schwoozer

Well, I'm still convinced that overall rebates are still the best way to have the lowest overall prices (for those who don't mind them in reasonable amounts). The problem with CompUSA this year is that 1) they always have that one sponsor per BF who skews their advertised prices and 2) even with the rebates, the prices still aren't that great. To CUSA's credit aside from the Razr deal, most of the rebates do seem to be erebates, which are incredibly convenient and, in my experience, pretty fast. Circuit City's ad this year was completely ridiculous on the rebates: all mail in, usually 2 or more, and usually for 200% or more of the advertised price.

Horrible. What makes the whole thing even more frustrating for me is that I had an offer where I got a free $100 gift card for either BB, CC, or CUSA. Basing my decision on the two previous BFs, I went with CUSA. What a mistake (not that the other two are THAT much better...but at least they sell DVDs cheap). Now I have no idea what I would even use this card on. Do they realize they had a 160GB SATA hard drive for $20AR LAST YEAR? Where's the advance in technology? I'm really bummed about this year's BF overall.

For the last two years, CompUSA has been BY FAR the best BF stop for the stuff I'm interested in. After seeing the BB and CC ads, I'd be surprised if CUSA doesn't make it 3 years in a row. The other interesting thing about CUSA is that they actually can have some incredible deals at times other than BF. I got some fantastic deals in the week or two leading up to BF last year, and even as late as March they were having BF-comparable deals still (on LCD TVs and Seagate hard drives mainly). I remember they had 3 separate opportunities (one of them BF) to pick up a 200GB hard drive for $30AR. I have not seen any price/GB that low since. Hopefully we'll start to see some of their pre-BF deals starting soon.

Well, that Office Max ad was a whole bunch of nothing in my opinion. I remember they used to have fantastic sales, not just on BF, but all year round (around, say, two years ago). Now, because they eliminated rebates, prices are much, MUCH worse for those of us who didn't mind the rebates. I haven't bought anything from them for as long as I can remember. With Best Buy also going no rebates, I'm bracing for the worst from their ad too.

I seriously doubt you need to worry about a shortage. I can't remember any time where a newly-released Disney movie was hard to find at all. Even on BF, these discs tend to be pretty easy to obtain. Even more so, there is no need at all to be there at midnight for when it's released unless you want to. In fact, I'm pretty sure the 24 hour WMs typically don't have the electronics department even staffed at that hour, so you probably won't even get what you want anyway. Just go anytime on the 7th, and I'm sure there will be a huge display with more copies than you can shake a stick at. I'm really not trying to rain on your parade, but trying to save you a potentially wasted trip. As a side note, it may be just a little bit unrealistic to expect Cars to be as cheap as The Incredibles was last year. The reason is that The Incredibles was a Spring release last year, while Cars will be brand spanking new (longer availability = cheaper price, usually). Of course, BF doesn't always follow normal rules, but it may not hurt to temper expectations somewhat. I hope I'm wrong though.

I'm gonna have to pick some of these up. I know they start on 11/1...when do they expire?

This can actually be advantageous though. I remember last year that AOL offered $250 off any purchase for signing up for 12 months of AOL. But AOL Broadband was an option, which at $15/month x 12 months = $180, was still cheaper than the gift card. Plus, I think many had success with canceling early. Plus, it really depends on how you look at it. I don't see it as charging "more," I'm just not qualifying for all the potential discounts. Besides, if I remember right, they were better last year about not including those ISP-related discounts in the advertised price.

GREAT thread guys. Can we make this thread a sticky, since things can get dropped to the bottom very quickly during these crazy times.

I wanna say I went sometime around 11pm last year, although I don't remember for certain. The line was already significant by the time I got there. By the time the doors opened, it was ridiculously long. Assuming the deals are worth it, I will probably follow a similar plan this year. I've done great at CUSA each of the past two years. It's definitely the ad I'm most looking forward to. Mine is usually pretty good about having a decent stock of the hot items too.

The two released ads do not concern me as much as the overall lack of great deals I've noticed this year from the tech stores (CC, BB, CUSA). I remember last year in the weeks leading up to BF, there were alot of deals that made me think, "That's the lowest price I've ever seen for one of those." For the B&M stores, that hasn't happened once yet. I do realize that what I'm shopping for this year is totally different than years past (alot more focused), but at this point, about the only thing I'm pretty confident will have "best prices ever" will be flat panel HDTVs. Aside from that, I'm only cautiously optimistic.

Thanks. Out of curiosity, where did you see this brochure? I've gotten two mailings from MG in the last week; both had great coupons, but no mention of this. I'm just wondering if maybe it's a regional thing.

If I remember right, CC did have one of the better HDTV deals last year, although it was a CRT behemoth. I think it was 51" for 799. Personally, I like CC better on BF, but not by much. My experience is that the crowds are quite a bit better than BB, however they tend to stock fewer of each item (and not just the big ticket laptops, computers, etc). Last year I went for the opening, but I realize now that most of what I ended up getting was just DVDs, which I could have price matched at WM anyway. Unless they have a really great hard drive deal (which past experience tells me is unlikely), I doubt very much that I will go there this year.

