Inside Circuit City's Liquidation Sale

Our findings, along with the lowest online prices we could find from reputable stores:

HDTVs

Home Theater

Cameras & Frames

From cameras to TVs, every item we saw at the store was marked as 10% to 40% off. However, of all the items we looked at, only one (the 32" Sharp LCD) was cheaper at Circuit City than it was online. Even so, we've seen other Sharp TVs with similar specs for less.

After our initial disappointment, we wondered if smaller items, like Blu-ray movies and memory cards, were better priced. Unfortunately, they weren't. Most Blu-ray movies started at $22.99 while a 4GB SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash Card went for $45 (that same card costs $26.05 + $7 s&h at Buy.com.)

The same applied to gaming. Activision's Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock Bundle with Guitar for Xbox 360 sold for $55.99 at Circuit City. Online we found it for $50 (at Toys "R" Us.) Open box items were similarly overpriced. We found an open box Sony Bravia 120Hz 46" 1080p LCD HDTV, model no. KDL-46XBR6, for $2,519.97. Online we found a new model for $1,899.95 with free shipping (at B&H Photo-Video.) It's worth noting that open box items purchased at Circuit City could not be returned under any circumstances. Dozens of posters throughout the store made this clear.

Conclusion

As expected, Circuit City's liquidation sale was atrocious. Even though the store had a Black Friday vibe, there were no sales to be found. But we were surprised to find that the stores beating Circuit City aren't just online-only stores like Amazon and Buy.com. Even Toys "R" Us and Sears undercut Circuit City. It bears repeating: Liquidation sales aren't synonymous with discounts, and consumers should remember that as more merchants file for bankruptcy.