Holiday "Gotcha" Moment

'Tis the season when a bargain can quickly turn out to be more than you bargained for! This past weekend, in the name of research, I couldn't resist ducking into a Best Buy. I learned a lot. The crowds were thick, and thickest in the video gaming and large-screen TV aisles.

But the gotcha moment came in the printer section of the store. A helpful young clerk was working with a middle-aged woman who wanted a new printer for her laptop. He was asking her all the right questions:

Was it running Windows? (Yes.)

Did it have a USB port? (Maybe.)

How old a PC was it? (Only a few years.)

The clerk concluded that it was pretty likely the PC had a USB port and suggested the current special, a Canon printer for $20. Wow! A brand-name printer for $20. My idea of a sale. The customer asked a few more questions about things like ink refill prices, and after a few moments of back and forth, she decided to buy it.

That was the moment of gotcha. The clerk explained that it didn't come with a USB cable and she would have to buy one.

"How much is that?" she asked.

"Thirty-five dollars," he answered, straight-faced.

"But that's more than the printer!" she said, looking mighty puzzled.

He shrugged. She ultimately bought both the printer and the terrifically overpriced USB cable.

At home, my search for a USB cable turned up cables for as low as $2 and often in the $5 range. At Buy.com, there were dozens of choices under $10.

The "cable" or "special adapter" or "batteries" are often at the center of gotchas like this. If the price is too good to be true, there's often something more that you'll need to make your new purchase workable.

Have you had your seasonal gotcha moment yet?