shadowsjc

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html?_r=1 a walmart employee was trampled to death in NY state because of a mad rush to enter the store. truly sad to hear... i hope the people who kept pushing and crushed him were able to save a few bucks couple of things i find truly shocking and stupid (besides the fact that a man died)... why was an 8 month pregnant woman at the walmart on BF? why did parents bring their small children to this event? seems pretty dumb to me.. leave the kids at home, and if you have no one to take care of them, then dont go at all

just wondering if outlet malls generally have huge lines and throngs of people like you would expect at best buy / walmart / etc? im considering going to one if the crowds are expected to be large (but not if they're too huge or rowdy) E: by outlet malls i mean the ones that sell clothes primarily... sorry if that wasnt clear originally

im waiting for the $499 HP pavilion laptop... but online it shows it as $599 after rebates. is this one of the ones i'll need to buy at the store?

is the hp pavilion laptop a doorbuster? i cant find it on their website

i just saw the asus one...my home pc doesnt have hdmi or dvi, so i dont have any (current) need for that. i guess sometime down the line it would be useful, but then again i have a really bad track record when it comes to rebates.. knowing me i'd forget to do it

thanks for the advice on this thread... i bought the 19" lcd on newegg already and hopefully will have it by friday. $99 + tax and free shipping, and the specs look to be better than the one at BB :)

i was getting a haircut around 515pm ET and i realized the line was going to be really long, so i called my gf who was at home and told her to log onto my newegg account ( i had placed the monitor i wanted in my shopping cart last night at full price). she logged on and told me that the correct price ($99 for the 19" Acer) was already showing in my cart. i told her to buy it since i wasnt sure what time i would get home.. im glad with my purchase. it looks (at least on the specs) to be better than the similar LCD on sale @ best buy

^^sweet thanks for that link. i'll try and pick up that monitor at newegg instead. black friday always intrigues me but so far i've never gone to a big store yet. my first and only experience was last year when i went to radio shack a few minutes before open and got the 2 things i needed.

weak.. i think i'll stay in and pay the extra $20-30 to get it somewhere else then. thanks for the reply

bump - i've got a similar question as the OP but about a different item. the only thing i'd buy from bestbuy is the 19" LCD monitor for $99. i don't think this is considered a big ticket item - does anyone have any idea: 1) - if i don't camp out but get there reasonably early (around 5ish), would i still be able to get something like this? 2) - how quickly does the line outside move after the store has opened? so if doors open at 5am, and there is a huge line outside, how long until the people towards the end actually get to go inside? i dont wanna show up at 530 am only to have to wait on line for an hour or 2.. id rather go when i can actually get inside without waiting (even if it means the item may or may no longer be in stock anymore)... thanks if it matters, i live in the NJ side of the NYC metro area and i've got alot of best buys near me that i could go to (mostly in the suburbs as i won't be going into manhattan for BF)

if i wanted to get a non-big ticket item (like a 19" LCD monitor either Acer or samsung), would i be able to get there when the doors open and still find one?

you can put any brand of RAM into the PC, but it has to be the same "type" of RAM as what came with it originally. the three main types of ram are: RDRAM (which is what your pc should have), DDR ram (the older 'standard') and DDR2 (the current 'standard', which is very cheap). you can't mix and match between them. the dell dimension that you mentioned should have RDRAM in it, which is the expensive kind i was talking about. it's not worth it IMO to put another band aid on the bugger, definitely not for $100 or whatever that 1 gb of ram was. also as an aside, i've never had direct experience with an emachines pc before, but ive read that they're not terribly reliable. if i were you i would look into a more well known pc that's on sale on black friday; circuit city from time to time has compaqs or HP for as low as $300ish, so expect them to be around this or lower.

i have a 7 year old dell dimension as my home PC that my mom uses primarily. it uses the same crap RDRAM that is tons more expensive than the newer stuff. it also had that annoying loud fan problem that seems to be common with the dell dimensions, but i managed to fix that with a new fan. the only thing ive thrown at this pc is a larger hard drive that i got for free from my uncle, and some new RAM. right now, the PC runs like crap for anything other than basic internet and music. i just bought 256 MB more RAM from ebay for $17. im gonna install it this week - if it manages to improve the quality of this PC noticeably, i'll keep it. otherwise ill just spend the $300 or so for a new one on BF. if your intention is to extend the life of the PC any more, i wouldnt bother. with most old PC's, you can throw on 1 or 2 gb of RAM , and it will fix things up quite a bit. with PC's that use RDRAM, however, it is too cost prohibitive to upgrade, and you're alot better off just buying a new one. Edit - if you do get one with windows vista, make sure you have at least 2 GB of RAM installed. note that the new types of RAM can be purchased for pretty cheap, so if you see a PC on sale for $300 that only has 1 GB of RAM, just know that you can buy another GB of ram from either amazon.com or buy.com for like $25 more

- the HDMI cable is a MUST if your tv can support it (or if not, then an S-Video cable). the HDMI cable can be any kind (get one off ebay or amazon, DO NOT get a "sony" or a "monster" cable, which can cost you way much more than it should) - an extra controller always helps - get the dualshock 3 from sony. i haven't tried any 3rd party controllers for the ps3, so i can't comment on how well they work. for the PS2, my gf bought me a logitech wireless controller with rumble which worked GREAT, so if you wanted to save a few bucks i would look at logitech as a possible alternative - if you don't want to break the bank for a ton of new speakers or a whole new entertainment system, you might want to consider buying a small set of computer speakers to hook up to get better sound. i bought a set of 2.1 (2 speakers + 1 subwoofer) logitech speakers that hook up to my TV in my bedroom. sounds great, and i think i spent about $40 on them. - kinda unrelated, but i would definitely get a new wireless router if you don't already have a fairly new one. i got a $50 linksys router on sale for about $40ish. the wireless router will hook up to your main computer, and it will allow your PS3 to connect to the internet no matter where in your house it is hooked up. The newer routers have something called 802.11 G , which basically means it is one of the faster ones out there and is compatible with the speed at which the PS3 connects with (older ones are 802.11 B which you should stay away from, and the newest ones are 802.11 N, which the PS3 doesn't support AFAIK). - a couple of blu ray movies would also be cool (i've had my ps3 for about 4 months now and i STILL have not seen 1 blu ray movie ) good luck!

hit: mio c320 gps @ radio shack for $150. wide screen, and very 'hackable' (i was able to get new maps on it, new voices, and text to speech on it, so my $150 gps performed very similar or even better than $300+ units) miss... kinda: zune 30 gb (the old one) for $99 @ radio shack. i wanted a new video /mp3 player and i got the zune, but i never really got used to it. it was ugly, big, heavy, and didnt support alot of formats. on the bright side, i held on to it for a few months, and sold it as a "slightly used" (exaggeration since i really only used it 4-5 times tops) unit on craigslist for $110 (so a $10 profit :) )

if i buy something online at the regular price (say on thanksgiving day), and the price drops in a few hours due to black friday - would the retailer refund the difference / price match it (assuming the retailer has a price guarantee policy)? or is black friday considered a special day where they dont do price matching? thanks E - i guess this question can be specific to best buy or to any other retailer

just got back from radio shack like 20 min ago.. got the mio c320 gps for $150 and the microsoft zune (with a free case) for $99... im happy