Sneak peek at the Staples circular (December 30 to January 5)

Let's take a sneak peek at the upcoming Staples circular (December 30, 2007 to January 5, 2008). It spans a whole year ;-) In this circular Staples launches their 20% rewards program on select brands that goes on until the end of January. Apart from the brands mentioned in the link, there is a special one week only 20% reward on all Scotch purchases. (Scotch the office supplies brand, not whiskey - just to be sure) :-)

A Taxing Season
Staples goes in full speed tax software promotions! And they have quite a few! For example, you can get nine software titles free and another nine for $10 each. Here is a giant picture of the featured software titles. Here is how Staples themselves describe this promo:

Get 9 titles FREE* PLUS Get 9 titles for $9.99 each with ANY tax software purchase! $750 in software savings with the purchase of ANY tax software**.
$9.99 each, After instant savings and mail-in rebates.

They also have the usual free Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe 2008 with purchase of TaxCut Premium, and free Quicken Starter 2008 with purchase of Turbo Tax Deluxe.


Other items

FREE In-Store PC tune-up and security check! (they claim)

Super laptop bargain! Compaq Presario F730us for just $430 after a $30 Easy rebate. This is a nice deal for the price as this is a full feature laptop with a dual core processor, 120gb hard disk, versatile dvd burner with lightscribe, and 15.4" widescreen display. Not to mention the Vista Premium hogware. Ooops, I mean Operating System!

For $35 you can get 4gb Sandisk Cruzer USB flash drive. That's around $8.40 per gigabyte!

Or if you prefer for the same price you can get a two-pack fo 2gb PNY USB flash drives

For $160 you can get a 19" Envision LCD monitor for your computer or laptop

Speaking of which, the Dell Inspiron 1521 notebook is offered at $750, without any rebates! This has an AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core TL-58 processor, 2GB memory, 160GB hard disk drive, 15.4" widescreen display, DVD SuperMultiFormat dvd burner, and the lovely Vista Home Premium

100pk of blank HP DVD media is $28. This comes out to 28c per blank dvd. DVD+R or DVD-R.

To store all those DVDs, you might be interested in a 50pk of slim-line Staples branded jewel cases for $9

For $70 you can feed your computer some more memory: K-Byte® 1GB DDR PC4300 desktop memory

Last but not least, the new calendars are in! Get Organized!

Special 20% rewards from Staples!

As you may recall a few months ago Staples became the rewards program grinch when they ruined their rewards program by taking out most purchases and only including ink, toner and copy and ship. Obviously this was not a good idea.

Now they are trying to clean up the mess by enticing people back to their rewards program by offering a 20% rewards rate on purchases of the following brands: Sharpie, Post-It, Avery, Scotch, QuickBooks, Quarter, Uniball, Swingline, HON, GBC and Command Strips.

More details from Staples with details on each featured brand.

This offers starts on Sunday December 30, 2007 and expires on January 31, 2008. Nice! We have a whole month to load up! That was easy ;-)

Great Article: What to do with your unused and unwanted Gift Cards and Gift Certificates

While surfing around the net we found this great article discussing what to do with your unused and unwanted Gift Cards and Gift Certificates. One option of course is to send them to me, but most people don't like that option :)

There are some great ideas and tips there.

I have one bonus tip for you: Today only eBay has a 10c listing special (today: Thursday December 27, 2007). You can list an item (auction-style or fixed-price) for 10c, regardless of what its price or starting bid. So let's say you have a $100 Starbucks card. You want to sell it at a good price but don't mind keeping it and using it yourself. So here's what you do: You create a fixed price listing, 7-day duration, and put the Buy-It-Now price as the maximum you hope to get (eg $100 or $95 or something like that). Then enable best offers, and mention prominently in your listing that you accept best offers. This will generate a reverse-bidding situation where you can get offers from interested parties and you can make counteroffers as well (up to 3 offers per interested person). If someone makes an offer or buys it at the Buy-It-Now price, that's great! If no one makes a good offer, then you have only lost 10c (10 cents).

On the other hand if you create an auction-style listing, you will have to sell the card to the highest bidder whether it's $99 or $59. In order to protect yourself there you would have to have reserves or high starting bid prices. This really depends on the type of a gift card. If it's a hot item, it will probably do very well in an auction-style listing. But it also depends on supply and demand.

