Is this a good deal?

[mamaluvs]

Babies R Us is having a trade-in sale. If you trade-in certain things (like carseats, highchairs, cribs) you get 25% off the purchase of something new (within certain categories/brand). So I could trade in an old infant carseat and get 25% off a new Britax Marathon. The original price is 279.99, making the trade in price around 210. Is this a good deal? DS doesn't need a new carseat yet but I'd love to get a good deal on the carseat we want. Thanks!

[PenelopeJune]

If you sold your item on Craigslist or the like, could you get more for it? Is your current carseat worth more than $70, used? If not, then I'd say it's a good deal.

[Drummer's Wife]

I think it's worth it. More so if your infant car seat is expired or close to it. Basically, unless you could get more than $70 for it on craigslist, it's a good deal. And car seats, especially infant ones (unless they are super new) don't sell for much on CL. Most wise people don't want to buy a used car seat, and those that do are looking to pay like $20.

ETA: now I think maybe you are asking if $210 is a good price for a Marathon. Yes, to me it is. You can sometimes find previous years prints for less than $200, or around that price for a really good sale through a retailer -- but it's rare b/c Britax don't tend to budge in price, if that makes sense.

[leavemealone]

Does anyone know if you can trade in an expired car seat and still get the coupon % off?

I know we have two expired Marathons that we don't need anymore and we need a few new things for the new baby. Maybe I should go check TRU/BRU website and see...

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by sandcastle

Does anyone know if you can trade in an expired car seat and still get the coupon % off?

I know we have two expired Marathons that we don't need anymore and we need a few new things for the new baby. Maybe I should go check TRU/BRU website and see...

That is my understanding. I'm taking an expired Marathon and hope to get the discount.

[Ruthie's momma]

If you are able to trade-in an expired car seat, then I think that it could be good deal. Otherwise, I believe that the so-called savings are somewhat dubious (at best).

*BRU tends to charge higher prices for most, if not all, of their items
*BRU charges sales tax (vs. Amazon, Albee Baby, etc.). In most cases, you will also get free shipping from many online stores.

I second the suggestion to sell your DS's infant car seat on Craigslist. I was able to sell my DD's Graco SafeSeat for $60 w/i a day of it going online (it was about 1.5 yrs old). This was a little over a year ago.

Additionally, is there any reason that you have decided on a Britax Marathon? There are a lot of great convertible car seats available. And, they often cost a lot less $$$. I only purchased a Britax Marathon because I was being superficial......I really wanted the cowmooflage print! A little over a year ago, I purchased DD's for less than $200. It was purchased during a Britax sale at Amazon and I applied a large discount from opening a Amazon CC (that I used for the car seat purchase, immediately paid that charge, and then cut up the card).

BRU is offering what many electronic stores have offered for quite a long time. That is, they offer a small amount of money for a trade-in assuming you will apply that money towards the purchase of their higher than average priced merchandise. Recently, my sister wanted to upgrade her iPod. Best Buy offered her $50. She was able to sell it on Craigslist for over twice that w/i a couple of days. She then purchased the new iPod from Amazon for less than what Best Buy was charging.

[xmysticprincessx]

If you don't need the carseat right away (or in the next few months), I'd hold off. I've seen posts on slickdeals.net where sites like Amazon.com, target.com, etc have really good deals on Britax car seats. You can register for slickdeals and then set it up so that if the keyword "britax" is posted, you will get emailed. FYI, you usually have to jump on deals like that since they often sell out quickly.

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by sandcastle

Does anyone know if you can trade in an expired car seat and still get the coupon % off?

Yes. I traded in my ds's almost expired marathon that had been in an accident for a graco turbobooster (not really needed, as he has 2 other harnessed seats (regent and nautilus) that he uses but we wanted a back-up for an emergency if someone else had to pick him up or bring him somewhere.... basically $50 for my peace of mind that if we need it it will be sitting in our closet... lol).

[claddaghmom]

It's only a good deal if you can't find a better deal elsewhere and need it NOW. Or if you were given a giftcard...

BRU is expensive...and carseats go on clearance frequently.