MarkRaby

Huh? New forums? What new forums? </sarcasm> Absolutely Awesome, Brad! -Mark-

Oh, if only we knew at this point... -Mark-

As long as we are talking about Black Friday, here's a fun story from last year that I don't think I ever remembered to share on this, or any other, forum. So my brother, Eric, and I wake up at about 3:00 AM. We plan on hitting JC Penny at 4:00; we have to get ready and also pick up Eric's girlfriend who is coming along with us. So it's about 3:15 and we're all ready to go (Eric takes about 15 minutes after he wakes up to actually open his eyes ). We hop in our family van (this was a few months before Eric got his own car, and I still don't have one), and it won't start! We try and try and try and we cannot get it to start. Well, knowing that waking up our parents would be a bad situation, we really start to panic. After trying a couple more times, we realize it must be that the gas tank is empty. With the nearest gas station being about a 15-minute walk, and it not even being operational yet, we fear that we won't be able to go Black Friday shopping until well after sunrise. But then Eric remembers that we had about a half-full can of gasoline for our lawnmower. So we get the can, empty it into the van's gas tank, and voila! He puts the key in the ignition and the car starts! We go to Eric's girlfriend's house, pick her up, and then decide to completely fuel up at a nearby 24-hour gas station, and I kid you not -- as we pull into it, the car comes to a stop. Filling the tank up with gas fixes the problem again, and we are good for the rest of the day! But man, that was two very close calls that could have ruined our BF experience. -Mark-

Unless it is a complete and total bust, I'm planning on spending several hundred. -Mark-

Oops. Didn't notice SynthDude, and didn't realize you were referring to other threads as well. But you might as well learn it now if you haven't already: I am the master of everything and anything you say must be verified by me before it can be considered as fact. Even opinions must meet my approval. So start getting used to it! -Mark-

What do you mean "all the people"? I only saw one person's name here who I didn't recognize and who has a low post count. -Mark-

Where did you go to college, mugs? -Mark-

Hey, this is kind of like a GottaDeal exclusive: "The only site with official Black Friday 2005 discussions!" 1) How excited are you about this years Black Friday? - I've been doing Black Friday since 2003 (and in 2002, I went with my mom to Radio Shack to pick up one of the M&M radios ), and I have got to say that this year is the most exciting BF for me! Why? Because I actually have some real money. 2003 I spent about $120, which I thought was cool at the time. Last year I think I went to about $500 (including $300 in McDonald's Best Buy Bucks). But now, with my new gig at Tom's Hardware, I am getting exponentially more money than I did for other freelance jobs and even other 9-5 jobs I've had. It's time for me to do some serious damage on BF!! 2) What's on your shopping list? What items? I'm not sure. I'm a college student who still doesn't have a laptop (do all my work at my desktop at home), so if there's a good notebook comp deal, I'll be all over it. 3) Parents, do you dread shopping for the hottest toys and/or video games? I'm 19 years old and in college. Fortunately, I don't have any kids at the moment . 4) Do you bring anything to sit on while camping out at 2AM waiting for a store to open? I'm thinking about getting a collapseable lawn chair. Again, in years past, I did not have enough money to get the really killer deals (i.e. computers), so the earliest I ever arrived was about an hour before the store opened. This year may be different, however, and if I do plan on camping outside, I will just bring my inexpensive, 256 MB MP3 player to listen to, or I'll just talk with my bro and whoever else we happen to take with us. I'm still young, so I probably could just stand for a few hours. 5) What stores ads are you anxious to see? All of them! Mostly Best Buy, Media Play, Target, and Circuit City. 6) We're currently at 5,898 members ... do you think we'll break 10,000 members by Christmas? As long as you still have that cool domain name (what was it, black-friday.com or something like that?), I'd say you've got a great potential for getting a lot of new traffic and new members. I say yes, the 10K member mark will be broken during the month of November. -Mark-

Of course, at least for us young and easily-excited types, dealing with the crowds, madness, and chaos is all part of the experience! It's not really a holiday shopping season if you don't get run over by someone else's shopping cart at Wal-Mart -Mark-

I am doing my best to lighten up a little bit on my spending as of late so that I will ensure myself a very worthwhile Black Friday. Don't know if I can keep it up for 75 more days, though... =Mark=

Help me find a good deal on a DVD-ROM drive. I don't care what speed it is. I just want a really inexpensive one. Thanks!

Wow! Unbelievable price! If you don't already have a GBA, I'd suggest you order this now. -Mark-

Link redirects to CompUSA's home page... --Mark--

The difference is that it's not really a "Pokemon game". Meaning that, while most Pokemon games are adventure-type games where you have to raise your Pokemon and do battles, etc, Pokemon Channel is a completely different experience. The main idea is just that you get to watch a virtual TV with all sorts of different Pokemon-related programs. You can also do some other stuff, most of which revolves around raising a Pikachu by playing with it and such. It's really a game for the very young crowd; I bought it because May 31 was my sister's birthday and figured she'd like it, since she's a big Pokemon fan. Turns out she did like it; the free Pokemon mini system that came with it was a big hit too. --Mark--

What exactly are you trying to say? --Mark--

Just so everyone knows I'm not lying, here's what it's supposed to look like when you enter the coupons: http://img270.echo.cx/my.php?image=pizzahut9id.jpg --Mark--

Heh....that code doesn't work for me. Apparently there's a lot of variation in what coupons you can use depending on where you live. --Mark--

No, you should just be able to add the coupon at any point in your order (although you may try adding the pizza and breadsticks and then entering the code). It may just be that these coupons vary depending on location. --Mark--

Coupon code: HL The description for this coupon is "Hotline free large or extra large pizza"; I'm not sure what that means, but it is right there in the "coupon" section of the online ordering site, in plain view for everyone to see. Add this with a couple FS coupons for free breadsticks and things are pretty good! --Mark--

Sweet!! Just ordered Pokemon Channel + Pokemon Mini. That's one of the best video game deals I've ever gotten. --Mark--

You'll have to take my word for it -- it was two large pepperoni pizzas and two orders of breadsticks for $0.00! I had to enter special coupons I got from their "VIP" program, but they didn't ask for them when I picked them up, so I got to use them a later time again (in which they unfortunately asked for them) --Mark--

By the way, as long as we're sharing great Pizza Hut deals, here's one I got in the end of May (didn't have to provide any coupons) (EDIT: Having trouble hosting the image) --Mark--

Nick, how did you do that? --Mark--

Hmm...I have no idea why the coupons shouldn't be working for you. How are you entering them (i.e. at what point of your order?) --Mark--

Hey guys. I just tried this out today. It worked, no problem. I even used the "FS" code twice and got two free orders of breadsticks! That's a large 1-topping pizza and two orders of breadsticks for $6.99. Just thought you might want to know that I verified that the offer will work. (Possibly YMMV of course) --Mark--