Brad

Yes, we expected a mass exodus after Black Friday as most people were only using us to get their BF fix and then abandoning us, lol. We knew this and still went ahead with the server upgrade as we'll be able to take advantage of it in other areas in the coming months. To be honest, the vast majority of the people on the forum over the past month were not really contributing anyway - most were just lurkers looking for the ads and reading the threads. We think those valuable members who actually took the time to post will be the same ones who still continue to visit the board throughout the rest of the year, and for the others, I guess we'll see them back in about 11 months. To answer some of the other questions, this site and forum are both relatively new. GottaDeal.com itself launched on 1/1/04 as a hot deals site - it was an off-topic forum prior to that, and we waited until 6/1/04 to launch the forum. The off-topic forums were added a few months later. We created this forum because Ross and I have been hardcore deal hunters since the golden days of hot deals back in the late 90s and we know what kind of forum works and what kind of forum we would like to visit. Like all of you, we hope the forum continues on the path it's been on, and we'll do whatever we can to make that happen. Prior to the BF site launch the forum was beginning to really start to take off, so although we don't expect to have 200+ users online at any one time anytime soon like we did on Thursday night, we expect a lot more action than we had before BF and we hope that many of our newcomers will decide to stick around for the same reasons you guys mentioned, and we also hope that those that do stay will spread the word to others. We have some very exciting things planned for both the forum and the main site in the coming months, and we hope that will attract even more new members. Things like the Overstock.com "Make Your Own Deal" thread are what we hope will set us apart and show that we are not just any hot deal forum. So Ross and I will still be here, and I'm sure so will plenty of others :)

Great idea, motoXmom. Just watch the site here and we should have several great laptop deals before the holidays. I feel sorry for those people who missed out on the laptop at BB and ended up paying $600-700 on eBay for one, lol.

Out of stock online - but like Ross said it should still be available in stores.

The A400 is a 3.2 Megapixel Camera with 2.2x Optical / 3.2x Digital / 7.0x Combined Zoom You are corrected

Once again thanks for the kind words. In case you haven't noticed we've turned this board into a more general "holiday shopping" board so the discussion can continue for another month. There are bound to be many more great deals in the next 4 weeks.

Actually I don't think they were as popular as they should have been. I was at a KMart today and still saw a few lying around. For anyone interested, CompUSA has the same model for $169.99 after $30 MIR tomorrow. Kmart had/has it for $149.99 out the door.

Canon digital cameras in the ads: Office Depot: Canon A400 for $179.95 w/ Free $30 Gift Card CompUSA: Canon A75 for $199.99 w/ Free 128MB CF Card OfficeMax: Canon A75 for $199.99 w/ Free 128MB CF Card OfficeMax: Canon S500 for $399.99 w/ Free 256MB CF Card OfficeMax: Canon A400 & Pixma iP3000 Printer for $249.99 w/ Free 128MB SD Card Target: Canon SD110 for $249.99 w/ Free $50 GC Best Buy: Canon A95 for $349.99 Best Buy: Canon S1 IS for $399.99 As a comparison, Amazon has the Canon A75 for $178 shipped. OneCall has the Canon A400 for around $158 shipped.

I was at KMart 10 minutes before they opened and there was a line of about 25.

Amazon usually has a lot of rebates on that kind of software as well: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/229627

The fun continues.... welcome to the new Holiday Shopping board (formerly Black Friday) :) I have many of tomorrow's sale ads (Best Buy, CompUSA, Target, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Kohls, Menards, Michael's and a few others) so if anyone is wondering about a certain item at a certain store, post here and I'll see what I can find.

I'll work on adding some this weekend.

When it comes to hard drives like these, I'm 99% sure that they came off the assembly line, were sealed in an anti static bag and haven't been touched yet. Some were put in retail boxes with cables, screws, mounting brackets, etc... and others were packaged in bulk and sent to system builders and retailers like Newegg. They are brand new.

Bobby - you might be confusing OEM with something else. OEM drives like this do come right from the assembly lines and are packaged. They are not system pulls or anything like that. They are the same ones the manufacturers send to system builders, just that they send some to retailers like Newegg to sell. There is no difference in the actual hard drive.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20041126/D86JRN500.html LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - The busiest shopping day of the year turned out to be a sticky affair. Vandals apparently glued the locks on dozens of Lafayette's biggest retailers, preventing managers from opening up promptly on lucrative "Black Friday." Hundreds of shoppers, some of whom arrived before dawn, were forced to wait outside Barnes & Noble, Old Navy and other stores while managers summoned locksmiths. At least 200 locks on dozens of businesses were glued, including main entrances, rear doors and employee entrances, locksmith Garan Wilson said. Wilson's first job at about 5 a.m. Friday was to make his way to the front door lock at Old Navy - by pushing through about 500 shoppers waiting outside, he said. "I found about a half a tube of glue stuck inside," he said. Kevin Vizena, head locksmith for Pop-A-Lock in Lafayette, said the vandals squirted the glue deep inside the keyholes, forcing him to drill holes and remove the locks from the doors. "We've never run into a day that's been quite so busy with these particular problems," Vizena said. Chuck Trenchard, an employee of S&K Menswear, said the prank had cost his store more than $1,000 in business, because potential customers had arrived early, then took off because they couldn't get inside. Most of the stores had their doors open for customers by midmorning, Vizena said. Lafayette Police had no suspects but were investigating the vandalism as cases of possible criminal mischief or criminal damage to property, both misdemeanors, Lt. Angelo Iorio said.

One of the reviewers at Amazon was not impressed: "The "PC Connectivity" of this monitor is a joke. I wanted to get an immediate refund. Windows XP is NOT compatible with this sleek hi tech monster. All I could eventually get was HUGE type that was still blurry. BUY A TV MONITOR, NOT THIS MESS. It would make a nice TV as it is portable and seems to pick up vibrant and bright color. Frankly, the Sharp Aquos series is far better--it's a really beautiful set and picture. It does NOT claim any PC ability. At least Sharp is honest." Take this review at face value of course...

exactly. while for some people the $499 laptop was a great deal, i personally wouldn't have paid $399 for it. many of us on this forum got deal-of-the-year quality deals on dell laptops a month or two ago. we paid around $750 for $1500 laptops that blow these $499 models out of the water. so for anyone who missed out on the BB deal, pay attention to this site and most likely you will find a nice deal before christmas, and you'll be glad you missed out on the BB deal (well maybe not glad, but you get the point, lol)

none. that was easy :)

Ask a friend or relative who might have some spare space to let you keep the stuff there for a few weeks :)

Just added a bunch of new items now available online - CompUSA, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Sears and RadioShack - see the link above

Just got back from KMart where I got the Liton DVD recorder for $149. They had around 20 stacked up and I was the only one who took one. Everyone else was going for the el-cheapo DVD players for $19

Thanks. Now that BF is here I can finally get some sleep :) Good luck to everyone later today, and be sure to come back to the site after BF as we'll still be here.

Yes, the model at Kmart has Liteon's AllWrite technology for compatibility with both formats

The whole red shirt thing is nothing but a publicity stunt by some other site. It'll be too cold here to just wear a t-shirt.

He will also tell you how to cook your turkey if you haven't cooked it yet :)

keep in mind that these reviews are mostly reviewing the monitor when it was $500+. there are a lot of people on this forum with Dell monitors (myself included - i have the 20" 2001fp) and we swear by their quality.