BFJedi

I hope it is cold to minimize my competition. It was much too warm and all the idiots were out making it even harder to get the good doorbusters last year. Survival of the fittest ya know!

Marketing gimmic! An 'HDTV antenna' is just a regular antenna..same antennas made 30+ years ago

The verticle line on the left side of my NBC station is normal, if that's the sort of thing they are referring to. I have 2 PC HDTV tuner cards and my NBC station shows the same left-side line thing. The station broadcasts like that. I dunno if maybe that is what people are talking about. Is it on every channel?

No oven door! A BEAUTIFUL TV set! I just spent a few hours cutting drywall and running coax for the den I am carving out in my new house. The TV is only waiting for the wall mount kit I ordered last night at buy.com (with free shipping and $20/off for google checkout).

Yep.. actually twice if you want to be able to burn those tracks to a CD 1st time to create the Rhapsody accoun 2nd time to create the Real Media store account, so you can access the tracks with RealPlayer instead (to burn them) The card pack is just a code to get any 5 songs of your coosing from the Best Buy music store/Rhapsody.

At our Best Buy, the employees had trouble giving away all the vouchers for the 32" Westy. The same guy cycled the line no less than 3 times. I anxiously grabbed one the first time he walked by. The line was easily a quarter mile long too. When I purchased the set and walked by there looked to be about 2 dozen of the 32" stacked along the wall. Most people on our line seemed to be there for the $189 PC. I think the store had the minimum number of computers. I have not opened my TV yet. I better check to make sure it is ok. I don't want an oven door Christmas morning.

So Best Buy gave out baseball-card sized handouts to the first 200 people at each Best Buy. I went ahead to signup for my free Christmas tunes through the Best Buy music store at http://www.bestbuy.com/sweettracksspecial and in order to get the tunes you have to sign up for Rhapsody for a 30-day trial (after which you pay $14.99/month). This is stupid! In previous years Best Buy would simply give out a pressed CD in a Christmas decorated 'tin'. I realize they are trying to promote their online music store, however if you don't have a credit card to sign up, you can't get your 'free' tracks. Their software is also bloatware and has added some sluggishness to my PC. Furthermore the Best Buy software won't let you burn the songs to a CD, so you have to download and install Real Media Player 10.5, then signup with the real.com store (credit card again) and finally you can use Real Media Player instead of the Best Buy Rhapsody player, so you will be allowed to burn the tracks to CD. After doing all that I found out something much more annoying.. The free 14 'Sweet Tracks' are mis-labeled in the music player on your PC. I went through the trouble of figuring out what they should be, so here's the key: Best Buy/Real Audio Player listing = actual tracklisting (what it should be labeled) Christmas in America - Melissa Etherage = Deck the Halls - Brian Wilson Silent Night - Lifehouse = O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Chris Botti Candy Maker - Holly Brook = Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Dave Koz Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Dave Koz = Lo, How A Rose E're Blooming - Feist The Holly And The Ivy - Lucy Walsh = Candy Maker - Holly Brook Lo, How A Rose E're Blooming - Feist = O Holy Night - Kaci Brown Deck The Halls - Brian Wilson = White Christmas - Keith Urban Joy To The World - Nick Lachey = Silent Night - Lifehouse O Holy Night - Kaci Brown = The Holly And The Ivy - Lucy Walsh The Christmas Song - New Found Glory = Christmas In America - Melissa Etheridge White Christmas - Keith Urban = The Christmas Song - New Found Glory O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Chris Botti = Joy To The World - Nick Lachey The only tracks actually labeled correctly: Do You Hear What I Hear? - Flyleaf = Do You Hear What I Hear? - Flyleaf What Child Is This - Train = What Child Is This - Train I don't know if my PC and the DRM mislabeled the tracks, but 12 out of 14 being mislabeled is annoying. I hope the list above helps someone. The first 200 people that received the handout at their Best Buy.. the packet includes a code for 5 free songs at Rhapsody of your choosing. I have not used them yet, but you can be very sure I am going to cancel before the 30 day trial is done.

