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Yeah, the laptop coupon would be nice when the new Centrinos come out. BTW, if you want lower prices on laptops (and desktops) go to www.cyberpowersystem.com . Their prices are a heck of a lot lower than Dell. They're reputable as well. In fact the Dell $500 coupon makes Dell just slightly more expensive than Cyberpower's equivalent laptop (as opposed to way more expensive).

I got myself some HP Bluetooth Headphones for my Ipaq.

I gotta try this some day!

As far as I know if you drop your laptop they will not cover it if there is any signs of physical damage. If you drop it and it doesn't work but you can't tell you dropped it then you might be safe.

Some people I see have gone totally wacko over some of these deals this year. Lining up at 7 PM? Sheesh! I have a hard enough time coping with standing in the store working for 8 hours, I can't imagine waiting 10 hours just to get in. The laptop deals weren't even that great. Yeah, its a laptop and yeah its $500, but its not like its even a good laptop. Sure it does fine for basic tasks as any computer, but with sub-standard specs its really not so great.

Do SD cards count as accessories? It doesn't appear so

Thanks for the SD Card tip. You can never have too many SD cards especially when you got a PDA and two digital cameras. It really doesn't take too long to fill out those rebates. Took me about two solid hours to photocopy all the materials and send them out. There was if I recall correctly about 12 rebates I had to fill out, some were for as low as $15-$50 and some were as large as $200-$300. But this year I am not buying much more stuff because my house over the last two years has taken on a eerie resemblence to the inside of a Best Buy as it is. hehe.

I am going to pick up all/most of the free after rebate items and also some CD-Rs, cases for said CD-Rs, USB Flash Drive, and if I find a good deal on a SD card I'll get that too. Then if anything catches my eye I guess I'll add that to the cart. Not a very big list this year. Last year I got the laptop, desktop, as well as a dvd burner and a lotta other stuff (about $3,000 worth of stuff, and recieved back $1,200 in rebates).

Yeah, the 15" LCD is a beter deal probably. But for $199 with a 17" CRT and XP its a pretty good deal. I'd almost buy one if I already didn't have 4 computers and a PDA at home (yeah, I finally bought a HP 3115). Best Buy does not deal with Lindows or any Linux system pre-installed as far as I know. Maybe in concept stores, but definitley not in any I've heard of. So you will definitley get XP Home Edition. Those emachines are alright if all you're doing is web and MS Office and occasionally dealing with some mp3s or something. I wouldn't recommend it for gaming or serious development.

LOL! I almost spilled my Pepsi when I read that.

Doorbusters are also the sales that bring in the customers. When someone hears of a sale where laptops will be $499 and CD-Rs are free they'll sure as hell show up to check it out. Me, my brother, and one of his friends have made up a plan to fan out over the stores (Best Buy, OfficeMax, CompUSA) with each of our shopping lists and buy all the items we want from those stores for eachother. That way we all get what we want. Then we'll just go over the receipts and pay eachother whatever money we owe eachother and sort out the rebates.

Compaq and HP are really one company with two names. They are very reliable as well and have been around a long time and will continue to be. I don't think you'll find any "generic" laptops, Zitadelle. I bought the Toshiba last year and it still works, but I admit I don't use it often, maybe two or three hours a week.

Well sometimes its just easier to swallow a $20 return without a UPC (and resell it as an open item at a loss but at least getting something out of it) than it is to have to call the cops on a customer. Yes, I've seen this happen myself. In most cases this was as a result of improper training and the retail employee thought it was true. This is most common when customers ask obscure questions we're not prepared for. I usually say "it should cover it, but let me check" (and I check with a manager) or I say "I'm not sure". But some employees will say yes even if they don't know just to move past the question. Only in few cases during my time working at Best Buy have I seen someone knowingly lie about the service agreements - and in each of those cases it was a manager. The reason is simple. We don't work on commission (some do, some don't, but no Blue Shirts work on commission), we have no reason to lie. Managers are bonused at the end of the month. This happens because we're told to hit it at least 3 times. He's not trying to annoy you, he's just following procedure. You'll find this happening the most during the weeks when holidays are over and firings begin because that's when secret shoppers evaluate the employees. Thanks, I'm happy to offer my services to all of you. Yes, there are some bad reps. Mostly those who have a promotion pending or are in a position to get bonuses like managers. That's when they have incentive to do whatever it takes for you to walk out the door with an item. Out of the regular part timers you come accross they are 99% good people, from my experience. We really mean well and if you're nice to us we'll try to find you a good deal. Generally as I've said about the salespeople lying, this happens rarley and when it does it happens with people like managers the most. This is true especially on service agreements. Almost every piece of electronics has its own service plan or replacement plan with its own exceptions and rules. It's very technical. Even cell phones have two seperate service plans (one for prepaids and one for contract phones). When someone tells you something is covered and you know it is not or that the service plan works in a way you know it shouldn't or may not its usually because the sales person doesn't know better or gets confused. This is why when angry customers come back and demand refunds despite store procedure and rules showing they shouldn't get one, sometimes they are granted one.

Yeah, price matching strategy will work if the lowered price is a real reduction in the price at checkout, it will NOT work if the lowered price is a result of a mail-in rebate. That's the point I was making, because a vast majority of the black friday deals will be the same as everyday prices except you'll get mail in rebates that result in an insanely low final price.

I live in the suburbs of Chicago.