Nexus Purchase Timing for the Cost Conscious

[dapercy]

What's the chance this phone drops to $200 between now and early Feb? I have to buy at a verizon corporate store as I have an annual upgrade. I'm willing to check prices every day for 1-day sales etc, but I don't want to wait until Feb if it is highly unlikely that verizon drops the price between now and then.

 

[jdbower]

The longer you wait the cheaper the phone will be and better phones will be released. If they can't keep it in stock it won't go down in price, if it sits in inventory because only 1000 people buy one it may be $100 by Feb. As of now it's a gamble:

1. The phone sells well so if you don't grab the first of the bunch you may not see availability again until Feb.
2. The phone is only a moderate success and VZW announces new stuff in Feb which pushes the price down.

Nexus phones are also special in that just having a better spec'd phone isn't enough for a lot of people to care - their sales cycle may be longer than typical. Given the vast amount of historical data of Nexus phones on VZW anyone with a definitive answer is just making stuff up

 

[Scout_313]

If the phone comes out on Nov. 17th like the rumors are currently pointing to, it'll be roughly 75 days until February. If you paid the full $300 on the release date, that would only cost you an extra $1.33/day to enjoy such an awesome phone from the get go. Unless I had something comparable, that is a price that I would gladly pay.

As for the chance of the price dropping, I have no idea, but I hope for your sake that if you decide to wait and see, that the price drops at least a little bit to justify it for you. Good luck with your decision.

 

[dapercy]

I should reframe the question. Does Verizon regularly offer 1 day sales on premier phones in their first 3-4 months of existance? I'm also going to assume this phone will sell very well. Yes, most people don't know about it yet, but I know several non-techies who have heard about it and they want to buy it for the facelock alone. Yes it's a bit gimmicky, but that gimmicky stuff sells. Once a Nexus is sitting next to a non-ICS phone I would be shocked if the Nexus is not the phone of choice for 75% of android people looking for a premier smartphone.

I hear rumors of new phones coming out in Feb. Frankly I don't buy it. I remember the same rumors when I got my DX last November. So I'm mainly concerned about buying now and missing a 1 day sale in 2 months or something like that. I'm willing to wait 2-3 months if it means high likelihood of an after-Christmas sale that will save me $100.

 

[philly]

What's the chance this phone drops to $200 between now and early Feb? I have to buy at a verizon corporate store as I have an annual upgrade. I'm willing to check prices every day for 1-day sales etc, but I don't want to wait until Feb if it is highly unlikely that verizon drops the price between now and then.

you dont have to buy from verizon on an anual upgrade..

just go to a website like amazon wireless and put your number in to double check, they will tell you if your eligible for an upgrade price instantly.

with that being said.. I'd say you'd beable to find it for under 200 from an online retailer with your upgrade before feb.. possibly a week after launch.. but as far as from verizon direct.. good luck seeing a 100 dollar price drop in the first 6 months.

 

[jdbower]

I should reframe the question. Does Verizon regularly offer 1 day sales on premier phones in their first 3-4 months of existance?

I don't think it matters, the Nexus is a special case and I don't think it can be treated as a flagship phone. If it makes it to droiddoes.com or gets heavily marketed it may be more relevant, but I don't know that this will be the case. That said, the first 3-4 months of the DX were waiting lists to get the phone rather than sales.

Android releases come fast and furious these days, why don't you think there will be any new superphones by Feb? With Samsung, HTC, Moto, and probably LG pushing to get in, I'd be surprised if we didn't get anything new in 1Q2012.

 

[humpagardengnome]

Unfortunately, I don't see it happening. If you go by the MAP doc. that leaked (minimum advertised pricing) had a listing of $299 on contract from 11/10/11 thru 3/8/12, I believe. No retailer carrying Verizons GNex could sell it below $299 during that period. After that, who knows?

 

[philly]

Unfortunately, I don't see it happening. If you go by the MAP doc. that leaked (minimum advertised pricing) had a listing of $299 on contract from 11/10/11 thru 3/8/12, I believe. No retailer carrying Verizons GNex could sell it below $299 during that period. After that, who knows?

trust me.. plenty of retailers will be selling it for less then that. guarantee Amazon wireless and wirefly.com all have the razr, rezound and nexus for less then 299.99 on their launch days.

I got my fascinate for 1 penny, at the same time that Verizon was selling it for 199.99 (3 days after launch day)

 

[DolfanCole]

MAP is minimum advertised price. It's not the minimum selling price. So there will be third party retailers that sell it for less than the MAP.

