The Story
Sunday I cancelled my long-time back-ordered Panny 37†6UY and went looking from something that would ship soon, not 5 or 10 weeks from now. I already have a Pio 43†HD panel, so I’m not looking for a Super Bowl time shipment. Also, the way the Panny delay was going, it was going to be obsolete before I received it!
Sunday night I surfed for hours looking for a good panel, at a good price, from a good source. A “good source†includes one that is a factory authorized dealer.
I stumbled onto a well known and highly regarded internet store (even highly regarded here on avsforum, as I read all posts referencing the store, and all were “positiveâ€).
Actually, they have a brick and mortar store too. The name of the brick-and-mortar store is not the same as the well known internet store because there was no internet when they opened for business in 1908!!! Their internet site was established in 1994. They will take orders over the phone too… onecall will do the job.
Anyway… they had many models of “DEMO†Sharp panels available at almost too-good-to-be-true prices. But maybe they were dead-pixel laden, or refurbs, or ???
I saw that they opened at 6:00am (PST), so I decided to make “one call†at 6:00am SHARP (no pun intended) to find out why these Sharp units had such great prices.
A very courteous person answered my call. Here is the deal.
They acquired the Sharp hardware that was used at the recent CES show.
They are an authorized Sharp dealer.
The units are referred to as “demo†units.
The units were brand new when they were shipped to Las Vegas for the CES show.
The units are sold with an “as-if-sold-new†U.S. Sharp warranty.
I ordered the Aquos LC-37HV6U (a newest model, not the …4U). Oddly enough, the …4U and the …6U are the same price on their site.
It shipped the same day (Monday). Right now, the “FedEx Freight West†tracking info shows that the shipment is in Sacramento… (I live in the Bay Area) and it is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, Wednesday!!! The shipping charge was $176.00. It turns out to be coming “second day†(due to the short two State hop I guess). It was shipped via FedEx trucking ground freight).
Here is the really good part…
The price was about $1,000.00 LESS than the lowest price unit (same unit, but new of course) that I was able to find out there in cyber-space (or anywhere else).
Please note that I did NOT mention the price. However, these are technically “used†(demo) units… so there shouldn’t be any reason why I should not be able to mention the price.
The Sharp units can be found via a link on their site’s “Clearance†tab (or just do a search). The Aquos LC-37HV6U is Sharp’s latest model… so in this case “Clearance†does not have the usual meaning.
Why am I buying an LCD over a Plasma? I already have a Plasma display. Also, I want to use the LCD for my wife’s notebook PC (the Aquos LC-37HV6U has 1366x768 [square] pixels) because her eye-sight is extremely poor. It can be viewed comfortably from about 4 to 30 feet (depending on which chair you choose). It will be installed in a very sunny room (in an armoire). I currently have a Sony 21†(std def) set in this armoire, hooked to a Panasonic HD STB (a bit of a waste). I have seen HD on the Aquos LC-37HV6U in a similarly sunny room, and it looked awesome.
After blabbing on and on about my “good dealâ€, it will probably show up DOA tomorrow!!! Then again, I may be watching the Super Bowl on two great HD panels at the same time. Only time will tell.
Cheers,
Chris Wood
Santa Cruz (Mountains)
Sunday I cancelled my long-time back-ordered Panny 37†6UY and went looking from something that would ship soon, not 5 or 10 weeks from now. I already have a Pio 43†HD panel, so I’m not looking for a Super Bowl time shipment. Also, the way the Panny delay was going, it was going to be obsolete before I received it!
Sunday night I surfed for hours looking for a good panel, at a good price, from a good source. A “good source†includes one that is a factory authorized dealer.
I stumbled onto a well known and highly regarded internet store (even highly regarded here on avsforum, as I read all posts referencing the store, and all were “positiveâ€).
Actually, they have a brick and mortar store too. The name of the brick-and-mortar store is not the same as the well known internet store because there was no internet when they opened for business in 1908!!! Their internet site was established in 1994. They will take orders over the phone too… onecall will do the job.
Anyway… they had many models of “DEMO†Sharp panels available at almost too-good-to-be-true prices. But maybe they were dead-pixel laden, or refurbs, or ???
I saw that they opened at 6:00am (PST), so I decided to make “one call†at 6:00am SHARP (no pun intended) to find out why these Sharp units had such great prices.
A very courteous person answered my call. Here is the deal.
They acquired the Sharp hardware that was used at the recent CES show.
They are an authorized Sharp dealer.
The units are referred to as “demo†units.
The units were brand new when they were shipped to Las Vegas for the CES show.
The units are sold with an “as-if-sold-new†U.S. Sharp warranty.
I ordered the Aquos LC-37HV6U (a newest model, not the …4U). Oddly enough, the …4U and the …6U are the same price on their site.
It shipped the same day (Monday). Right now, the “FedEx Freight West†tracking info shows that the shipment is in Sacramento… (I live in the Bay Area) and it is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, Wednesday!!! The shipping charge was $176.00. It turns out to be coming “second day†(due to the short two State hop I guess). It was shipped via FedEx trucking ground freight).
Here is the really good part…
The price was about $1,000.00 LESS than the lowest price unit (same unit, but new of course) that I was able to find out there in cyber-space (or anywhere else).
Please note that I did NOT mention the price. However, these are technically “used†(demo) units… so there shouldn’t be any reason why I should not be able to mention the price.
The Sharp units can be found via a link on their site’s “Clearance†tab (or just do a search). The Aquos LC-37HV6U is Sharp’s latest model… so in this case “Clearance†does not have the usual meaning.
Why am I buying an LCD over a Plasma? I already have a Plasma display. Also, I want to use the LCD for my wife’s notebook PC (the Aquos LC-37HV6U has 1366x768 [square] pixels) because her eye-sight is extremely poor. It can be viewed comfortably from about 4 to 30 feet (depending on which chair you choose). It will be installed in a very sunny room (in an armoire). I currently have a Sony 21†(std def) set in this armoire, hooked to a Panasonic HD STB (a bit of a waste). I have seen HD on the Aquos LC-37HV6U in a similarly sunny room, and it looked awesome.
After blabbing on and on about my “good dealâ€, it will probably show up DOA tomorrow!!! Then again, I may be watching the Super Bowl on two great HD panels at the same time. Only time will tell.
Cheers,
Chris Wood
Santa Cruz (Mountains)
