As a follow up to the popular Why You Should Never Buy Your Printer Cable Instore, here is some additional advice for overpriced store accessories. This is especially helpful if you have made the jump to HDTV over the holidays.

The all hyped HDMI cable is probably the most popular way to connect to your HDTV nowadays. I actually went to Best Buy just to see their prices. An 18′ Monster Cable was $199! I asked the store associate if they had any 25′ cables and was told that it was too long of a run and I would need to buy a $200 equalizer in addition to the $250 cable for it to work.

Obviously this is completely untrue. A great resource to research this kind of information before you buy is the forums over at AVSForum - the people there can be audio/videophile jerks but a lot do know what they are talking about.

One of the most popular and reputable places to buy your audio/video cables is MonoPrice, who also do business on EBay and usually will have cheaper prices there than at their website. A 25′ HDMI cable can be had there for as little as $20 (though for that long a run I would go for the $30 one) compared to $450 that Best Buy tried to scam. And guess what… it works just as well.

So just because you found a great deal on that 60″ plasma HDTV at the store doesn’t mean you have to buy their overpriced cables - thats where they try to make their money back on.