 

[dapercy]

you dont have to buy from verizon on an anual upgrade..

just go to a website like amazon wireless and put your number in to double check, they will tell you if your eligible for an upgrade price instantly.

with that being said.. I'd say you'd beable to find it for under 200 from an online retailer with your upgrade before feb.. possibly a week after launch.. but as far as from verizon direct.. good luck seeing a 100 dollar price drop in the first 6 months.

The last time I did an annual upgrade I was told by wirefly and costco that they didn't honor annual upgrades. I've also read on verizon wireless forums that only verizon corporate stores are authorized to give the annual price.

To make things even more difficult my annual upgrade date is Nov 19. If I pass on getting it from Verizon on the 17th to see if wirefly or Amazon offer annual discounts 2 days later (when my discount should show in the system) the phone could be sold out by then and I could be stuck waiting months regardless of price drop. Thinking I may wait and see regardless, but I have a high level of doubt that anyone other than Verizon corporate will honor an annual upgrade, unless I'm lucky to get a confused manager that discounts me.

I see 3 choices available to me and I have no clue which is right.

1) Buy from Verizon at contract price on Nov17 (sure they'll let me annual upgrade 2 days early)

2) Wait 2 days to see if Amazon / wirefly will upgrade me (risk sell out and long wait)

3) Plan to wait until Feb and hope that the price drops significantly by then.

BTW, I work with several people who are not techies that stayed up to watch the Google/Samsung webcast of the unveiling of the phone. Anyone counting on only gadget geeks lining up for this phone will be very disappointed if they don't arrive early to get theirs.

 

[borgey401]

The last time I did an annual upgrade I was told by wirefly and costco that they didn't honor annual upgrades. I've also read on verizon wireless forums that only verizon corporate stores are authorized to give the annual price.

To make things even more difficult my annual upgrade date is Nov 19. If I pass on getting it from Verizon on the 17th to see if wirefly or Amazon offer annual discounts 2 days later (when my discount should show in the system) the phone could be sold out by then and I could be stuck waiting months regardless of price drop. Thinking I may wait and see regardless, but I have a high level of doubt that anyone other than Verizon corporate will honor an annual upgrade, unless I'm lucky to get a confused manager that discounts me.

I see 3 choices available to me and I have no clue which is right.

1) Buy from Verizon at contract price on Nov17 (sure they'll let me annual upgrade 2 days early)

2) Wait 2 days to see if Amazon / wirefly will upgrade me (risk sell out and long wait)

3) Plan to wait until Feb and hope that the price drops significantly by then.

BTW, I work with several people who are not techies that stayed up to watch the Google/Samsung webcast of the unveiling of the phone. Anyone counting on only gadget geeks lining up for this phone will be very disappointed if they don't arrive early to get theirs.

Whoever told you that 3rd party retailers will not honor upgrades has no idea what they're talking about. I personally have got devices at upgrade price from 3rd party retailers. It's pretty sad that the majority of the people on these forums that are buying devices like these know more than the people selling them at the store. If was you, just get it on launch day, you won't regret it at all. This is such a huge deal for the VZW Android community. $300 for a Nexus on VZW is an absolute score in my opinion. I honestly would pay full retail and sign a contract for one, that's how much I have been wanting a Nexus on this network. Verizon will let you upgrade as early as two weeks from your actual upgrade date. So they won't give you any issues at all. Why wait until Feb to save a few dollars? This is not like a regular device that VZW and a new version will not come out for another year so it will probably hold its value longer than other devices on VZW. Just get the Nexus on launch, you'll be happy just like the rest of us.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

Android releases come fast and furious these days, why don't you think there will be any new superphones by Feb? With Samsung, HTC, Moto, and probably LG pushing to get in, I'd be surprised if we didn't get anything new in 1Q2012.

Well I think we pretty much know that LG is still to come with their 2nd LTE phone on Verizon. We've seen their newest LTE device leaked all over the place, it just needs to come to Verizon now.

I wouldn't be surprised if the LG comes in December or January, LG always seems to be a little slow on their smartphone releases.

