Black Friday Splurgeness

Find a great price on media center gear? Share it with other TGBers!
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STC

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Black Friday Splurgeness

#1

Post by STC » Tue Nov 26, 2013 9:37 pm

So, anyone looking to buy some new suff, MC related or otherwise?

I don't really 'need' anything this year. Maybe if something grabs my attention that's good value here in Canada.
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#2

Post by bmblank » Tue Nov 26, 2013 10:03 pm

Nothing worth braving the madness.

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#3

Post by barnabas1969 » Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:05 am

The 32" cheapie TV's they have at Wal-Mart for 98 bucks look tempting to replace the last non-wide-screen TV in one of the kids' rooms.

EDIT: Huh... I just looked at their advertisement. I read somewhere else that it was a "no-name" brand. It's actually a Funai. Funai makes Emerson and Magnavox TV's. The three cheapie 32" TV's that I bought about 3 years ago (also on a Black Friday deal at Wal-Mart) are Emerson (made by Funai) and they still work fine. I paid $159 or something like that. This is a steal. I think I'll get in line for this one. It will make a great replacement for the old 20" Emerson TV in the youngest kid's room. She complains that her TV is smaller than the other kids. This will make a good X-mas gift for her.

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#4

Post by newfiend » Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:38 am

Not this year, works slow and hours are low.. Xmas is going to be light this year. Black Friday never interests me enough to freeze my butt off outside.. I would rather stay inside, warm and shop online deals..

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#5

Post by makryger » Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:00 am

You can't beat some of the prices on semi-new movies on bluray/dvd. I'll see what I can find at walmart probably.
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#6

Post by STC » Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:09 am

Historically I've always done online stuff for the deals. Boxing day too.
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#7

Post by barnabas1969 » Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:21 am

newfiend wrote:Black Friday never interests me enough to freeze my butt off outside.. I would rather stay inside, warm and shop online deals..
Freeze butt? Nah... move to Florida!

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#8

Post by newfiend » Wed Nov 27, 2013 8:08 am

Wish I could buddy...wish I could .

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#9

Post by barnabas1969 » Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:40 pm

Lots of tinted windows here, and lots more for you to tint.

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#10

Post by newfiend » Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:07 am

barnabas1969 wrote:Lots of tinted windows here, and lots more for you to tint.
Trying to get me to move are you? Miss me? haha

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#11

Post by barnabas1969 » Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:13 pm

newfiend wrote:
barnabas1969 wrote:Lots of tinted windows here, and lots more for you to tint.
Trying to get me to move are you? Miss me? haha
Just throwing out ideas. About 20 years ago, I found a guy here locally who does a great job tinting windows. His name is Charles Lyons, and his company is called Sunbusters. I've never used anyone else since then... but I'd give you some business if you were in the area.

My wife went to Wal-Mart yesterday after Thanksgiving dinner. She bought the $98 Funai TV and a Brother sewing machine (can't remember the price, but it was super cheap). I stayed home with my step-daughter, my son, my sister, and her boyfriend. I did the cooking, so the wife told me to leave the dishes for her to wash when she got home. I happily obliged. I offloaded a bunch of the left-overs to my sister and her boyfriend before they left. Win-win.

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#12

Post by IownFIVEechos » Mon Dec 02, 2013 2:13 pm

I got lucky this year (if you want to call spending money that) I was buying the kids toys on Amazon when I see a 32inch Seiko(however it is spelt?) come up for $98 smackers, so of course I hit -add to cart. Delivered in 2 days, and I am not prime! Not sure what I will do with such a small tv :)

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#13

Post by barnabas1969 » Mon Dec 02, 2013 2:39 pm

Seiko makes TV's? I thought they only make watches, clocks, and stuff like that. I think you might mean Seiki. I've never heard of Seiki before, but they have a 32" TV. Not sure if I would buy a Seiki TV after reading some of their reviews. The Funai my wife got is identical to the Emerson TV's in the other three bedrooms. Funai makes Emerson, and it's a decent product for the price.

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#14

Post by IownFIVEechos » Mon Dec 02, 2013 3:37 pm

barnabas1969 wrote:Seiko makes TV's? I thought they only make watches, clocks, and stuff like that. I think you might mean Seiki. I've never heard of Seiki before, but they have a 32" TV. Not sure if I would buy a Seiki TV after reading some of their reviews. The Funai my wife got is identical to the Emerson TV's in the other three bedrooms. Funai makes Emerson, and it's a decent product for the price.
Thanks, I knew I would get it wrong. I have lost faith in reviews. Last year I got a Panasonic 55 inch screen more than 50% off actual price (not manufactures price etc) and I did that before I read reviews. After I ordered it and it shipped I googled for the reviews. My heart dropped when I saw it listed as the worst tv by CNET for 2012 :( 240hz LED! 55incher. YIKES... Then the tv arrived. To this day I LOVE the tv. Everytime I look at it my jaw drops it is the nicest picture. If I had read the review first I would never have bought it (yes got lucky again!). But that was a bigger purchase. The $98buckaroo has no expectations, just had to get it. :)

