Surface Pro 2 power cover gone wacko, new power covers vary in price dramatically

[rjnjn]

Hi All, My Surface Pro 2 power cover keyboard rarely works properly. Entire groups of keys, like #1 though #4, stop responding. I have cleaned the contacts thoroughly and frequently. A couple of keys never work correctly: V and R. Others occasionally don't work like B and C. I'm ready to give up and get a new power cover. Here's the thing:
Walmart's price is $25.00 and it's a Microsoft power cover.
Microsoft's price is $199.
What gives? How can the prices be so different? Am I missing something? Is one better or worse than the other?

Thanks much,
Rene

 

[hughlle]

Welcome Rene

The simple answer is that shops will price things at whatever makes sense for them. Most manufacturers will sell things at their RRP because a lot of people shop via the manufacturer and pay more money because of the peace of mind, e.g buying a full price charging cable from apple, or a far cheaper official cable from an alternative online source. Independent shops will set the price based on their needs, e.g shifting stock because nobody is buying it and it's taking up shelf space.

An official power cover is an official power cover, so unless one place offers a different form of warranty, I'd just buy the cheap one personally.

A different scenario, but when the surface pro 3 launched, they were full price on microsoft, but £100 off almost everywhere else.

 

[GreyFox7]

None of these are new, they were discontinued a long time ago. It may be listed on the Microsoft site but it's Out of Stock and they aren't going to have any. Anyone selling one now likely bought liquidated stock at cheap prices.

See the last comment here