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How to buy items for cheap at "rent to own" stores
#1

How to buy items for cheap at "rent to own" stores

This may be helpful to anyone trying to save money on buying presents in December; at "rent to own" stores, when an item has been paid for, but returned to the store, they WILL sell it for cheap, I'm talking marked up items like tvs or sound systems that may have cost thousands originally, but is now used property, that the shop has already profited from.

The managers -will- write an item off for cheap.

For example,

Electronics item (A) has a sale price of 4k in the year 2012. No customers actually
make all the payments or buy it off, so the store just keeps renting out that item, eventually making way more than the original high marked up price. Fast forward to 2014 and the item is still in great shape, as I was saying before, the store will now (Manager or higher) sell off the item behind doors for cheap. So that item that cost 4k two years ago will now sell for $50 dollars or less behind closed doors because it's taking room in the store, and may be an older model.

You need to get in good terms with the manager(s) or higher, they are the ones authorising this. The higher ups DO NOT care about this practice, because the store has already made a lot of money on the product in question.

I used to work in that industry as a salesman/repoman when I was younger, so I saw this with my own two eyes several times.

I'd recommend getting the items from the higher income areas if possible, the customers in the lower income areas would NOT take care of the merchandise. I'm talking smoke/pet hair/physical damage in the tvs/furniture/computers. I didn't see this problem in the better cities. To once again give an example, when I'd work in South Dallas (the bad parts, everything's gated/barred up-even the porches- taking items back from unpaid customers was crazy, some people get VERY angry when you try to repo something, thankfully I never ran into someone like littledark, I wouldn't be alive today if that was the case), the merchandise in that areas stores would be in mediocre or worse shape. When I'd work at the higher income stores in Plano (For those not familiar with this city, it's much better off financially than the ghetto areas of South Dallas) (yes PLANO, they have rent to own stores there too, I kid you not), the items there would be in pristine condition usually (exception being if the item had been transferred to a poorer areas store(they do that, they shift merchandise around CITIES, -miles- just for one item too sometimes))

So if your social skills are up to par, get in good terms with one of the employees who can buy the item for you, or get to know the managers or higher yourself.

REPAIR TIPS
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If you buy a used laptop, don't forget to open it up to clean out the dust. Also, clean off the old stock thermal compound under the heatsinks, and replace it with a quality brand such as "Artic Silver". If Laptops have their airflow blocked, the GPU and CPU solder joints will take too much heat, eventually causing a break in the solder somewhere on the BGA- requiring a reflow or preferably a reball to fix. (Usually the GPU will fail first-you'll have screen issues, screen won't work, glitchy, e.t.c.) You can thank the lead free solder that manufacturers use in todays time for problems of this nature.

Also use a program that will be burned to a disk or flashdrive, called "Parted Magic"
There are many extremely useful programs on there. The program you want to use from there is something that can safely clean a HDD. It has an option for "Internal Erase Command" Choose that one to sanitize an HDD -or- an SSD. It's the only option that will safely sanitize an SSD. Do this to any used HDD/SSD you plan on using. Just reinstall any OS/programs. Stock computers from HP, Dell, etc come with bloatware you don't need anyways.

LCDs are a pain to fix, avoid buying these if possible(there are parts in there that cost as much as the tv itself!), check for cold soldering joints on the board.

Plasmas tvs-if they are still sold- sometimes have capacitor problems, DISCHARGE the cap first, THEN replace it, very very easy to fix. Do a reading with your multimeter on each cap before replacing each one. Check for cold joints here as well.

Window mounted A/Cs get their evaporator and condenser coils clogged with dust, clean that off( they are weather insulated, soap & water will pose no threat to the sealed motor or other metallic items there), and a "non cooling" A/C will usually work again. Watch out for a huge & lethal charge carrying capacitor usually located near the control console (DISCHARGE the capacitor!) Use a vacuum to clean this on Refrigerators.

If you buy a dryer and it doesn't work, unplug it, and open it up. Many models place insufficiently insulated wires near the heating element which causes the wire to melt, charring the copper wire, breaking the circuit somewhere. Cut/strip/attach a new connection to the wire and this usually fixes the problem. Check the High Limit Thermostat for continuity near the heating element as well if the dryer doesn't heat/ work.

Hope this saves someone some cash these holidays.
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#2

How to buy items for cheap at "rent to own" stores

Could you detail exactly how to get these 4k items for 50 dollars?

Do you just walk in, ask to speak to the manager, and make an offer? Do all Rent To Own stores do this, or only certain franchises?
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