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#15

Post by makryger » Mon Dec 02, 2013 4:58 pm

IownFIVEechos wrote:
barnabas1969 wrote:Seiko makes TV's? I thought they only make watches, clocks, and stuff like that. I think you might mean Seiki. I've never heard of Seiki before, but they have a 32" TV. Not sure if I would buy a Seiki TV after reading some of their reviews. The Funai my wife got is identical to the Emerson TV's in the other three bedrooms. Funai makes Emerson, and it's a decent product for the price.
Thanks, I knew I would get it wrong. I have lost faith in reviews. Last year I got a Panasonic 55 inch screen more than 50% off actual price (not manufactures price etc) and I did that before I read reviews. After I ordered it and it shipped I googled for the reviews. My heart dropped when I saw it listed as the worst tv by CNET for 2012 :( 240hz LED! 55incher. YIKES... Then the tv arrived. To this day I LOVE the tv. Everytime I look at it my jaw drops it is the nicest picture. If I had read the review first I would never have bought it (yes got lucky again!). But that was a bigger purchase. The $98buckaroo has no expectations, just had to get it. :)
Two things I've realized through the years:
1) Don't rely on a single (Even if its a professional) reviewer to determine whether an electronic item is good. I tend to look more at aggregate reviews from amazon or newegg, which tells me a percentage of how likely I will have trouble, and what kind of trouble I may have. Part of the problem is, the professional reviewers have different metrics that don't necessarily matter to me.
2) When you look at two screens side-by-side, one may end up being better looking, (regardless of the price). But once you bring a single screen home, and you're not comparing it to something else, I usually don't notice the differences and forget about those issues.
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#16

Post by makryger » Mon Dec 02, 2013 5:07 pm

I was looking for a portable tablet for work this black friday. I evaluated a number of the windows 8 tablets, but they were often too heavy, didn't have the right features, too expensive, etc.

I ended up seeing the ipad Mini on sale, and I decided to go for it. $300 with $100 gift card, which is a great price. (My first Apple purchase... yikes!)

Walmart was a complete mad house. No room to walk around whatsoever. They shuttle you to the back corner of the store to wait for the ipad. I waited in line there for 20 minutes, only to end up with a purchase card to have an ipad shipped to me. I then went into the main checkout lines (a friend was concurrently waiting in that line for me), and in about 10 minutes, we checked out. Except there was one problem- I paid for the ipad, but I didn't get any gift card! The cashier had no idea. The assistant manager had no idea what was going on. They shuttled all of us to the front of the store to wait as they tried to figure out what was going on. Finally, the assistant manager just came out and told us to line up in another line so he can manually give us the gift cards.

So then, I come home and go the walmart website to "check out" and have the ipad shipped. The title of the item was "Ipad mini - Wifi 16GB- with $100 gift card (emailed once ipad is shipped)"... so I guess that was the plan all along. They were to email us out gift cards. So in the end, the new ipad mini will cost me $120 after gift cards :D
My Channel Logos XL: Get your Guide looking good! ~~~~ TunerSalad: Increase the 4-tuner limit in 7MC

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#17

Post by IownFIVEechos » Mon Dec 02, 2013 5:13 pm

makryger wrote:I was looking for a portable tablet for work this black friday. I evaluated a number of the windows 8 tablets, but they were often too heavy, didn't have the right features, too expensive, etc.

I ended up seeing the ipad Mini on sale, and I decided to go for it. $300 with $100 gift card, which is a great price. (My first Apple purchase... yikes!)

Walmart was a complete mad house. No room to walk around whatsoever. They shuttle you to the back corner of the store to wait for the ipad. I waited in line there for 20 minutes, only to end up with a purchase card to have an ipad shipped to me. I then went into the main checkout lines (a friend was concurrently waiting in that line for me), and in about 10 minutes, we checked out. Except there was one problem- I paid for the ipad, but I didn't get any gift card! The cashier had no idea. The assistant manager had no idea what was going on. They shuttled all of us to the front of the store to wait as they tried to figure out what was going on. Finally, the assistant manager just came out and told us to line up in another line so he can manually give us the gift cards.

So then, I come home and go the walmart website to "check out" and have the ipad shipped. The title of the item was "Ipad mini - Wifi 16GB- with $100 gift card (emailed once ipad is shipped)"... so I guess that was the plan all along. They were to email us out gift cards. So in the end, the new ipad mini will cost me $120 after gift cards :D

Bravo! Now that's some good shopping. I was tempted to put 2 echos in my Amazon cart and try the old $100 off code but thought if it works I will end up buying them so I did not even try :)

But nice purchase, btw these workers need minimum wages increased for the stellar job they do. Right?

[Moderator note: comments regarding wages located here--> http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 127#p66127]

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