stationchief

Wal-Mart is pretty BF rebate-free and loving it!

Umm ... ::AHEM:: ... rights to using the ticket method, not to using paper. Paper is exclusive to trees.

Last year's $398 early bird laptop: Compaq Presario v5305wm Wal-Mart's current cheapy (in store $398, on line $428): Acer Aspire 3680 The regularly priced Acer matches the price and nearly matches the specs on last year's early bird Compaq (except for slightly different processor and the Acer has 20GB more hard drive space). I looked at that Acer and it's pretty darn good for basic useage. If that's their regular everday price now, better batten down the hatches for this year folks.

$398.

Last year's laptop plan at the local supercenter was a little different.than what they usually do for BF. Basically, they set up about 20 chairs in electronics. If you wanted a laptop, you sat down in the next available chair and waited. If you got up, you lose your place. A friend of mine who got a laptop last year went there about 10pm and there was hardly one person there. Soon as he sat down, about a dozen people came from outta nowhere and sat down quickly. Wasn't that bad of a wait and he got a great laptop. Midnite for supercenters. 5am for regular hourly Wal-Marts.

Don't remember the exact dates, but if memory recalls correctly it was rumored at least a good month before the official sale, scans leaked a few weeks before the sale, the official ad for it was available in stores about a week before the sale, then the regular ad in the newspaper had it on the front page and was given out the day of.

I think Best Buy is the only major store chain that does that. Dunno if they have some sort of exclusive rights to it or something. If they can, I think it might be a good idea to hand out tickets or sheets granting people in line, starting with the first and moving down until they're completely sold out of all tickets, the exclusive items so everyone can calmly go about their business once inside and prevent stampedes. Most places I've been to on BF have plenty of security to prevent any major incidents from happening anyway. And there's alot of griping by BB line waiters about skipping people in line while handing them out so the idea isn't perfect.

Sorry about your bad experience. I buy things from BB online often for in-store pickup and I hardly ever have a problem. In fact, just before last BF I purchased a few sale items on their BF ad available online and I had no problems picking 'em up in-store on BF.

Soon as someone hears something it'll get posted in here. I'm hoping for that to happen again this year as well. I need both a new laptop and desktop computer for school. A friend of mine bought the WM laptop last year (still going strong to this day) and I'd really like one just like it, however the problem is I need to camp out at another electronics store on BF for specific parts I need so I can build my desktop personally. WM having an early sale on a cheap laptop and then going to the other store on BF for everything else would work out just nicely for me this year.

Never in my wildest dreams would I want to wish anyone to be an associate on that day. What a complete and total mess that would be. People would be looking behind things and throwing all sorts of items all over the store everywhere!

Wait for the ads to start leaking in. If the sale item says something like '5-11am Only' or 'Limited to minimum of 10 per store', then it's a store exclusive doorbuster and won't be available online. Probably not even the day before as most doorbusters aren't normal in-stock items and are exclusive to BF. Usually it's just the cheap computers, laptops, and cameras. Everything else in the ad you should be able to buy online.

Alot of people were griping about BB folks skipping people in line last year. Hopefully they'll change their policy just a tad this year so that doesn't happen as much anymore. I mean, really. Just how hard is it to go from #1 person in line to person #2 to person #3 and so on? Maybe if everyone was all jumbled up instead of in a nicely formed straight line, but is basic counting not a requirement to be a BB employee?

You'll need a monitor for that as well. The $150 one from last year was just the computer in the box, and maybe the keyboard, mouse, and cheap speakers. At least that gives you a chance to buy exactly the type of monitor you want.

http://www.naplestech.com/shopcart/prodimages/ktp440_large448.jpg 22" + 22" x 22" + 22" Hmmmm ... tempting. Very tempting.

It was ok. Not the best, certainly not anything I'd play Halo 2 on, but good enough for internet and basic household use. Here's hoping they'll take things up a notch this year.

Wow. I didn't even notice we had a downtime or even that there's been a change in the server. Guess that's a good thing, right? Great job, Brad! Keep battening down the hatches for BF!

Most likely they will for the cheap doorbuster laptops. They'll have others that's more Vista capable. However the cheap one everyone will be in front of the line for will most likely be something that's the current bottom of technology, like a Celeron/Sempron single-core processor, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive, CD burner/DVD reader combo. I'm in complete agreement that it's barely enough for a Vista-based computer, even if it's just the Home edition. But as a laptop for me it's OK cuz I can just install XP.

27" of a computer monoitor? Maybe an LCD TV to hook your PC up to. But a 24" LCD monitor would hardly even fit on my computer desk much less anything bigger. A setup like a 21-22" monitor sitting across from a 25"+ TV hooked up to the PC would do just nicely for me.

That was pretty good, except for one teensy-weensy lil' detail. You're about five days too late. 'jerseygirl' already won last week. Just wait for the next one.

So, who's gonna come in second? How 'bout the trifecta? Without looking, I'd wildly guess it's gonna be Ace Hardware (obviously first), Staples (in second), and Radio Shack (finishing in third).

'jerseygirl' will tell you who won after she posts pics of herself with her brand new GottaTeal t-shirt.

Wal-Mart really took a gamble last year having that cheap laptop sale early. Depending on how you look at it, you'll determine if it paid off or not. There'll definately be plenty from Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA.

I was curious as to how you guys got it. Anonymous email? Secret untraceable letter?

Yeah, way too many folks haven't switched yet. Digital television is still a choice and not a requirement.

And here they come! Thanks, Brad! A few nice things on that doorbusters list, however it probabbly won't be my line-waiting store either. Might stop in later to see if any of the portable DVD players or digital pic frames are left.