Why is Costco Tech SO Cheap?

- Today I'm gonna find out, is tech actually cheaper at Costco? I mean, sure it's a great place to get yourself a 700-count of toilet paper. But what about actual, real tech? Wait, do I need air compression boots? Guess who? It's me. What's interesting about these is these are the XM5s, but it's an SA version, which is apparently a Costco exclusive version. Why is the Costco version different and cheaper? So one of the things I'm learning here is that there is a little display box that I've never noticed before. It's not a clearance per se. These items are the last ones left. For a lot of, like, the core items, the prices actually do seem to be pretty competitive, but the selection small, at least with what you've got in the store. But while I'm sure we'll find a lot of stuff online, something like this seems like straight up just a good deal period. I think we need to liberate this from the bad box. We'll take it with us. (screen whooshing) One of the first things that drew my attention in the store was this. So this is a pair of Sony 1000XM5s, a high-quality pair of headphones. I think when these first launched, maybe like two or three years ago, they were like 400 bucks. - [Ken] Something like that. - When I saw these for $230 at Costco, admittedly you know they're last generation, but it's not like headphones, you know, crumble into dust. But we had a question. Take a close look here. It's 1000XM5SA, which is I believe, like, Special Edition or something. (buzzer ringing) - That's not how you spell "edition." (crickets chirping) That's Special Addition. - It's the Special Addition. I've heard rumors that Costco has a lot of items that are suspiciously cheap, because some Costco items are unique to Costco. Maybe the Costco edition is maybe different in some ways. - Well, I think the only way you could have convinced me this was something that was exclusively at Costco, if this came in a five pack. (Alex laughing) - I know, Ken, you dailied these for a long time, right? - Yeah. Until the M6 came out earlier this year or late last year. - [Austin] So we've got the 1000XM5s. Oh, well, that's immediately a difference. - What? - It's in, like, a soft case. Wait, no, this is an upgrade. For context, this is a pair of normal Sony 1000XM5s. I always thought it was kinda, like, big, and bulky, and kind of dumb. It's like the sort of the origami-looking case. We do have a standard pair of M5s. So if I put them side by side and I get them mixed up, I mean they look- - [Ken] They are basically the same though. - Pretty close. They feel like the same weight. Alex, do you have any idea of what the differences are? - [Alex] I reached out to Sony and they specifically said that there is basically no difference except that carrying case. The unofficially answer is people online have basically speculated that all the Costco things are, like, B-line products. They might have higher failure rates, because Costco is willing to eat that cost. - But the thing is, Costco typically has either a good warranty or obviously they have, like, good return support. Okay, so I've paired them to my phone. I've got LDAC turned on, which is the higher quality audio. Ambient sound is good, but seems a little bit sort of dated compared to the M6s or more modern headphones. Let me turn on the noise canceling. - Can you hear? (Ken clapping) - I can't hear Matt at all. - Nothing at all? Wait. - The M6s are a very, very substantial step up over the noise cancellation of these guys. But here's the thing, these are already good. Those are just great. (upbeat music) I'm taking 'em off. (phone chiming) They automatically pause. - That was Daft Punk. - Surprising exactly no one, these are badass headphones. I know you've listened to 'em 1,000,000 times before. Like, there's nothing wrong with these headphones. - Yeah, these things are great. I think for $250, these are- $230. - [Matt] Even if these were refurbished. - Yeah? - I wouldn't be mad at that price. - Well, but here's the thing though. What would we pay for M5s elsewhere? - [Alex] So right now is kind of a weird time, because it's right near the Memorial Day weekend. Everywhere else they're going for $250, and that is the lowest price. - This has gotta be a point for Costco, right? - Yeah - I think so. - A huge thinking to the sponsor of this video, Wispr. Have you ever had an idea that was so exciting that you just had to get it down right that second or maybe you'll just straight up forget about it in a couple of seconds if you don't, like me? Either way, Wispr Flow is the change you need. This