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Old 10-06-2013, 09:31 AM   #1
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The GPS Store

The GPS Store, Inc. GPS Systems, Marine Electronics

No ties. They usually have the best prices on electronics. My wife turned me onto this. She works for a Garmin dealer and Furuno(and many others) and she says this site absolutely pisses her off....meaning they have better prices than she has...many times better than her COST!

Anyway, if you hadn't heard...
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Old 10-06-2013, 09:49 AM   #2
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Another one, haven't compared the 2 though but I have used GPS City for motorcycle GPS stuff. Good prices, good service.

Garmin GPS & Accessories, RAM Mounts, Lowrance GPS, TomTom GPS at GPS City
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:05 AM   #3
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Another one, haven't compared the 2 though but I have used GPS City for motorcycle GPS stuff. Good prices, good service.

Garmin GPS & Accessories, RAM Mounts, Lowrance GPS, TomTom GPS at GPS City
I've used both. I will say that I have an order through GPSCity right now that's on backorder. I don't recall seeing that it was out of stock when I ordered it. Could be I just missed it, but that's the sort of thing that should be made obvious. The moral of the story is, check availability before ordering from them.

Just to be fair, I went back to their site and looked up the part that's backordered, and there IS a notation "Please call for stock status" under the product listing on the search page, and a similar notation on the product page. But it doesn't jump out at you. I knew it was probably there and it still took me a minute to find it.
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:05 AM   #4
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I am looking at a Garmin 740s. The GPS Store has it for 200 bucks cheaper(20%) than GPS City....GPS City appears to be just straight retail. Go ahead and compare. The GPS Store smokes the City!!!!

I was really enamored with all of the big screens(4210-12-15) but this thing, at less than half the price will end up being just fine. Also with a built in antenna, just screw the bitch in and hook up the power and be on your way. My last boat had a 182c(5 inches I think) and I did just fine with that thing. My current boat has an RL70c.....and that thing sucks the sandiest saltiest saggiest donkey ballz on Earth. I honestly thought I was going to be able to live with it...not a chance!!! The radar portion of it works damn fine....not much has changed in the world of radars. But the chartplotter is horrendous!!!!! It takes 30-45 seconds to redraw a map if you scan or zoom.....YIKES!!!!
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:11 AM   #5
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Thanks, John....no, I hadn't heard but have Bookmarked the site.
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:21 AM   #6
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I am looking at a Garmin 740s. The GPS Store has it for 200 bucks cheaper(20%) than GPS City....GPS City appears to be just straight retail. Go ahead and compare. The GPS Store smokes the City!!!!

I was really enamored with all of the big screens(4210-12-15) but this thing, at less than half the price will end up being just fine. Also with a built in antenna, just screw the bitch in and hook up the power and be on your way. My last boat had a 182c(5 inches I think) and I did just fine with that thing. My current boat has an RL70c.....and that thing sucks the sandiest saltiest saggiest donkey ballz on Earth. I honestly thought I was going to be able to live with it...not a chance!!! The radar portion of it works damn fine....not much has changed in the world of radars. But the chartplotter is horrendous!!!!! It takes 30-45 seconds to redraw a map if you scan or zoom.....YIKES!!!!
I saw the other day that West Marine also has the 740S for $ 799.00
FYI
HOLLYWOOD
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:26 AM   #7
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I saw the other day that West Marine also has the 740S for $ 799.00
FYI
HOLLYWOOD
I saw that too Hollywood!!! And that is what got me onto this unit. I was shopping the big glitzy units but then went into West Marine to check out this little Gem. At the time I was not convinced simply because I thought I needed the big expensive ones. I have since come to the conclusion I don't. The problem is, that sale is off at West and it is back up to retail at $999 or I would march over there and buy it. Sooooo.....I guess I will order. Right now, I am using a $10 app on my iPhone to navigate. It certainly works. But I think I need something a bit better....
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:35 AM   #8
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And I just checked shipping. Sometimes these type of sites mislead you with low prices and then stick it to you on shipping. $5.95 UPS Ground and $9.95 2nd day air(something horrendous for next day air). And NO SALES TAX! I think I am ordering today!!!
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Old 10-06-2013, 10:43 AM   #9
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WM will price match so maybe walking over with the GPS Store price will get you the unit for $799. No sales tax is a great thing. I like that 740S with G2 bundle, but it's a $300 more.
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Old 10-06-2013, 11:36 AM   #10
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I've spent thousands at GPS City and have been very satisfied. They're amazing and fast shippers. They move tons of inventory and there's a human on the phone when you call.
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Old 10-06-2013, 11:52 AM   #11
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WM will price match so maybe walking over with the GPS Store price will get you the unit for $799. No sales tax is a great thing. I like that 740S with G2 bundle, but it's a $300 more.
I think I remember someone saying that West Marine no longer has a price match program?
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Old 10-06-2013, 01:05 PM   #12
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I have the 740s. I think 4-5 other boats in our marina have them now, too. I've had half a season to play with it. Nice unit, very good value. In fact, it was a 2nd power cable and bail mount that I ordered for it that are backordered. I'm going to wire it up at my lower helm so I can use it at either station. Saves having to buy a whole separate unit for those rare occasions I run from below.

I got the radar package, but not the sounder transducer (yet). The radar is pretty good for a small (in power and display size) unit. One small issue with the radar overlay; the yellow blips blend in with the background too much. But then again, I've never looked into whether or not I can change the color. And I have the satellite image background turned on too, which makes it worse.

