Christmas shopping, GA-style...

Ok, so this belongs in Contests. Shoot me. So here's the proposal. Christmas is a very financially stressful period of the year. One needs to balance the desire to get cool gifts with the burden of wacky credit card bills, etc. Here's what I propose: a contest that can see who can get the most percent off from the sort of general prices Joe Normal would find. The rules, please, Roy: -Definition of General Prices: the sort of average price found at Amazon, Wal-Mart, Outpost, etc. The sort of price one might expect to pay if one was prepared to pay full price (but now MSRP). -Your total must include shipping, but not tax (to even out the residency disadvantage some of us face). -Jewish participants are welcome, if at a significant disadvantage. sorry! -rebates and GC's can count towards your total. We'll just trust you're not forgetful enough to miss handing in your rebate forms in time. Yes, that means CyberRebates can count, although they don't have a ton of really good gifts... -Gift must be in hand, or must have shipped already. None of this, "well, I'm going to get it." -A minimum of three gifts must be included in the total. The Prize: the undying respect and attention from the Apex community. And the title of Deal Finder of the Month, which is hereby created for this purpose. [Edited by pennypinch on 12-05-2000 at 02:58 PM] __________________ Rio 500: $235.94-$50 coupon-$50 rebate-$18 echo GC=$112+free shipping=$117.94. Boblbee People's Delite backpack: $210. Purchased for $130. (B&M) Boblbee Scorpio: $130. Purchased for $80. (B&M) Ashford Collection (why are they collecting these things?) silver necklace: $150-$50=$100 even. Nike Air Max Purify: $70. $59-$20+6.99=45.99 Chicken Run: $26.99-50%=$13.50+4.84 shipping=$18.34 Summoner PS2 game: $49.99-50%=$25+4.84 shipping (grr, forgot to order with Chicken Run, or I could have saved $4 on shipping...GRR!!) Regular total: $872.92 Apex total: $522.11 Still a camera to buy from Wal-Mart, 20% off thanks to Maggie's gift card deal. Doesn't count, not in hand. % off: 40.188% off. Where are you guys at? __________________ Palm IIIxe for free (not a single penny pinched!) with the promotions, rebates, and all my amazon GCs. And I got a $50 amazon GC with it....Could show it to you, but already sold it on eBay for $225!!! Life can be good!!! MUU HHAAAHAHAHA!!!!~~~ __________________ Smiles are free, and I used a tax exempt card. __________________ Shorter list, but what the hell... Panasonic dvd player 229.00-$50coupon-$50 rebate=129.00 + free shipping =129.00 Plexwriter 12-10-32 eide 229.00-$50 coupon=179.00+ free shipping =129.00 TI89 Graphing calculater 149.95+1.10staples-$40 off $150 coupon +free shipping=$111.05 shipped Canon s100 original price $500 paid approx. $400 (can't remember exact way I did this) Total Joe Schmoe Price: 1109.05 I paid: 807.95 Total savings: 27.15% I bow to my superiors. __________________ thanks to those altavista 500,000 points earlier 20" sharp television -- FREE (Approx $200) Audiovox 32 meg MP3 player -- FREE ($150) 15 $10 KB toy store GCs -- FREE ($150) 1 $5 Blockbuster GC -- FREE ($5) The 4400 points left were donated to charity (priceless) PRicematching -- (2) 100 Imation CD-R -- $2.16 each (retail at the time at staples: $79.99 -- $160) (2) 32 Megs PNY Memory -- FREE each (retail at the time: $49.99 -- $100) Thanks to Volvo: $100 orvis GC put towards one of those "good for your back" swedish pillows and a chair cover (total price = $100-$100 and free shipping) -- $100 Using a 1/2 off coupon: 2 $10 clipper tickets for $10 total (Savings - $10) -- $20 total paid: $14.32 Total Value: $885 Total Savings: 99.9838% savings That Clipper ticket deal skews this percentage! [Edited by Y2J on 12-05-2000 at 10:51 PM Mavi forum