Hi all-

Is there an ongoing thread here where new members are expected to introduce themselves, or are you just supposed to dive right in?

I want to purchase 3 Western Mountaineering Versalite sleeping bags. Can anyone recommend the best place where they might be on sale? Thanks.

Edited by resigned on 10/15/2010 10:11:31 MDT.

Welcome! I think diving in is just fine.

A little more info will help our recommendations. How do you normally sleep when camping, back, side stomach? Would you say that you are normally a warm or cold sleeper? Would you consider a quilt an option? Is price or weight more important? What is the typical low temperature you would experience while camping? What is the maximum low temperature you might experience while camping?

Until we know some of these, I wouldn't feel right offering a recommendation.

Dive right in head first Lawrence, welcome! I've purchased a WM Megalite from Backcountry.com in the past, shipped fast, tracking, excellent customer service, and free return shipping. They always seem to have reasonable prices and good sales.

I found the Versalite available here: WM Versalite- $415.40 (with tax and shipping included), for a great price it seems. Most others were in the $450 range.

Good luck finding your bags and browsing the Backpacking Light website and forums.

I hate to solely plug google but it seems that type of navigating for gear is pretty spot-on.

Search the equipment name in the google bar, readjust the results via the hyperlink "shopping" at the top of the page and then simply click the drop down bar to sort the listings by "Price - lowest to highest".

Sorry if this is something you knew and were looking for more, just wanted to be sure

There are details someone can find here that are not apparent on Google search.

For example, Hermit's Hut includes free overfill and a pillow with their WM bags. So while Google may list the price as the same as other retailers, it's a better deal if you want/need the overfill.

Eugene-

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Called Jesse Brown's and spoke to Robert. He knocked off a straight 20% off WM's MSRP.

I ordered 3 Versalites in a 5'6" @ $425, 6'0" @ $440, and 6'6" @ $455. That came out to $1320. Robert knocked off a whopping $264 bringing my total to $1056. Now get this...since the company's in NC and I'm in FL, there's no sales tax. THEN! On top of that he also threw in free shipping!

BTW, Did I say THANK YOU!!! (Hey - where are the smiley face icons?)

For sure, I just wanted to make visible the very basic and fairly useful tools readily available.

Another obvious one, Lawrence, is to always check in at the Gear Deals thread within BPL's site.

Glad you scored Lawrence!

Craig -

Leigh is correct. If you go to Google Shopping and search for "Versalite Western Mountaineering", and change the relevance to "lowest to highest"...the cheapest price that pops up is $410.

Like Leigh said, I've always found that when you go to a forum that's relevant to what your trying to purchase, There's always someone in the know that can point you in a better direction than Google Search. As was the case here w/Eugene (Hey, where are the smiley faces?).

Edited by resigned on 10/15/2010 13:03:09 MDT.

Wow! Thank you Craig. Didn't know about that link. I'll check it out.

"There's always someone in the know that can point you in a better direction than Google Search."

The Gear Deals section, within BPL, has provided me with some stellar deals. Google helps me out in a pinch as well
/shrug

NP man, welcome to BPL

I usually use spadout.com to find the cheapest price. They're pretty good.