I just came back from Staples and bought both items that I wanted:

400GB Western Digital USB2 HDD: $140 plus tax minus $40 rebate

4GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro USB flash drive: $60 plus tax

I lined up about 15 minutes before the store opened and there were only about 12 people in front of me -- I had expected 50. Before the store opened, a Staples employee came out and announced that all the $399 Compaq laptops had already been "given away", and several people left right afterward. Good thing I wasn't planning to buy that laptop.

Dont get me started...

I get to Circuit City circa 4:50am, at least 300 people already lined up. I wait in my car until the line has proceeded into the building. I go in, walk over to the camera section and pull a sales rep over. "Can I get the Digital Rebel XTi?" Sure, she opens it and hands me a box. I pay, get in my car (wanting to get out of that mad house as quickly as possible). I open the box like a little kid on christmas. It was not an XTi, it was an XT (older model). It came with no lens or battery. I am thinking of returning it tomorrow.

I hate black friday.

The XT is still not a bad camera at all! The price just wasn't quite as good a deal as with an XTi. I uses a 10D and a 20D (which the XT is based on), and I'm quite happy with those.

A lens only comes with the kit. A battery surely should have been included, though -- it uses the BP-511 batteries, right?

(Checking the black friday ads site -- it looks like CC advertised an XTi with the lens. Did they ring it up as an XTi, at the XTi price?

No, what actually happened is I realized that it was an XT while in the checkout line (with about 50 people behind me). I knew the XT was less so I figured I suck it up and buy the XT, knowing that it will be less -- but also figuring it was the kit with lens and everything. It rang up ad $599 + $20 tax. When I got home and found out that it was the body only I was a little upset, and started researching lenses. I am not a very advanced photographer, but I was buying a Rebel so I could learn some more advanced techniques. None the less, I'm not about to go off and spend $250+ on a decent lens, I'd much rather just get the one in the kit. On top of that, the same thing (shell only xt) is $529 on Newegg.

I'm gonna return it and hope that they still have an XTi kit left. I doubt they'll refund my money, probably a gift card at best. I guess I was too tired to think straight at 5am.

You can get the kit lens for under $100 from eBay, but then you'll be up to $700, and, as you say, $170 more than newegg. And the kits can be found for under $600 on eBay.

I got up around 9am and went to staples around 9:10am. Got everything I need. I am glad that I was not an early bird.

Got the Samsung 205BW 20" LCD for $180 after rebate (my cost would be around $200). Man, this thing is so bright. I now find how crappy my X60S is in terms of the LCD. The angle is so thin and it is so dark.

Also got the 60G Mini Hard drive for $40 after rebate.

Also got the Samsung Laser printer. My laser is running out of toner. It is cheaper to get a printer than to get a toner only.

That is it. The only out of stock thing is the GPS when I got there. I am glad I was not looking for it.

The laptop? no interest at all. Not sure if it is out of stock now.

I picked up 3 1GB SD cards from Wal-Mart for $13.87 each.

I originally meant to arrive at Best Buy around midnight to beat the crowd...But I ended up checking in early, at 6:30PM on Thursday. I got the seventh place in line, and within a few hours there were hundreds of people. It was weird at first, standing in front for 10 hours, but it was interesting.

One guy took charge to make sure no one was budging, handed out numbers, acted like a complete fool over such a trivial facet of our lives...

I ended up with an HP core solo 15.4" notebook with DVD burner, 80GB and other stuff I haven't gotten at yet, for only $380.

I picked up a $250 Toshiba Satellite that I intended to keep, and to sell the HP for a bigger profit...The Toshiba is total crap, and looks way too generic. I'm keeping the HP (sorry guys!), selling the Toshiba, and selling one of my T23's.

I also grabbed an eMachines 3GHz desktop with DVD burner, 120GB HD, 1 GB of RAM, with a 15" LCD and printer for $189.

All in all a great experience, great deals, and a lot of interesting people.

How did you piss?



I am very curious about what that Toshiba looks like. The model is L35-S2151, right? Google Images couldn't find any photos of it. If you are going to take some pictures, please let us know.

Well, at one point there weren't any people on the side of the building...

I only found it online when researching by just using "L35," as the specific model number seems to be obscure.

I posted it for sale on craigslist, but I'm only using the manufacturer images- http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/sys/239315678.html
Yes, I'm trying to retire on this sale!
The Toshiba was cool and slightly reminded me of a ThinkPad at first (only because it's black), but I was discouraged when I compared it to the HP. The ThinkPad clearly has the better build, but the screen on the HP is amazing (glossy and all!). I won't be happy when the sun comes glaring through the window though.

Right out of the box, the Satellite had 3 or 4 noticeable red and blue pixels...the HP, none.

I bought boring stuff for me - a dishwasher, a microwave and an office chair. Oh, yes, and groceries. We had a sales tax holiday in SC yesterday and today, and Lowes here had an extra 5% off everything in the store yesterday (maybe today, too - I haven't checked).

This guy is trying to make even more money from it:

$570 BIN plus $74 shipping

I bought nothing on Black Friday...but I wanted to note that it's not exactly true to say the XT is based on either the 10D or 20D. The digital rebel was very much based on the 10D, but the XT and XTi are not really based much on either the 10D or the 20D. Different sensors for one.