is hands-down the best voice to text feature I've ever used. Where normal speech text has issues is when it comes to more complicated sentences. So while I'm playing "Baldur's Gate 3," I really wanna talk about how I wanna side with the Emperor. Actually, no, Orpheus. No, actually, no, no. The Emperor for sure, yeah. "Ball just gate three." But if I use Wispr Flow, not only do they get everything spelled correctly, but it even has the punctuation there. When it comes to serious stuff, you wanna make as few mistakes as possible. I can't tell you how often I try to type notes from a meeting when I should just be paying attention instead. - [Alex] All right, team. We need to ideate, iterate, and most importantly, synchronize. Gary, it's Monday. - I give up. I give up. So let's compare my notes to Wispr. It even has a link for Monday at 8:00 AM. Wispr Flow changes all of that. It catches everything you say cleanly, even stuff that I normally wouldn't be able to type down. I mean, it even catches whispers. So if you want the best notes or just want more natural sounding messages, Wispr Flow is perfect for you. Just use our code for one month of Wispr Flow Pro for free. And thanks again to Wispr for making our lives just a little bit clearer. There was an item when we were perusing the shelves at Costco that really drew my eye. This- (sound dropping) - Yeah, what's up? (upbeat music continues) - Why is the box empty? Show the audience. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. - Show the audience. - So this is a giant game of "Guess Who?" Did you tamper with this, Alex? Did you already crack it open? - [Alex] We may have made some creative modifications. - Why are our faces on there? - What the hell, man? What? So we've got Baby Austin, Creepy Matt. Oh, God. Some horrible travesty of Evsini, and Maustin. Did we give any thought to how we're shooting this? - No. - Probably not. Probably not. - Whoa, not like that. (screen beeping) - So let's do this thing. The rules are pretty simple. We each get to pick a YouTuber and lock it into whoever we want, and then the other person has to guess. - [Matt] You get one guess at a time. It has to be "yes" or "no." - Yeah, you close up photos of YouTubers until we finally have the correct answer. - Do I hate them? (people laughing) (plastic flipping) (Austin laughing) Are they blonde? No, no. I can't say that. Have you met your YouTuber in person? - Yes. I'll actually tell you that there's only two people on here that I have not met in person. - Uh-oh. Are they, in these photos- - [Matt] Wearing glasses? - Yes, they're wearing glasses. - Okay. - "Do they have two eyes?" - Well, you can also ask the same question. - No, I can't ask that. Oh, shoot. - No, say it. - [Alex] Just say it. - [Austin] Is your YouTuber Canadian? - [Ken] That was offensive? - Has your YouTuber tried to hire me? (Alex gasping) - [Alex] Ooh! How many YouTubers have asked to try to hire you? It can't be that many. - There is some. - Oh, no, there's way more than I thought. (Matt laughing) Nine, 10, 11- - Yeah, you barely - So I have 13 left. - You barely narrowed it down. You barely narrowed it down. - I have two. Is your YouTuber UrAvgConsumer? (bell chiming) (people cheering) - Well done, my friend. Well done. - The only other one I had over here, if you wanna take a look, is Maustin. I almost went to go work for Jud before I came here and I should have done that. All right, so I guess I fight you now. - Okay, let's do it. - All right. - I actually think Austin should pick for both of us. - Oh! Yeah! Okay. Okay. So I'm locking in here. Good luck, boys. - [Alex] The rule book states whoever's youngest goes first. (laughs) Is your YouTuber a guy? - Yes. Are they showing teeth in the photo? - [Austin] Now, hold on. Some of these are, like, questionable. Like, are those teeth? - [Ken] Yes, they are. Okay. - [Alex] See? Matt knows what he's doing. - [Ken] Who the (censored) are you? - Is this a male YouTuber? - That's a little bit sad for the industry, but- But very easy for Matt. (laughs) Dang! - Sorry, that was just- Sorry. In a dream once. Are they holding tech in their photo? - Ooh. - Wow. - Basically you have to just wild guess right now. - Yeah- - Otherwise. (Matt sucking) (Matt blowing) Is it you? Is it? - [Alex] Damn, that was dramatic as hell. - Is it Sara Dietschy? - It is Sara Dietschy. - Rhymes with peachy. - Yay! - Who was it? - Carter. - Oh, God, that was gonna be my second choice. - Here's the thing. What does this have to do with Costco? I don't (duck quacking) know, except that they have some hilarious, fun