DumbPoet

I am seeking all advice on getting the best price on a Nikon D90 and compatible lenses. I would prefer the D90 as body only and a decent lens to go with it. This is the suggestion I received from the photo department at my news organization. So what method yielded the best results for you? Amazon, BF, eBay, Cyber Monday?

So you saw it for $280? What else changed on the page?

When I search this deal on BB I find this laptop. It is currently listed as $850 but says "coming soon." What evidence do you have that it will be $280?

If that's all your using it for I would imagine that the processor would be fine, unless your doing heavy duty, 100s-of-layers photoshopping. What type of problems have you experienced our of curiosity? Maybe you'll sway me @sracer: I imagine they do it more for next year's crowd than the people already in line. They do it so we discuss it here on these boards and decide to get in line at ungodly hours on the chance that there will be a special deal.

I thought so too, but we haven't seen anything approaching that at Circuit City or Best Buy. You think it's going to be one of those last minute "secret deal" things? I've read about those but I wasn't looking for anything last year that popped up as that.

An Advisory To All Those Who Come Seeking Help On The "Best" Laptop Deal This Year: Describe how the computer will be used, and if it is for children or adults. Describe your price range and what specs you already know are most important to you. /advice I think it's pretty obvious what the best low-end ($300-499) laptop is this season, just go to the Black Friday Ads page, look at the laptops, and sort by price. As for higher end laptops ($500-$1000), I haven't the foggiest what you can expect in that range but I'm sure there is someone here who has crunched the #s and will be willing to talk about it at some point. The Dell that you have linked there is in the class above the computers I'm looking at, you can get a Toshiba with better specs for about $200 less but some may tell you that the quality of a Dell is worth the price and smaller harddrive. Right now I'm trying to figure out if either of the Toshiba Satellites that BB is selling have the built in webcam and mic. This could be a deciding factor between the 2 of them for me. It appears that the laptop in the photo has the webcam (and presumably the mic), but I'm not sure if this is one of those "product may not be exactly as depicted" things. Take a look: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/black-friday-2250-Toshiba154DualCoreLaptopw4GB250GBTurion64X2.html Also, what is the best way to use the model# information to exactly identify the laptop? I can barely make it out printed in the add but a Google search just turns up random forum posts where people have entered that information.

Toshiba 15.4" Dual-Core Laptop w/ 4GB, 250GB, Turion 64 X2 for $480 @ BB on BF.. includes sleeve and mouse. http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/black-friday-2250-Toshiba154DualCoreLaptopw4GB250GBTurion64X2.html

To Clarify: you want to spend $500 on 2 laptops or $1000 on 2 laptops @ $500 per? For the former, $250 is only going to get you a netbook this year. A netbook is a small, stripped down laptop that is meant for email and the internet. I don't suggest this route, they will probably be disappointed in a netbook if they are gamers. For the latter, $500 will get you decent laptops. In that price range you can expect: 3gb of ram (don't settle for less than 2gb of RAM) A dual-core processor (twice as strong as previous processors, well worth it) If hard drive space is important to you then you can get 160gb easily. You may see people who talk about "gaming computers" and how they need to have good graphics cards. MMORPGs do not require this for the most part (I'm sure there are some out there that challenge this general statement, but World of Warcraft, for instance, does not.) XP & Vista: If you get your laptop from an electronics store it's going to have Vista on it, I'd suggest just go with it. There may be special, online alternatives but they are going to charge you extra for the "service".

Also, for all ages the educational game availability is higher on the DS than any other game system I'm aware of...

I like this idea, except the store should supply billy clubs and switchblades to everyone at the door. and then they should have live feeds on all major networks.. it'd be bigger than the super bowl.

I am considering getting a "netbook" on BF instead of a full laptop. I carry around a 320gb portable HDD everywhere I go anyways.. I figure that with the portable space and the netbook I'll be pretty good. Any thoughts on this setup? Alternatively what are the chances we'll see something like this in the $300-$400 range?: Toshiba Satellite 15.4" Dual Core Laptop w/ 4GB, 320GB - $579.99 Shipped http://www.gottadeal.com/DirectDeal/28983

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122445974629148617.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Circuit City may cut 150 locations and liquidate stock. How do we take advantage of this? Is this going to be Black Friday related or something we need to watch for before then?

Laptops that went for under $450 last year: BestBuy - HP AMD Dual-Core 15.4" Laptop w/ 1GB, 160GB, DVD-RW - 449.99 BestBuy - Sony 15.4" Laptop with 1GB RAM, 120GB HD, DVD Burner - 399.99 BestBuy - Toshiba A135-S7403 Laptop & Canon 3-in-1 Printer Bundle - 229.99 CircuitCity - Compaq Presario Dual-Core 15.4" Laptop w/ 1GB RAM - 299.99 AR CircuitCity - Toshiba Satallite Laptop with AMB Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Laptop - 399.99 AR Microcenter - Acer AS3680 14.1" Celeron Laptop with WiFi & Vista Basic - 299.99 MilitaryBX - Compaq AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 15.4" Laptop w/ 1GB, 120GB, DVD Burner - 399 AR MilitaryBX - Compaq AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 15.4" Laptop w/ 1GB, 120GB, DVD Burner - 399 AR Staples - Compaq Dual-Core 15.4" Laptop w/ 1GB, 80GB, DVD-RW, Free Printer - 349.98 Looking at this list, what specs can we expect in the same price range this year? What will the lowest laptop price be? Is it possible to determine what laptops may fall to this bracket this year?

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DNDWPT3&s=dhs I keep getting RL advice that all of these deals that I am seeing now are leading up to the "crest of the wave" which happens around July 4th. Does anyone have thoughts on this? There are lots of very good deals right now, are they only going to get better? Are they going to stay the same? Is the peak sooner or later? Is all of this completely unpredictable? Also, I know that BF deals often leak (a) week(s) in advance... and I have a feeling that this forum has a policy against leaks other than those associated with BF, or something to that effect. But do sales leak on a regular basis on the web? I'm not asking -where- they leak, but rather if I search in the right way will I find such a thing? so far has been fruitless.

They had some 150Gb+ (can't remember the exact storage) Portable external hard drives marked 50% off today at my Target.. they were around $70.