Anartik.com’s Blog

This blog… is really about passing on info about Anartik.com or info I want to share. I am about at the point of disabling comments altogether because of the scum sucking spammers that flood this blog. There are few if any legitimate comments and most are crap coming from India, China and Russia related to peddling counterfeit pharmaceuticals. What few legit comments that come in usually get buried under the 100’s or 1000’s of spam posts corralled by Askimet anti-spam.

I don’t know about you but when I walk into a store the quickest way to annoy me is to have salesmen swoop down like vultures. A quick can I help you from a passing sales associate is acceptable whom I usually give a no thanks. When I go into a store I either know exactly what I want or just want to browse and take in what’s available. If I need something I will ask. Follow me around and annoy me and I’m outta there. What’s really annoying is that a lot of websites have started employing this kind of crap. One of the great niceties of the web is the ability to leisurely shop anonymously without being harassed. A lot of sites now monitor activity and as quick as you land on a page a salesman is jumping you wanting to “assist”. To be blunt and to the point I despise the practice and my first action is to close the window and leave the site.

This is a new series I will periodically do where I pick an item and do a pricing snapshot. The first item is the Thermalright LGA1366 bolt thru kit for the Ultra series. IMO this has been an item many shops have gouged people on. That of course often happens with new items on the market and a reseller is the first to have a new item in short supply (now abundant). Of course it does not do a lot in furthering customer relations. This product is somewhat unique in that it allows the reuse of a previous generation heatsink at minimal cost which a lot of shops probably don’t like because the mainstay of a cooling shop is usually the burst of sales from coolers for a new CPU platform. It is what it is though; some will reuse and some will buy a new cooler.

Just to be clear the reseller price on this item has not changed since day one. I base my pricing on the cost of the item and a fair markup (not 200-400%). Below is today’s snapshot for pricing on this item. I won’t point anyone out but some sites have just recently dropped from a pricing level of $15-16. This is a listing of shops readily found in Yahoo search selling in the US. You will note some well known sites conspicuously missing but either they don’t carry the item or don’t carry Thermalright at all.

The economy is in the toilet and the price of fuel has plummeted so what does the Postal service do? They raise rates again by about 3% on priority mail. Expect to see new rates appearing over the next few days. The lowest rate moves from $4.8 to $4.95 and climbs based on weight and zone. Flat rate boxes have jumped to $10.35 and $13.95 and they have added a new small flat rate at $4.95. Ever since Fedex took over handling of priority mail some years back from the previous contractor (Emory I believe) service has done nothing but decline while prices have continually climbed. $4.95 (1 pound any zone or 2 pounds same zone) is still pretty good for 2-3 day but rates can climb rapidly by weight and zone. If your not in a hurry and your package is more than a couple pounds UPS ground becomes the best deal. At checkout time you can compare all the rates and select what works for you. Fedex was also behind the zoning and higher rates for express mail which became to complicated, restrictive and forced me to remove it as an option some time back. The post office is well known for bungling just about any endeavor and they really did it when they allowed a direct competitor to handle priority/express mail DC to DC logistics (obvious conflict of interest).

As always we will continue to do what we can to save you on shipping. If you paid more for Priority than the cost of a flat rate box (and the order will fit) we will use flat rate and refund you the difference.

Time has finally run out for Circuit City and I believe the liquidation sale starts this weekend. Not that I was ever a fan but less competition is always a bad thing and I feel for the 30k+ employees without a job (been there, done that). Bad management has certainly cost a lot of people in the past few years. A couple months ago my G5 mouse died and I was forced to use my crap G7 wireless. I wanted a G9 and Egg was $90 + shipping so I went out shopping in Orlando and Best buy at $99 had no stock anywhere. The new CompUSA (TigerDirect) also had no stock at around $90. Last stop was Circuit City and they had plenty of G9’s in stock at $110! No wonder they had plenty of stock. I said no way, went home and starting digging and voila Logitech G9 $69 with free shipping and no tax! Moral of the story is you make no effort to compete (especially in this economy) and your history.

BTW the site has since raised the G9 to 79.95 but shipping is still free.