BigBob

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Wow, did this thread ever go astray, or what ???? I read the reviews on Amazon and I'd say the consensus is that they all felt like they "got the shaft" from their purchase. :yelclap: Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week :yelclap: Don't forget to tip the bartender. Now, here's a "better deal" that doesn't use those expensive batteries ! And, shipping is $6.00 for your entire order, no matter how heavy it is. http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=search&item=VB-2&type=store Be sure to read the fine print on this one ! ! !

I always try to buy something naughty for her just to be nice !

Last year I drove my bright red pickup truck. Even with that eye-catching vehicle I still had fever ridden, shopping dazed, bargain hunting maniacs try to run me off the road. This year I'm hoping my D10 Caterpillar bulldozer is delivered in time for BF morning.

Yes, he did fight it, but it took a call to the mfr pres's office to get his $'s. I believe he sent a letter to the FTC and his State Atty Gen too. Just a lot of hassle and BS to put up with for a rebate.

I won't go near Best Buy on BF. They have had the police there the past couple of years to keep the fights under control. Same for WallyWorld. No way. Rat Shack was next door to WallyWorld but they had like 2-3 of each advertised BF items and those were gone within 2 minutes of the doors opening. Staples was a huge mess last year and their rebate system was a catastrophe. I doubt I'll fight the battles at any of the above retailers this year -- it just isn't worth it ! Ace Hardware was the only place I got what was advertised and actually got the rebate $'s back in record time. We'll see what the 2005 BF ads look like, but Ace and Lowes will be the first ads I look for. I may try Staples.com very early on BF morning to grab up what can be ordered that doesn't involve a rebate. In general, rebates have become more pain than they are worth --- and you know the retailers/manufacturers are counting on you forgetting to send them in, failing to meet some fine print requirement, or selectively "losing" your submission. One friend had his rebate rejected because he didn't fill out the form "in all capital letters" ! So ... any of the BF deals with big $ rebates will get probably get X'd off of my llist.

It's $3.98 per can here in the Tampa area too. That's NOT a good price for such a small can of "air". A 4 pack of 12oz cans is right at $10 at Sams and/or Costco. I wonder if the $.50 deal was due to one store (or area) screwing up an order and ending up with 144 cases instead of 144 cans ? This happens more often than any store manager likes to admit. Rather than pay return shipping/stocking, they dump it and hope that the boss doesn't find out.

The bulbs/lamps on the DLP TV's are extremely sensitive to power surges and also must be kept cool. I highly recommend any DLP owner invest in a $150 uninterruptable power supply (UPS) for the TV. It'll keep the power surges out of your set and also keep the cooling fan running long enough after a power failure to properly shut down the set without stressing the projection lamp.

Sadly, this coupon is dead already ! PBHWM?KJK6RZMM

Not a bad price. Great TV ! Refurb troubles me a bit. 90 day warranty gives me even more cause to pause. Check the prices on the replacement lamps on these DLP sets -- around $300 each from what I have found. Check out the woot.com forum posts on this deal too, but be prepared to wade through a lot of really juvenile garbage to find the serious comments.

Be very careful with the MSN - Circuit City Giftcard "rebate" deals. I went this route when I bought a digital camera from Circuit City. After 8 weeks of waiting, their rebate center sent me a rejection letter stating that I didn't buy all of the items required (there was no such requirement in the rebate offer). I called them and they tried to tell me the same story on the phone. After reading them the details of the offer, I was placed on hold for nearly 10 minutes and finally told that that they had made a "keying error", that they were having a lot of trouble with the MSN related rebates, and that my gift card would arrive in 6-8 weeks. It finally did arrive --- nearly 4 months after the purchase. I'd suggest you keep copies of everything you send in and track the dates as the months go by while you wait for your gift card!

Newegg is showing these as "out of stock" now. I have both CF and SD cards now and there are benefits to each. I saw a 4GB CF card the other day for just under $200. I haven't seen any SD cards over 1GB but do hear that a 2GB card exists. My only "rule" now is to buy nothing smaller than 1GB and only buy the high speed cards. As far as prices go, it is now common to see the 1 GB high speed cards for $45-55. CF prices generally seem to be just a little lower than the SD cards still, but the gap has closed significantly. Overall, I like the SD format better since it is so much smaller than the CF's. And, now the mini-SD format seems to be catching on and they are even smaller. Technology marches on ...

Sports Authority is all over the Eastern 1/2 of the US too, but for some reason not in certain States, i.e. Kentucky. Here's the store locator page: http://www.thesportsauthority.com/corp/index.jsp?page=storeLocator&clickid=topnav_locator_txt I didn't try to run the same search on all of their affiliated stores that operate under a bunch of different banner names. Maybe one of them is in Kentucky?

Great coupon ! Just don't go blind reading that list of excluded items ! I'm heading over to our local Sports Authority this afternoon and see what the deals are for a new GPS unit.

