MiniMax @ Sams club for $474 (Free shipping)

It's a smokin' AWESOME deal. If I was in the market for a MM, I'd absolutely jump on that.

Who cares if it doesn't have the factory warranty. It has SAMs club warranty which is just as good. That's a great deal. 

I'm spending the extra to buy from ace. 

Photo Egg said:

CoMoBGE said:

Who cares if it doesn't have the factory warranty. It has SAMs club warranty which is just as good. That's a great deal. 

Sure, that means Sam's will return your money and not give you replacement parts.
This means any add on stuff you buy will then be worthless, sitting in your garage.
Sam's also ONLY has a 1 year warranty. Then what are you going to do when your first year is up and your $200 base cracks.

That's not true in the least bit. Had a cracked fire ring that I took in and they just grabbed one out of the floor model. Also not sure why you think it only has a 1 year warranty. It comes with the same lifetime warranty that all non electronics comes with thru SAMs club. 

Pinkfacemark said:

Brisket_Fanatic said:

It's a good price, however you will have NO WARRANTY as Sam's is not a licensed egg dealer.

Do you think the mothership would not honor if you had any issues?  Not trying to start a debate, just a curiosity question.

I don't think they would help you out. It happens rather often and Sam's will get a pile of eggs. If you go to register it they will disallow since it was purchased from an unauthorized dealer. You could always call Bruce at the mothership and ask this very question and see what they say. 

CoMoBGE said:

Photo Egg said:

CoMoBGE said:

Who cares if it doesn't have the factory warranty. It has SAMs club warranty which is just as good. That's a great deal. 

Sure, that means Sam's will return your money and not give you replacement parts.
This means any add on stuff you buy will then be worthless, sitting in your garage.
Sam's also ONLY has a 1 year warranty. Then what are you going to do when your first year is up and your $200 base cracks.

That's not true in the least bit. Had a cracked fire ring that I took in and they just grabbed one out of the floor model. Also not sure why you think it only has a 1 year warranty. It comes with the same lifetime warranty that all non electronics comes with thru SAMs club. 

Sam's club NEVER has a consistent product line. Have they always carried BGE?
In the past, almost every size of BGE Egg has been sold for very short times. Walk into your store today with a cracked XL Base and see what happens. Oh, we don't stock that any more. I'm very happy you got your fire ring replaced 1 time. Let us know what happens in the future.
My biggest issue is that the managers in 2 of the Sam's Clubs in my area both told me they were authorized dealers of BGE and that BGE would honor the warranty. I said great, let me call on my cell phone with you standing here. Both walked away. BGE is not the only product they sell as non authorized dealers voiding the factory company's warranty.
My other big gripe is with BGE...They should list these sellers specifically on there website as non authorized sellers instead of only making generic reference...

Below from BGE site:

"Discount Clubs, On Line Stores and other similar entities are not Authorized Dealers, and are in effect reselling products they have acquired elsewhere. Big Green Egg does not recognize or offer a warranty on any EGG purchased from an unauthorized online reseller, so be wary of anyone claiming to be an online Big Green Egg dealer." 

If BGE was stupid enough to let them get eggs in the first place, they should step up and honor the warranty.  We're not talking about a dozen eggs in a back alley here.  There will be some unhappy uninformed eggers in the near future if they have a base, box, or ring crack.

happens every year, usually in the spring. selling this way now tells me bge made too many and/or the price was too high

yljkt said:

I have a friend who owns a garden center and sells BGE. So what about all the small Mom and Pops that tow the company line? Just get undersold by a huge big box? That's a sh!t sandwich minus the bread. 

I agree, just like Kamado Joe does to their dealers with "The Road Show" pricing as Costco. Although I did hear this is the last season for the Costco Kamado Road Show. How true this is I don't know.

HofstraJet said:

One of the dealers near me has 15% off sales putting their price pretty close to this and they are authorized.

My wife picked mine up from a local authorized retailer offering a discount last Christmas. $100 off, she paid $530 OTD with warranty, proud moment for me.

It still bothers me when I see these at SAMs knowing there's no warranty. Prices are great though!

When I bought my XL from an Authorized Dealer, I got a certain discount right off.   Adding stuff, like plate setter, ash tool, 'nest', 2 bags of charcoal and even some WEBER parts improved the deal.   Even had free assembly / delivery.
I already had the nest built when they arrived.   Now that I cracked a ring, I'm glad for my warranty.

The only warranty an egg from Sam's Club is a full warranty meaning they will not replace pieces as they break. Not worth it to me. 

$456 OTD is a good deal.  Worth the risk IMO.
If they break, it will more than likely be done in transport, not covered anyways.

How many cracked Small or MM posts are you guys seeing?  

I would bet all of Ron's money that a dealer or a few dealers somewhere got a phone call from someone looking to buy quite a few of these for some kind of contest or give away. And made a deal while trying not to pee all over themselves thinking that they just made a big sale. 
This method of acquiring non distribution product for sale as traffic builders has been done many times before.  And it is difficult for many manufacturers to police.