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GottaDEAL 2020 Black Friday Prize Club Posting Thread

Brad

By Brad
in 2020

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len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
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Len, what color or style are you looking for?

 

I bought a set this weekend.  It has a tempered glass top.  That's really what I was looking for.  The wooden table top I have now is vulnerable to moisture rings, sharp objects, and ... well ... just about everything.  Thanks for thinking of me.

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len_mullen

len_mullen

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Probably not shopping at Staples this year.  It's the end of an era, really.  I have two bags of ink cartridges to recycle (October and November).  I am eligible to recycle ink cartridges for two months.  I'll get three more rewards 'checks' (October, November, and December).  I have $145 in Staples gift cards.  I have to spend $522.94 by the end of the year to maintain my Rewards status.  That's only one fourth the story.

 

I bought a new desktop last Black Friday.  I have an HP 8620 all-in-one with maybe ten pages printed.  I have enough ink for this printer to last me for the rest of my life.  I have three boxes of paper and a drawer of specialty paper.  We all have great laptops.  That's only one fourth the story.

 

My oldest if out of school and does not own a printer.  My youngest is in a 'sustainable' program that does everything paperlessly.  I print about a ream a year.  That's only one fourth the story.

 

Changes to Staples Rewards and Discover Cash Back have dramatically diminished the stream of unearned income I spent at Staples.  Discover used to sell Staples gift cards at a 50% discount.  Now the discount is about 15%.  I only use my Discover card for the 5% deals as my Paypal Mastercard gives 2% on everything.  So 1.15x(4x(75))) yields $345 in Staples gift cards -- about a third of the $1000 spend threshold to maintain rewards status.  Free-after-rewards is gone.  Rare coupons are heavily exempted.  Price matching is over.  Almost everything is less expensive somewhere else.  That's only one fourth the story.

 

I'll recycle my ink, spend my $265, and use my Staples Rewards to get discounts on Amazon.com.

 

That's the whole story.  It was fun while it lasted...

Edited by len_mullen
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stationchief

stationchief

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Hope those who were in the path of the hurricane on the southeast coast last week are still safe and dry. My parents sent me an image from Baker, FL. Said they were just getting a ton of rain and sent me an image. Looked like their front yard had turned into a creek!

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HanShotFirst

HanShotFirst

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Made a trip to Walmart this week and saw not only was Halloween stuff out (obviously), but they already had Christmas lights and trees out.  I think they was there a couple weeks ago too but man is it way too early for that stuff.

I went to the bigger Supercenter here yesterday and saw trees and lights out too.  Call me crazy but it put a pep in my step honeslty.  I'm so in need of something to look forward to these days.  

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Kanyon71

Kanyon71

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So many places here have Christmas stuff out and very little Halloween. I think Halloween is getting shafted this year due to rona. My wife said a bunch of her students said they aren’t going to get to trick or treat this year due to it. To be honest I’m not sure any of the remaining holidays are going to be the same this year.
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len_mullen

len_mullen

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So many places here have Christmas stuff out and very little Halloween. I think Halloween is getting shafted this year due to rona. My wife said a bunch of her students said they aren’t going to get to trick or treat this year due to it. To be honest I’m not sure any of the remaining holidays are going to be the same this year.

 

I agree.  I have not purchased candy yet and never decorate for Halloween.  We live on a cul de sac of old people so I usually end up eating what I buy.  Keeping my powder dry this year hoping to maintain my girlish figure!

 

If you are looking for Halloween themed candy, Aldis has plenty of it at great prices.

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berry1014

berry1014

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A lot of Halloween stuff in the stores around me with stores still filling the shelves with even more halloween candy and costumes. The grocery store here has had their seasonal asiles filled with Halloween candy and decor since Labor day. Walmart here is just starting to set up the christmas trees in the lawn and garden area. 

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len_mullen

len_mullen

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Here's a deal for those who have an antenna or are considering installing one.  This, BTW, is a great time to install an antenna.  Conditions are favorable to climbing on ladders and roofs but horrible for antenna reception.  Leaves full of moisture, always a little wet, and in constant motion make reception difficult.  If you can get things working in the fall, you will be good the rest of the year.

 

This deal is for a whole house DVR.  The $189 price includes a 1TB/four stream Sling TV Anywhere DVR, an indoor antenna, and three months of Sling TV (which will see you cord cutters through the election).  Pay using a Discover card via PayPal before the end of the month to get 5% cash back ($9.45).

 

https://www.sling.com/deals

 

This DVR competes with the TabloTV DVRs and the Amazon Recast.  I own and like all three of these DVRs.  This group competes with set top DVRs and, to a lesser extent, TCL Roku televisions which can pause, rewind, and fast forward  broadcast TV.  

