stationchief

Here's you're chance to share your pics or videos you've made from previous BF's. Or just share interesting/funny/crazy media you find around the net showing the madness of our favorite day of the year. Make sure to link.

Funny things I saw were people in their jammies in line at Wal-Mart. For some reason most of the wierdos come to Wal-Mart on BF. Far as one of the most craziest things I've ever seen for a BF? I didn't see it in person but there was a video that was passed around last year. Takes place at a Wal-Mart some BF's ago. The door opens and the associates dive for cover as the start of the line comes crashing thru. Some poor lil' lady was at the very front, but she wasn't fast enough for the people behind her as they literally trampled the poor lady. You can see her gettin' stepped on and ran over and everthing. It was nuts. Apparantly the lady did get hurt a little. And that was not too long before I was in the line at WM myself. Fortunately, our WM was much more organized. I'll try to find the video if I can.

Well, none yet. It's still two months away. The wife and I are gonna pay all our bills and get 'em all caught up, thay way our paychecks just before BF will be our spending cash. Plus, that way we don't spend it before. Things are goin' well so far so odds are we're lookin at the upper three figures ($600-700) for BF madness.

My best BF deal was, of course, at Wal-Mart last year. Got an HP Pavillion laptop for a total out-of-pocket cost of $320! See, the wife works there so we get 10% off (including BF priced items), plus we used a coupon she got on her last paycheck for an additional 10% off any item. $378 + tax - 20% = about $320. Put it on layaway and still came out to the same total cost. Just needed a lil' stop at Fry's Electronics for an extra memory chip. Am usin' that very laptop right now.

Fry's Electronics and Wal-Mart. Fry's for the components to our new 'puter, and then WM for everything else. Probably won't know all of Fry's sales until shortly before BF, so our game plan solely depends on what sort of doorbusters the WM ads have to offer.

Consider that a warning and a hard lesson learned for this year. Thanksgiving day papers with all the BF ads go extremely fast for those pickin' it up from newsstands. Those who have the paper delivered to their homes get to sleep in that day. I say get up right about when the place you're gettin' the paper from expects them delivered. Like about 2am or something. Other than ordering a subscription, that's the only way to guarantee one.

Just so there's no mass confusion here: Erica Sagon, the reporter who wrote Brad's article, is a reporter hired for the 'AZ Republic'. Now, the 'Ganett News Service' is who produces that Phoenix local paper and also produces many others around the country and even around the world. Therefore Brad's article could end up in any of the papers Ganett makes. Be on the lookout. Here's a list of local newspapers Ganett produces. And yes, the 'Florida Today' is listed: Ganett Newspapers And just for the record, the 'AZ Republic' has the original article and had it first. With Erica's type-o and all. So ...

Yeah, that type-o is in the print article as well. Someone should've caught that one when they put it online and before they printed it.

Just picked up the local paper with Brad's article in it tonite. Maybe time to get a lamination kit to comemmorate the first article on BF. And Brad, yer only 27 and the founder of GottaDeal? Wow, you have my envy!

Our Wal-Mart last year had about 20 people in line already when I got there at midnite. This year I'll be camping out about 8 or 9pm. As was said, it all depends on what store you're going to and what you plan on getting. Read about people's experiences at the store you're planning on going to, and prepare.

I only get the Arizona Republic on weekends. Makes me wish I just bought a paper yesterday. I, too, welcome all my fellow Maricopians to GottaDeal! Enjoy your stay!

Just wondering if people would be interested in something like having the admins of these boards (Ross or Brad?) arrange text messages to be sent to member's mobile phones when ads appear. I'm a very busy guy and I really wanna know, wherever I am, when ads show up or when breaking news is announced. There are sites on the net that let'cha send messages to mobiles at no charge to the sender, so there shouldn't be a problem if someone has to mass send the messages manually. Just might cost a little for the reciever of the message. Not for me, of course, as I have unlimited media on my mobile. Who might be interested in signing up for something like this? What to the admins think about arranging something like this?