 

[dapercy]

Whoever told you that 3rd party retailers will not honor upgrades has no idea what they're talking about. I personally have got devices at upgrade price from 3rd party retailers. It's pretty sad that the majority of the people on these forums that are buying devices like these know more than the people selling them at the store. If was you, just get it on launch day, you won't regret it at all. This is such a huge deal for the VZW Android community. $300 for a Nexus on VZW is an absolute score in my opinion. I honestly would pay full retail and sign a contract for one, that's how much I have been wanting a Nexus on this network. Verizon will let you upgrade as early as two weeks from your actual upgrade date. So they won't give you any issues at all. Why wait until Feb to save a few dollars? This is not like a regular device that VZW and a new version will not come out for another year so it will probably hold its value longer than other devices on VZW. Just get the Nexus on launch, you'll be happy just like the rest of us.

You missed what I said, they can not honor the ANNUAL upgrade. They can do the new every 2 upgrade. Are you saying you've done annual upgrades through the 3rd parties? If so who as I'll go to them.

Starting to agree with you abour picking it up on release day.

 

[Canuckfan]

trust me.. plenty of retailers will be selling it for less then that. guarantee Amazon wireless and wirefly.com all have the razr, rezound and nexus for less then 299.99 on their launch days.

I got my fascinate for 1 penny, at the same time that Verizon was selling it for 199.99 (3 days after launch day)

damn, should have waited a couple days. Bought the Fascinate on launch day at Best Buy and they taxed me on the full retail price. Never again!

So does Amazon Wireless regularly have phones on launch day? I'm definitely going to be more patient this time around.

 

[Jet300]

You missed what I said, they can not honor the ANNUAL upgrade. They can do the new every 2 upgrade. Are you saying you've done annual upgrades through the 3rd parties? If so who as I'll go to them.

Starting to agree with you abour picking it up on release day.

OK, now I'm confused. What annual upgrade are you referring to? And also the New Every Two reference. I thought Verizon cancelled both of these this year.

 

[CBMC]

damn, should have waited a couple days. Bought the Fascinate on launch day at Best Buy and they taxed me on the full retail price. Never again!

So does Amazon Wireless regularly have phones on launch day? I'm definitely going to be more patient this time around.

I ordered my thunderbolt on launch day. I think it was 3/17 [Thursday] and I received it on 3/21 [Monday] from Amazon wireless. I think it was $180 from Amazon at launch vs $250 @ Verizon. Plus, no tax through Amazon. There are etf's with Amazon before six months. All these numbers are from memory, so they could be slightly off.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[CBMC]

OK, now I'm confused. What annual upgrade are you referring to? And also the New Every Two reference. I thought Verizon cancelled both of these this year.

I think corporate can still do one years. Also, I remember reading something about main lines doing upgrades after one year for a fee. Maybe someone who knows more can commit on that. I am willing to bet if he is talking of this "unwritten" or "corporate" upgrade then they would only be able to do it at a Verizon store and not a 3rd party retailer.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[kath00]

Just to clarify, those $0.01 sales at Amazon (and even the $99 sale on the Bionic recently) were for NEW LINES or new customers. Those prices did not apply to you and me, who just want an upgrade on an existing line. So I would not be waiting for those fire sales to get your phone...

The best deal on the Bionic for upgrades was from Radio Shack, I believe, when they offered $100 off on any phone with Verizon. That included the newly released Bionic. I think they did this because they had just established Verizon kiosks in their stores and started selling Verizon phones in Oct. I am thinking this is not going to be an ongoing plan for them since I read some article about how much money they lost on this promotion just to get the word out.

I agree with others, take your upgrade as soon as you can and just pay the price. I think Costco just got quoted as selling the GN for $289? That's $10 off right there! And they only charge tax on the $289, not on the $650++ retail price, so that's a big savings too.

Careful with Amazon Wireless. While I LOVE Amazon in general, they make you agree to a 6 or 12 month early-termination contract where you pay HUGE fines if you pull out before the time is up. The fines are usually much more than the typical Verizon ETF fines...

Katherine

 

[humpagardengnome]

trust me.. plenty of retailers will be selling it for less then that....

Huh? I assumed it was across the board, guess I stand corrected. Personally, I'm kinda shocked cuz I had a friend who was a field rep. w/ VzW for several years. He coordinated w/ VzWs' "authorized retailer" stores. I thought I grilled all the 411, I could about his job. Guess, I forgot this one. Then again, I never paid attention or bought my phones from sources outside of corp. stores. So I guess I had no reason to ask. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[yapkuen]

And they only charge tax on the $289, not on the $650++ retail price, so that's a big savings too.

I think in California, state law requires sellers to compute tax on full retail when phones are sold with a service contract, so this does not hold true everywhere.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk