kingbobb

We buy a ton of things from the Lightning Deals every year. This year, the deals have started populating on the scroll about 24-36 hours in advance. But it's not a complete list, and I've seen deals pop up an hour or two before going live, especially items that seem like they would be very popular. For those that haven't used the lightning deals in the past, very popular items can be fully claimed within seconds of going live. But don't forget to try the wait list. The window to buy only lasts 15 minutes, and I've been down past #100 on the wait list and still had a chance to get the deal.

Thanks! Code works great.

What's your My Best Buy level? I'd heard that today it was going to open up to all members, but I've not seen anything, and so far I'm not getting the lower price. Are they out already?

Why does Gotta Deal keep posting a link to the early sales? Can you see them if you aren't a member? I'm at the basic level, and I get a message saying the sale is only for higher level members. I think us lower level members will get a chance to buy stuff starting Tuesday.

They were on-line earlier this morning at the time Walmart had advertised their sale as going live.

This is my last year trying to shop BF events at Walmart. Last year's midnight events were a nightmare. This event sounded good, but has been so clumsily carried out. The website was not ready to start the sale at the advertised time. Stores put things on sale last night without notice. Items were advertised as available on-line and in-store...with some items only available in-store. My local store had several items on sale at 6am Friday morning...and probably were on sale last night as well...even while the in-store TVs were advertising the sale started at 8am Friday. And of course, Target had their website up and running with matching prices and free delivery, in-store pickup options, and Amazon was close behind. Walmart has nothing left to offer that I can't find somewhere else at a place that I find less objectionable.

I did more pre-BF on-line shopping this year than ever before. Amazon had deals all week. Skylander Series 1 figure, a Canon printer, Brave (ended up breaking my "No Blu Ray" rule because the combo set was cheaper than the DVD alone). Missed out on a couple more deals. They go fast! Amazon had nearly everything else on my list at some point during the week. Best Buy had their BF deals available on-line starting on Wednesday, so we picked up S10 of Smallville, S4 and 5 of Chuck, and S4 of Fringe. Thursday I shop only at Meijers. I went out at midnight to Wal Mart last year, and I'll never do that again. I'll likely not shop anywhere else on Thanksgiving, either. Meijer has always been open on holidays, so I don't feel bad shopping there. I think I got an Angry Birds game and a B1G1F Skylander set. We ended up being up late on Thursday anyway...our 3 year old doesn't know when to go to sleep some nights..so my wife hit Kohls around 1:30. BF at Kohls is one of our spending splurges. This year we spent over $400, nabbing a huge amount of stuff, saving some $800 off Kohls retail price. Plus $150 in Kohls cash. She also swung by Target to get Sherlock Holmes 2 on DVD and Just Dance Disney Party for Wii. Friday it was back to Meijers for Angry Bird plushies and Lego Batman 2. Wal Mart had marginally better deals on several things we bought this year, but between the negative treatment of their employees to the terrible BF experience I've had at WM in the past, I never really thought of heading there. Last year I found several of their BF deals on-line starting on Saturday, but this year the pickings were far slimmer.

There are 4 kinds of characters between Skylanders and Skylanders Giants. The first are all Series 1 characters, with the Skylanders logo (no Giants). All of these Series 1 figures should work with both games. Next are the Giants, part of Series 2, the Skylander Giants game. These will only work with Skylander Giants. Third are the normal size figures with the Giants logo on their card. Many of these are resculpts of Series 1 characters, and will work with both games. Each element comes with a new figure that does not appear in Series 1, and these ONLY work with the Giants game. Finally, there are normal size figures from Giants that have Lightcore added to their package. These cost more than the regular normal sized figures, and they will only work with the Giants game. All figures will work with any portal, so you can play Giants with your Skylanders' portal, including the Lightcore figures (but not in the Skylanders game, only in Giants). It gets a little confusing, but each package does say pretty clearly which game a figure works with.

I got the Canon Pixma printer earlier today. The sale price was equal to the best BF price for a similar model that I've seen. As soon as the priced appeared, I IMEd my wife to tell her I was getting it...took like 3 seconds. Came back, they were at 1% claimed. Hit Add to Cart...missed the first time...then ordered it ASAP. Total transaction took less than 2 minutes, and by that time, they were 100% claimed. All I did was wait at the page that has the counter until it switched over to active. I also set a meeting reminder on my phone in case I got busy and forgot to come back.

Didj and Leapster are incompatible systems. Also, the Didj appears to be a failure, which I think is the reason why we're seeing so many sales on them. Don't count on more Didj cartridges in the future.

I got to my Wal Mart later than I had planned on Saturday, maybe by 7:30. Still, there were only maybe 7 or 8 groups in line ahead of me. At about 7:59, an employee came to the end of the line to ask me and the two people ahead of me what we wanted. They were out of the 42" TVs. I wasn't that put off, I'd only been there for less than half an hour, but the guy in front of me had been there since 6 or so. He left in a huff, I picked up a box of Froot Loops and had a nice sugary breakfast with my son at home. He said he enjoyed the cereal more than he would a TV anyway. We don't shop at Wal Mart very much theses days, and would not have gone that morning but for the TV offer. I suppose it worked, because we spent $3 there we otherwise would not have. But we won't be going back to try and get any more deals. But we got our new TV anyway, a nice 42" plasma from Costco. Cost us $100 more than the Wal Mart deal was, and the specs don't read as good, but it's set up and being enjoyed in our house, and we have 90 days to return it if we find a better deal this season.