I'll avoid the use of the "S" word here. I have had this Dell LCD monitor for nearly 1 year now and it's simply excellent. At $200, it's a very good buy. In fact, I'm waiting for delivery of a new Dell 4700 and that exact monitor next week. Then I can "retire" another old 17" CRT monitor

Really? What other site would that be ? Inquiring minds MUST know the details! If there are other uses, that can be shared in a "family forum", then more could be sold and affiliate shares would rise. Could there be other possible uses, such as : - a hanging plant stand for my ficus tree? - a rumble seat for my hang glider? - an art-deco windsock for my lanai? - a baby swing for large babies? - A pillow device for insomnia afflicted horses? Seriously, if anyone actually owns one of these swings, how easy/difficult are they to get in/out of ? I am a certified hammock pilot but had many crash landings before successfully passing the test. Also, any "heavy weights" tried one out? Any problems? Blowouts? Letdowns? I've been looking at these swings for about a year now and just keep wondering how comfy and user-friendly they really are.

As one of my bargain hunting friends says to me whenever I miss a deal .... "Ya snooze, ya lose "

Size ? Hmmm ... I don't have it here at the office with me but I'll guesstimate for you. I'd say it's 5" x 5" x 1" thick. If you go to www.woot.com , then into their "community" area, then page back into history (maybe page 3?) until you find the day that woot.com was selling it, there's a lot of good info and a picture of it there.

Only available in the stores, apparently. And, they flew out like crazed bats at feeding time according to the store manager. I went back to buy 3 more at 5:00 and they were gone gone gone. Store manager says several others came in wanting to buy from 10 to 100 of them. Bet those were headed for e-bay ! The manager called 3 other nearby stores for me and they all said that they were shocked at how fast they sold and that they are getting tons of calls. Quality is typical Rat Shack stuff. I tested all 3 of them out and they work fine. Plastic case, wall wart power supply, USB and video cable are included along with a CD of software labelled for Windows 98SE. Screen is nice, colors are OK. There's a nice "prop" on the back so you can stand the thing up like a picture frame. You can delete pictures from a card easily. I didn't try hooking it to a PC yet, as I really don't need it for that purpose. I'm betting it's USB 1.1 too. The best use I can see for them is as a digital "picture frame". Load some favorite pics in a smallish SD or CF card, put it on your desk or fireplace mantle, and let it run with the built in slide show software. It'll go for 10 hours and then auto shutdown. I ran tests using SD and CF cards from a Panasonic 5 MP digicam and a 4 MP Canon digicam and the unit worked as advertised. VERY well worth the $10 if you can find one. The stores "may" be getting more in on Friday or possibly next Tuesday. They really never know what they will be getting until they unload the trucks.

Big Lots Stores flyer today ... Digital photo card viewer for $9.99. This is a Radio Shack closed out model that has a 3.5" LCD color screen and 2 card slots for digital camera memory cards. It accepts compact flash, secure digital, and multi-media cards. Built in slide show feature. USB interface for your computer and video output to plug into your TV set. Our Big Lots had about 24 of them on the shelf at 1:30 and they were all gone by 5:00. They "expect" more in on Friday. Other places on the web are selling them for $30-40. I gottadeal on 3 of them.

Media prices are as volatile as oil prices, it seems. You might take a look at Staples (in-store) deals this week. A 50 pack (spindle) of good quality HP 52X CD-R's is just under $8 this week. That's a very good price for quality media. And considering my ranting about Staples lately, I am pleased to report that there is no STINKING EASY REBATE on them either !

AM tuner? AM = Ancient Modulation ! Sadly, there aren't many AM radio stations on the air any more around here. I listen across the band trying to find the good old reliable ones from days gone by and they just aren't there anymore. BTW, in case you were wondering ... FM = Funky Modulation

I was just in our local Costco today and they had a stack of the coupon books at the customer service counter --- just had to ask for one --- no fuss, no muss. Even got a smile along with the coupon book.

Staples "easy rebate" process is still a mess. My saga is similar to much of what I read in this thread. I had $65 in rebates due to me from the BF sales plus another $4 from another sale. It has taken at least 3 phone calls to their "store support center" and one visit to a Staples store tying up their store manager for 45 minutes trying to get it straightened out. Staples repeatedly rejected/denied the rebates submitted on line via their "easy rebate" process. Well, the good and bad news is ... after being reassured that all of the rebates were good, in the system, and cleared to be paid, I received two more postcards telling me the rebates were being denied AGAIN due to invalid purchase dates. These postcards arrived less than a week ago. Yesterday 2 checks arrived totalling $50 for the rebates that the postcards said were being denied -- the Teon DVD+R spindle, and the Maxtor 160GB hard drive. I'm cashing them fast ! Let's see if their checks bounce ! This whole experience has been way more irritation than $50 worth. Go figure ...

Hmmm ... thankfully, snow tires are a bit hard to find in Tampa ...