Think online deals are dead? I got a Xiaomi 14 for ₹36,000 and swapped it for Pixel 9 Pro XL

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Flipkart's Big Billion Days Sale, Amazon's Great Indian Festival Sale—Indians know exactly what these sales entail. Discounted iPhones, slashed prices on Android smartphones, deals on appliances, and more. This year, ahead of the sale season, I stumbled upon a deal for the Xiaomi 14 on Amazon; it was priced at ₹60,000, ₹10,000 less than the MRP. On top of that, there was a ₹7,000 off coupon, additional SBI cashback, and an exchange bonus for trading in an old smartphone. In the end, I managed to order the Xiaomi 14 for around ₹36,000. Honestly, this is exceptional value for money—you get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 12GB RAM, 512GB storage, and most importantly, an impressive set of Leica-tuned cameras.

However, as luck would have it, I swapped the sealed Xiaomi 14 for a brand-new Google Pixel 9 Pro XL. The cherry on top? I effectively paid only ₹71,000 for it. How did I pull that off? Call it opportunistic deal hunting or faith in offline stores—but this reaffirmed my belief that with a little curiosity, you can uncover fantastic deals, and it's not even that difficult. Read on to discover how I snagged this deal.

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Remember the excitement surrounding the Big Billion Days sale a few years back? It was more intense than it is today, and understandably so—selling a two-year-old standard iPhone for less than half its MRP isn't sustainable long-term. Nonetheless, the deals keep rolling in, and people continue buying new phones. It has almost become a tradition for many Indians to wait for the Big Billion Days sale to purchase a new phone. A lot of my friends do it, I do it, and I've seen the internet buzzing about it too.

That said, I found the Xiaomi 14 deal to be well worth the money, and I decided to place my order without waiting for the sales days. After all, Amazon offered me about ₹11,000 for my ageing Motorola G40 Fusion, and I was thrilled. Following a smooth exchange process