Brad

Please try to use the item listing format detailed in the opening posts of the thread so we can have all these great finds added to the summary list. Thanks :)

2005 and 2006 were kind of "free for all" years on the BF forums. We didn't have as many mods and just let things go so the BF forums were a mess with the same things being posted over and over and over again. 2007 through this year we've had the individual store sub-forums to keep things more organized, the FAQs and "official" threads for things like laptops, HDTVs, etc... as well as many more mods to delete / close duplicate threads, etc... So the number of threads and posts goes down because of the organization. Traffic has gone up every year, so it's not that people aren't on the forum - we're just keeping them from posting the same things over and over again :)

facebook.com/gottadeal works for me

FYI, the shipping boxes for these have arrived and I'll start sending out orders in the next day or two :) I'll also start some contests to give them away shortly, on here and through our Twitter account.

This contest is now over. The 6 randomly selected winners are: vsa3janes sadmom5 DramaQueenLucy cashandra elite2058 jbdinos Congrats, and the next contest has already started: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?t=146833

anyone have the new free shipping code?

GottaDeal.com Summer Gift Card Giveaway #2! POST DEALS & WIN GREAT PRIZES! Introducing the GottaDeal.com Summer Gift Card Giveaway #2! We're giving away hundreds of dollars in gift cards and all you have to do to be eligible to win is to post deals here on the forum - it's that easy! Over the next couple of months, we are going to award giveaway entries to forum members who post qualifying* deals in the Online Hot Deals forum. You can earn a maximum of 5 entries per day - one for each qualifying* deal you post. See below for details about what makes a qualifying deal. At the end of the contest period, we will randomly select six (6) winners from all the entries earned during the duration of the contest period. Each winner will receive a $50 gift card to the partner retailer of your choice! These are the same retailers that earn you entries when you post deals from them. OFFICIAL RULES Promotion period begins on July 20, 2009 at 12:00am Eastern Time and ends on October 4, 2009 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. All registered GottaDeal.com forum members are eligible to participate in this promotion, including temporary and permanent moderators. Members found to have created multiple forum accounts for the purposes of accumulating additional entries will be disqualified. You will receive one drawing entry for each qualifying* deal thread posted in the Online Hot Deals forum during the contest period. List of partner stores may change during the contest. Deals will count if the store is on the list when the deal is posted.Only your first five qualifying* deal threads will earn you entries each day. Each daily period starts at 12:00am and ends at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Prize winners will be randomly selected no later than October 5, 2009 from all entries earned during the promotion period. Limit one prize per forum member. Once someone has been chosen as a winner, their remaining entries will be removed from the drawing.Winners will be contacted via private message and/or e-mail to claim their prize. If a prize is not claimed within 14 days, it will be forfeited. QUALIFYING DEALS In order for a deal thread to qualify for an entry for this promotion, it must satisfy ALL of the following criteria: 1. The thread's title must include the name of the retailer the deal is for. 2. The post must contain a link, even if it's just a link to the retailer's home page. 3. The deal must be from one of our partner retailers (see complete list below). 4. The deal must must be unique and not be a repost of a recently posted deal. We reserve the right to disqualify any deal for any reason. Besides these mandatory criteria, we also ask that you be as descriptive as possible in your thread title. Where possible, include an image in your post. If there is a specific method to get the deal, provide step-by-step instructions. If a coupon code is needed, be sure to include the code in your post. Please do not directly copy and paste deals from other sites - you may "borrow" the deal, but type the title and post in your own words. Directly copied posts may be disqualified. HELPFUL HINTS Please search before posting a deal. Re-posted deals will be deleted.Make sure your deal is a legit deal and not just "filler" to earn an entry.Check the list of partner retailers - some "big" stores are not eligible.List of qualifying retailers may change at any time - keep checking back.Please take the time to read this entire post - it will save you time.Combine deals if possible. Similar deals from same store may be merged.Avoid using ALL CAPS in your posts and include the $ when posting prices. *** CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE QUALIFYING PARTNER RETAILERS *** Also, as an additional incentive to post deals and to reward those of you who stick around all year (and not just for Black Friday season), as with the previous giveaway, each day you post the maximum 5 qualifying deals, you'll also earn a bonus entry into our big holiday giveaway which will start in October.

I think that might be an average cost, so when you factor in the better brands and models, it sounds about right.

We've posted deals for 32" LCD HDTVs for around $349 and 42" 1080p LCD HDTVs for $599, so $50 and $100 drops from those prices on BF seem likely. I'd even go a little cheaper with my prediction, depending on the brand. As always though, if you are willing to pay $100-200 more, you can get a much, much better model that you'll likely be much happier with over time.

