Welcome to YouPawn.com, the first ever
social pawning^® community

Does the sagging economy, national debt, and our previous list of the 11 things that will be more expensive in 2012 have ya feeling down? Well, here''s something to look forward to — to help counteract some of that 2012 gloom, we''ve gathered 12 items we predict will cost less in the coming year. From TVs to laptops, cash-strapped shoppers should keep an eye on prices for these items; even wine might see notable discounts next year! So cheer up and read on for the good consumer news. (See also: Deep Discounts on Schedule: The Best Days to Shop)

 

The iPad 3 will not feature a significant price drop (if any at all), but one thing is guaranteed — Cupertino''s forthcoming tablet will most certainly bring down the price of refurbished iPad 2s. (As the iPad 2 did for its predecessor.) The iPad 3 may even cause resellers to offer more deals on new iPad 2 models as they try to move yesterday''s tech to make room for Apple''s latest and greatest.

 

Oenophiles, perk up! Wine connoisseur extraordinaire, Robert Parker, predicts the coming year to be the "Age of the Buyer" — a prolonged period of time with stable or declining wine prices. With less disposable income, folks have left wines priced at $30 and above untouched on store shelves. So to move stock, retailers are expected to offer more sales and even flash deals on wines. Price is also affected by industry competition, as consumers note the quality-to-price ratio from wines originating in countries like Australia, Argentina, South Africa, and Chile. Aficionados should check out sites like Lot 18 for their boozy offerings.

 

Intel''s Sandy Bridge CPUs may be dominating the laptop landscape, but it''s AMD''s recession-friendly Fusion APUs that are driving prices down, particularly in the realm of desktop replacements. The star of the show is AMD''s A Series APU, which promises better battery life, better video playback, and more affordable prices among desktop replacements. Just last week we saw systems plummet to $350, an unprecedented price low for any desktop replacement.

 

The Kindle Fire has been Amazon''s most successful product ever launched. The release of this groundbreaking tablet has, a-hem, ignited a fire among tablet manufacturers as they scramble to match Amazon''s $199 price tag. For consumers, the competition translates to better tablet bargains in 2012.

 

The floods that hit Thailand in 2011 created a shortage of hard drives and a subsequent spike in prices. Solid state drives, however, were not affected by the flooding and while their cost per gigabyte is still higher than that of a traditional hard drive, their demand is now greater. In addition, dealnews data shows that SSD prices are steadily dropping; in 2011 the price of a 64GB SSD drive dropped 33% while the price of a 128GB drive dropped 21% — a trend that we expect will continue in 2012 as more SSDs permeate the market in place of 2.5" hard drives.

 

Gas and airfare may be going up in 2012, but car rental rates are expected to remain flat, as agencies across the country reportedly have excess cars available. More stock and subsequent competition is thus expected to keep rental rates low throughout the new year, and we anticipate to see an increase in the number of discounts on car and SUV rentals.