Im not sure those two stores offer the best value around...they like to pretend to compete, but as they have the same parent company its not much of a competition.

My advice if you are buying it to head to the local first nations reserve and see if they have a store (ours does)....saving the sales tax makes a big difference on a big ticket item even if the sticker price is not as competitive

Extensive research I did when purchasing my TV and other electrical items point to a slightly different out come. Generally Best Buy is cheapest here abouts, when comparing models..........this included stores like Leon's, Soundsaround, Visions, Sears, etc. Occassionally Best Buy and Future Shop are equal on price or within 10% but the advantage with Best Buy is Best Buy rewards.

Larger companies generally have better buying power and can sell things slightly cheaper then other stores without the buying power.....thats why Walmart is cheap.

Tellys don't work here in Canada but Televisions do

I'd also sell in the UK and buy new here. Like OP are saying why risk it? When I bought my new Samsung HDTV I price checked it against what it would have cost in the UK and it was about 300 dollars cheaper here.

See what you could get for it on Ebay and compare it against prices on BestBuy or Futureshop etc.

I got my TV from future shop as it was doing a deal on the tv i wanted at the time. The experience wasn't pleasant. The guy kept trying to sell me an AC power filter for $300 in case of a power surge - I was polite and let him ramble on about this for a while until I told him that a 10c fuse would actually do the same thing. He then wanted to sell me an extended warranty for 25% of the cost of the original TV and when I laughed he immediately halved the cost. In the end he was offering the warranty for a fifth of the original price - still didn't buy it tho. Anyway - I guess I agree with Brownstar, if you know what you are going to buy first then those two stores can be good value - just don't ask them for any sensible advice as they will only try and rip you off.

Costco is also worthy of consideration if they have the model you want.

They will take it back within 90 days if you decide you don't like it. They offer free tech support and they'll extend the manufacturers warranty to two years.

http://www.costco.ca/service/feature...orcelang=en-CA

If you purchase in store as far as I know they don't deliver, however if you order online shipping and handling are included in the price.

They don't price match.

No different to Curry's or Comet IMO.

But yeah, stick to your guns and they'll soon get the message no means no.

Is Costco AMEX and debit/cash only?!?!?

I was a member at Sam's Club before Walmart pulled the rug from under it's feet - they only accepted Mastercard and debit/cash.

Just wondering cos usually buying with Visa I'd get extended warranty (on my CC anyway).

In store yes.

Online they accept Amex, Visa and Mastercard.

I've always found that Best Buy don't do the big sell, but Future Shop do

That's good to know. Ta

Agreed with all the above, re: shop around.

On a related(ish) subject and one that's actually vitally important when moving to Canada, a TV purchase can be used to start off getting a credit rating. My first TV in Canada was a CRT 4:3 since I reckoned "why bother with widescreen when they don't broadcast in it?" This was 2004, and of course I realised I'd made a mistake the first time I rented a DVD... The next TV, a few months later, was a 46" rear-projection LCD HDTV (Samsung, I highly recommend the brand) which at the time was about $2,000 and was the cutting edge. I got it at Visions on a "buy now, pay in 12 months" deal, which was actually financed through Wells Fargo. I paid up in full after 6 months - better than forgetting and getting stung with 30% interest!

When I first arrived, I couldn't get a store card at IKEA due to no credit rating, and HSBC were hopeless. I only opened an account with them in the UK before going on the grounds that they were the only UK bank with a branch network in Canada. Of course they didn't actually transfer my credit rating! They opened a Canadian account for me from the UK, but that was only due to the tenacity of my UK account manager. HSBC offered me a credit card with a $2,000 limit, so long as I deposited $3,000 as security.... I pointed out that charging me interest to use 2/3s of my own money was not credit. In the end, I joined the CAA online and 5 minutes later phoned up MBNA to get the CAA credit card. MBNA apparently use (or at least did then) humans to make decisions, so I got a card with a $5,000 limit. The other thing I did, indeed the first, was to lease a car. A lease is easier to get as you technically don't own the car during the lease term. Between the car lease, the MBNA card and the Wells Fargo TV credit, I had a decent credit rating within a year or so of getting to Canada and could get a 90% mortgage.

Isn't that a contradiction

I was going to point that out too but decided against it as I didn't want to be classed as a trouble maker

Copied from About.com for you non-believers....

Currently, there are three major basic types of projection technology commonly used in rear-projection televisions in today: CRT, LCD, and DLP. There are also variations of these three types that are not widely used at this time (including D-ILA and LCOS). However, for the purposes of this article, I have chosen to present an overview of the three major video projection technologies.

Trouble maker