Ah yes, it’s that time of year again. I’m told these winter traditions were once about family, related to historical and religious events. But I’m only aware of breaking out the plastic to get some serious shopping done.
Today, once referred to as Thanksgiving, is Black Friday Eve – when merchant circulars showcasing tomorrows deals hit – and in keeping with tradition, I do give thanks. Many specials have been leaked online in the weeks leading up to the big event, but what’s new this year is that many deals are available via the web (as early as: RIGHT NOW) without waiting for that blasphemous Cyber Monday.
So what are we getting?
I started early and picked up Rock Band ($170) yesterday. I don’t like the drums as much as I thought I would, but I prefer the guitar hardware over GH III ($100). Tomorrow, I’ll check out the Apple Store online and might purchase the overpriced router ($180) if they shave a few bucks off. Speaking of Apple, Microsoft is offering one heck of a deal I’ll put to use: Purchase any edition of Mac Office 2004 (as low as $125 on Amazon) and get a $100 rebate PLUS a free copy (minus $7 shipping) of Office 2008 in January. As far as camping out, forget it. We got to Best Buy (in upstate New York) last year before 5AM and the line wrapped around the store exterior – which was our cue to return to the hotel and get some more sleep. Tomorrow morning, I’ll swing by Staples to make a play for the Navigon 2100T GPS at $99 (I’ve dumped my Mio dedicated GPS and Telenav service), but if there’s any sort of lines or commotion I’m comfortable bailing and coming home empty handed. We remember the Cabbage Patch Kids.
Mari’s doing her research using Retrevo and still loves those digital photo frames — She’s picked up a few 8″ Westinghouse units for family. Since her husband reads ZNF, Mari can’t reveal what cool gadgets he might be getting.
Brent’s still looking for good Wii games, and Link’s Crossbow training which comes with the new Wii Zapper ($25) is on his short list. SageTV‘s HD media extender, due next month, has also caught his eye.
We all seem to be exploring new digital cameras. I say Mari needs an upgrade, but she’s looking for her brother. I’m getting close to pulling the trigger on an entry-level dSLR like the Nikon D40 (~$500). Though Brent spotted a nice deal (that he’ll be notifying his family of) on the Canon SD750 for $220 – and I do prefer pocketable cameras.
What are you eyeing? Any good deals we need to know about?
I’ll update the post once I hear back from Davis. Assuming he’s not buying stock or visiting Reno for the holidays. ;)
I guess my HD DVD player (for $99) was an unexpected holiday buy. I wasn’t in the market for it, but at a hundred bucks it’s a no brainer. We also have some employee discounts and I’m thinking of picking up a few SlingLinks to keep around as backups or give as gifts. Maybe some AV units too. Hmm.
Oh yeah, Melissa got two new Pyrex thingies on sale. It’s only relevant if I can store all my cell phones in one. (Recently added T-Mobile Wing and Verizon Motorola Q 9m to the stable which brings me to 7 or 8 phones. I also briefly had a Centro on hand. Job perks!) And we tried a few duets on Rock Band, with me on guitar and her on bass. As poorly coordinated as I am, she’s worse so she’ll get the mic next time.
Best Buy will have the Garmin nuvi 660 on sale for $399 – I got mine for $679 in April & PriceScan has it running in the low 500’s.
It is great, I use it everyday & I pay for the traffic service which is invaluable here in LA.
*Damn* – I just checked and they are sold out. But if anyone sees this for a similar price during this season, pick it up.
That’s why I’m making a play on the Navigon. The 2100T, like the higher-end models, include lifetime traffic service for free. I did see the Nuvi 260 on sale for $250 at Staples as well. It’s the lower end Nuvi line, but this model does include text-to-speech. I’m not getting a unit without that. But I work from home and walk to Starbucks, Panera, AT&T, T-Mobile, Kinkos, etc so I’m not driving much at all these days. PC Mag wrote about Telenav with the most recent Blackberry review and said the traffic info was inaccurate – do they pull from the same place as Garmin and Navigon I wonder?
If it helps, I’m really pleased with my Nikon D40. I still carry my old Pentax Optio S4i on my belt for the portability, but yes, you want a DSLR for real photography. Hot, hot camera.
Thanks for the Office 2004/8 tip and the Canon SD750 tip, though. Passed those along!
The SD750 link went bad so here’s a direct link to the Best Buy Ad.
Success! Got to Staples about 5AM. It’s sort of a weird location that most people probably don’t think about (downtown Bethesda) so we managed to get the 8th and 9th places in line (well until a few family members of people ahead of us showed up). Bonus: Parking garage and climate controlled internal lobby area to wait in. They were handing out vouchers for the TomTom and Navigon GPS units plus some 32″ fakie brand televisions. By the time we entered, about 75 people were lined up. Went to the customer service counter with my voucher and we were the first ones out of the store and in the car by 6:04.
I also just placed my Office 2004 order on Amazon and I’m thinking about Apple’s router which is $21 off. Probably not enough of a discount to motivate me. Especially since I have three (g) routers here and only one in use. I’d like N and I’d like that networked USB functionality, but for less.
A woman a few spots ahead of us said she and her husband were going to camp out at Best Buy, but when they got there at midnight it looked like 300 people were already waiting so they went home. Several people ahead and behind us were racing to the mall after Staples. I’m going back to bed.
Gateway has the SD750 for $190 (with free Epson printer after rebate). Not sure what shipping or taxes run.
I second the recommendation for the D40. I’ve had mine since about April and I love it love it love it. It’s by far one of the smallest, lightest, and most portable DSLRs on the market.
Thanks for the hook up on MacOffice. Now to figure out the rebate and other forms….. Tivolovers.com had a nice find on itune cards — $100 worth for $75. Not bad if you pay for (mostly protected) music. I too am looking at the new Mac router because I want to have the extra ports and n capability. Unfortunately, my tivotogo transfer speeds are a f***ing joke and I need relief so I plan to wire my tivo’s and maybe use n between the router and the imac (which is furthest from my router.)
OK, more shopping news. Melissa got fired up about my Navigon unit and wanted one for herself. Of course every Staples is sold out ($99 for text-to-speech and traffic is too good to pass up). However, this AM Radio Shack still had a few TomTom One 3rd Edition units ($135) so we picked up two. One for her, and one which we’ll send my mom as a gift. Hopefully she won’t read this comment since she’s out of town visiting family. ;)
I did end up overpaying for the Apple router. But I’m still cleaning up my networking corner… Comcast is running a $25/mo promotion for VoIP so I may drop Vonage (and their router) and get a new cable modem with VoIP built-in. Freeing up a spot on the power strip for an external drive connected to the Airport.
Mc, My transfer times (both TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing) aren’t very good either. On a good day, maybe I can transfer at 2x real time but usually it’s much, much slower. Last night I started a download of a 1hr HD show onto the laptop and the software reported it would take over 4 hours to transfer, so I killed it.