10c listing fees on Thursday December 27 on eBay!

Attention eBay Sellers! There's a listing special starting up on eBay at midnight pacific time tonight! 10c listing fees! The offer is good for December 27, the whole day, using the pacific time zone which is eBay time. This is a one-day only special!

Latest specials from Borders bookstores

Borders has a new email for their Borders Rewards members with new coupons and specials.

Let's start with a coupon that allows you to get 20% off one book or one CD. Be sure to read the fineprint of the coupon and print it. You can have your Borders Rewards card with you or use your phone nubmer so that the Borders cashier can look up your Borders Rewards account number at the checkout register. Expires December 30, 2007.

Through January 7, 2008 (yes, 2008), they have a special, all DVDs are three for the price of two, no coupon needed, This includes standard definition DVDs as well as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray high definition discs. No coupons!

Three books of the "You" series, "You the Owner's Manual", "You on a diet", and "You staying young" are on sale 50% off their list price. No coupon necessary. Promo ends January 1, 2008.

Membership in Borders Rewards is free and easy to sign up, online or in-store or at the Borders checkout register.

There's another promo for those purchasing a Sony Reader Digital book: You receive $50 in eBooks. This is a different book reader from Amazon's Kindle.

Gift Card Balance: Trust but Verify!

I use gift cards and reloadable gift cards often and I have noticed a couple of places where they do not have good practices with how they handle them. I was told by one place that I had zero balance, and it was only after I insisted that they read the card properly and "discovered" that everything was okay (convenience store). In other instances the employees were cutting corners and charging random people's reloadable cards instead of looking into whatever issue they had (this was at a regional coffee shop chain).

So these two recent instances prompted me to issue this warning! Just like you check your credit card statements at the end of the month to make sure everything is okay, be sure to check your gift card balances as well. Especially if you are dealing with larger than pocket change amounts! Most places are doing a good job at handling them, but not all of them. So as Reagan said, trust but verify!

Sling Media Slingbox PRO (SB200-100) for $180 at Amazon (hurry up!)

For a very limited time (four hour window) the Sling Media Slingbox PRO (SB200-100) is available on Amazon at the promotional price of $160 and free shipping of course. To see this price and offer, be sure to check your Amazon Gold Box. It's the thing that looks like it came out of a Pirates of the Carribean movie. If you look at the product page you will see the regular price. The $160 price expires at 10am pacific (1pm eastern time) or if the allocated supplies run out - which may happen at it has sold 28% of the allocated supply in the first hour of the four hour window.



There is a long product description at Amazon in case you are not familiar with this product and there are 106 customer reviews, including three detailed spotlight customer reviews.

Get in-store Cash for your empty cartridges at Office Max!

The recycle your cartidges promo at Office Max is alive and kicking! You can receive $3 per used/empty ink cartridge your recycle. The $3 can be used towards your in-store purchase! Each person can recycle 5 cartridges per day, so you can get a max of $15 per day. The ad shows Lexmark, Dell and HP which seems to hint that those are the brands they want, but to be sure check the store or their promotional page for more details..

They also have a promo where you pay no interest and make no payments for 90 days on all purchase of $200 or more made on your Office Max Personal Credit Card. Check with the store or their website for details.

Sneak peek at the new Staples ad (December 23 to 29, 2007)

I want my HDTV! I want my HDTV! If you don't object to off-brands, and if you have already done your research on this model, Staples is offering the Envision® 37" LCD HDTV for $600 after an Easy Rebate. Easy Rebates are Staples rebates that can be submitted online, using data from your receipt. There is no need to cut UPC codes or to mail anything in using snail-mail. The seven wonders of the internet!

You can also get a 32" version of the same HDTV for $500 or a 42" version for $700. Available in-store only and while supplies last claims Staples.

Meanwhile at $130 you can get the Western Digital 500GB My Book external hard drive, no rebates needed to get that price.

And if you need something to sit on while you work on your computer or desk, how about the $50 Staples Belmore black manager’s chair?

At the same price but after Easy Rebate you can get an industrial strength shredder, the Staples MailMate M3 shredder.

