stationchief

:: BREAKS OUT THE HANGING ROPE:: Dunno if there's ever any coupons on the major sale items being offered on BF, like on laptops or cameras. If anything, I think there might be some coupons out there for the toys on sale. If 'ya do find one, it might specifically exclude sale items, which means you can't use it on BF. Call the store and find out first.

Those are all great tips for waiting in the lines, but how 'bout a few on general shopping on BF, like once you get inside, for all our newbies?

Got a few items on my list, like a new digital camera (old one bought years ago busted). But the big 'one' this year is gonna come in several parts. The parts to my new powerful desktop. Am lookin' mostly for a super deal on a 'Core 2 Duo' mobo/processor combination from Fry's Electronics on BF, then the rest of the components will come on or after BF. Lookin' at Best Buy for a great deal on a good case, at least one large hard drive, DDR2 memory, flat screen TFT monitor, and finally, a computer desk.

Usually WM is good about pricing mistakes, long as they're the ones that did it. If it's their mess-up where an employee tagged the stock wrong or placed 'em in the wrong place, make the associate at the register do a price check and they'll give it to 'ya for the better price. Plus, you'll alert 'em to the mess-up so no one else gets that price but you . Go for the .

Well, after enjoying our friend's demonstration on the PS2 system and playing that 'Guitar Hero' game, the wife now wants a PS2. Probably for 'Guitar Hero 2' and so her and her friend can trade/swap games. I do admit, I'd like to try some of those PS2 games myself. So the WM store has the slim PS2 system on sale everyday for $129. Any thoughts as to how much it's gonna be for BF? And is there such thing as a 'Guitar Hero' bundle, like the system/guitar/game in one? The wife much appreciates, and thanx y'all!

Our game plan is to bring our thanksgiving paper over to the parent's house for dinner, the whole family goes through 'em while I double-check the forums at GottaDeal.com , scarf dinner, then the wife and I prepare for the BF waiting line battle. Dunno if anyone else is waiting in line this year, but probably just gonna be the wife and I. Everyone else shops right after the stores open.

Forget the christmas sales. Merry 'Black Friday'!

You could be like some other mothers on BF and bring all your kids at once, barely clothed cuz you ran out the door, everyone in the freezing cold and snow. But, then again, who would want to? If no husband is available, perhaps look towards a friend or neighbor as a babysitter. Make it a fun lil' sleepover. If not, 'ya could have someone wait in line and get the goodies for you. Otherwise, if all else fails, It might be no BF this year. Gotta think of the kids.

That $200 mark makes my Best Buy Bucks sense tingle. Do I smell a fellow user? It's still hard to say just how much a 'puter with those specs is gonna be this year. My guess is BB wold have one that matches that for just about the $200-300 range and you might get lucky with a 64-bit processor. Non-dual core, of course. And you can always upgrade the memory to the 512MB mark. Should be good enough for WOW with a minor AGP graphics card upgrade.

All kinda depends on what Core 2 Duo you're lookin' at. The 'Athlon 64 FX's might outperform the e6300 'Core 2 Duo's, but the e6600 and up will run circles around 'em, including the 'Extreme e6800'. I've found tons of benchmark charts that break all this down.

Done. Congrats, Brad, on a great article and a great moment for GottaDeal! You guys are finally makin' the big time! ... and aimed directly to Brad ...

A cart or one of those small crates is definately a must on BF. It keeps all your stuff nice and safe and it's good for fighting through the crowd. Far as bringin' in your own bag, don't think they'll have a prob with it. Most stores now have some type of scanner on their doors that goes off if you try to steal something.

'Best Buy Bucks' at Best Buy , and a lil' mini debit card attached to my keychain everywhere else. Not gonna take many risks with all those pickpockets. The funding itself will come from both the wife's and my extra paychecks next month. We both get paid bi-weekly, so if 'ya do the math that means you get an extra paycheck about every six months. Talk about perfect timing!

Ahhhhhhh ... so THAT's the guy who sent the GottaDeal mods all those pics of the WM laptop and desktop prices last year. Seriously, leaking your company's ads to the public is a serious security breach. Kinda silly to sue the printing press, but I'm a lil' surprised the former employee got away with it scot free when they tried to sue him. Boy, what people will do for BF.

iPods should definately be on sale for BF. They had plenty last BF, and some cheaper deals should be commin' your way this year. And BF isn't ever just about generic off-brands. Sure, the most cheapest stuff is gonna be the not-so-famous brands, but there's tons of name brand stuff out there. Look through what was offered last year and see.

First off, that must've taken quite an effort to capitalize every word. Either that, or you're good at copy/pasting. As for the WM ads, is that what really happened last year? Don't remember hearing about exactly how the leaked ad came about. Where/when did you hear/read about that?