games. - But how much did we pay for all of this, for all this enjoyment? - [Alex] We paid $90 for this thing. - This is $90? - It is $90. - What the hell? Wait, no. Was it? No? What? No, no. It was. Ooh, I thought this thing was $30 bucks when I put in the cart. All I know is you should subscribe to the This Is channel, 'cause we're 100% doing a full video with this thing. This next item might be the best outright deal of the video. Ken. Oh, wait, it says it. Oh, it's right here. (Ken laughing) Ken, how much would you pay for a brand new MacBook Air? M4. - [Ken] M4. - Mm-hmm. Something reasonable. - Okay, okay. Oh, 15 inch. - A big boy. Yeah, don't forget. - About a grand. - [Austin] So for context, base models have 16 GB of RAM, 256 GB storage. - So $1,300? - $1,300. - So MSRP. - [Alex] So if we were to buy this somewhere else, let's say like a Best Buy, or Amazon, or something, it is retailing for about $1,100. - Ooh. Okay. Let me present to you, my friends, the price tag. - Oh. - [Austin] $899.97. Liberated from the bad box in the store. - [Alex] Hell yeah! - So... - [Alex] It fell off already. (person laughing) - For quite some time, the difference between, like, a MacBook Air, once you, like, added, like, any kind of spec to it. and, like, a MacBook Pro, was so similar, it was just, like, you might as well get, like, the 120 Hz display and the extra ports. But at 900 bucks, this actually feels pretty compelling. - [Ken] Did you steal this? - I stole it 'cause it was such a good deal. - [Ken] Oh, it's also not open-box. It's actually like- - No, no. Okay, so again, none of the Costco stuff was, like, open-box returns. Like, this is brand new, still sealed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are certainly refurb models and whatnot. But as far as, like, a brand new, like, still sealed in the box, full warranty, the whole thing, I think we found a really good deal here. And I will say the Sky Blue is very lovely. Ooh, that's nice. That's pretty nice. So, my friends, I'm going to spend some time with a 15 inch MacBook Air that I got a smoking deal from at Costco. And we'll see if it's worth it, and if you should actually even buy a MacBook Air at this point. So I'm of two minds when it comes to using the MacBook Air. It is a thoroughly excellent laptop. I mean, surprise, surprise. And this is my first time really daily driving the 15 inch variant. The extra screen real estate is absolutely appreciated. The larger trackpad is nice. Even though it's so thin, it does kind of feel a little heavy. I don't think they should be using the MacBook Air name on these guys anymore. The concern I had about really the MacBook, really since the MacBook Neo came out earlier this year, is just the simple fact that the MacBook Air feels like it's kind of in no man's land. The Neo is a terrific laptop. It's $600 and less. It is absolutely the MacBook that I would recommend to most people. And if you need more than the Neo, generally speaking, I would recommend to go up to the Pro. When you put it all together, it really feels like the Air is in this really weird, kind of, middle ground where it doesn't really do anything all that well. That's what I would say, if I would've paid full price for this MacBook Air. But I paid $300, $400 less than MSRP, and that really changes the bargain. The biggest downside with this configuration is it only has 256 GB of storage, which is very minimal no matter how you slice it. But I gotta say, chalk a giant W up for Costco on this one. Next up we have ourselves a GoPro. I have not used a brand new GoPro in a minute. It felt like for a while, like, the HERO, like, five, and six, and stuff, they're making, like, big progress. But then I feel like a lot of the updates were just kind of whatever. - [Alex] But also tons of competitors have popped up. If I'm gonna use, like, a GoPro or something, instead, I'm usually gonna use either my phone or, like, one of the other DJI cameras or something. So, like, I haven't been in the action cam game for a while. This my friends, is the GoPro HERO13, the Black Edition, which is apparently the top end, I would believe. And this is also a whole bundle that comes with extra batteries and a 128 GB SD card. - [Alex] Yeah. And that one came out at the end of 2024. - Okay. So, like, a year and a half old. Eh, that's fine. It does come with a nice, little carrying case, which I actually do appreciate. Oh, that's actually really nice. Oh, we have mounts and stuff too. Excellent. - Oh, you know what it is? This screen looks bigger. What's the spec of a GoPro at this point? Like, what