The best price I have found for dumbbells is $350 shipped for a set of Troy Hex dumbbells. Does anyone know of a better price for a set? At that price is it worth looking at the dial in dumbbells? Thanks.

You could very well run out of use for the lower weighted ones so that is something to consider. How much are you really gong to use like 5-10-15 lb dumbbells? Maybe not too much and you will be paying for them to just fill the rack.
An affordable option is craigslist if you don't mind used. I don't have any experience with the dial up ones but they look pretty cool.

I made myself a set of dumbbells with standard sized weights and handles, all from walmart. A bunch of 5s and 10s go along way and are affordable.

That's a good idea on making my own with the cheaper/lighter weights. I won't use the light weights much but would like to have them available for my wife to use.

I found a used set of 15-50's on eBay from a local guy for $100.
they required a bit of a clean up but you can't argue with the price:tucool:
I ended up getting some 3,5,8,10 & 12's too for my wife and daughters

If you don't need Troy, you should be about to get hex dumbbells locally for $.50 - $.55 lb new from Dunhams, Dick's, etc, or $.20 - $.35/lb used.

I actually just bought a set of 15 - 100lb dumbbells from Play it Again Sports the other day. They sell them used for .35 cents a lb. The kid actually gave me an additional discount on the weights because they were used and I was only charged .19 cents a lb. If you can find a used set at Play it Again Sports you can definately haggle on price because of the amount of money your spending on stuff. Otherwise they sell the new weights for .65 cents a lb. The weights are basic (not sure of the brand) hex dumbbells.

The best price I have found for dumbbells is $350 shipped for a set of Troy Hex dumbbells. Does anyone know of a better price for a set? At that price is it worth looking at the dial in dumbbells? Thanks.
care to share where you got this deal?

There was a dealer on ebay that included shipping. They had several sets so I would assume that they will relist it.

would you mind sharing the seller's username so i could inquire... i've never seen troys anywhere near that price shipped. unless we're talking about two different things.

username:christianservice



http://cgi.ebay.com/Troy-Vtx-Hex-dumbbells-5-50-lb-set-10-pair-set-new_W0QQitemZ170046081176QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 70046081176
http://cgi.ebay.com/troy-vtx-12-side-dumbbells-5-50-lbs-new-weights_W0QQitemZ170044940243QQcmdZViewItem?hash=i tem170044940243

care to share where you got this deal?

If you are in the Detroit area, or within driving distance to Farmington Hills, contact "All Pro Exercise" (I will let you guess the web site). You can get most of the Troy products at a nice discount. I just bought a run of 3# - 40# rubber 12-sided VTX. Wanted a run to 50#, but they were out of 45# when I was there. Very friendly and helpful staff.

username:christianservice



http://cgi.ebay.com/Troy-Vtx-Hex-dumbbells-5-50-lb-set-10-pair-set-new_W0QQitemZ170046081176QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 70046081176
http://cgi.ebay.com/troy-vtx-12-side-dumbbells-5-50-lbs-new-weights_W0QQitemZ170044940243QQcmdZViewItem?hash=i tem170044940243

I had my eye on those VTX-12 for months, until I bought local at a better total price.

I actually just bought a set of 15 - 100lb dumbbells from Play it Again Sports the other day. They sell them used for .35 cents a lb. The kid actually gave me an additional discount on the weights because they were used and I was only charged .19 cents a lb. If you can find a used set at Play it Again Sports you can definately haggle on price because of the amount of money your spending on stuff. Otherwise they sell the new weights for .65 cents a lb. The weights are basic (not sure of the brand) hex dumbbells.

So wait it is normally $60 for two sets of 15-100lb?

So wait it is normally $60 for two sets of 15-100lb?

Well 2 of each of 15 - 100lb dumbbells, in 5lb increments, is 2070lbs of weight. Normally a set of regular priced dumbbells would run you aorund (.65x2070) = $1345.5. For a used set it would run about (.35x2070) = $724.50. My total bill, minus the racks that I bought with the dumbbells, was about $400.00. He took a huge discount on the dumbbells for me because they were used and because I was willing to drop around 800 bucks worth of cash. I ended up spending so much money because I also bought a weight tree, a 3-tier rack for the dumbbells, and a 300lb barbell olympic weight stack.

If you can find your equipment used either from Play It Again Sports (PIAS) or off of craigslist, then you will get the best deals. The one nice thing about finding your equipment from Play It Again Sports is that if you buy a lot of used equipment, they can discount each individual piece that you buy more and more significantly (at least thats what I found out.)

Also, a good piece of advice that PIAS wont tell you is if you look at the sale equipment you will find a sticker for how much they are selling the equipment for. On that sticker it shows some random numbers like for example GD34834X145.00434. The number following the X is how much they took the equipment in for so in my example it would be $145.00. Use that to your advantage to help haggle on the prices.

Other helpful advice is some sports stores at the end of the season will clearence the CRAP outa their gym equipment. About a week ago I bought a brand new ProForm Sport 1200 treadmill from Sports Authority for $225.00. The clearence sticker was 600 bucks. The kid working there told me they were selling it additional half off because they were getting a new model in. That took the price down to 300 bucks. I found a coupon online for an additional 25% off any single item (slickdeals.net for anyone interested) which took the price down to 225 bucks. Not a bad deal for a brand new treadmill. If you look online that model treadmill goes for around 700 bucks.

All in all I've spent around close to 1100 bucks for a brand new treadmill, used hex dumbbells (15-100lbs), used 300lb olympic barbell stack, new 3-tier dumbbell rack, and a new weight tree. The only thing left I have to buy is a power cage and a bench which I'm hoping to find for around no more than 300 bucks (used), which will take my total gym price to ~1400 bucks. I know this is a bit much but for the amount of equipment I will have and exercises I will be able to utilize, that's not a bad price.

Hope this helps everyone.

-Perry

If you're worried about space, you could look at something nested like:
http://www.powerblock.com/blocks.html
http://www.bowflexselecttech.com/bst_microsite/products.jsp

They aren't quite as versatile as a normal hex type dumbbell and can't be dropped/tossed around, etc... might be up your alley though.