BigBob

And, if you send a gift pack to someone, they will start getting the junk mail too. IMHO, their meats are nothing special, just OK, and very expensive -- even at the sale prices.

From what I hear, you can NOT refill the Dell inkjet cartridges. Like some other mfr's , the printer "reads" the cartridge and won't let you refill and reuse it. Refilling carts isn't the sure thing it used to be.

OOS here. $840 ???? OMG ! ! ! For a video game ? Wheee Doggieeees ! ! !

4 day in-store and online sale at Home Deposit. Looks like some good stocking stuffer items. http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=SuperFeatures2/Home_Page/PM_Black_Friday_2005&BV_SessionID=@@@@0265519507.1134661572@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdaddghjhdkfhcgelceffdfgidgng.0&cm_ven=CJ&cm_cat=1066642&cm_ite=Great+Gifts+at+Great+Prices+-+4+Day+Only+Event!&cm_pla=227502&aid=10409316&pid=227502&cj=1 Wow, what a link ! I have never tried to order from HD online, so YMMV if you can't find the items at your local B&M HD.

Local Big Lots had none of the USB keypads. But, they did have 100's of the USB mouse (mice?) at $8.99 . One whole aisle endcap plus a bunch on another shelf. Much too pricey for a no-name product. They will surely end up on the clearance rack soon !

Wooooo Hoooooo .... GREAT FIND, Cheaparse ! -- Married with Children -- Sanford and Son -- Outer Limits -- Charles Bronson Honey ! Make some popcorn and bring me a 6 pack !

provresgrp, Thanks for trying ! Since the codes are no good, and you are the author of the thread, how about editing the first post and labeling it as a DEAD DEAL or something of the sort. That will save others from wasting their time chasing a ghost.

Amen ! The 30% off code is BOGUS ! I tried it within 5 minutes of the posting here and it was rejected.

Sounds interesting. But ... can you give us just a little more of a description as to what it is, please ? Maybe it's an external add-on numerical keypad??? If so, that's a very good price and a very useful accessory for most laptops. Thanks !

The best advice when shopping at CompUSA is : 1. Know the REAL market prices before you go into the store. 2. Keep your wallet (or purse) safely secured. 3. If you see the dreaded words "After Rebate", please refer to #1 & #2 above. Yes, the last midnight madness sale was a .

There might be some good deals on some items. CompUSA prices are normally not very good unless you like to play the russian roulette rebate games. Read the fine print on the offer --- it looks like you will have to go to the cash register to find out what the prices are. Maybe they'll have a register set aside for price inquiries ??? Since I'm in the market for a digicam, I think I'll cruise by there tonite and check it out. Daz is correct. Some of their items have mark ups of 50% or more.

Good idea --- donate the luggage to charity and take the tax write-off. OD established the value of it in writing ! ! ! The monitor arrived last night. No receipt. No packing list. I'm contacting OD to see what they can provide so that I can process the rebates. There doesn't seem to be anything that resembles a "receipt" anywhere in the transaction that I can fine. Anyone have any ideas on what they will use for the rebate receipt ????? Update: Per "Horace" at OD's CS 800 number, the "order detail" sheet that is available on their web site is the receipt and he is POSITIVE that it will be accepted by both Sony and the OD rebate centers.

Cheaparse is on the right track, IMHO. I would not bother with mid-level managers in the corporate chain, however. They will most likely 'blow you off' with a form letter and hope you don't escalate your complaint to their boss. I have found it to be most effective to look up the company's President or CEO and then address a letter to that office. Keep it short, factual with dates/times/names, and unemotional as to what happened. Offer to discuss the matter via telephone if they need additional facts. Everytime I have gone this route I have received calls and/or follow-up letters telling me what they did about the problem. Good luck. There's nothing that makes me more angry than rude customer service -- especially from a store manager.

The comments about most retailers not being in the business of renting equipment is a good observation. It is a huge problem for all retailers and that is why some are now tracking how many times a customer returns items. I have heard rumors of retailers 'blacklisting' customers for returns abuse! One friend says that she was challenged at JC Penney because she had returned something that was the wrong size within a couple of weeks of another return. A 15% restocking fee for a tech item that has been opened is not out-of-line. They will probably test and re-sell it as an open box item. That costs them employee time and lost profits. I know that I will not buy anything, at full price, if the box has been opened. I expect a DEEP discount on anything that has been opened, used as a demo, etc. So, while I have empathy for your situation, I also can empathize with the store returns policy. You bought it, you used it, it's not defective. The old adage of "caveat emptor" is truer today than ever before. As for the return policy at Costco -- it is one of the primary reasons that I buy 'big ticket' items there if I possibly can. Just be sure you make a copy of your receipt ASAP when you get home. The membership desk people told me that the thermal paper used for the cash register receipts will fade real fast if you don't store it in a cool dark place and that they will accept a copy of the receipt as proof.

