Snowboard Gear Sale Tactics/strategies?
 

I still need to pick up some boots and bindings to go with my K2 Raygun.

My local shop has some Burton Cartel bindings for $169.

Do I wait and see if they go down in price even more this summer?

Some websites advertise huge summer/fall sales coming. Are these sale typically for old gear at drop bottom prices, or will they be 2013 gear on sale instead (I assume the 2013 won't compare with the current 2012 sales at some places)

I am just trying to find the most economical way to pick up some Burton Cartels and some Burton Grail boots.

The gear will be 2011/2012 gear with a few 2010/2011 items that never got sold.

I will share my strategies since I am in the same boat as you. I use spadout.com and just use google's site (Google Product Search).

1) I find all the merchants that have the product that I want in the size and color that I want. THERE IS NO SINGLE WEBSITE that will give you prices for every merchant there is out there. That is why Spadout and google have been my top search tools. I have tried places like gearscan.com but none have ever been as comprehensive. When the number of merchants that have your product in stock dwindles down to 2 or 3 then I buy as long as the merchant seems reputable. This will be the lowest price when the product is still available.

2) Several other merchants offer price matching programs. This works great when the merchant with the lowest price does not yet have long standing good reputation. For price matching I use evo.com because they are very large and reputable. They price match AND undercut by 5% assuming they also have your size/color available.

3) I also used geartrade.com. They sell used and new gear that have been returned for whatever reason and backcountry.com seems to be their primary seller. Backcountry is very reputable so I have no problems buying returned gear from backcountry. I like this site a lot because they specifically state and show pictures of any defects. Most of these defects are only cosmetic but come at deep discounts. MANY times an item is purchased then used once and returned because it was the wrong size. I have a coworker who buys 3-4 jackets and returns all the items that don't fit exactly how he wants. With backcoutnry's unlimited return policy this happens A LOT.

Just from a quick search I have found the burton Cartels for $137. They are also available at evo.com which means you can get them for $130. I hope this helps and I hope you can get your gear at a deep discount. Good luck!

EVO doesn't have Burton Grail in size 9.5 like I need and in regards to the Cartel's I see they have the EST, but those won't work with my board.

I guess I will have to keep my eyes peeled during the next few months.

the hard part is finding deal coupons for each site..

In response to TheCity have some exclusive discount codes (5-15%) in our iPhone App, available for users. However, they are mainly European snowsport retailers, so not sure how much use that will be to you guys!

I agree the codes are hard to find, but most of our deals with retailers have clauses that we cannot list the codes anywhere that they can be found via Google, hence your problem finding stuff like that!

Sam

Wow I'm getting behind the times... Didn't know about the google option.

Just got my girlfriend some Burton Scribes (non-EST) for $130 CDN (40% off) from thinkEmpire...

I find it's always a toss up between waiting for great prices and having very limited availability. If you really really want something it might be worth paying more than seeing it gone completely.

I never heard of spadout. Cool site! I wish I knew about it before, would have saved some time when I bought my stuff.

Would be best to jump on any deals now if you are looking for the popular stuff. All the common sizes are probably gone by now. You may be able to find stuff if you have extra large feet or are looking for a larger sized board.

I'm glad I didn't wait for a better deal when I bought my set of Flux sf45's as the site I got them from showed out of stock right after I bought them. A search on spadout shows nothing left now. :)

Glad I could help! When doing it the way I do you have to keep track of availability. That usually involves some manual checking by clicking on every place that claims to have the exact product that you want. Sometimes they will show availability during selection and other websites require you to add it to cart. I just try to add like 100 and what actually gets added will be the number available. (Be sure to also remove it from the card or it will no longer be available for others to buy). When the total number of product available drops below a certain number, say 3, then I click buy. That 3 could have been from 3 different websites or all from the same website.

Doing it this way ensures you'll get the lowest price for a product without loosing out on the exact product that you are looking for

PS. When using spadout be sure to click "View All Retailers" near the bottom of the list. I don't know why they need to hide a bunch.