Have you seen the price of...

...CABLES these days?

Needed a 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable today. Looked online and found one as cheap as $2 plus $5 for s/h on Amazon. Amazon also sells one with free overnight shipping for $15. Great. Would like to have it today though so I walk down the street to Radio Shack to see what they have. They have one, Radio Shack brand. Cool. I'm thinking Radio Shack brand is fine for this since they're all practically the same anyway. I'm a bit annoyed that they want $23 for it but I want the cable immediately and it's no hassle, walk out the door with it. I even tell the salesperson I can get it $10 cheaper on Amazon but I'll just pay extra. But then the kicker. Get it rung up and... what?! A whopping $40 shows up! Saleperson checks the price, its right. $40 for a cable that sells for $2 online. This is the business of audio/video cables these days. My cable from Amazon will be delivered tomorrow.

I first came across the ridiculuous mark up scam of retail cables a few months back. I was researching mic cables (XLR) and found some great sources for quality alternatives to Monster. At the same time I discovered the well-documented debate over the mark-up policy of Monster products. (It's not much of a debate really, since it's only between informed consumers and Monster.) That $100 HDMI cable you purchased? Could have the same results from a $20 cable purchased online. Monster speaker wire? Sure, you pay extra for the thickness of the rubber around the actual wire, which 99% of the time won't provide better results on the sound being transferred. Not here to convince though, just alert. One you start clicking links the wealth of information on the mark-up scam on all cables is enormous.


Here's just a couple of places to start:

Monster Cables, Monster Ripoff from The Consumerist
The Truth About Overpriced Cables, Again! from The Guru Guys


And a few alternative retailers worth checking out:

Amazon (check out these HDMI prices!)
Blue Jeans Cable
Monoprice
Parts Express


One thing to be clear on is that Monster does produce high quality cables, in some cases even "better" cables than some cheaper alternatives. But "better" is relative to if you can see or hear a difference. There are cheaper, quality alternatives just a Google search away. For consumers and experts alike, the results are indistinguishable. So the point is...

Don't believe the hype!