Same story here ... I tried several configs of different Dimension models and got them all over $1000. The 30% off coupon is rejected every time saying that requirements have not been met. Dell is making things really tough lately. Their coupons are a real game of Russian Roulette. I got an e-mail yesterday from Dell showing the Canon SD400 camera as a suggested Christmas gift idea. I decided to order 2 for gifts and use a $45 off of $400 coupon on the purchase. Well ... all went well until I see that the ship date is stated as "3-5 weeks" ! ! ! Hmmm, that's not a good bet for a Christmas present, I'd say.

The monitor deal appears to be DEAD now ... "OUT OF STOCK" when you try to add it to your cart.

Cheaparse ... you get a big bunch of gold stars for assembling that deal Great job ! ! ! Not a bad LCD monitor for typical PC usage. Analog inputs only, but that's OK for most people. Pretty intense rebates --- I sure hope they don't play games with those checks ! I jumped on the deal, including all the FREE luggage, and the order was accepted. Delivery scheduled for tomorrow on the FREE stuff and the monitor is showing delivery on Dec 8th from a "Third Party". Sony must have found a dark & dusty warehouse full of that model somewhere. Overall, a VERY hot deal. The luggage will make great Christmas presents. UPDATE 12/05: Well, the luggage was delivered today and the monitor should be here on Tuesday if UPS is on schedule. The luggage is pretty sad -- this is flea market junk quality -- and worth every penny it cost me. :-) I am certainly glad I didn't have to pay either sales tax or delivery charges on the luggage order!

Yes, this is a VERY good price on the old B Wifi technology. Still not sold out as of 8:20 am EST, Wednesday. If you ordered these from Woot ... You might want to go in and read the Woot Community Forum first page notices. Apparently Woot had some system problems and orders got messed up, customer credit cards got charged multiple times, and who knows what else happened. They are promising quick resolution but ... Woot is notorious for system problems, so watch your credit cards closely for multiple charges, your e-mails for repeated order confirmations, etc. I am a long time "Wooter" and I keep hoping they'll get their act together before the market loses faith in them.

Yes, there was a CompUSA ad in the Tampa Tribune this morning (Thursday). As usual, their "deals" are a quagmire of rebate fine print to wade through. And, their history of lost-in-space-rebates and extremely limited quantities of the advertised items makes me very wary of CompUSA. If you are on the north side of Clearwater, I think your nearest CompUSA store is at Hwy 19 and Sunset Point Rd on the West side of Hwy 19 buried back in the shopping plaza. Good luck getting there --- the road construction on 19 has created quite a navigational challenge.

I used to buy a lot of stuff on the Sams Club auction site. It was a great place for deals and I did much of my Christmas shopping there for 2-3 years in a row. Snipers were present on nearly every auction. Then they got wise to the snipers and went to something they called "popcorn auctions". It there was any bidding activity within the last (maybe it was 5?) minutes of the auction, they simply extended the deadline another 15 minutes. If there was bidding in that extended time window, they added another 15 minutes ... etc etc. That killed the snipers in a hurry and also raised prices equally fast. Then they started breaking down the large lots of items into multiple smaller lots which raised the prices even more. Those tactics killed the Sams Auction site for me in a hurry. Ebay has always been a jungle and they have proven they can make a ton of money following their format of "survival of the fittest (or sneakiest)" . Until they do something to impede the snipers, robots, etc, it's only going to get worse. The same thing is going on with the other on-line auction sites. It's not a place for the casual shopper to play anymore.

Rossman --- have you been hanging out at fatwallet.com ? Green for you !

"fessed up to buying one" ????? Just ONE ???? How many ladies have only one pair of shoes???? ONE ???? Give me a break ! ! ! Now ... to get someone to admit that they bought, were given, still have, or any form of recognition of ever having actually seen/touched one will be another challenge and maybe in the category of TMI (too much information) .

A lot of the "stuff" (a.k.a. adult toys or the proverbial marital aids) that we are all giggling about is sold by 'affiliate stores' of Amazon. Sometimes it's not obvious who you are really buying items from. Amazons guarantee seems to get a big vague (evasive?) when dealing with some of these affiliates. Don't forget, it's illegal to sell these items in certain Southern States !

I saw that one at the HF store. It looks like a small tennis racket with a wire grid. It runs on a couple of C or D batteries and electrocutes the bugs when you hit them out of the air with the sucker. You get extra points for backhands and fancy footwork. I think it was $3 a couple of weeks ago at the local HF store "sidewalk sale". It was a tempting gag gift for a few people I know, but I resisted.

Staples had most of their 2004 BF deals on line too. But, their web site was grossly overloaded. Their new 'easy rebate' system was a total mess. I think I got my last rebates out of them in early April. Hopefully they learned from the 2004 BF disaster and 2005 will go smoothly. I know that I will hit their web site shortly after midnite and try to order all of the BF items I want that way.