can you actually shoot with it? 5.3K. You can also do 4K120. So I'm actually excited to see, especially, because this was a pretty good deal, I think. - [Ken] How much? - Well, first of all, Alex, what's just the MSRP? - [Alex] If you want just the HERO13 Black, it's $350. The closest bundle I can see is one on Amazon. - And that goes for $400. - And we paid... - [Alex] We paid $340. - This is just straight up the same, actually slightly better bundle than other places have like Amazon. Why don't we get this guy set up and up to date, and we'll take it for a little spin to see, not only did we get a good deal, but can we do some cool action stuff? (plane zooming) Who wants to jump out of a plane? I mean, I'm down. Okay, so we're taping the GoPro to the car. (laughs) - [Ken] Yes, sir. Well, so this is a little look at the 5.3K image quality literally taped onto a very, very fast RC car. So we're shooting right now. I've got the preview up on my phone in LOG. However, if the editing team put on a LUT, you'll see that the actual color and whatnot should look a lot better. And with 5.3K you should be able to, like, punch in, and all that kind of fun stuff. - So I'm gonna start it off low throttle trim first. Oh, my God. (motor rumbling) That's so cool. - [Austin] Whoa! Wait, dude, that's actually really good. - You wanna go crazy throttle? - A little bit. Yeah. - It will- - There's a car coming. - It's okay. I'll just hit it. Oh, my god. It just popped a wheelie. Go! - Gee, dude! And the stabilization works really well. So I'm on SuperView right now. You want to go full speed? (laughs) - What's... How are you not on full speed? - Okay. Ready? - Three, two, one. (screen chiming) Dude, that's so fast! Dude! Wow! He went so far away, I lost connection on the preview. Oh, no! You know, it almost doesn't even look that fast with how wide the GoPro is and the stabilization really smooths it out. Thanks, Costco, for giving us a good deal. That is so close to ripping all the skin off your hand. - I know. - How do y'all feel about headphones? - Good. You wear headphones- - 10 hours a day. That's weird. - Okay, well, have I got great news for you. Soundcore has your back. And full disclosure, while this is not sponsored, we do have some stuff with soundcore coming up soon. However, the Space Ones, these are actually kind of similar to the 1000XM5s we just took a look at. Before we even open it, I think the price is important here. These MSRP for, like, 100 and something dollars? - Roughly around $100. - About $100. Wait, when did you put headphones in? - Oh, (duck quacking). - How did that manifest? - We have the headphones themselves. Actually a nice little bit of packaging. - Over-ear headphones are always packaged so weird, 'cause they're just, like... (bones cracking) They're like that. - Hello, I'm your new headphones. - Or, like, they're curled up in the fetal position. - [Austin] Oh, we have a carrying case. - They don't feel cheap. The headband is pretty plush. - I'll say as I put them on, they feel pretty lightweight. I know it's not fair, but let me grab the 1000XM5s just to see how they sort of, like, feel. How are you wearing them? Where did you... Give me those. Give me those. Give me those. - I just looked at you. - He's got AirPods on! - You have AirPods in as well? - I mean, the Sonys do feel a little bit better, right? The plastic's a little bit higher quality, but like, it's not, like, a night and day difference. - Okay. Transparency Mode. Oh, yeah, Transparency Mode's not... It's fine. It doesn't sound amazing. Let me do noise canceling. Wait. Talk, talk! (people chattering) - I'm talking. - I will say- - You dork. - The best way to describe it is, like, 30% as much noise cancellation as these do. Like, if you're on a plane, this will kind of drown some of it out. Oh. Ooh. Ooh. To give them the best fair shot. I'm gonna make sure that the LDAC firmware is downloaded on them. And then I will continue. My first impression is they sounded good, but a little bit flat. We paid not a lot of money for these headphones. (Matt groaning) - Really? You're keeping me in suspense here. - Okay, fine. While we're waiting for them to update, MSRP of $100. - Well, we didn't pay $100. No, did we? - No, we didn't. We paid $65. - [Ken] Oh, okay. Okay. That changes things a little bit. - A lot. - All right, now that we're LDAC'd- - Stop making it a verb. - I'm gonna make sure. A little bit more detail. ♪ I'm really dreamin' ♪ - Okay. They do pause. Bro, it's like, I don't like these headphones with how aggressive that tuning is. (laughs) - The