Brad

... and if anyone needs more reusable grocery bags: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?t=146432 *hint hint*

wow, nice job. linda looks thrilled to be helping, lol

Ace already sent a letter warning us not to post it but that they'd send us the finalized ad in early November. The message was posted weeks ago in the "Other Stores" subforum.

and just a reminder that in case they don't have an in-store coupon for BF, you can always call them about 2 weeks before and tell them you "lost" your card and they'll send a 15% coupon to use in store with your new card. that's where the MVCBENEFIT code in the first post that is good through 11/30 came from. combine that with the BF deals and kohl's cash for some nice deals

of course i'm joking. i wish more ads were coming out myself, not so much because i care what is in them, but the longer it takes for them to start being leaked, it just means the more that will all come out at the same time, which means long days and nights posting them, typing up the lists, etc... i'd rather have them spread out over 7-8 weeks instead of most of them coming out those last 2-3 weeks.

bigjimslade did the videos last year. i'm sure he'll have the first one up soon, once there is a little more to discuss.

This contest is now closed. Before I announce the winners, let me give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped spread the word about the site through this contest. And just because the contest is over doesn't mean you can stop - please continue letting everyone you know about GottaDeal.com. Remember: the more people who know the site exists, the more potential sources of leaked Black Friday ads we'll have! The 5 winners of the BF survival kits, chosen randomly from all entries, are: worktomuch sassyME TopperChic87 BFAddict716 steph3306 You will be receiving a PM from me shortly. The next week-long contest is already up here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?t=153795 and as always look for more contests during the week!

I vow to finally get around to posting these 3 BF ads I have sitting in front of me.

We'll pretty much accept anything this year. Last year it was a little different because the first person to do it automatically won, so we were worried about having to choose if 2 people did the task and one had more "significant" landmarks, but this time as long as it's something your town/city considers a landmark, that's good enough to earn an entry.

For some inspiration, here was last year's contest: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?t=124346 This should be a fun one and we should get some great pics. And since it involves you actually leaving the house, I've doubled the number of prizes from 5 to 10 to give you some additional motivation

CONTEST OVER! HOW TO WIN: These tasks were part of a very popular contest we did last year. Last year the first person to complete each task won, but this year we are going to do it a little different. To be entered into this contest, all you have to do is complete at least one of these tasks. If you do more than one, you'll get additional entries, one for each completed task. Task #1: Design an actual holiday ornament featuring GottaDeal.com somehow. Take it to a store that has Christmas trees on display. Hang the ornament on the tree and take picture(s). Be sure at least one of the pictures proves that the tree is located at an actual store. Leave the ornament on the tree. Task #2: Make a sign saying "I Love GottaDeal.com!". Go to a store that we traditionally post the Black Friday ad from (Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Sears, Kmart are some examples). Find an employee to agree to hold the sign while you take their picture. Make sure the employee "looks" like a real employee (store shirt, etc...). Task #3: Create a flyer for Black Friday @ GottaDeal.com - the kind with the little strips of paper on the bottom that people can tear off (like this) - and post it on a bulletin board at a public place. Be creative with your flyer design! Take a picture of the flyer on the bulletin board. Task #4: Print out this GottaDeal logo. Take it to 3 of your local "landmarks" (however you define them) and take a picture of the logo somewhere near/with/on each of the 3 landmarks. Entries will be accepted until 10pm ET on Sunday, October 25th. At that point we'll randomly select 10 winners from all eligible entries and they will each win a survival kit! If you need help posting pictures, see this thread. If you don't have enough posts to post pictures yet, send them directly to gottadeal.com [at] gmail [dot] com. Good luck to all!

i e-mailed our corporate PR contact at TRU to see if we can get a copy e-mailed to us this week. we'll see what she says tomorrow.

see here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?t=150175

CONTEST OVER! Our friends at Half Price Books, in addition to sending us their Black Friday ad early this year, have also given us a HPB prize pack to give away. This includes a HPB tote bag as well as a $5 gift card to use for merchandise at the store. I'll also throw in a GottaDeal.com t-shirt as well to complete the prize. To be eligible, just reply to this thread with the title of your favorite book. We'll take entries until 11/8 at 10pm ET and then we'll randomly pick a winner. HPB doesn't have locations everywhere, so please only enter the contest if you are going to use the GC. Good luck to everyone!

The highly anticipated Harbor Freight ad should be out this week, lol. I thought about going to my local HF store today to see if they had it, but then I realized it would mean having to spend 1-2 hours typing it up so I thought better of it The "good" ads like Sears usually don't start until later in October.

don't worry, we'll have plenty of other contests. we'll have some like the ones last year where we make you go to a store or something in order to win

"THE EVENT!" is in huge letters on the front page of their BF ad. Wait, I didn't just say that...

our 2 winners are.... rogue1230 and mongoose you'll be getting a PM from me shortly. everyone else, look for another contest soon. we'll have many of these over the next 6 weeks :)

contest closed. winners to be posted in a few minutes...

a few more minutes left!

They are actually having 12 consecutive "Black Fridays". http://www.awltovhc.com/image-1412508-10713791 I'm afraid a lot of retailers are going to run this whole BF thing into the ground this year. You can call something a BF sale all you want, but if the deals are awful, people aren't stupid and you won't sell anything.

CONTEST OVER!!! WINNERS POSTED!!! Here's a quick contest for you poor souls stuck at home on a Friday night with nothing better to do but be on the forums, lol. Reply to this thread between now and 9pm ET (that's about 35 minutes from now). I'll randomly pick 2 people from all the replies and they each will win a GottaDeal.com t-shirt. Good luck :)

Just an update: this pesky error is still around this year, so if you see it, no need to contact us - we know about it and will fix it ASAP. This should be the last year with this problem as next year we'll be using vBulletin 4, the latest and greatest forum software version which hopefully gets rid of the problem. Again, the error will look like this: Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in [path]/includes/functions.php on line 4088 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in [path]/includes/functions.php on line 4088 and it will appear at the top of the forum pages.

we posted it early last year, on 10/19, so i wouldn't be surprised to see it in the next few days. if anyone has access to it, please let me know :)

and when you factor in tax, in most cases it's better to just order online from a place like amazon who will usually have them for a few bucks below the retail price w/ free shipping and no tax for most.