I do not intend to lie.

 

who said anythign about lying or cheating? you are in a league of your own.

 

You do not have to pay all of your taxes. Not paying the $100 sales tax is not going to make a difference. But, if this happens frequently, it does add up.