 

A whole house DVR connects to an antenna and your network.  They have tuners and local storage.  Key features include the number of tuners, the quality of the tuners, how many streams can run simultaneously, internal storage, external storage, what devices can receive the stream, and whether the device can stream outside your local network.  The Sling TV Anywhere has four tuners and can stream or record four shows simultaneously.  It has a 1TB internal disk that can store 150 hours of HD content.  Sling has promised the USB port will soon support external storage as well.  Broadcast television can be accessed using Roku, Amazon Fire TV and iOS and Android devices.  You can watch one stream outside your home.

 

Sling TV Anywhere launched September 10th.  The list price of $199.99 includes 1TB of internal storage and guide service.  That compares favorably to the 1TB four tuner Tablo TV DVR which costs $239.99 and requires a subscription guide service.  Lifetime guide service is $149.99.  Sling TV Anywhere also compares favorably to the Amazon Recast which costs $279.99 for the 1TB four tuner configuration (which includes a free guide service).  Right now, the 1TB four tuner Sling TV Anywhere is $99 when you prepay for three months of any Sling package at $30.00 per month -- or $189 -- and includes an indoor antenna.  A good deal if you do not want an antenna or three months of Sling and a great deal if you have use for one or both of the bundled items.

 

The quality of tuner on these devices is comparable.  In my experience, the whole house DVRs tend to be softer than set top boxes due to compression required to get the stream to work over wireless.  The Recast makes things a bit worse by saving files in 720p.  Your content may be scaled to 720p by the Recast then sent to a television that re-scales to 1080i.  the Recast looks great on my Echo Shows and 720p sets but a bit soft on the 4k sets.  The Tablo TV lets you select the saved resolution.  You can bump the saved resolution to 1024 for better quality or 480p to save space.  It's not clear how the Sling TV Anywhere DVR saves files.  I called their tech support.  After a long wait on hold, the CSR said they 'think' their DVR saves at the incoming resolution.

 

All of these DVRs have four tuners.  The Tablo TV DVR and the Sling TV Anywhere DVR can record or stream four programs simultaneously.  The Recast can record four programs simultaneously but can only stream two concurrently.  Also, while the Tablo TV DVR and the Sling TV Anywhere DVR can stream to just about any streamer, tv, or phone, the Recast can only stream to Fire TV devices (including the Echo Show devices) and IOS and Android phones.  And, while the Tablo TV DVR and the Sling TV Anywhere DVR can stream to devices which are not phones outside your home, the Recast can not stream to external devices other than phones.

 

I should also talk about OTT.  OTT or streaming includes apps like Netflix, Prime, Sling TV, Pluto, Philo, YouTube TV, and all the rest.  The devices these DVRs run on support many streaming services.  The Recast and Sling TV Anywhere DVR integrate some of these services into the DVR's electronic program guide.  I love this integration.  The Sling TV Anywhere DVR integrates Sling, of course.  The Recast integrates Philo, Pluto, Sling TV, and Prime Channels into the Recast's program guide.  This only works for FireTV apps.  Echo Shows only list OTA channels in the guide.  Still slick.

 

All include 1TB of internal storage.  The Recast and Tablo TV DVRs support additional storage via USB.  Sling promises to add this feature via a software update (as Amazon did with the Recast).  

 

In my home, most of the televisions I watch regularly have a TiVo Roamio/OTA on top.  I prefer a set top box for picture quality and responsiveness.  I have a Recast for my Echo Shows and a few TVs not close to coax or ethernet.  I bought the Sling Air TV DVR for use outside my home.  Primarily for use of others.  In fact, I will be looking for someone who would 'swap' external streams with me so we can add to our OTA programming.  I did want to be able to follow the election, so the Sling TV Blue three month subscription represents value to me.  I know people who could use the antenna, too.  I got 5% cashback ($9.45) by using Discover via PayPal, so the cost of the DVR and antenna bundle was technically $88.55.  

 

I've just installed this DVR, but I'm impressed.  Setup is simple, but requires a smart phone.  Picture quality on my 55" 4K TCL Roku TV rivals my TiVo and is much better than the Recast.  On my 32" 720p set, the picture is as good as the Recast.  Tuner performance is on par with the TiVo and Recast.  When one of my marginal channels became unwatchable on the Sling TV DVR Anywhere, it was also unwatchable on the TiVo and the Recast.

 

I brought a 4K Fire TV Stick to work today.  Plugged it into a television and AC power, signed onto the wifi network, ran the Sling app, and was watching television -- my antenna, Sling Blue, and Pluto.  Very nice.

 

I'm hoping to find someone to share antennas with.  I did this with the Simple TV DVR.  It was awesome.  They planned to launch in Europe and I was going to swap antennas with someone in the UK.  

 

Happy Shopping!

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