I tried to use this coupon on the 32" Westinghouse HDTV at my store, but they wouldn't apply it to 'special offers' which the TV fell under. Anyhow I was curious if anyone got to use the coupon today on a doorbuster. http://emailinfo.bestbuy.com/pp/editor_NET/v3/CampaignWrapper.aspx?E=6297;752429;849745015;1;02&R=T1_CMP_6276&A=1007&ci=6276

Line swappers are OK to me unless each member of the 'team' is intending to each pick up something for themselves. If a family is doing the line relay thing so they can all get A SINGLE computer or SINGLE TV or whatever I am not offended by it at all. I am only annoyed when 5 people rotate for the same place in line all night and then join up at doors opening to EACH buy one of everything.

You know who I am referring to.. the deceptive people in front of you that stand with you for hours and hours on typically the coldest day of the season. An hour prior to the doors opening at Best Buy, family members that have been hiding out in comfy, warm vehicles in the parking lot somehow sneak in line with their family member planted on the line all evening/morning with you. It just isn't fair to those that go on Black Friday solo missions as your position in line usually increases by +30 to +50 by the time the doors finally unlock and open. This occurred last year at my Best Buy, preventing me from picking up one of the very few copies of 24 Season 3 DVD set. Maybe I should take some of the political signs from the road, paint over them and add my own messages to bring with me on Black Friday. They can say something like "line jumping will not be tolerated" and "no tag-team waiting in line". Think if I set them up before everyone else shows up, they will be effective?

Bank debit card treated as a credit card. I found a local bank that gives points for using their debit card as a credit. I dunno why they do that, but I'm fine with it. Earned $25 this year paying for groceries right out of my checking with my own money. The caveat is that if I actually use my account as a debit, I am charged 25-cents for that transaction. Every retail store I have been to always wants me to use the card as a debit by default, so I have to be careful. I get the feeling it is less expensive for stores to run debits than credits. Anyhow my bank card and BBBs fromMcDonald's Monoply have alot to do with funding BF for me.

I am bringing trusty Jon-E hand warmer that I bought many years ago. Just fill it with fuel (it's basically lighter fluid), light the wick, put on the cap and it will radiate heat for hours and hours and hours. http://www.safetycentral.com/jonhanwarac.html Don't go out on Black Friday without one! :) It's hotter than the pouches you all are referring to. I love it. Now that you have me thinking about it, it would definitely rule to have two of these. Last year with wind chill it was 10F here.

The UPS man was driving away 8 minutes before the planned meeting to get my packages at noon today. I flagged him down the road and FINALLY got my Christmas gifts. Good gosh.. how does 3-day select shipping = 9 day 'keep away' shipping? I am flipping angry they arranged to meet me and tried to escape anyway. On the bright side at least I finally got our gifts. My father sent us some nice stuff. I hope the poster gets their stuff too

Opposite here. I am the husband and I find the deals. My wife is impatient and can't normally wait for a good deal online (with shipping time). I usually hold out if it takes longer.. it's all about the bottom line to me. :)