There's no such thing :) Especially when BF is around the corner.

Mine should be waiting for me when I get home. Probably sitting outside. In the rain. Because it apparently requires too much effort for the DHL guy to push the little lighted button next to our door and let my wife know it's sitting there. In any case, I'll install this and my new FAR power supply tonight. 1.4TB, Here I come!

That enclosure had been FAR for a couple days, but shipping was high. Now that it's finally free, they run out. Oh well. They had a case FAR yesterday too that I wish I had gotten. Even with $10 shipping, it would have been worth it.

Title says it all. I'm pretty certain this is the cheapest non-rebate price per GB I have seen. Knowing Outpost/Fry's pricing policies, this may not last long. Link.

CompUSA's midnight madness BF sale was nationwide last year, and by and large I think it was considered a success. Anytime a store has an exclusive time slot, it helps them. Personally, I liked it because it allowed me to be there at opening as well as Circuit City at opening (instead of having to choose one or the other). I'd be somewhat surprised if CompUSA doesn't do that again.

I'm almost certain that I'll be waiting in line at CompUSA again. The last two years, they have had the best deals on stuff I was looking for, and if they do midnight madness again, then I'll still be able to get in line plenty early at another of the secondary stores once I'm done (Staples, if I had to venture a guess right now). I'll be pretty surprised if CompUSA is NOT part of this year's itinerary. After that, WM at some point after the craziness ends, but just to get DVDs. Last year my wife, me, and our then 1 year old all went around 10am, and it was very calm there...probably because we have 3 WMs within 15 mins.

Went to WM planning to price match a bunch of DVDs last year, but many were already lower priced anyway. The ones that weren't were PMed without any issues.

As long as you are methodical and organized, you shouldn't run into any problems, although a bit more work may be necessary to get your money. I implemented a system after I was 90% sure I got ripped off by some Office Max rebates (wasn't 100% sure because I had filled out dozens of them in like a 2 month span). Here's my system: -Keep a spreadsheet summary of all the rebates, including: Store Product Amount Type (if more than one on a product: manufacturer's, store's, store's electronic, etc...I have had up to 3 rebates on a single product and there needs to be a way to distinguish) date submitted where to status check (phone number/website/etc) WHEN to check status (very important...these windows are often way in the future and short) a place to check off when it arrives -Make copies of EVERYTHING. This process thankfully became alot easier for me this past year. I use my computer's scanner and a program called pdf995. It lets me keep pdf files of my scans instead of getting buried under an avalanche of paper copies. When all the rebates for a product come in, I can simply safely delete the relevant files. I would guess in the 3+ years I have had this system, I have submitted well over 100 rebates (maybe over 200). Since I did this, the only company I have had issues with was newegg (I did get my money though). Of the rest, Staples is very easy, and CompUSA seems to be heading in that direction as well (I haven't had a paper rebate with them in a while). OfficeMax is the only one I have ever flat out not received, although they made up for that once by fulfilling a manufacturer's rebate when the manufacturer went out of business. I know CompUSA gets a bad rap in general, but I have had no issues with them over the past year, and I probably have done at least 30 rebates with them in that time. Should a dispute arise, just make sure you have evidence to back up your claim. Any of the large retailers should not give a problem after that.

Thanks so much. Not sure if I can withstand $.20 a GB for hard drive space.

Well, now that I know there's a specific interest, I'll be sure to be more diligent about it in the future. I certainly stumble upon my fair share.

Short answer: maybe Long answer.... I hang out a ton at AVS Forum's HTPC subgroup, and from what I gather, this is currently a point of much debate. Do they work with Myth and Sage? Yes. Do they work reliably, with minimal fuss? Not unless you're lucky. There are a few issues at work. First (and most important) is how you are planning to get your HDTV signal. If it's over the air (OTA) you have a better chance at getting it to work than if it's unencrypted QAM from cable. If it's encrypted QAM or satellite, these cards won't work at all (they're not meant to). Next, mistakes in listing what is supported have been made before. These mistakes can be intentional or unintentional, but they do happen. As a result, it's probably a good idea to poke around the forums of whatever software you're planning to use. With HDTV still being relatively new technology, there are certainly bumps along the way. In all likelihood there will come a time when these work great and have easy setup. That time is probably not here yet. This deal has actually been going on for several weeks now, and is actually not quite as good as advertised (that antenna can be had for around $20 at Amazon). Sorry I was sitting on this....I just never thought to post it here.

CompUSA President's Day Sale Yesterday and today (2/20) only In store only I figured some here might be interested, as this is really as good as a Black Friday deal.

My wife talked me into going to Sears tonight after work, but first she had a few returns at Penney's. We never made it to Sears. Penney's had racks and racks and stacks and stacks of men's clothing all for $5.77. Unfortunately, there were not many pants at our store, but tons of sweaters, dress shirts, and casuals shirts...just about every variety of all three. There were even some jackets. Lots of name brand stuff (quite a bit was Dockers), and there were still a decent number of extra large sizes (always the toughest to find). My guess is that the sale just started today. I'm guessing there may be one or two here who just might be interested in this. Happy hunting.