By the end of the four-day event, which began last Thursday, they had splurged a cool $51.7 million.

This is higher than last year, when 678,000 people turned up and spent $35 million, said organiser Eastern Directories yesterday.

Retailers say the bullish sentiment was a reflection of pent-up demand, after the GST hike from 5 to 7 per cent - which kicked in on July 1 - dragged sales down at IT haunts like Funan DigitaLife Mall and Sim Lim Square.

Mr Ng Fun Wen, sales manager at retailer Cybermind, said his Comex booth sold 550 Philips LCD monitors - up from the 20 to 30 screens he sells at his Sim Lim store on a weekend. But he attributed this to thinner margins at the show.

While some shoppers came to browse, others zoomed in on gadgets they had been eyeing.

Project manager Edward Chong, 33, for example, waited for weeks to buy a $699 Canon camcorder so he could get freebies like an additional memory card and travel bag. 'It's not cheaper than outside, but if you add the freebies, it's worth it,' he said.

Two bestsellers were fingernail-size memory cards and external hard disks used to store pictures and videos.

At the show, a 500GB external hard disk that can pack in about 100 DVD movies went for $199 - $30 cheaper.

Meanwhile, products for computer gaming were sold in more attractive bundles. A Razer Tarantula keyboard went for $169, its usual price, but with a free mouse worth $39.

Within hours, posts appeared on popular online forums like VR-Zone.com, from people trying to sell off the mouse.

But not everything was cheaper than usual. For example, a Logitech keyboard and mouse bundle costing $199 could be had for the same price at some Sim Lim Square stores.

And the jams caused by these tech bazaars, which are held every three months, are beginning to annoy some shoppers.

Said IT consultant Elvin Chan, 34, who stayed away from the buying frenzy: 'If the discount is not that great, why get into the jam?'