For $18 you can get an "affordable" Omnitech 2GB USB flash drive. It breaks the $10 per gigabyte barrier at $9 per gigabyte.

If blank Maxell media is what you need to back up your stuff, then you pay $13 for a 50-pack, which comes out to 26c per blank DVD. Available in DVD-R or DVD+R flavors. No rebates!

The ad also mentions "save up to 40% off any mp3 player". It does not mention specifics, so you have to check their website or in-store to see if this actually generates a good deal or bargain or it's just a small discount off list price.

$5 off $20 purchase at Walgreens (Saturday only!)

Walgreens is aggressively trying to lure in people through the door! Their latest promo is a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $20 or more. You can get the coupon online, or if you are registered with Walgreens, check your Inbox for the latest email delivery from Walgreens.

But wait there's more! They'll have a new offer for Sunday December 23, 2007. That offer has not been revealed yet.

And here is the fineprint of the offer:

$5 off $20 offer valid in Walgreens stores on December 22, 2007 only. Second offer will be valid in Walgreens stores on December 23, 2007 only. Both offers exclude alcohol, tobacco, prescriptions, gift cards, pre-paid cards and items prohibited by law. Limit one coupon per customer per offer. No cash back.

Borders Bookstores Doorbusters on Saturday and Sunday!

No need to wait for Black Friday again for doorbusters! Borders Bookstores are having Saturday and Sunday morning doorbusters! Taht's right tomorrow and on Sunday, from 7am to 11am local time, Borders Bookstores will be having some doorbuster specials: Every single-disc music CD will sell for $10! That's right, just ten dollars each!

This offer is for Borders Rewards members. Border Rewards membership is FREE, and you can sign up at any time online, or in-store, either at a helpdesk or a checkout counter, or using some of those kiosk-computers that may be available throughout the stores.

Another offer, not related to the doorbusters, expiring on 1/15/2008: You can get $50 of eBooks when you purchase a Sony Reader Digital book.

10% off e-gift card orders of $100+ at GiftCertificates.com

Until December 31st, 2007, you can get 10% off e-gift card orders of $100 or more at GiftCertificates.com! Just use promotional code 10POFF100, which as you expect stands for 10% percent off purchase of $100+.

Gift Certificates has a long list of big name retailers participating in its gift card program, so be sure to check it out! Not only you can give a gift, you can save 10% off, whihc in a way it's like giving yourself a gift :)

And the fineprint from GiftCertificate.com:

Offer ends December 31, 2007. Limited to one use per order on an order over $100. Offer not valid on previous purchases, American Express® Gift Cheques, GiftCertificates.com™ MasterCard® Gift Cards, Amazon®, Best Buy, Bahama Breeze, Chevron, Chili's, Circut City®, EBGames, GameStop, The Home Depot®, iTunes, JCPenney, Lowe's, Maggiano's Little Italy, Olive Garden, On The Border Mexican Grill, Red Lobster, Romano's Maccaroni Grill, Starbucks, Sears, Target or Wal-Mart. Not valid for corporate pricing. Offer is not combinable with any other promotion or offer.

I want my 42" Toshiba LCD HDTV for $1000

I want my HDTV! And I want to pay exactly $1000!

With those demands in mind, how about the Toshiba 42HL167? It is a 42-inch REGZA 1080p LCD Flat Panel HDTV offered by the good people of OneCall.com for $1000! Shipping is additional and starts at $150.

This HDTV features full 1080p, Pixel Pure 3G, Color Burst, ATSC, QAM, and NTSC tuners, 3 HDMI inputs, along with PC input, and of course component, Dyna-Light backlight control, CineSpeed, 60hz refresh rate. It weighs 75 pounds. For more details, please visit the Toshiba 42HL167 page at OneCall.com

Special Holiday Offers for Chase Rewards Plus members

If you are a Chase credit cards member, the chances are that you are already participating or can participate in their online Rewards Plus shopping rewards program. Basically you shop through the Chase shopping portal, and earn a small percentage of your purchase as a reward that is added to your current Chase reward program.