At least I am not alone. It pisses me off that they operate this way. I can see not wanting to carry a heavy package to each door to find out the person is not home, but they should at the minimum go up to the door, knock, wait 60 seconds and if someone answers go back to the truck and get the darn package. Pre-filling out those notices is just plain lazy. I've complained at least a half dozen times to UPS customer service, but they evidently don't pass down my complaint to the local office. My dad shipped out 3-day select for our Christmas presents on 12/19. Here is is 12/28 and I still don't have our Christmas presents. I wasted yesterday's lunch hour driving half an hour to the UPS facility to find out UPS loaded my packages on the truck even though I ordered last Friday to hold it for customer pickup. I had a slip for the 2nd delivery attempt on my door yesterday, so I called at 6pm and asked them to please hold the frigging packages for me to pickup today. The UPS rep named Sula (I got her name) guaranteed it would be held for pickup until 1/4/06. I tracked it this morning and the packages are on the truck AGAIN. I just raised hell with UPS and someone from the local facility finally called me back and is attempting to get the driver to meet me somewhere on my lunch hour to give me my packages. Someone should not go through this much trouble to get their damn Christmas packages. I didn't intend to waste another lunch hour today doing the same thing. Here's my tracking info: Package Progress: Dec 28, 2005 12:41 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY Dec 27, 2005 1:44 P.M. ------------------------- THE RECEIVER WAS NOT AVAILABLE TO SIGN ON THE 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 3RD DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE Dec 23, 2005 7:37 P.M. A DELIVERY CHANGE REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WILL BE PROCESSED;AS REQUESTED, THE RECEIVER WILL PICKUP AT A UPS FACILITY AT THEIR CONVENIENCE. THIS MUST BE WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS 2:36 P.M. THE RECEIVER WAS UNAVAILABLE TO SIGN ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE 5:58 A.M. ------------------------- OUT FOR DELIVERY Dec 22, 2005 11:29 P.M. ------------------------- DEPARTURE SCAN Dec 19, 2005 11:27 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN 6:37 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED 1:34 P.M. As I was writing this UPS called again and wants me to drive all the way home (20 minute drive from work) to meet the UPS driver with my packages. I hope they don't screw this up too.

This happens to me all the time with Amazon/UPS... and they are right next to each other here in Lexington. I had a DVD take 20 days to move a half mile down the road from the Amazon warehouse to the UPS shipping outlet right next door. I wish Amazon had a pickup window at the warehouse. I'd get these packages myself. Honestly UPS drives me nuts. They pre-fill the "sorry you were not home" delivery notices. I have caught our UPS drivers trying to run to my door with those slips, not even knocking on my door first. I've surprised them a couple times by seeing them coming without my packages. Half my Christmas didn't make it under our tree this year. My dad shipped a couple boxes of presents for my family last Monday. UPS didn't try to deliver it until Friday night. I was of course out when they came, so half our the family's presents were missing from our tree. If they had attempted delivery on Thursday (as expected) I would have had a chance to ask them to leave it at the warehouse for me to pickup myself Friday. I was surprised they were not even running a half day on Saturday for those last minute Christmas shipments. Just wasn't the same Christmas experience this year because of UPS.

Here in Central Kentucky you can get a tree for $25 from the local tree farms. My wife and I got a White Pine. It has really long and soft needles, but looks neat. It sort of looks like 'Cousin It'. :) I'll have to snap a pic after Christmas (when I get to open the 5MP camera from BB on Black Friday).

My older brother and I were maybe 9 and 10 years old. We spent alot of time playing with G.I. Joes in our basement, so we were alone alot. One December day we got nosy and wanted to look in dad's standalone 'college closet' in the unfinished side of the basement, not because we were looking for presents, but because we wanted to see what dad put in there. We'd seen in the closet before, but never long enough to really pick up 'junk' and analyze it. I guess we were bored enough one day to get interested in looking at junk. We were shocked as hell when we opened the door and saw the G.I Joe Blackbird jet and bunch of Transformers. We realized then and there that our parents were 'santa' because it wouldn't make sense that dad was stashing G.I Joes with his college junk. Rather than revealing what we knew, my brother and I took it to the next step. We logically came to the conclusion that the closet was not big enough to hold the quantity of presents we typically saw under the tree Christmas each year. When my parents were not looking we peered in their bedroom closet. Bingo! So we took it to the next level.. still not revealing what we had learned. We played surprised on Christmas day. :) Fast forward to the next year.. after school my older brother and I ruitinely reviewed dad's 'college closet' in the basement and mom/dad's bedroom closet to see what goodies were coming for Christmas :). We sensed mom was on to us because the present volume store was low this year. So again we took it to the next step... We reasoned mom was hiding the presents somewhere else. We had an inkling grandma was in on it too so one Sunday morning after church in December I went on a solo mission up to my grandparent's closet upstrairs. My older brother was keeping everyone busy downstairs. JACKPOT! I found a treasure trove of Transformers!! :) I think everyone assumed I was using the upstairs bathroom. Not so.. the creaking on the old hardwood floors gave up my location in my grandparent's bedroom. Grandma and mom started yelling upstairs asking what I was doing. I wasn't responding. They realized I had found 1987's gift depot, so I quickly lied and said a marble rolled under the door and that's why I opened the closet door (?they heard it open). Santa was over! I went downstairs to explain. Now instead of keeping the truth secret I blurted out in *astonishment* that Santa wasn't real and my little brother of 6 just walked in from the kitchen at that very moment. I had inadveringly spoiled the magic for him too. I quickly tried to make like I didn't know what I was talking about when I saw the look of disgust on mom's face. I knew she didn't want my little brother to know yet. That's how he found out about the non-existance of 'ol Saint Nick.

