Free Money. What is Microsoft Live thinking?

Already spent your tax rebate check? Or, perhaps you did not receive one? Well, Microsoft’s Live search is giving your to earn $750 through eBay by giving between 10%-35% off on any eBay item purchased as a Buy-It-Now (BIN) using PayPal’s checkout. This has been going on for about 10 days now, but if this is not old news to you then you need to check it out.

This is the kind of deal that comes around once a year. Free money. Here is how it works.

Take a second to consider a product you might be looking for. Let’s use the Canon Powershot G9 as an example. Go to Microsoft’s search engine at “Live.com” and enter in the search for “Cheap Powershot G9”. In your search results, you get the below set of ads. (Note: You can use many different search terms that will return similar results.)



Take note of the item that says "Buy Powershot is. You may get 25% off with PayPal if eligible" with the Live Search Cashback logo. Now go ahead and click on that ad. When you get to eBay, you will see the logo at the top for the Microsoft cashback with a '25%' flag on it. (Or the current discount).



Now you can tune your search on eBay for whatever you want. For example, I changed the search to "Powershot G9" in the search criteria. Then I went ahead and clicked on one of the Powershot G9 items listed in the available auctions. The logo for Microsoft cashback should still be there.

Then you click on the "Buy Now" button (don't worry, you have to commit on the next page) and you can see your Microsoft Cashback award. On the item I picked, that's $107.50 or a pretty hefty discount as you can see in the image below.



Yep, that's 25% off for absolutely nothing. I actually think Microsoft's Live.com marketing team has absolutely lost their mind. If they think they are going to buy my search preference for a lousy 25%, they are absolutely out of their mind. However, what they will not do is stop Ashley or myself from fully taking advantage of the offer. And I will continue to use Google for all of my search needs. :-)

What's the offer? A discount at the set rate (it changes over time -- as high as 35%, as low as 10% and 35% hasn't been seen since days 1 & 2) for a maximum value of $250 and 3 individual items for $750 in free money from our friends at Microsoft. Nice.

Want to make it better? eBay has several June / July coupons for 10% off or free shipping on up to three items -- they stack on top of the deal. Sweet!

The greatest part, I had been waiting awhile to buy several new items. The Sony STR-DA5300ES that retails for $1699 -- $700 new. A set of JBL HTi8 speakers -- try $150. A Tamron SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 LD Aspherical lens -- $250. My first L series Canon lens, the EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM -- $400. And finally, the Dell 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor E248WFP for $300.

An awesome June shopping spree -- guaranteeing the fact that there are many more posts ahead for July. Brace yourself.

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Bought my Canon EOS Rebel XTi 400D...Finally

Today I finally broke down and bought the Canon EOS Rebel XTI 400D. Earlier this week (here) I had wondered what impact the announcement of the new Rebel XSi announcement on January 24th. The short story is that there was no additional impact and that while the features of the EOS Rebel XSi 450D are impressive – it is not due to be available until April. That means no immediate price breaks on the XTi 400D.

Then on Saturday, I came across a deal too good from Staples to pass up – although it became an ordeal to make it happen. But the bottom line, I ended up with the Rebel XTi 400D kit for $480 + plus some tax. Here is what happened.

Each week for the last few months I had been searching FatWallet (one of my favorite sites) for deals on the Canon EOS Rebel XTi 400D. This week, a post showed up that had a couple items that made for a great deal at Staples brick and mortar. First, the Canon Rebel EOS XTI kit with the 18-55m EF-S lens normally retails for $699.98.

But, then a number of deals possibly made it much lower, here is how it worked out:

$649.98 – Canon EOS Rebel XTi 400D kit ($50 price drop for week of January 20th)
-$50.00 - $50 off $500 coupon from eBay for $.99
-$75.00 - 12% customer appreciation
-$50.00 – Rebate for week of January 20th
$ 38.06 - CA sales tax

$513.04 out the door, or $474.98 for the Canon Rebel XTi. A pretty good deal.

If only it would have been that easy. The first problem I ran into was finding a local store that had them in stock. The stores in Newbury Park, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, and Moorpark were all out of stock. Then we called down to the Oxnard Staples store and they said they had one in stock, so we headed down there.

However, once we got to the Oxnard store – there were no XTi 400D’s in stock. Rather the stockperson was indicating they had the accessory kit in stock, not the actual camera. However, after talking to the sales person they told me that they could have it delivered to my house and apply the discounts. So, he printed out my order and I headed to the register.