Because of the holiday season, Chase has increased the rewards for some of the most popular online retailers out there. Here are the latest promotions:

Circuit City: 3% of the dollar amount, or 3 bonus points per dollar

Sears: 3% of the dollar amount, or 3 bonus poitns per dollar

Apple Store: 2% of the dollar amount, or 2 bonus points per dollar

Overstock.com: 5% of the dollar amount, or 5 bonus points per dollar

Barnes and Noble: 3% of the dollar amount, or 3 bonus points per dollar

Toys R Us and Babies R Us: 2% of the dollar amount, or 2 bonus points per dollar

If you are a holder of the Chase Freedom credit card, you can switch between rewards or cash. They track at about the same rate, so it's up to you to decide. Cash is obviously more "flexible", but you may also find some gift cards or products of interest in the Rewards part of their rewards program. You can switch between the two one time per billing period.

Hloiday mugs for 40c each at Longs Drugs

If you love holiday themed coffee mugs or if you want cheap coffee mugs, Longs Drugs has their coffee mugs on 50% off sale. Their regular price is 80c, so with the 50% discount, they come down to 40c each! That's 40c per coffee mug!

The price is so low it's almost as if they are disposable!!! Check at your local Longs Drugs store for availability!

Learn how to read again with the Amazon Kindle!

Learn how to read again with the Amazon Kindle! That's right, the Kindle is a new way to read, and a new way to re-discover your favorite passtime: READING!

The Kindle is currently sold out, but you can get yourself a good spot in the line by ordering now. Amazon will not charge you until it ships. There is no delivery estimate at the moment. Apparently demand is too heavy for this product, despite the "early adopter" price of $399.

Coupon for 10% off GiftCertificates.com order of over $100

Gift certificates are a great way to give gifts to people near and far. And better yet, they can't blame you for a poor taste in gifts, they buy whatever they want, and if they don't want to buy anything, they can always sell, trade or re-gift the gift certificate or gift card.

With that in mind, GiftCertificates.com has a special coupon offer: 10poff100, you get 10% off GiftCertificates.com orders of over $100! Woohoo!

Here is the fineprint from GiftCertificates.com:

Offer ends December 31, 2007. Limited to one use per customer on an order between $100 and $1000. Offer not valid on previous purchases, American Express® Gift Cheques, GiftCertificates™ MasterCard® Gift Cards, Amazon®, Best Buy, Bahama Breeze, Chevron, Chili's, Circut City®, EBGames, GameStop, The Home Depot®, iTunes, JCPenney, Lowe's, Maggiano's Little Italy, Olive Garden, On The Border Mexican Grill, Red Lobster, Romano's Maccaroni Grill, Starbucks, Sears, Target or Wal-Mart. Not valid for corporate pricing. Offer is not combinable with any other promotion or offer.

Amazon gift card special: Buy a $50 gift card, get a bonus $5 promotional certificate

Amazon.com is promoting their gift cards for the holiday shopping season with this promo: Buy a $50 Amazon gift card and receive a $5 promotional Amazon gift certificate for yourself! This offer is sent by email from Amazon to people eligible to participate in this promotion. Check your email for an Amazon email for details!

Here is the page with the Amazon Gift Cards


The fineprint from the Amazon offer:

Offer valid on only one (1) qualifying purchase per household. Offer applies only to intended recipients of this e-mail transmission. Offer good for a single qualifying Amazon.com Gift Card purchase between 12/14/2007 and 12/31/2007.
We will send your promotional certificate to the e-mail address corresponding to the Amazon account used to purchase the qualifying Amazon.com Gift Card by 1/31/2008.Your promotional certificate will expire thirty (30) days from the date on which the e-mail containing the e-mail is sent. Restrictions apply. See www.amazon.com/promos for details.

HDTV specials at OneCall.com (new one added!)

The good people at OneCall.com have some interesting HDTV specials for those interested in them!

One more HDTV added today! The Toshiba 47HL167 is a 47-inch REGZA 1080p LCD Flat Panel HDTV for $1575, but you can use coupon code HOLIDAY07 to take an extra $75 off, bringing it down to $1500. Expires 12/15/07.

Sony KDS-60A3000 which is a 60-inch BRAVIA A series SXRD 1080p Rear Projection HDTV at $1775. Take $75 off that price if you use OneCall coupon code HOLIDAY07. Free shipping and the offer expires on 12/14/07.

