Monster Cable Lowering Prices During Recession, Uh…Thanks?

Monster Cable, purveyors of grossly overpriced products, feel your pain during these tough financial times. That’s why they are reducing their ridiculous prices to slightly less ridiculous prices during the recession.

Now, founder and “Head Monster” Noel Lee is cutting prices on top-of-the-line cables for high-definition TVs, effective in June. An 8-foot HDMI cable that currently sells for $US129.95 at Best Buy will be priced at $US99.

On Monday, the company also lopped $US10 off the price of its most basic—but rarely stocked—HDMI TV cable, to $US29 for a 1-metre length. And it introduced two new lower-cost HDMI cables in 2-metre and 4-metre lengths for $US39.95 and $US59.95. Competitors’ cables of similar length can be found online for as low as $US5.

This just makes me laugh. As we pointed out in our “Truth About Monster Cable” series, buying high end cable is usually unnecessary. But hey, if people want to waste money on “the best” I can hardly blame Monster for selling it to them. As Noel Lee pointed out to USA Today: “It’s ironic, when people buy Monster, they don’t expect to pay (a) low price, so our lower-end cables don’t sell very well.” That’s probably true—the people who buy these things might view the price as an exclusive barrier to entry, and therefore part of the allure. It will be interesting to see if this price tactic actually improves sales. [USA Today]