The register was the real moment of truth. While the associate told me I could apply the $50 off $500 coupon I bought on eBay for $0.99. However, I had no idea if it would take until it was typed in. Once it was accepted, they also applied the 12% off for customer appreciation and I was out the door with a full Canon EOS Rebel XTi for under $500 before tax.

The only problem? It will not arrive until Tuesday. I guess I can wait.

On another note, has another added any lenses to their XTi? Of all the options out there, it is hard to determine what would be a good addition. I am hoping to pickup some sort of zoom / telephoto before our trip to London and Paris next month.

The only question now is whether I will keep my G7. Once the XTi arrives and the rain stops here, I’m going to take some comparison photos and post.

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Vizio Effect - 42" LCD (VU42LF) Costco Special Purchase

Well, you can keep the puns going, the “Vizio Effect”, “Vizio on my Mind”, among many others break down my experience this past weekend. When Ashley brought the Costco coupon to my attention that showed the new Vizio 42” LCD FHDTV (VU42LF) with 1080p technology – for under $1,000 dollars I could not turn my attention away from it. Priced at normally $1199.99, the $200 off coupon dropped the price below that magic mark. Having been to Costco earlier in the day, I was not going to drive back - but, ordering online was not out of the question.



Costco had previous specials on the Vizio LCD HDTV, but the TVs were not of this quality in terms of specfications. Here are the highlights of it:

42” diagonal / 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio.
Full High Definition 1920 X 1080 resolution.
Compatible input formats: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i.
Supports high definition gaming systems.
Brilliant picture quality with over 16 Million colors.
Amazing 1800:1 contrast ratio.
Backlit Remote Control
Built-in digital HDTV & standard TV combined tuner.
Wall mounting capable; less than 4" deep without stand.
2X HDMI inputs for optimal digital connectivity.
Superior viewing from any angle.

I had been considering getting a new television for quite some time to replace an older one upstairs. In this case, the Vizio 42” (VU42LF) fit the bill perfectly and was deal I could not pass up. I was even willing to spend the extra $30 for delivery, which is quite unusual. The only bad news? Looks like I am supposed to wait 20 days for Costco to deliver it.

And for those of you missing out on this deal, Costco will have $300 off of the Vizio 52” LCD HDTV (VU52LF) in August. However, the 52” is not yet available on the Costco.com website.

What do you think of the Visio 42” LCD (VU42LF) HDTV with full 1080p? Do you have one? Let me know with a comment below!

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Dell or not to Dell? Microsoft Windows Vista?

Dell has made it really difficult to buy a new computer. That is the simple conclusion that I have come to, based on my recent shopping experience on their site. However, I am really surprised that it is has come to that. I have purchased somewhere in the neighborhood of $20M-25M (yes, million) worth of computer hardware & software over the last 10 years, it is really hard to get me to this point.

You see, I have been thinking about purchasing a new Dell computer for the past few weeks. Nothing against my Dell Dimension 2400, but the 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processor simply is not cutting it anymore. Over the weekend, I think I spent more time waiting for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE 7) to render and load web pages which the processor sat at 100%. (No spyware, the machine is clean) And, if I am going to keep up with my blogs, I cannot allow that to continue. :-)

In addition, this morning I received a "See how much you can save with surprise coupons worth up to 30% on select systems." coupon in my inbox as many people did. It is also known as the Small Business "Mystery coupon" by some. The really had me considering purchasing a Dell right there and then. After spending 45 minutes trying to configure a decent system, I abandoned my shopping cart and decided against the $600 purchase. Let's not add to the confusion that you might receive a 20%, 25%, or 30% off coupon AND that in some cases the 20% off coupon was less than the discount already offered by the site!

Truth be told, it should not be this difficult. By no means am I a first time Dell user. Of the 10-15 computers I have personally owned (not to mention the 20-25 work machines I have had), most have either been Dell (Desktops) or Toshiba (laptops). Only recently have I forayed into the IBM world, and I am relatively happy with my T60. In fact, both of my recent Digital Camera purchases -- the Canon G7 and the PowerShot SD800 IS came from the Dell store.

