Are you buying a new TV?

Here's an AP story saying that there's been an enormous pre-Super Bowl run on flat-panel HDTV's. The story says, based on a study of consumer intentions, that an estimated 2.5 million people will buy a new TV before the Super Bowl.

Maybe, if wishes were fishes. The only hard evidence the story provides is from Chicago -- where I totally expect people are buying TVs to cover every flat surface in their homes, offices, garden sheds and outhouses. But aside from there and Indianapolis, I don't think either team has a huge national fan base. And TV prices, from what I've seen, were a little better during the pre-Christmas sales than they are now.

Plus, the story includes this gem of a quote:

"People don't care about price," Mike Abt, president of the business his grandmother founded in 1936, said happily. "They're asking the salesmen what's the highest-quality set."

I'm pretty sure that's just one of those things salesmen say, hoping that somewhere, sometime it proves to be true. Out here in the real world, price is always right at the top of the list.

Still, I could be wrong. Anybody dropped 10 grand on a new set in the last few days?