Man, let me tell you about this stove journey. I just finished my big search for the Gillett Cook stove, and I absolutely nailed the best price. Took me a solid three weeks of digging, comparing, and flat-out refusing to settle, but I won the gear war. You know how it is. I had this stupid little budget propane unit that completely gave up the ghost on a trip last fall—the thing choked and froze up mid-cookout. I swore right then I needed something bombproof, something reliable, something that wasn’t going to quit just because the wind blew hard. That’s how I landed on the Gillett. Everyone raves about its massive heat output and rock-solid stability in tough conditions. So, the mission immediately shifted: Find the stove, but more importantly, absolutely refuse to pay retail for it. The hunt began.
I Started Digging: The Great Price Scramble
I started where everyone starts: just punching the name into the search bar. Holy smokes, what a mess. Prices jumped around like crazy. I saw the exact same model, new in the box, selling from $250 all the way up to $380, depending on the website. This was my first lesson: the perceived value is total garbage. I even saw one retailer asking $350 for the stove alone, and another offering the stove plus the regulator and carry bag for $300. It made zero sense. I realized quickly that the usual big outdoor chains were marking it up significantly, relying entirely on people just hitting ‘buy’ without bothering to cross-check.
I grabbed a notebook—yeah, I use paper for tracking—and started listing every single place I saw the stove for sale. I didn’t just stick to the official dealers; I tracked down specialty camping forums and even some smaller, regional gear shops that might be sitting on old stock or running quiet clearance sales. My tracking method broke down into three major categories:
- Major National Sporting Goods Chains: Always the highest base price. Discounts were usually tied to store credit cards or highly seasonal sales that hadn’t started yet. Dead end for a quick deal.
- Specialized Online Camping Supply Sites: Prices were generally better, maybe 10% off the MSRP. But they all hit you hard on shipping unless you spent over $1000, which I wasn’t doing.
- Used Gear Marketplaces (Forums/Classifieds): Highly risky, but sometimes you find a gem. The problem here was that used prices were often only $50 less than the best new price I could find. People know the Gillett is good, so they don’t dump it cheap.
I had to change my approach because just comparing the base price was useless; the real discounts were hidden in the fine print. I built a quick spreadsheet to track four key things for every potential purchase:
Base Price Hidden Shipping Cost Required Bundle Upsell (Did I need to buy the hose separately?) Available Coupon Code
The Hidden Coupon Game and the Partnership Pivot
The true key to unlocking the discount was usually not the big advertised sale, but the small, independent dealers running introductory or “sign-up” promotions. I literally signed up for what felt like fifty email lists in 48 hours. Most of it was trash, but every now and then, a golden ticket would drop. I found one small, obscure shop—let’s call it ‘Rock Creek Supplies’—that kept popping up with terrible regular prices, but I noticed their first-time buyer coupon was massive: 20% off anything over $200. That’s a huge drop when you’re talking about a $300 piece of equipment.
I spent a whole afternoon stalking Rock Creek Supplies. Their base price was $310. If I used the 20% coupon, that immediately dropped the price to $248. Yes! But wait, shipping was a brutal $25 because they were cross-country from me. Ugh. Total came to $273. Better than the big guys, but I felt I could squeeze more savings out. My inner bargain hunter was screaming that $273 wasn’t the floor.
This is where the real breakthrough happened. I stumbled onto a long-forgotten forum thread discussing seasonal sales at a major regional distributor—not a retailer, mind you, but a place that supplied the smaller shops. They required a stiff minimum order of $500 to qualify for any bulk pricing, which obviously I didn’t need just for the stove. But I started chatting with a buddy who was planning a major gear refresh—he needed a new high-end sleeping bag and a couple of specialized packs.
Executing the Final Move and Locking in the Price
We quickly put together a joint order. By combining our lists, we easily hit the $500 minimum. Suddenly, we qualified for the distributor’s bulk discount tier, which knocked 15% off the entire combined order, plus they offered free freight shipping over that minimum. This required me to actually coordinate logistics and payment with another person, which was a small hassle, but teamwork got the price down faster than solo searching ever could.
We crunched the final numbers: The Gillett stove base price at the distributor was a reasonable $295. The 15% joint discount took it down to approximately $250. And since we split the shipping burden for the massive combined order, my share of the delivery cost was practically zero—maybe five bucks to cover some minor packaging fees. Total locked in for a brand-new Gillett Cook stove: $255.
I pulled the trigger right then and there. I paid my share, my friend paid his, and we placed the order. Three days later, I got the shipping confirmation. I walked away paying less than even the used market was demanding for a scratched-up version, and I got a factory-fresh unit with full warranty. That, my friends, is the payoff for refusing to rush the purchase. Patience, networking, and a good spreadsheet—that’s how you win the high-end gear game. Now, I just need to get out there and test how this beautiful Gillett actually cooks!