In terms of the problem is that there is choice, and then there is too much choice. Dell has pretty much overloaded the user when they want to visit their site and purchase a new machine. Furthermore, it has -- with the recent coupon frenzy -- become too difficult to determine whether you receive good or equivalent value. It almost borders on the purchasing a new car.

Here is where I ran into the biggest issues that Dell should be solving during the configuration process.

1. Which processor is right for me? There is AMD Athlon 64, AMD 64 X2 Dual Core, Intel Pentium D, and Intel Core 2 Duo. What are the benchmarks and how do the varying processors with similar pricing compare at simple tasks?
2. What does processor speed mean? What difference can I expect to between a 1.86GHz and 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor? Is it worth the extra $50 and why?
3. Video cards are a mess. What is the difference between "256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache" and the "256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro"? Yes, the ATI Radeon costs $50 -- but why? What is the advantage.

The bottom line is that Dell needs to quickly clean up their site and provide a little more information in order for buyers to make a decision. I know in my case that they simply did not provide me with the information I needed to make that final decision and complete the purchase. Perhaps I will consider another vendor this time. In any case, I almost took the plunge and finally tried out Windows Vista!

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Aloha Stadium Swap Meet – A Tourist Favorite!

The Aloha Bowl (Aloha Stadium) Swap Meet or ‘Flea Market’ as some people call it; is one of our favorite attractions when we are in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. It is also a favorite of most tourists visiting Oahu. Why? Well, keep reading and find out!



Plus, it is easy to get there with several buses and cheap transportation services offering round trips for less than $8 per person. If you happen to have a car, admission is only $1 per person.

The Aloha Bowl swap meet runs every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday in the parking lot of Aloha Stadium – practically just across the street from Pearl Harbor. So, if you are visiting the USS Missouri Battleship or the USS Arizona Pearl Harbor on one of these days, you should plan a stop at the flea market! It runs from 6am-3pm, but we recommend not getting there before 8am as many vendors will still not be setup, especially on Sundays!



The swap meet is most famous for all of the tourist items that you can get there, much cheaper than any of the stores or hotels along the beach strip in Waikiki or even the ABC stores! There are also a number of vendors selling varieties of fresh and dried Hawaiian fruits including fresh sugar cane, bananas, papayas, mangos, and even coconuts!

Perhaps the most famous items to be had are the 8 t-shirts for $20. A great price, for sure. Our recommendation is to get the slightly more expensive ones, the 4 or 5 for $20 depending on the vendor – they will fit much better and last much longer.



In addition, you can find all of the jewelry, photo albums, luggage, dancing hula girls, bongos, artwork and more. These are the same ones that you can find in Waikiki for often 50% off.



Visit the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet – you will have a great time!

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On-Rebate – Are they ripping you off?

A lot of noise has been generated the past few weeks regarding On-Rebate (OnRebate.com) and their policies, especially from various newsletters and groups sponsored by Infoworld. In fact, some folks have gone as far to call OnRebate.com extortionists and scam artists.

The noise is centered on two specific issues:

1. Transparency in the rebate process and high frequencies of rejected rebates.
2. An “Express Option” that gets you the rebate faster, although it is at a 10-11% commission to the rebate house.

On the first issue, I can relate a few experiences. On-Rebate is owned by Tiger Direct (TigerDirect.com), which in the past has a reputation for frequently delaying, denying, and losing rebates of customers. I had this happen on a few occasions in a few years ago, and the process was frustrating.

However, I recently had a flawless rebate experience with On-Rebate. In November, I purchase a 2GB SD memory card for my Canon PowerShot G7 camera. With that purchase, there was a rebate for $30 on that particular card. After receiving the product, I proceeded to the OnRebate.com website and filled out the forms for the rebate, and they provided a print-out ready for mailing. I completed the mailing and within a few weeks, I had my $30 rebate check. Their website also accurately tracked and updated the progress of my submission (insert table here)

It was a flawless process, and I received my money from the rebate faster than I would have anticipated. So, while some folks may have some complaints still – my experience was excellent and my assumption is that they may have not have followed the directions accurately.

The second issue is a little more of a gray area. The first questions you have to ask is, what are you expectations when you buy a product with a rebate? Mine is that I will eventually receive the money back, after a couple of months. This can be frustrating, especially in larger dollar situations.