The problem is most people are lazy and don't want to start their holiday shopping that early. The actual Black Friday is good because it's the day after Thanksgiving - people know Christmas is right around the corner and they have a month or less. Panic slowly starts to set in and it gets people to the store. People are in the holiday spirit, etc... that won't happen on Columbus day. It's too early for most shoppers. I think BF as we know it will continue. There might be extra "big" sales on other days, but a store that has a sale on Columbus day will still have a big BF ad because all the others stores will and they won't want to lose sales on that busy shopping day. Regardless, we'll be here to cover everything. If this Columbus day becomes big enough and we can get the ads, we'll be ready to post them. There will be a lot of sales during the entire 4th quarter this year, offline and online. And since we're a deal site open all year, we're more than prepared to cover everything, whether it's on the BF site or on the main GD site.

fyi, $25 restaurant.com certificates can frequently be purchased for as little as $2 with coupons (there is a thread for coupons in the online deals forum), so i wouldn't expect someone to give you much in return for it.

http://www.kohls.com 30% off code: HOTBUY30 (exp 7/21) Free shipping code: MVC6385 (exp 7/19) As always, use this thread to post the deals you find using the codes and to post updated free shipping codes once the one posted above expires. http://www.kohls.com

BTW, I've also heard already from a couple stores making sure they were a part of the BF site this year. Just yesterday Family Dollar contacted me wanting to know how to make sure their BF ad gets on the site. So while I don't expect Walmart to change their policy, hopefully many of the other stores realize they need all the help they can get this year and are friendly to us :)

Doesn't matter to me. I don't know if any of those options will eliminate the fees. You can try "Gift" and see what happens.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071403246.html

FYI, I can now accept checks/money orders/cash. If you are interested in this, PM me for the mailing address.

Glad everyone is happy to have the forum open We're really going to need your help this year spreading the word about the site. Things like facebook and twitter can really help us and the more people that know about the site, the better chance of getting ads earlier :)

BTW, here is more info on the bags if anyone is interested: http://www.4imprint.com/search/103721-1513/product/103721-1513/Polypropylene-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-15-x-13 They are 15" x 13" x 10", so they can hold a lot of stuff. http://secure.4imprint.com/imageserver/productimages/4imprint/detailed/103721-1513.jpg

That's good to know. If we do use cafepress or a similar site, I'd set it up so that the shirts are as inexpensive as possible - we wouldn't make a penny on them.

For those of you looking to purchase GD reusable grocery bags, your opportunity has arrived. I will begin taking orders for these bags today. Orders will begin being shipped in 1-2 weeks (or sooner if the PO delivers the shipping boxes before then). Keep in mind that we'll be giving away many of these bags as well, but we wanted to give those of you who just have to have them a way to get them. I've decided that since it's not really feasible to ship one or two of these at a time because of shipping costs, I am going to sell them in 4-packs only. You can buy up to two 4-packs, but that is the limit. Each 4-pack will cost $10 which includes shipping via USPS Priority Mail. At this time, I am only accepting PayPal. In the future I may be able to accept checks/money orders - check back for that info at a later date. To purchase your bags, send PayPal to [email protected]. Be sure the address included with your payment is the address you want these shipped to. It would also be helpful if you included your forum username in the "comments" section (if you are a forum member). There are a limited number of these bags that I am going to make available for selling as I want to give them away as well, so once we start running low, I'll update this thread with a "last call" message. Here is a photo of the bag. I put some common items inside (cereal box, paper towel roll) to give you an idea of the size. They are one of the larger versions of these bags, so they hold quite a bit. http://www.gottadeal.com/images/grocerybag2.jpg

I haven't decided what we'll do about BF t-shirts this year. We're going to have so much other stuff to give away that I'm not going to tell you about just yet (including other BF goodies) so I don't know if we'll have BF shirts printed up in addition to the standard GD t-shirts. One option is to set up something through a site like CafePress.com where you can just order what you want (t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc...) but those kinds of sites use thermal transfers instead of screen printing, so quality is not always great. Maybe that doesn't matter for a shirt most will only wear once or twice. I don't know. It's still early, so nothing is finalized yet. I'm just trying to figure out what the best plan is to allow everyone to get what they want without making a huge amount of extra work for me during an already extremely busy time.

I always have to work BF

Every year we see posts from members who are waiting for the BF ads to get a deal on something instead of buying now. So what, if anything, are you waiting for the ads to find a great deal on this year?

2007 was the last year for CompUSA and 2008 was the last year for Circuit City. With Best Buy being the only national electronics chain left for BF deals, how do you think this will affect tech deals on BF? Will Best Buy "take it easy" knowing their main competition is gone, or will the other major stores that carry electronics and computers (Walmart, Sears, Target, office stores, warehouse clubs, etc...) create enough competition to keep the deals coming? And how will the online shopping aspect of things affect the deals, especially considering there are so many places online to get tech deals?

Realizing that BF is 20 weeks away, compared to previous years, how much do you plan on spending for the holidays this year? Feel free to reply with any comments as well. The results we get for polls like this will be used when making our official BF predictions and possibly for media interviews as well, so your comments could appear in a news story