Last year, right after Thanksgiving, if you haven't read on here about
that, I managed to buy my Cyberhome recorder at WalFart for $68. Circuit
City has one this year but with a $12 rebate. Oh well. Cyberhome went
out of business due to owing Philips Magnavox some royalties. I'm lucky
to have the update that fixed it.
tonikaku, while working on Thanksgiving morning (and once again
unfortunately putting the ads in the local paper wrong.. At least 2 of 3
inserts made it in - last year I forgot to put anything in! Geez, tell
me how many thingies go in so I have some idea!!), we go through the ads
at the store and look over the early specials. A few catch my eye:
We B Toys has 1 Gig MP3 USB thumbdrive players for $29.99. Ah. I have a
256MB model, it would be nice to have more room on it, even if I am
optimizing space using Audacity to reduce the sample rate without
sacrificing quality per se.
I'm also looking for a 1 gig thumbdrive by itself. Hmm.. Best Buy has a
PNY model for $14.99. Target had a "Dane-Elec" 512MB model for $7.97.
Office Max interestingly has a SANdisk 1G drive for $12.99, but they
also have a 2G drive for $24.99. Staples and Circuit City have 1 G
drives that come with a rebate. The Staples one (also a Sandisk variant)
would be $7.98 after $7 rebate ($14.98), and CC's one is $3.99 after $26
mail in rebate ($29.99).
Best Buy also has Sandisk 1G thumbdrive MP3 players for $34.99, so
that's a backup plan in case I can't get the We B special.
Targe't (Tar zhay) has the Jakks Pacific 5 game TV unit with Ms. Pac Man
and Mappy for $10!! I saw this at WalFart for $17, but decided to wait.
How did I fare?
I got up on time and left about 4:40 am or so and went out with money in
me pocket. I got to We B Toys just after 5:15 am and went in. There's a
crowd (of course!) and I look for those MP3 players. I did a little
investigating for drivers and what brand it could be because you're not
told that bit from the ad. I get close and guess it's a Diamond Memory
model, and Windows 98 SE drivers can be had on the company's website.
I'm there no more than 6 minutes before finding out those players SOLD
OUT already. I guess a lot of other people thought a $30 1Gig USB drive
MP3 player was a good idea. (The iPod Shuffle is 1Gig and costs $74!!!
Not only over-priced due to being an Apple Computer product (all Apple
stuff is over priced anyway) but you need their iTunes software to do
anything with their iPod products. USB thumbdrive MP3 players? Plug it
in, copy files onto it, eject, and go. How much easier could it be with
a PC? Macs get viruses too !! Apple - don't lie about Windows!!))
tonikaku, I leave as soon as the We B Toys employee tells me that and I
head over to TarZhay. I want the Jakks Pacific videogame unit.
I'm there in line at 5:31 am. I have my MP3 player that I've got already
(not an Apple iPod variant but better) and wait it out. Building lights
come on, and the line soon starts moving. Idiot woman grabs a broken
cart and someone with security tells her to leave it because there's
plenty inside everywhere and the one she's messing with is broken
anyway!
Now... having carts everywhere is good, makes them handy to get almost
anywhere. It's also bad because if you needed to leave in an emergency,
there's these shopping carts taking up space!
Everyone seems to head for the electronics department. I score the Jakks
Pacific Ms. Pacman and et al game unit. Trying to find the 512MB
Dane-Elec drive proved a waste of time. They're ALL GONE in minutes!
Win98SE drivers for it were on the company's website, even though it
didn't seem to have an English version page, the same file worked for
other European languages.
So, ok. I really wanted a 1G thumbdrive anyway, the 512MB cheapy was a
bonus. So I'm 1 for 2.
Get back to the car, and decide next plan. Officemax has the 1G Sandisk
for $12.99. No rebates to mail in. Where's the store? Ah.. one on the
Strip. I go there, because there's a Best Buy there, too. Right next to
Officemax.
I get there, and eventually find the Sandisk. Plenty of them! I guess
office supply stores aren't exactly hot magnets for early shoppers. This
is all still before 7 am. It took me an hour to get out of Tarzhay. So
for my goals, I'm 2 for 3.
But hey, we're here. Let's check Best Buy. I decide to look for the
Lazytown soundtrack CD ($11.99 - yay! Bing Bang!) and then they're
advertised 1Gig MP3 USB Sandisk thumbdrive player for $34.99. THEY'RE
SOLD OUT, TOO! Argh!!
I head people were camping out in front of We B Toys the night before,
as early as 11 PM. Sheesh! One guy who was in line said he had gotten up
to do something, and when he got back, police removed the chair he had
been waiting in! Heh.
So in the end, I saved $30 on a 1G player that I couldn't buy. That goes
back to be saved. Ah well. I got Ibuprofen for mom, and got back just
after 8 am. I go on to work today 12-7 and then I have 8 days in a row
off. Vacations are nice. Paid ones - even better.
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