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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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steveohan
Joined: 24 Apr 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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 Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:16 am Post subject: cheaper prices - yongasn or technomart? |
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so i want to buy a new 500GB hard drive and an external enclosure this weekend, but i only have enough time to visit one location.
where is my better bet for a cheaper price? yongsan or technomart?
thanks!
steve. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:19 am Post subject: Re: cheaper prices - yongasn or technomart? |
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| steveohan wrote: |
so i want to buy a new 500GB hard drive and an external enclosure this weekend, but i only have enough time to visit one location.
where is my better bet for a cheaper price? yongsan or technomart?
thanks!
steve. |
If by Yongsan you mean the I'Park mall above the station, there is no real difference.
If you mean going over to the Nanjin Arcade or one of the other malls, then yongsan is cheaper if you are willing to spend the time hunting and bargin hard.
The savings are marginal however. You may spend a couple hours or an afternoon trying to save as little as 20 or 30k won. |
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hugo_danner
Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Location: korea
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:06 am Post subject: |
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| For computers at least (maybe not for hard drives) if you go on Saturday or Sunday as soon as they open, you can usually get good deals. There are few customers and they want to make a sale. |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit, but I think this is relevant. Is shopping Danawa.com cheaper than Yongsan? |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| hanguker wrote: |
| Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit, but I think this is relevant. Is shopping Danawa.com cheaper than Yongsan? |
It shouldn't be. Danawa is the Yongsan site, and the prices shown are the lowest avaliable for a given product. Not all stores have said prices, but if you can find the store, you will get that price. Also, the prices listed are for cash sales; by card will cost you around 7% more.
I have always paid the same prices at Yongsan as advertised on Danawa, but I am lucky in that I found a good contact at Yongsan who calls the stores for me, has everything brought to his store and only charges a nominal fee for saving me a lot of leg work and haggling. |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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I've read so often about what a good resource Danawa is and that is certainly true, but Danawa does not give you the rock bottom price -- you can usually pay significantly less than the lowest Danawa price listed (depending on the item, of course).
I recommend thinking of the lowest Danawa price as the max you would pay and then go to Yongsan expecting a lower offer to be accepted. |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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dogbert, could you be more specific on which items it would be worthwhile actually going to Yongsan as opposed to ordering it from Danawa? How much lower could you get...a couple of bucks or something worth going out in the cold for?  |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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| hanguker wrote: |
| dogbert, could you be more specific on which items it would be worthwhile actually going to Yongsan as opposed to ordering it from Danawa? How much lower could you get...a couple of bucks or something worth going out in the cold for? |
As luck would have it, I can't find the exact example I used last month, because the product is no longer listed on Danawa, but I'll show you something similar.
Last month, I priced the M-bird XY-22 2G flash memory mp3 player. The lowest price I could find listed by a retailer on Danawa was 160,000 won.
Keeping that in my head as my maximum price, I just asked around and bargained a bit at Yongsan shops until I found a place that would sell it for 140,000 won. And I know that with my white face and poor haggling skills, I still paid too much.
Now, for some reason the 2G model is no longer listed on Danawa, but the 1G model is. http://search.danawa.com/dsearch.php?ut=&k1=m-bird+xy-22
You can see that the price range for that 1G model given on Danawa is still 128,000 -- 273,420 -- it's all over the place.
Considering I paid only 12,000 won over the lowest Danawa price of the 1G model for the 2G model, that tells me that the lowest price on Danawa is hardly the lowest you can expect to pay if you go in person.
This is because the Danawa price is based on the retailers's prices listed on the retailers's own websites, where they have no incentive to list low prices.
That is not the only experience I've had where the lowest Danawa price is still higher than what I paid in person.
I think that is even more likely when you are dealing with items that are not in much sales demand. As another example, two years ago I priced a set of these speakers on Danawa. The current price listed is 732,000 won. I went to one of the retailers who had a listing on Danawa and paid 480,000 won. So, it is definitely worth going in person to buy. (Well, assuming you do not live far from Seoul).
