stationchief

That's the store I hit! Since you were there soo early you didn't geta chance to see what happened to the line. You probably passed me up somewhere in the store, though. Maybe I even bumped into your cart. So what time you goin' this year? I think I remmeber you, EliteABomb. Spoke with 'ya on line a bit before BF last year. Hope to yap with 'ya a lil' more this year.

Since there's some newbies this year here at GottaDeal, let's reminisce and give 'em an idea of what BF is all about. For those of us who took part in BF lasy year, tell the tales of what happened to you taking part in BF '06. Anything interesting happen you'd like to share with the class? It's late, so I'll tell the tale of my adventure at Best Buy a lil' later.

Just to give you an idea ... The only line I really took part in last year was the local Best Buy. Fortunately for me I had no interest in doorbusters, so I came in about an hour before opening. I went to the front of the line just to take a lookie and talked to a couple people who were first to go in. One guy said he was there at 2 in the afternoon and set up a tent to camp out for about 15hours. About an hour to opening I took my place in line ... starting at the front door I followed the line ... going completely around the store ... all the way to the back parking lot ... completely AROUND the parking lot ... zig zagging around some markers they had positioned up, and finally after quite some walking I found my place. I'd guess at about a thousand people in line in front of me easy, give or take. There were even people coming in line behind me after I was there. It was a pretty impressive sight to see word getting out and all these people taking part in BF. The adventure inside the BB store was equally exciting as well, but I'll save that story for another thread. So, I hope that puts it into perspective. The time you should get in line basically all depends on where you plan on going and what you plan on getting. If you're headed to any of the major electronics chains (Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Fry's Electronics, or even Wal-Mart) for one of their limited wuantity doorbusters (cheap desktop, laptop, TV, camera) plan on being there VERY early thanksgiving day. Perhaps some drive-by's on a regular basis if you can, and once you start to see people lining up you better hop in. On a side note, I really think word about BF is getting around more and more as the years go by. I've taken part in BF for just the last four years or so, and every year there seems to me more people. I really think a big part of that is due to GottaDeal and it's community, not to mention more and more publicity that the folks at GottaDeal ('sup, Brad! Yap wit'cha soon, Ross!) get each year, as we get closer to that infamous day. And it's rather warm here in Phoenix. Thought you folks expecting snow on thanksgiving might wanna know.

You can check Wal-Mart Online on a regular basis and hope to get lucky. Also regularly check Best Buy and Target online. As I type this, Wal-Mart has the Customer Choice bundle and Target has the Chicken Shoot bunble in-stock.

The bare Nintendo DS Lite with minimal accesories is about $120-130 now. If you can wait a few more months (black friday is-a commin' ) and make it a christmas present, it'll probably be available for a $100 or less price tag. I say 'available' because you'll have to fight for it if you want one that cheap.

Hotels.com Expedia Orbitz Those sites might give you a slightly cheaper hotel deal than going directly through the hotel companies themselves. And, just to remind you in case you're not in Sacramento for friends/family or whatnot, Disneyland is in Anaheim which is about a six hour drive from there. You can stay in a nice place a lil' closer for about $100 a night.

Umm ... didn't quite get all that, but from what I understood you got Mario Party 8 and you don't have a Nintendo Wii. About MP8, it's quite addicting just to warn 'ya. I play it at the store display and all those lil' mini games are way too much fun.

All depends on the individual, however here's the skinny on the portable videogame systems: Leapster = pre-schoolers GBA = elememtary schoolers (that system is old tech and should be leaving shelves soon) Nintendo DS = elementary to Jr high kids, some gams for teens and adults PSP = Jr high to high school teens and up to adults

Being 7-8, your son should be getting into the PS3/Wii stage soon. The GBA seems to attract the slightlty younger kids into Pokemon and all that while the PSP is aimed towards the teens. All depends on the games he likes and your pocketbook (there's some heavy price differences there), but I'd recommend the PSP.

The only real place I've noticed where prices are noticably different per area is Wal-Mart. They're prices tend to be a bit regional. Clearance items also greatly depend on the specific store's location. Sale items aren't like that as much since they're advertised and they may be required to price match.

In my younger years my parents learned the hard way to NEVER hid the presents at the home. I was such the snoop and knew how to get to every crack and corner that I'd find just about everything. I was such a naughty 'lil boy. After a few spoiled christmasses they got smart and started wrapping and hiding everything at the neighbors until christmas eve. Nowdays, with just the wife to hide stuff from, I just keep it in the trunk of the car until I decide to wrap 'em up and place 'em under the 'lil tree.

Start counting the days, everyone! Three months to go and the anticipation is here already! I just love the countdown timer. GottaDeal should have one on their front page.

Of course, black friday is considered a legitimate religion to some of us. All depends on how you celebrate.

Your laptop really does have 512MB of memory. It's just that your graphics chip is taking up some of that because it's shared video memory. 512MB physical memory - 128MB reserved specifically for video = 384MB. To change it, you need to go into the system BIOS screen. When you boot up your computer, it'll tell you what key to hit to enter BIOS/setup. Usually it's either the F2, F10, or DELETE key. Once there, you can do a lot of changes to your computer, including droping the shared video memory all the way down (32MB or so) to have more physical memory or crank it all the way up (128MB) to play those high-tech games.

The eMachine should have 512MB (MegaBytes), not KB (KiloBytes), of PC2-4200 memory. Not sure if it's just one chip or two 256MB chips, but it shouldn't matter too much as you should have at least one more memory slot. And I hope 'ya didn't literally CRACK open your Toshiba. It's just a tiny lil' screw.

Usually you get a one year limited warranty, so that just barely ran out. Talk about bad timing. I have the same Pavillion laptop from WM last year and aside form some loose hinges on the monitor it's still going strong.

"And I heard Brad and Ross exclaim as my PC turns out it's light, 'Happy holidays to all, and see you next year on this site!'" THE END. (Yes, I know this site is here all year 'round. Everyone stick around after the holidays! Now someone should compile all the poems in this thread, put 'em in the right order, then publish the GottaDeal BF 2006 Storybook. )

Maybe that's the whole reason why the lines were soo much larger at the popular places this year. Guess there's a downside to GottaDeal's newfound media attention after all.

Believe it or not ... about $15. Used almost $200 in Best Buy Bucks from a previous endeavor. The only thing I paid cash for were a ton of DVDs I wasn't allowed to use more than $3 in BBB on, and the cashier messed that up anyways.

It's really lucky that you got your laptop after all. Some people just don't realize what they're doing by having one person wait in line for 4-5 people in the family. Usually there's security that keeps anyone from stepping in line for whatever reason. That's the way it should be.

I'd like to show some sympathy, but I'm just too busy laughing right now. Your 3 year old being strong enough to pick it up and mash it a couple times is almost as amazing as your state of mind when you left it in harm's way. Chalk it up as a hard lesson learned.

Way to stick it to the man! There's no real reason why they'd price match other items and not that SD card for you. Probably just caught the higher-ups in a bad mood on the worst day of the year. I would've suggested taking the ad and leaving to go to a different WalMart to get it price matched over there.

Impressive list of upgrades, but you're still stuck with the Celeron D processor. Maybe would've been cheaper, and a lot less time consuming if you waited in line for that eMachine, just to get a processor/mobo combo from Fry's Electronics or someplace similar if you've really got that much already.

So, who wants to upgrade their memory or install a new graphics card? Bring on the questions!

"And now the best part comes as I feel I'm in heaven It's time to start counting the days 'till black friday 2007!"