jboyko

FYI - You might want to check your default shipping preferences if you shop by Amazon for BF deals. Several people I know were noticing that their default for two-day Prime Shipping was changed in their account to added fee One-Day Shipping. I checked mine a couple of days ago and it hadn't changed, but I ordered something yesterday and noticed it had. When I went to check-out, the automatic shipping selected was One-Day. If I hadn't paid attention it would have charged me extra for one-day shipping. I changed my default back to two-day Prime. Since 1-click is handy for lightening deals coming up you might want to check that your account is not defaulting to One Day Shipping.

The Kohl's BF as lists it as $199 after a $30 rebate + another 10% off which sounds like it matches walmart, but Kohl's also offers $15 Kohl's credit for every $50 spent. Might be worth a look. Page 17 shows the mixers. Amazon also usually has good mixer deals on BF. They can be hard to score though. Good luck!

My DS 11 & DS 6 both also love their electronics. iPads are their hands-down favorite. The 3DS and other such gadgets get much less play time. For DS6, Hex Bugs and Hot Wheels make constant reappearances. He'll play with them for hours. Both boys like ThinkFun logic games and puzzles. Apple to Apples is a favorite with both. The Klutz Encyclopedia of Immaturity and the Klutz Book of Inventions are read and reread. Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes books are another staple pastime in our house. I used magnets as stocking stuffers for my DS6 last year and he likes to get them out often. We've added bottle caps, paper clips, and other pieces of metal to his bag over the year and he loves experimenting with the different magnet shapes and strengths. Small locking boxes to hold treasures also get daily use.

Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 by Elenco 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (311 customer reviews) | Like (121) List Price: $32.99 Price: $18.00 Eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime. You Save: $14.99 (45%) In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008BFZH/ref=ox_ya_os_product http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Y2XC788GL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Bop It by Parker Brothers http://www.amazon.com/Parker-Brothers-7789-Bop-It/dp/B001RNC1GK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323848994&sr=8-1 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (85 customer reviews) | Like (30) List Price: $22.99 Price: $8.00 You Save: $14.99 (65%) In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31VOsEz9xUL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Down to $10.00 and kicking myself for buying at $15. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Play-Doh-24375-Play-Doh-Factory/dp/B0037BMCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292003632&sr=8-1 List Price: $34.99 Price: $14.99 & eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime You Save: $20.00 (57%) Play-Doh Mega Fun Factory

In my experience, Smart Post is exceedingly, frustratingly slow. I haven't ordered anything through them in a while, but I would not count on things delivered by them for Christmas at this point.

Monopoly Express Other products by Hasbro 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews) 10 Reviews List Price: $12.99 Price: $3.89 & eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime You Save: $9.10 (70%)

Success! My husband's insistence paid off and our local Lowe's store sent someone out to another store that had the workshop to pick one up. I picked it up yesterday and have it in my possession, hooray! I went back and looked at the BF ad, and the workshop had been a BF deal. In fact it was listed at $49.99, so the price was actually cheaper with this deal. Not sure if it was a mistake, or if they are just clearing them out of certain stores that didn't sell out on BF, but the website definitely listed it as ship-to-store. Anyway, just wanted to update. I still will be leery of using Lowe's ship-to-store feature again as the customer service we experienced was quite poor, though we are satisfied with the outcome. Thanks all!

Caution on the "ship-to-store" business. So far our experience has been awful. They called about 10 minutes after I placed the order (on Thursday) to say the item was ready and asked when we'd pick it up. I said this weekend. My husband went in today (Saturday morning) to get it. They acted like they'd never heard of the toy. They tried to give him a totally wrong item, when he refused it, they suddenly remembered that they'd had the workshop but said it was a Black Friday item and we couldn't possible expect them to have it. My husband insisted they sold it to us on the third, accepted payment, and then called to say it was there. Another worker came by and said, "Oh yeah, that's a cool toy. A couple of co-workers have them squirreled away under their desks in the back." After an hour of the run-around, they tried to get my husband to drive an hour to another store to see if he could pick on up there. He said, "I don't think so!" They finally agreed to have someone drive down and pick it up from the store either tomorrow ("or maybe the next day"). We'll see what happens. If the item is "ship-to-store", I'd expect them to ship it to the store if it's not in stock at that store anymore, but available elsewhere. YMMV.

Play-doh Star Wars Playset Other products by Hasbro 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review) List Price: $19.99 Price: $10.00 & eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime You Save: $9.99 (50%) Link

Thank you! For a while this was $50 at Amazon, but it has gone back up. I like Lowe's blue color better anyway so I ordered shipped to store. The store called about 10 minutes after I placed my order to tell me it was available for pick-up.

Up & Down Roller Coaster List Price: $119.99 Price: $89.00 & eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime You Save: $30.99 (26%) (Sorry, I can't link yet since this is my first post.)