Not that the XT is a bad camera, but he definitley should return it at $599. B&H's (bhphoto.com) regular ol price for the XT is $620 with the kit lens (and if a person thinks $250 is a lot to spend on a lens, they should get the kit lens, because honestly no lens less than $400 is better than the kit (the kit kinda cheats to be as good as it is as cheap but that's another story).

I try to avoid the city on that day, but I had to go out that morning. On my way home, I stopped at Stalples and got the UPS they have.

And for some reason, people are buying them. I'm meeting a fellow today who intends to buy it for $475...I hope his telephone skills don't imply anything about what's to come..

bring back up, dan!

lol...The guy sounds middle age...and middle eastern.

I certainly have no problem with either facet, it's just a bit harder to judge someones demeanor when you don't know what they're saying.

As usual, I'll arrive on the scene packin' mad heat.

edit: I met up with the guy and he turned out to be an honest buyer. He had no visible weapons on his person, and that made me happy. $475 for a laptop I just got for $265!

I got to microcenter around 530 which is a half hour till they opened. there were quite a few hundred people already in front of me so i waited patiently for about an hour. than i bought the premium xbox 360 for 300 and i got it home and it sounded a lil loud to me when the dvd drive was spinning. I thought nothing of it at the time, but i got it back home here in midland michigan which is 6 hours away from microcenter and fired it up and played it for about a half hour and this horribly hideous noise came from the xbox so i ripped my disk out very quickly. Now i gotta mail that thing back to them to get an exchange!!! not the smoothest of transactions ive ever had but that only confirms that i should get the 1 year protection plan. you know ive seen alot of those units on ebay with different problems but i didnt think it would happen to lil old me!!!

Fair price for a premium 360. Did you see the amazon.com 360 premium sale @ $100? They had 1000 of them and they sold out in 29 seconds!

I generally don't buy protection agreements, but I did back when I had an xbox. It was only $20, and given the rate of failure, it was a good idea. I guess the price is probably $50ish for a machine with such a high price.

It's that time of the year again! I bought these this morning:

100-pack CD-R spindle (TDK brand) for $9.99 plus tax at Radio Shack

2GB MicroSD card (SanDisk brand) for $17.99 plus tax at Staples

What did you buy?

Sony 7.1 megapixel camera for $99 at staples (no rebate)
2 gig Sony pro memory stick for $17.99 at staples (no rebate)

Got a couple of $48 Liz Claiborne sweaters at Boscov's for $10.98 and made a killing in general on clothes there saving between 70-80% on average - 2 $48 dresses for $13, $36 pair of jeans for $7.99, $35 shirt for $9.99, etc. All the neice's and sisters in law, etc will be happy...

Overall well worth the time - and we had 15 items wrapped for free at Boscov's in Pottsville, PA at 8:30 WITH NO WAITING!!! I all but dropped over.

I already posted this in the "good deals" thread (didn't see this one), but I got a 22" WSXGA+ Envision LCD monitor for $149 at Best Buy this morning. Very nice monitor at a great price!

I was planning on being in line really early this morning in order to get my hands on a Wii (as a gift), it seemed the only way I was going to be able to get one before Christmas. But I got very lucky and grabbed one off of amazon in the 8 minutes they were in stock last night.

The only other thing I wanted was an external HDD. And I was able to pick up a 2.5" 160GB (USB powered) Gateway (branded, the drive itself is a Seagate) drive online for 65 shipped a few nights ago.

I was able to do all my BF shopping from the comfort of my computer chair this year.

I got 4 2GB SD cards at Walmart for $12.88/ea.

That was last year.

Absolutely not. It's bad enough that I get up at 4am to go to work on most days. And, in my previous life, I've stood on enough lines to last me a couple of incarnations...

Having said that, my wife has proven her insanity today (not that any further proof would be required after having three kids with me) and went shopping...just to find people who have been camping in front of Best Buy since 6pm last night in the 28 degree weather...

She claims she has done well...let's see how many FlexView machines need to leave my collection to make up for that trip...

Prices have dropped a lot indeed. This morning, Staples was selling the same 4GB Sandisk USB drive mentioned in my opening post for $18 after rebate. I paid $60 for it last year, and it was a bargain back then!



I didn't get up early today. I looked up this year's Black Friday deals in advance and the only items I wanted were the CD-R and microSD mentioned in my last post, which I knew wouldn't be sold out quickly. So I just got up at around 7 as usual, got to Staples and Radio Shack at around 8, and both items were indeed still available.



I went to Best Buy on a Black Friday once and will never go again. I swear there were at least a thousand people in the checkout line. Many other stores have equally good or even better deals but much shorter lines, so there's no need to go to Best Buy.

I couldn't bother to get up early and wait in the cold.
I checked all the online offers but there was nothing that took my fancy.
The only thing I wanted was a new laser printer, a Brother HL-5240.
Not in the sales but on 'Black Friday' I was offered a 'second chance' after I was outbid on eBay, and happily ended up with a brand new one for $115.99 (instead of RRP $299.-) incl. a USB cable, which is not included normally.

Nice deal and printer RealBlackStuff. I own an older Brother Laser HL-5170DN and it's hands down the best printer I've ever owned. Good luck with it.

Thanks Harryc,
I was initially eyeballing the Brother HL-5250DN, but as I rarely (if ever) need duplex printing, and as I also have a good USB2/parallel print server, I opted for that same model but without duplex and networking. Saved me a bundle!