Different memory card prices

[numberonenole]

I am thinking of buying the Canon G9 and so I need to get a memory card also. The prices for a SanDisk 4 GB Extreme III SDHC Card are all over the place. I can get one from Circuit City for $79, $43 from Newegg, or $38 from Amazon with some sort of MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader (whatever that is!). Why are the prices so different? Are they different items and my ignorance is not allowing me to see the difference? Thanks for your help!

[griptape]

Because retailers like Circuit City make around 5% markup on the cameras (if they sell you a camera for $300, they make about $15 profit, and by the time you factor in man hours to tell you why to buy the camera and keep them maintained, they pretty much break even), and about 100% markup on the accessories (cards, batteries, cases, etc.). Computer parts stores like newegg don't price gouge you on accessories since you don't usually buy the camera from them anyway, but plenty of people who do their PC parts shopping there (like me) will order memory just for the heck of it when they're ordering PC parts, or order more PC parts just because they needed memory and are getting it from newegg.

Aside from that... because they know they can. If you walk into a brick and mortar store, they know you aren't going to wait a week before you can actually go out and use it. Most people don't buy a memory card and THEN a camera, most people buy a camera and then NEED a memory card.

[SpecialK]

The manufacturer item # is the best way to tell if they are the identical items.

The micro mate card reader allows older PC's to download images from SDHC cards.

Though I do hunt and peck some items from Circuit City (got the "perfect" case for my GPS for $1.99) a memory card is not one of the items I would think of getting there.

Not sure you wil benefit from the Extreme III cards speed. A couple of these might be fine:

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDSDH-2048-901-Secure-Digital-Package/dp/B00065ANYC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1205620695&sr=1-7

I saw them somewhere for about $10 recently.