Great Deals Aren’t Always Great Deals

Just about the time you decide to go shopping for that new golf equipment, you’ll find that “deal” that makes you jump on it and spend your hard earned cash on that “blowout price!” What most people fail to do is really shop around before making that jump, regardless of the item. I’m going to throw myself under the bus for a minute and say that since my leg will be far less than 100% for the rest of this summer, I’ve been looking at getting a top quality push card to take a bit of the strain off my lower body. In my search, I’ve seen a number of options and build qualities that have caught my eye. One of them is the Sun Mountain Golf Micro-Cart GT. The $200 cart can be found at just about any online retailer, but what we don’t see is how the little bits change from site to site. For example, one of my favorite sites, RockBottomGolf.com has the cart for $209.99 with a list price of $251.99. Even at the sale price it’s still $10 more than buying the cart from Sun Mountain direct. A bit more digging, I found the same cart through jet.com (a division of Wal-Mart) for $189.00 if you’re ok going with the black finish.

Now is when it gets interesting though. If you live in a state where sales tax is charged (it’s about 10% where I live,) you may be better off finding a site out of state that ships for free instead of getting the lower price. A great place to shop if you are looking for a stellar price is golfdiscount.com. They have spectacular prices, but because they are in Washington state, I end up having to spend an extra 10% on anything I buy there. Instantly, it becomes a better deal to shop elsewhere online. I save $20 buy making that move on a $200 cart, so i highly recommend doing that if you have the option. The other consideration is, how much use will you expect to get out of this item, and how much should you invest in it? For example, $200 is a ton to spend on a cart – for any golfing budget. In fact, it’s 2-3 rounds at nice course or even 10 rounds at twilight. Is it worth it to spend $200 on a cart to hold your bag? It’s really hard to say yes to this when a sub $50 cart will do exactly the same job and hold up just as well, but that a lesson for another day. Today, make sure when you are shopping for that new item and doing all your research that you have a solid number in your head for what it should cost before you figure out what people are charging for it. Remember, just because a website says that it “retails” at $250 doesn’t mean that it actually sells for that.