The wife has been goin' with me for the past few years. But even if she didn't I'd still brave the lines alone. Some of these deals are definately worth it. Just bring somethin' to do for a few hours if you're gonna be in line a while.

Kewl phone, eh? Got mine specifically for the slightly faster processor so I could play those symbian-based NES, SNES, and GameBoy emulators. My new smartphone comes in next month. Sounds nice, but isn't that why you bring the ads with 'ya in the first place? Or just do what I plan on doing, which is print out a complete list of all the BF items in all the ads so 'ya can compare and price match.

I would if I got a christmas bonus.

It's anyone's guess, but I think it will be on sale somewhere on BF, most likely for around $200 or less for just the basic system (no cames, extra cables, etc). The PSP and the Nintendo DS will both be doin' battle in the portable videogame wars this BF.

Gotta work on BF, but not 'till 5pm. Will have plenty of time to get a nap in after all that shoppin'. Just need to ask for the thursday before off so I can wait in those wonderful lines.

For anyone interested, here's a 'lil somethin' I just noticed was still up from last year. Just before the 2005 BF sales, I whipped up a chart with detailed specs on all the BF 2005 desktops. Dunno if anyone noticed it or not. I just thought it might come in handy for anyone wanting to know detailed specs on the 'puters and compare 'em side by side. Anyways, here it is for people who would like to look at different specs side by side or to see what we might be lookin' at this year: BF 2005 Desktops by StationChief And for the record, I'm offering my services to make a similar chart for all the BF 2006 desktops and laptops this year. I think this'll really help some people make the right choices for the right 'puter for themselves. I'll whip it up once the first ads start to appear.

Yeah, but I dunno if that'll let'cha access anything from the BF 2006 forums. Most of those are from the deals found in the main forums. If 'ya have a newer phone, 'ya should be able to access the BF 2006 forums directly.

I gotta admit, we're all nuts for wanting to wait in lines overnite in freezing cold weather. But we're also the ones who are gonna be gettin' those deals. What's really nuts is coming to the stores after they open and expecting those big sale items to still be there.

The winning bet wins the respect of his/her fellow peers. That's worth more than any wide-screen HDTV, right? What can I say. It's a virtual contest, so ya get virtual prizes. I dunno, maybe Ross or someone can arrange for some GottaDeal points if they really wanna make this into a real contest.

Post your instant messenger names here and what IM chat software you use so your fellow GottaDeal BF shoppers can chat with you. I know we could probably just glance at everyone's profile for this, but I dunno which of you wanna openly chat about BF and who doesn't want to be disturbed. I pretty much just use AOL IM. Find me under 'ChfBehring'. Anyone wants to chat when they see me online, feel free. :)

Don't think one specific store's ad gets scanned every time every year, so let's place our bets. Gimme your best guess for the winners of the following categories: First sale rumored, non-scanned ad. What store, the date it shows up, what item mentioned, and what price tagFirst ad scanned. What store and the date it shows upFirst media attention GottaDeal.com recieves. What station/news website/newspaper, and whenI'll start with my bets: First sale rumored: Wal-Mart, 10/20/06, a 46" wide-screen HDTV, $1199. First ad scanned: Best Buy on 11/3/06 First media attention for GD: MSNBC online on 11/13/06 I'm throwing guesses in the air pretty much. However, I really do think HDTVs are gonna be rumored first since that's gonna be the red hot item this year.

Most of my family/friends appreciates me sending 'em the ads early, however they think I'm outta my mind wanting to wait in line the night before. They thought I was 'bonkers' when I told 'em I waited in line for 5 hours at Wal-Mart last year. My response? I'm the one with the cheap laptop, not them!

I think you can access these message boards on a mobile phone's internet browser, can't ya? Maybe i'll check later on mine. It all depends on what type of phone you're using, too. UPDATE: Forum works great on my Nokia 6682. Most phones that even just let ya view text on a web site can still access the forums here. Bookmark the site while yer in line BF morning, folks!