Without yet reading this entire thread... there is another layaway option at Target. If you lift the bottom shelf on top of the floor, it lifts open like a chest, so you can fill it with stuff. No one is likely to look in there, especially if stuff was piled on top of that bottom shelf and it is kinda heavy. When no one was looking I have yanked up this bottom shelf and found all sorts of stuff people were shashing away. I bought some of those 'treasures' for myself. It's a community chest down there. lol

Last year our Sears used voucher return cards with no value on them and only accepted them on Black Friday since they had to key the $10 discount in a special way. This year I went in the wrong door and didn't get any $10

Man hardly anyone is posting that they got the Kodak C360 at Best Buy. I got one, but since it is a Christmas present the wife won't let me play with it til then. I'm sure it beats the pants out of my circa 2001 edition Olympus 1.3MP camera with the slowest picture writing mechanism in history (a pelican pops out the back and etches the image into stone). Countless awesome shots missed because the camera took too long to allow me to quickly snap the next picture! That's my main pet peeve about an otherwise great point and shoot digital camera from years back.

Yes.. I believe by 4 cents

I hope it is artic cold outside again next year. That seems to increase my chances of getting closer to the front of the line because it helps weed out the weak. :) That's not to say I wasn't fighting to stay warm in my rated-to-minus-10 sleeping bag and Jon-E fuel-driven hand warmer (I need to remember to buy a second one for next year). It was 12 degrees here on BF. It was 70 today. Central Kentucky weather makes no sense. I could conceivably line up at 10pm next year depending on the deal-o-meter.

I sent out $68.82 in self-addressed stamped envelopes and got thirty-one $3 BBBs and sixty-two $1 BBBs.. that totals $155. After that cost of stamps I made $86.18. It took me about 4 hours to hand write both the inner and outer envelopes while watching TV. That is $21.54/hr tax-free, which is more than I make at my job. I wish I had done more. I also ate at the restaurants like a mad man (grown up eating under the arches, addict for life), so I earned another $42 in BBBs. The SASEs also gave me free McDonalds food for lunch for 2 weeks as a bonus. I read about other people 'cheating' and using hand-writing type fonts to PRINT their envelopes. McDonalds still honored these requests, so I could have saved my hand alot of cramping, but to me 'no mechanically reproduced entries accepted' meant I couldn't use a mechanical device (like a printer head moving across paper) to write-out my envelopes. I hope the rules don't change much next year. There was some worry towards the end of the promotion because instead of receiving game pieces with BBBs in the mail, some people received a really fat printout of the rules. Fortunately for me I only got BBBs and game pieces and mailed out in the middle of the promo.

Your shopping cart session expired. Unfortunately many retail websites expire your session after some time so whatever item you have stashed in your cart goes back into the pool of availability. Too bad there's no online layaway carts for online retailers.