audio engineer is just like, "I'm gonna stab you." - He immediately goes to full volume. - [Matt] I'm actually convinced that Ken is deaf. - He's gotta be. - I was looking at yours. - Oh, okay. Well, hang on. Fun fact, Matt actually used to run a recording studio. I still don't trust his opinion, He's locked in right now. Look at him. He's just cooking. - What? Why are we flipping me off now? - Your EQ is great too. Look, we- - Too? No, no, no, no, no. - At $65, these are definitely worse in every way compared to the Sonys. But the difference is, if this is a nine, this is like a 7.1. Like, legitimately it does kind of make you question, do you need to spend more? You know what you need after a long, hard night of hanging out at Costco and playing bumper carts with everybody. (duck quacking) Whoa! - Is that the thing where they stick the hose- - No, no, no. We're moving on. - You wish! We're gonna be doing... So we got this from the Sharper Image. These are air compression boots. Now you might say, "Austin, that's not tech.' And I would say, "Shut up." They were outta the six foot ones. So that's why I've got these ones. - What are you talking about? We literally saw, like, a whole stack of them. (harp playing) I'm gonna get the six foot three version. Cut this now and switch it to the other one. The idea here is that you put your feet in here and it kind of massages it. Kind of what you would get off, like, some, like, Temu or whatever if I'm honest with you. So who's ready to compress, revive, and thrive? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Here are the boots. - I'll be honest, I'm totally down for this. - Matt and I have done many things together. - We have footsie-d under the table. I mean, what do you think we're doing in every episode of "This Is?" It's like that sort of, like- (fabric scratching) All right, we've got the very large pump unit. - [Matt] Ooh. Good, good. - So we have ourselves- - Oh, where does that piece go? - It does have, like, rubber on the bottom so it won't, like, slide around. So you've got pulse, gradual, sequence, zones, and manual. Can I do... Actually, you know what? Whatever. - Wow, is your name Judy, 'cause those were some hops? - Eh. - This makes your leg- - Wait. - Look so much bigger on. - Why does Judy hop? - "Zootopia." - "Zootopia" fake fan. - I thought you were a furry. So we're strapped here. - Zip you up. - Hang on a second. - I've gotta make sure it's okay. Look, look. - I'll pan away. And it's a tail. You like that, 'cause you're a furry. - It does look like a tail. - I'm not! - Here. Come here. - [Ken] Yeah, come back. Yeah. There we go. - Okay. So my ankles are starting to inflate. Yeah, so it's working its way up to... - I can't bend my knees right now, so it's pretty firm. I don't know that I love the way that it's sort of squeezing all the blood outta my legs right now. Like, that feels like maybe not great. - You know, from the top- - [Austin] Yeah, from the top down really kinda shows everything in here. - If we start seeing anything else inflate, I'm gonna very upset to the... - It's real strong right now. I'll say it is rigid. You've got this. - I cannot bend my knees. This is me bending my knees right now. - Aw, someone needs uppies. - Uppies! I don't think this is what I thought it was gonna be. I expected more of, like, a massage kind of thing. - Well- - Like, what's the actual, like, medical purpose of this? - Medical? - So if you have, like, heart disease and you'll have, like, swollen legs, and ankles, and stuff like that. - The problem is, it's squeezing my legs so hard, it almost gives me a headache, which makes me think that, like, it's squeezing all the blood outta my legs. - Yeah, yes. - [Alex] Yeah. - How much are these, actually? - [Alex] A little complicated. So if you were to buy them online, they're $165. We bought them in store for $130. - Maybe I'm not the right person to evaluate these. If you though are interested in buying tech from Costco, I gotta say giant thumbs up. I think the items we got were well priced. - That is granted you already have a Costco membership. - [Matt] I usually just wait for a family to walk in, and I just walk in with them. - I mean, the selection's a little bit small, but the items are genuinely great. The prices are pretty much, across the board, legitimately impressed. And if you too want to be legitimately impressed, subscribe to the Austin Evans channel and ring-a-ling that ding-a-ling button. And of course, my friends, until next time, Matt's gonna be... - Yeah, finish that sentence. - Cruising the free samples. - Huh!