And this holds true for things like disk drives, etc.
I'm not saying Danawa is not a great resource, but by no means believe that the lowest price you find there is the lowest you can get. |
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jon_blazon
Joined: 24 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:48 pm Post subject: RE: DANAWA |
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Hi,
I will be moving to Seoul in the very near future, and planning to build my comp from scratch. I am trying to track down the cheapest way to buy component parts beforehand, and from what I've heard on this thread and others heading to Yongsan market and driving a hard bargain is the best way. I was referred to the Danawa website before reading this thread, and I have already found all the components on there are on average 20% cheaper than what I can find here in Canada.
My question is - since I can't read Korean yet - how is that site set up, how does one actually go about buying a product from there, and is there a group of different retailers showcasing their products on there? Seeing as how paying with credit costs an extra 7%, I would think paying for the product with cash in person would be beneficial, no? Is that even possible or is everything shipped like ebay?
Thanks for the insight |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the thorough reply dogbert.
However, I'm wondering if these price differences exist for computer components, which I am most interested in. The site's specialty seems to be to find the lowest prices on PC stuff. The prices on this site seem to beat any other prices I can find online or anywhere else.
I agree with you about the MP3 players. I bought mine of the company's main site, which was cheaper than the danawa price. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 3:14 pm Post subject: Re: RE: DANAWA |
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| jon_blazon wrote: |
Hi,
I will be moving to Seoul in the very near future, and planning to build my comp from scratch. I am trying to track down the cheapest way to buy component parts beforehand, and from what I've heard on this thread and others heading to Yongsan market and driving a hard bargain is the best way. I was referred to the Danawa website before reading this thread, and I have already found all the components on there are on average 20% cheaper than what I can find here in Canada.
My question is - since I can't read Korean yet - how is that site set up, how does one actually go about buying a product from there, and is there a group of different retailers showcasing their products on there? Seeing as how paying with credit costs an extra 7%, I would think paying for the product with cash in person would be beneficial, no? Is that even possible or is everything shipped like ebay?
Thanks for the insight |
You can go there in person and try to find one of the stores that has the Danawa "lowest" price, and as Dogbert indicated, you can haggle a bit from there. Often if you go to one store and want to spend some money, they will gather all the parts you need (if they don't have all of them) and you can just wait 30 minutes for dudes to bring everything right there.
This saves running around for all the different parts and prices. The problem here is finding someone who will give you at least the Danawa prices, if not go a bit lower. Many stores won't give you that price, but try to gouge you a bit. I found a guy I trust a few years ago, so if one can make such a contact, it's well worth it.
The other way is to call the stores and have the products delivered. This is easy and can save heaps of time if you aren't near Yongsan. Delivery is same-day (usually) and cheap - 5 to 10,000 won. The problem here is that you can't see the parts before you are in possession. Danawa has some "refurbished" stuff they sometimes peddle as new; this can be avoided by always getting retail stuff; no OEM or otherwise.
The payment in the event of delivery is done via a bank transfer (internet banking is good), and once the store has verified that the money has been deposited, they will send the goods along.
The Danawa site is such that after going to Danawa.com, click "Computer" (컴퓨터) in the top left, then across the top of the page, find what hardware you are looking for. Clicking say, "VGA" will bring up a list of all cards at Yongsan. Clicking one product on the right will bring up a list on the left of stores that have the product, and - in red - the stores that have the product for the "lowest" price.
The prices listed are all cash prices; it's best to do most business in cash at Yongsan. And always ask for a receipt; in Korea, receipts are often overlooked, even on large purchases.
In the event of a return (a defective part), this is treated very cooly here with few, if any, questions asked. The part is typically swapped at the point of purchase. I have had to go to the A/S store before (I had a bad WD hard drive and had to go to the AS center to have it quickly tested, then replaced.
When you do get to Korea, depending on where you live, I'm sure you can find someone to give you a hand until you learn Korean. |
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