Are extended warranties necessary on plasmas?

History has shown extended waranty plans on non portable items is mostly a waste, and a huge profit for dealers, in 99% of equipment failure it is usually almost imediate, so the standard warranty would be fine.

Stuff goes wrong with plasmas all the time though- piece of mind has value as well--and the production QA control is not as consistent as you think in many factories.

Even though I didnt buy one, doesnt mean I cant see the other side on this issue.

Dawgbyte,you are right .Do not worry for the next at least 3 years.
BTW,if plasma is only $500,who needs warranty!

Thank you Pescolar. I'll give everyone an example of the value of an extended warranty. I purchased a computer several years ago from an unmentioned PC manufacturer. Within months I had to replace the internal CPU fan twice and the hard drive once. The following year another hard drive failure and another fan replaced. Last summer another hard drive failure. Okay, enough is enough... my extended warranty identified me as a "Platinum level" customer. After this failure the computer company sent me a "refurbished" computer - in reality it was their top of the line computer with the faster processor Intel makes, an additional DVD drive and upgrades across the board.

Are extended warranties a resellers best friend? Yes indeed, but when the value of the object your purchasing is higher than the cost of the insurance to fix or replace the item, then I believe it's something to seriously consider. As was just pointed out by Pescolar - does it make sense to purchase a $250 extended warranty on a $500? I doubt it.

Do I regret purchasing the extended warranty on my plasma? Nope!

I personally know a CC serviceman who works on these TV's evey day... he advises that the extended warranty on these units makes a lot of sense; these things fail constantly and are typically very expensive to repair. Most of the customers he deals with do have the extended warranty and are glad that they do.