The next question is, what is it worth for you to jump to the front of the line? Would you pay an extra 10% on your dining bill to skip the two hour wait at your local Cheesecake Factory? Would you pay an extra 10% on your airfare to board a plane early or have a good seat? Would you pay a couple of dollars to valet park you car so you do not have to look for a parking spot? These are things that people either do or consider everyday. This is a personal decision for each of us. For me, the answer is no. However, for you the answer may be yes.

On-Rebate has simply made the decision that they believe it is worth 10% of your expected rebate for you to effectively do that, to move to the front of the line. I can understand how this might be frustrating, but it is by no means extortion as some people have suggested.

Where things get a little cloudier is when you bring PayPal into the picture. If you choose delivery of your funds via PayPal, for most folks that adds an extra 4%, so now you are paying 15% of that rebate to get it in a “more” reasonable timeline to deliver your rebate money.

Perhaps where the finger needs to be pointed is in the direction of the manufacturers. The manufacturers write the contracts with the rebate processing houses that specify the length of time they have to process and deliver the rebate checks to consumers. If the rebate houses have the ability to shrink those windows, then we should be pressuring manufacturers to negotiate those lengths.

Let’s realize though that neither the manufacturer nor the rebate houses are motivated to take such an action. Time is money, and the longer they hold onto the rebate check, the more interest they can collect. Its dollars and sense!

Do you agree? What are you thoughts on the latest rebate controversy?

Below is an excerpt from the article on Infoworld’s Gripeline.
-------------------------------------------------
The idea of having to give the rebate house a cut strikes some readers as almost extortinistic. "If you give them a portion of 'your' money they will make sure that you will get your money faster," wrote another reader. "How is it that they can 'make it happen' if it takes at least
6-8 weeks for them to process it? If they can do it that quickly, why aren't they required to do that without extorting some more of it from you? I feel that it is my money and they should have to return it to me as quickly as they ...
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http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=15EA7AB:0CA1139169C4469853DFA70FEC9AB64BEFF29049075316B4

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Buy a Wii Bundle, and return the items you don't want!

Buy a Wii Bundle, and return the items you don't want! That's right, it is easier than you think -- and I have successfully done it!

If you find this information helpful, please leave a comment below!

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Nintendo Wii bundle from Walmart thanks to the free service by NowInStock.net. But, it initially a painful process because I was "forced" to buy an additional 8 games from Walmart within the bundle, for a big total of $736.87. This caused further frustration on my part because I held in my hand a slick 25% off coupon from American Express' My Wishlist for Toys-R-Us which has no restrictions on games, accessories or consoles.

My bundle included:

• Nintendo Wii Console
• Elebits Wii
• Open Season Wii
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Wii
• Barnyard Wii
• Ant Bully Wii
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Wii
• Trauma Center: Second Opinion Wii
• Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action Wii

I then read Brian's post about people still creating a secondary market by bidding for the Nintendo Wiis on eBay. I knew I had to post my experience here with Walmart to help those of you who may have had opportunities to pick up bundles, but did not because of all the "extra" junk in them. I am happy to report that I have successfully returned "ALL" of the games in my bundle back to Walmart. Here is how it worked for me.

First off, Walmart does not have a policy on their bundles on their website. This means you can break apart the bundles and return any items from them without returning the whole thing. The second important item is the return policy on the Walmart site allows you to either reject delivery of a specific item, or return it to the store -- provided you keep the invoice for a full credit -- not just store credit, which is important.

Very quickly after my order was placed, I checked the status of the various bundled items to see if they were in stock like site stated or if there were any items experiencing new shipping delays. A couple of the games had shipping issues, so I placed a quick 5 minute call to Wal*Mart customer service and requested the cancellation of the games since they were going to take longer to ship than the website stated and I expected. 3 of the 8 games were taken care of.

Then, I simply waited until the various games arrived -- in three different packages as they were shipped from various drop-shipment locations. Once they all arrived, I took a short trip down to Wal*Mart and requested their return on my credit card. There customer service person did not ask any questions and the items were promptly returned and the credit appeared almost immediately on my credit card, before my payment was even due.

In the end, I paid retail price plus sales tax, plus $35.00 shipping for my Wii without having to pay for unwanted items. I am also now able to go pick-up the games I wanted from Toys-R-Us at a 25% discount thanks to My Wishlist certificate.

Bottom line is that if you want to get a Wii at retail, there are many other opportunities out there if you know where to look. This an you will not be feeding the secondary markets for Wiis!

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