It's been a while since I have made a "big purchase." You know that dh makes plenty - hehe. But he does all the research and shopping, when it comes to anything electronic.
For whatever reason, I am the tent buyer.
The tent process has been rather long. We have been searching reviews on the tents we see in the sales ads, and haven't come up with much. The quality of most of these isn't great and we rather spend a little more for something that will last.
Overwhelmed with all of the choices online, I found a recommendation for a few tents and narrowed it down to one. The price was $115 new though could easily find on sale for $95. I think we kind of aimed for $100 after looking around a bit. Meaning we didn't want anything much cheaper. $200 was probably our upper limit.
So today I was perusing all the tents on sale in the ads before I finally made our final purchase. (We had put it off to May and then just got busy).
While online I saw a tents @ Overstock ad. I have shopped Overstock in the past though seem to have less luck with it any more. But I hadn't looked at all so I thought I would peek.
I immediately came across "the one." I just loved the tent and it had nothing but glowing reviews. Price was on sale for $199.99.
Overwhelmed with all the tent options this is the first one that really "stood out."
I looked @ Amazon and saw it had free shipping (possibly no sales tax) for athe tent at $189. I wasn't surprised that Amazon had a much better deal than Overstock (considering shipping and all). Has been my experience lately.
I was looking up further reviews on the tent though and came across the tent at REI for $159. It was funny because I came across it quite by accident. & shipping was free if we were willing to pick it up at the nearby store. win-win.
I did one last look at biz rate and also checked REI coupon codes. This was by far the best deal - it didn't even pop up on any price searches.
I am pleased. With taxes and everything the total was closer to $170. But the full price of the tent was around $220, so I am happy with the price. I think for another $50 or so we got much higher quality than we were originally aiming for. Which we were definitely open to spending a little more for.
It should be ready to pick up next week. Woohoo.
It's literally the only tent we have looked at in our price range that didn't have one negative thing said about it. So I am pretty optimistic about it.
When it arrives we will be doing some backyard camping (nice if it does arrive before next weekend - it is estimated to). & we will be taking it camping in June. I think this year is just a "backyard camping" year, but if it works out we intend to use it more.
Since I don't expect to use up our vacation budget this year, it comes from there. We have the cash, of course!
Bought a Tent
May 15th, 2009 at 06:24 pm
May 15th, 2009 at 09:54 pm 1242424483
I hope you all have lots of great adventures in it !! :-)
May 16th, 2009 at 04:01 am 1242446467
Let us know what you think of it after you use it (I'm thinking of a tent myself).
Camping means tent to me - not the gigantic "house on wheels" thing.
May 16th, 2009 at 04:27 am 1242448054
I will let you know what we think!
May 16th, 2009 at 07:51 am 1242460309
Hope you enjoy many happy outings, having fun and making memories.
May 16th, 2009 at 12:47 pm 1242478022
Enjoy the tent!