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621 Comments
- adamflight, on 06/28/2009, -6/+357F*ck Monster Cables! find the same quality for hundreds less at monoprice.com
- iamfrontosa, on 02/08/2008, -5/+119Mr. Monster must be a very rich man.
- tomaburque, on 02/08/2008, -6/+117Heavier, better quality speaker cables have lower impedance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance
which is combined dc resistance, capacitance and inductance. And low impedance is good. But once you get impedance down to a certain level making the cables, heavier, fancier looking, gold plated or nitrogen injected or whatever, will make no difference that you can hear. Good, heavy speaker cables are fine, but overly expensive Monster type cables are a fraud. - inactive, on 02/08/2008, -1/+86Yeah but monster cables are ridiculous.
Gold plated 6 feet HDMI cable from mycablemart.com: $6.31
http://www.mycablemart.com/store/cart.php?m=produc ...
Same thing but by Monster Cable: $169.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7857 ...
But hey, if people are stupid enough to pay that price, I can't blame monster cable for that mark-up. - Wiini, on 02/08/2008, -5/+80Well no *****.... who's stupid enough to buy Monster digital cables?
- QuickeningYak, on 02/08/2008, -2/+68Radio Shack used to be for HW geeks. Now it's just a one-stop for tacky, useless, overpriced crap run by know-nothing snotty sales people who work on commission.
- dhelmet78, on 02/08/2008, -3/+60HDMI carries a digital signal. Whether you spend $5 on a cable or $100 on a cable, the signal is the same and works the exact same way. The only difference is how much your wallet weights afterwards.
- Slovenian6474, on 02/08/2008, -2/+51Well this is obvious. Most audio stuff at big box stores are massively marked up. Car audio at best buy usually runs a 40%-90% markup. Audio/video accessories in general are the most marked up things in the store. That's why when you buy that TV, they want to sell you every last thing they can with it. Monster Cables, Bose, B&O, what you're paying for in those brands are their marketing.
- TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -2/+50That is correct. With digital cables, it's all or nothing. If you get a signal, it's 100% of the signal. If you don't get a signal, it's 0%. That said, an inferior cable could simply not carry a signal at all, rendering it useless. This is especially true in longer cable runs for things like HDMI. Still, Monster is massively overpriced and cables of similar quality can be had for a fraction of the price.
- Envark, on 02/08/2008, -1/+46Funny thing is...I still think you got ripped off with that Belkin cable.
- khail250, on 02/08/2008, -2/+43you know what the mark up is for soda???
- Zippo, on 02/08/2008, -3/+41My Dad came home with a 3ft HDMI Monster cable the other day for our new HDTV... He paid over $80... I gave him a playful smack, then picked up a 6ft Belkin HDMI cable at Wal-Mart... same quality, twice the length... $25.
Never buy Monster... their products are good-quality, but a complete waste of money. Lots of other brands out there with similar (or better) quality products that sell for much, much less. - mutiger, on 02/08/2008, -17/+51Um, last i checked, most, if not all, retail goods were marked up drastically. i suppose with overhead of store rent, paying employees, utilities, shipping, etc, an 85% markup is pretty decent. What i can't support is idiots buying goods marked up a couple or few hundred percent, like designer clothing. Those prices aren't paying retail employees better, other countries' factory employees better, they're paying the corporations and investors better, while the people who are the backbone of that industry, from factory workers to retail sales people, are still wage-slaves (in case you didn't know, commissions are either a thing of the past or rediculously low, and depend on things like meeting or exceeding 100% of unrealisticly set sales goals). Sorry, buried, this isn't really what i would consider an unfair markup.
- n8f8, on 02/08/2008, -0/+34It's called marketing. Like retards paying $3 for a bottle of water.
- Error601, on 02/08/2008, -3/+36Duh.
- paintpro, on 02/08/2008, -1/+31They bank on people not wanting to wait for cables. How many people have the forsight to buy cables a couple of days ahead of their TV purchase. Its still a rip-off, so just plan ahead.
monoprice.com FTW - wedges, on 02/08/2008, -1/+29i find it hard to believe that diggers didn't already know this.
- potterboy, on 02/08/2008, -2/+27monoprice.com
- ode1085, on 02/08/2008, -0/+22Planted reviews much?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7857 ... - penguinxp, on 02/08/2008, -0/+22i was gonna post that link too. that place is wire heaven. especially if you can catch one of their clearance deals. i got a 8 foot hdmi cable for like $2, same quality as anything monster has.
- StealthMonkey, on 02/08/2008, -3/+24Am I the only one that wants to go to Best Buy and buy crazy amounts of these:
Item | Retail Price | Wholesale Price | Profit Margin
MONSTER 360 VGA VIDEO CAB | $9.97 | $29.97 | $-20
MONSTER SIRIUS RADIO/TV C | $29.97 | $52 | $-22.03
MONSTER ICASE TRAVEL PACK | $6.97 | $42.16 | $-35.19
Let's bankrupt them until they stop selling monster! :D - mywhitenoise, on 02/08/2008, -1/+21Everyone? You're overestimating the average consumers intelligence. Sooo many stupid people out there.
- commiecat, on 02/08/2008, -9/+28"Here's the thing: digital cables, by definition, have no signal loss"
Really? - khail250, on 02/08/2008, -1/+20people with bukkake loads of money...
- Dubbsacc, on 02/08/2008, -0/+18What's funnier is that the Monster Cable is also 4' instead of 6'.
- jin6655321, on 02/08/2008, -2/+2080% mark up isn't outrageous. As a matter of fact, it's a steal compared to say... clothing. Mark up on clothes and accessories are 300% at middle class stores, closer to 700% at a high end store.
- TequilaCollins, on 02/08/2008, -0/+16Only 80%? That's nothing for an accessory. I used to sell computers. The markup on a computer may have only been 5-10%, but I would make my money in the accessories. Some of them with a 1000% markup. People tend to only look at the price of the big ticket item and not the rest.
- EzarKun, on 02/08/2008, -1/+16your mom.
- inputusername, on 02/08/2008, -2/+17This 80% figure is just the RETAIL markup...the profits that go to the retailer. Let's not forget the boatloads of money that Monster Cable Products, Inc makes when they sell these to wholesalers! It doesn't cost peanuts to name a baseball/football stadium after your company!
Monoprice/Blue Jeans Cable ftw! - MalDON, on 02/08/2008, -0/+14What I really hate is gold plated optical cables.
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.a ...
People actually think they make a better connection. My local frys sells a monster version of the above for about 100 bucks. I laugh every time they try to sell it to me. - chrisatwork, on 02/08/2008, -0/+14People in the music scene know this.
- cgjamj, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13As soon as I saw this headline, I was going to submit a similar comment. I recently got an HDMI 6ft cable from monoprice for $5 and a component cable for the Wii for $3.95! I also have two flatscreen wallmounts from there for $26 each. The wallmounts were the biggest shock to me as they are no less than $149 at the retail stores. After getting mine, my brother, 2 brothers in law and a couple of friends have all bought the same wall mount from monoprice.
- chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13"Except for longer 1080p supported hdmi cables. Checked and verified."
***** argument, even if you CAN observe a difference with a scope (which was observed), you will not notice a significant difference on the actual display signal (which was not compared.)
In other words, ***** your Monster crap, paying 300$ more for the same part as monoprice and visually identical. - TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13It's sugar and water. Hell, the bottle or can it's in likely costs far more than the actual product. The expense with soda comes from the marketing expense along with administrative costs.
- chupaCabra, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13Monoprice is AWESOME! And to boot.. i live in the same city (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) as Monoprice. So i buy all my crap on the web...then just go and pick it up, no lines, no waiting and they don't charge any pick up fees!
- Azurensis, on 02/08/2008, -2/+15No, they really don't make any difference at all. Lamp cord is as good as Monster Cables are as good as whatever $1000 cables you care to buy. There has yet to be a double blind test that says otherwise.
- Birdoftruth, on 02/08/2008, -3/+16guys their HDMI cables are ridiculously over priced. You can get the same HDMI cable from amazon for a dollar (no seriously search for it, I just payed a dollar plus shipping for my HDMI cable that works fine)
- Drewskey, on 02/08/2008, -4/+16One time when I was in best buy, I overheard a pushy salesman trying his best to pitch a $125 hdmi cable to an older gentlemen. I immediately interrupted the sales pitch and said the exact same thing about not making a difference. He countered with the usual try to make someone feel dumb by saying acronyms and tech gargin and saying that monster cable makes a hdmi cable that is guaranteed to never be exceeded by bandwidth. I laughed and asked him when the current standard was going to be loo little and he replied with ..[silence].. He finally agreed that HE WAS WRONG and gave the man a cheapo cable for being proved so. the old man never thanked me - punk.
- quaunaut, on 02/08/2008, -4/+16Markup = Thats how much profit Radioshack is making. Not Monster.
- aelias, on 02/08/2008, -2/+14Typical markup before retail is 100%. So whatever the shack buys them for, it costs Noel half that to produce. He gets his money before anyone else.
- blackmage439, on 02/08/2008, -0/+12But what about Pear cables? I remember a while back they refused to do a comparison of their own cables vs. generic ones, claiming the contest would be "biased."
Well, if you sell your products for $100 per foot, then they better be able to stomp the competition, right? - AndrewWiggin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+12It's not stupidity, it's ignorance. Even though we know the ins and outs of the digital world, we're the ones that get screwed by mechanics who are similarly laughing to themselves.
- rudy23, on 02/08/2008, -2/+13then dont buy them
- drastik21, on 02/08/2008, -2/+13Same people who take their computers to Best buy to remove spyware.
- inactive, on 02/08/2008, -1/+12your mom and dad
- giid, on 02/08/2008, -0/+11I was at Circuit City the other day and they had some brand of "Premium" HDMI cable for $250! I couldn't help but laugh after picking up 2 6' hdmi cables from monoprice for $16 including shipping the other day.
- riddlebox, on 02/08/2008, -0/+11When I worked at radio shack in 2004, I would look at these markup percents (they made my paycheck) and get utterly sick. Take for example...It cost "radioshack" between 25-33 cents per "4-PACK" of AA batteries, and then on the shelf its marked up to $4.99. Thats why when you go to the counter they ask you if you need to pick up batteries. Each associate makes money off of "Part's, Batteries, and Accessories" (Known as PB&A internally). So everything you buy with a cellphone is included, the infamouse "Parts Drawers", and Batteries all contribute to the over-all health of the store and each associates paycheck. Not the big electronics and name brand.
- nerdvernacular, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1380% markup is a gross understatement. You pay $80+ for Monster HDMI 1.1 6ft cables at brick and mortars. You can get better cables (1.3 spec) online for about 6 bucks.
- KraftDinner101, on 02/08/2008, -4/+14I've always despised Monster because of their inflated prices.
- jonshipman, on 02/08/2008, -0/+102 days without tv?!?!?! are you MAD?
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