UpToEleven.ca

If you’re not an aficionado of fake plastic instruments, you could probably be forgiven for not knowing that there are no less than five different plastic drum sets on the market right now:

• the original Rock Band drums (of which we actually have three sets, two of which were free [but equally problematic] replacements from EA)
• the Rock Band 2 drums, much the same as - but of improved quality when compared to - the originals
• the Guitar Hero World Tour set, which has one less drum pad but two cymbals, and whose quality varies depending on where in the production run they came from
• the Rock Revolution set, which I mention only for the sake of completeness
• the ION Drum Rocker, a $400 (CDN) deluxe set for the truly hardcore

We’ve been trying to decide on a set to replace our under-performing original Rock Band set, but the game manufacturers don’t make it easy with somewhat lackluster compatibility across games. The ION set seemed like the best option overall, but $400 was a bit (okay, a lot) more than we could justify spending on a set of fake drums.

Lo and behold, Future Shop has them on sale this week! $100 off! Alas, after much consideration, we decided that $300 was still a bit (okay, more than a bit) more than we could justify spending on a set of fake drums.

We were pretty much resigned to getting the Guitar Hero World Tour bundle until Cressa found an ION box with a sticker reading “Sell as Open Box” on it. Maybe for an open box they’d drop the price down to $250? Maybe I could haggle down to $200? Would $200 be too much to spend on fake drums? Were they a demo set? Had they already had the crap beaten out of them?

We asked the Future Shop Guy, who checked out the set and determined that they hadn’t actually ever been opened. Why they were marked as an open box was a mystery. As for price, he had to ask the Future Shop Computer.

$89. That is what the computer said. $89! Computers Do Not Lie. And so, as much as at that point the Future Shop Guy wanted to buy the drums for himself, that is how we got our brand new $400 drum set for $89.

I assume that whoever punched the info into the computer had no idea what they were doing. Or they were supposed to have been a demo set, only to be sold after thousands of ten year-olds had smashed them beyond recognition. At this point, I don’t really care.

They are awesome.