Screen navigation is easy and intuitive, the screen refresh is snappy, and it's visible in the sun, although sometimes I have to take my sunglasses off. Transferring waypoints and (maybe someday) firmware upgrades via SD card is simple.

I haven't yet created any routes on the fly, that's usually a challenge with any of these units. The automatic routing worked great most of the times I tried it, but one time it plotted a route going the wrong way until it ran up on shore, then backed up and went around the land in question much too far offshore. So some common sense will still be required to use that feature.

West Marine only price matches brick-and-mortar stores in their area, not online pricing. Still, that's where I bought mine. Same price as any on-line places I found at the time. The guy who sold it to me said their margin on electronics is very small.
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Old 10-06-2013, 01:09 PM   #13
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Baker. I was at Worst Marine on Thursday and they priced matched the sat TV system that I was looking at.
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Old 10-06-2013, 04:25 PM   #14
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just bought a raymarine radar and chartplotter from Defender...they had a boat show deal and because it was a package deal..it smoked everyone by over $400 and if I purchased (separates only) from GPS store would be over $600 more...

boat items need to be shopped...no one place beats all and/or all the time.

I did get my PLB from The GPS Store at the Atlantic City boat show a couple years back...they had everyone beat for that item at that show....so they are definitely competitive.
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Old 10-06-2013, 08:49 PM   #15
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I love my Garmin 740. Had it for 3 yrs. I replaced my Ray RL 80 C with a Ray E 90 W. My wife won't use the new Ray chartplotter so we use the Garmin for navigation & the Ray for radar.
Garmin has a much better PC route planning software and now incorporates Active Captain data.
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Old 10-06-2013, 11:23 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baker View Post
I saw that too Hollywood!!! And that is what got me onto this unit. I was shopping the big glitzy units but then went into West Marine to check out this little Gem. At the time I was not convinced simply because I thought I needed the big expensive ones. I have since come to the conclusion I don't. The problem is, that sale is off at West and it is back up to retail at $999 or I would march over there and buy it. Sooooo.....I guess I will order. Right now, I am using a $10 app on my iPhone to navigate. It certainly works. But I think I need something a bit better....

I was looking at the 740s as a unit with nema2000 that could give me radar and feed a gps signal into Coastal Explorer. I planed to use CE for most of my Nav functions and use the Garmin as secondary. I am too cheap to buy the big screen that I want and that we have all become accustomed to, so the 740 with radar and sounder looked like the winner.
Then a buddy offered me a practically new Northstar 6000i.. to confuse my choices. My final decision was made when I found a 4kw HD radar and 1kw dual beam transducer with sounder to connect to the 6000i for just over $1000. I will now have 2 separate gps plotters and Coastal Explorer will be connected to a N2K net with gps and AIS running on a mini ITX windows based PC. The pic below shows the new to me 15" plotter and the old radar that will be dumped and a new 12' touch screen in it's place to be able to run C.E.
The big screen really looks big in this view but I and the Admiral can still see the bow over the top of the screen.

Baker, print out the quote and take it to West Marine ..they may honor it as they were just selling the unit for the same price

HOLLYWOOD
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Old 10-07-2013, 12:52 AM   #17
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The big screen really looks big in this view but I and the Admiral can still see the bow over the top of the screen.

Baker, print out the quote and take it to West Marine ..they may honor it as they were just selling the unit for the same price

HOLLYWOOD
Just like an airliner....big displays and small windows!!!!!!!!

I was thinking the same thing reference the recent sale they had!!! That is an "old" unit and most people are probably trying to blow it out....
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Old 10-07-2013, 01:29 PM   #18
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I am looking at a Garmin 740s. The GPS Store has it for 200 bucks cheaper(20%) than GPS City....GPS City appears to be just straight retail. Go ahead and compare. The GPS Store smokes the City!!!!
I bought my 740s and transducer from a guy on Craigslist. Saved a bunch. He partnered a boat with a buddy, bought a 740s, while his buddy's GF got him the same model. 740s is absolutely the heat. I am very happy with it, and learning it still.
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Old 10-07-2013, 01:32 PM   #19
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Hello All -

I didn't want to post a new thread, because this one somewhat covers the same topic, but I've thought whether or not I wanted to get the bluechart chip for my Garmin 740s. Too much other maintenance I need before dropping $250 on that bugger.

BUT...
  1. Does anyone have the bluechart chip for their area and can you tell me if it was worth it?
  2. Are cheaper alternatives that are just as good?
  3. Can you post a picture or two if you have them?
Thanks,
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Old 10-14-2013, 09:29 AM   #20
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Hello All -

I didn't want to post a new thread, because this one somewhat covers the same topic, but I've thought whether or not I wanted to get the bluechart chip for my Garmin 740s. Too much other maintenance I need before dropping $250 on that bugger.

BUT...
  1. Does anyone have the bluechart chip for their area and can you tell me if it was worth it?
  2. Are cheaper alternatives that are just as good?
  3. Can you post a picture or two if you have them?
Thanks,
I was wondering the exact same thing. I think this question might be worth it's own thread since the Bluechart G2 Vision card is not specific to this model and is used across the whole line of high end Garmin Chartplotters.

PS...mine should be delivered TODAY....I am pretty damn excited. ANd I am excited at the fact that I am excited about a "lower end" chartplotter when I was looking at the huge glitzy pricey models. I usually have a tendency to go high end.....proud of myself on this purchase....yet still excited. Am I making sense????...
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