I got the same WM Pavillion last year. I upgraded the memory from 256MB to 512MB and installed XP Pro instead of the Home version provided. I haven't had too many problems with it. The slowness of your mom's laptop is probably due to the low amount of memory. Just some free 'puter tekkie advice. On to your desktop ... Bottom line ones, like the cheap doorbusters, are probably gonna be AMD brand Semprons or Intel Celerons. If it's the Intel Pentium 4s specifically 'ya want, perhaps even the dual-core ones, there should be plenty of those as well. Some will come with it, some will make you buy it separately. Should be some good TFT flat panel monitors on sale. Last year had some desktops with DVD burners. Just not on the dirt cheap ones. This year there should be more. I assume that's memory. If so, your 128MB is in need of a seriously major upgrade. Usually, 512MB is enough for most tasks. 1GB would be for serious gamers or audio/video dubbers. BF will have lots of different kinds of 'puters for different budgets. Most souldn't cost more than $1000. Probably less. Keep an eye out for the WalMart, Best Buy, CompUsa, and Curcuit City ads.

Not from San Diego, but I'll be your ... friend. ::THUNDER CLAPS!:: I think there's a thread here for people in your situation (lookin' for someone to go hang out on BF with). I'm from your neighbor state of Arizona, but I dunno if there's anyone here in your part of California. Maybe add yorself to the GottaDeal Map and see if there's anyone else in your neck of the woods. Oh, and welcome to GottaDeal!

So can anyone with long distance contact her? Just wondering if her voicemail is getin' hammered with calls from around the country. I might try to get into the article myself just for the heckuvit.

Dell doesn't offer any BF deals. They pretty much have sales goin' on all year 'round. Dunno if there's gonna be any bette deals closer to christmas, but the ones they got goin' on now with the 'Core 2 Duo' processors aren't too bad. It's up to you if 'ya wanna get a Dell now.

Wish that were true. My wife could snag all the laptops we needed from WM before anyone knew what happened. The sad fact is, if you want those popular 'puters and electronics and such, they only go to the first people in that huge line who ask for 'em. It's not really how long you've waited but where 'ya are in the waiting line. At our WM last year, some people got there as early as 10pm the night before. I came in about midnite and was about #20 in line. We just lucked out gettin' one of the last laptops. If 'ya want one of those 'doorbusters', as they're called, 'ya gotta work for it.

Impressive christmas list, rsan33. That wish list makes me wish I had you're budget. Dunno about yourself, but I wouldn't sleep very well knowing that XG Viper 2 was in the room with me. Yikes. BF will have a decent selection of goodies of just about everything for everyone. But as they say, pickers can't be choosers, especially when it comes to BF sales. That's why I'm not too picky about specifically what type or brand of parts I want. Just as long as it's in my needs ballpark and it's mostly at BB, that's for several reasons. My processor/mobo will most likely be a combo sale from FE. THe rest comes from my Best Buy Bucks and possibly a sign-up rebate for whatever store has one this year.

Was thinkin' last night (a bad pasttime, I know!) long and hard about my new 'puter, so I thought I'd share what I'm hoping for this BF. Gonna be buildin' this very bad boy with the parts I find on BF. So, without further ado, I introduce: My BF computer! Starring Fry's Electronics and Best Buy! With guest appearances by McD's Monopoly Best Buy Bucks, and possible special guest the AOL/MSN sign-up rebate! Pentium Core 2 Duo E6600 (Been doin' some homework on these Conroe-based puppies. Wooooooo baby!)1-2GB DDR2 memory (One gigabyte as a bare minimum)74GB Raptor hard drive (Fry's just started puttin' these on sale. 10,000 RPM drive for my OS. This might come later on.)Windows MCE 2005 (Gonna see if I can get a genuine version of this, remote and all!)>=500GB hard drive (Believe it, this is a bare minimum for me as far as storage space!)DVD+-R/RW & DVD-ROM w/wo LightScribe (For burnin' DVDs, of course!) Internal multi-function media card reader (Gotta have one for the digital camera and camcorder)Audio & Graphics (Dunno about these, but I'd settle for par standard so I can spend more time on the rest for now. Maybe play 'HalfLife 2' with Dolby 7.1 surround on 500-watt speaker system later on.)17-19" wide screen TFT monitor (Gotta see what'cha doin', ya know!) While we're waitin' for the desktops to start showin' up in the ads, why not share and explain what type of desktop you're plannin' on getting/building this BF. Or you can discuss my BF desktop I'm buildin'. I don't mind.

Another question: Did the Fry's Electronics ad get leaked last year as well? Or did we have to wait 'till the thanksgiving paper for that one? Cuz that's one of the places I'm lookin' forward to this year.

Gotta get a new $20 DVD player for the living room myself. My RCA DVD player, purchased back when DVDs were first coming out for about $200, is goin' out now. It lasted a good while, but it's time to move on.