Toshiba 42HL167 is a 42-inch REGZA 1080p LCD Flat Panel HDTV at $1250. Take $50 off when you use OneCall.com coupon HOLIDAY07. Shipping is included, and the offer expires December 14, 2007.

$300 BluRay high def movie player from Samsung on Amazon

If you are ready to take a side on the nasty war between HD-DVD and BluRay, and you are leaning towards BluRay, this may help tilt the scales: The Samsung BD-P1400 BluRay player for $298 and free shipping at Amazon.

You also get five BluRay highdef movies after mail-in rebate. This player plays 720p, 1080i and 1080p. 1080p is through HDMI only. There are 38 customer reviews on this one at Amazon.

American Express card members: Free full album download when you sign up for the Entertainment newsletter

There is a new promotion from American Express card for existing card members: Receive a free full album download when you sign up for the Entertainment email newsletter. You have a choice of six artists, Alicia Keys, Barry Manillow, Celine Dion, Kenney Chesney, Aretha Franklin or Carlos Santana.

The offer expires on December 14, 2007. According to the AMEX promotion page, only the following credit cards are eligible to participate:

Gold Card, Gold Rewards Card, Platinum Card®, Centurion® Card, International Dollar Cards, Corporate Platinum Card and the Executive Business Card, Business Gold Card, Business Platinum Card and Business Centurion Card from OPEN, if issued by American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc., American Express Centurion Bank, American Express Bank, FSB, Rewards Green Card, Preferred Rewards Green Card, Green Card, Business Green Card if issued by American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc., American Express Bank, FSB.

Four HDTV specials at OneCall.com

The good people at Onecall.com have a four-pack of specials for those interested in HDTVs (high definition television sets). Here they are:

1. Sony KDL-40XBR3, a 40-inch BRAVIA XBR 1080p LCD Flat Panel HDTV for $1970. Use coupon code HOLIDAY07 to save an extra $75 off the listed price.

2. Prefer an even bigger LCD screen size? Then part with $2950 and consider the Sony KDL-46XBR3, a 46-inch BRAVIA XBR 1080p LCD Flat Panel HDTV. Save an extra $100 with coupon code HOLIDAY07.

3. If you have plenty of space, and don't mind the space-eating rear-projection DLPs, and want to spend less, then the Samsung HL-T5076S, a Samsung HL-T5076S is yours for $1335. Use coupon HOLIDAY07 for an extra $50 off.

4. If you want an even bigger screen size, the Samsung HL-T5676S, a 56-inch Slim 1080p DLP Rear Projection HDTV can be yours for $1475. Use coupon code HOLIDAY07 to save an extra $50.

The coupon code HOLIDAY07 can be used on just about any purchase made at OneCall.com. The more you spend, the more you save!

Best Buy MyZone Rewards certificates can now be used online!

Best Buy informs its users that the Best Buy MyZone Rewards certificates can now be used online! You no longer have to use them in-store, but you can also use them online! Which is great for online shoppers, or buy-online-pickup-at-the-store shoppers! And it's very simple to do: Just enter your certificate number at checkout, where prompted at BestBuy.com.

You can also use multiple reward certificates wihtin a single BestBuy.com order. The purchase must be greater (or at least equal) to the reward certificate(s) amount. They don't give cash back on the difference :) So, shop shop shop!

Gadget and book lovers, the Amazon Kindle maybe for you

Gadget and book lovers, the Amazon Kindle maybe for you if you don't mind paying early adopter prices. Amazon is attempting to introduce readers to a new way of reading and buying books. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the market.

Currently the Kindle is priced at the early adopter price of $400, but the books are available for significantly less than their hardcover counterparts, so perhaps for the high volume buyer/reader, this may be a good option.

Double your discounts with AAA in December

AAA members check your emails! There's a new email from AAA today promoting aaa.com/discounts and talks of double the offer offers. More specifically, you can get 10% off BarnesAndNoble.com if you visit through aaa.com/barnesandnoble (expires December 10), and you can print a coupon for 20% off Payless shoe stores (through December). But that's just the beginning. Visit their discounts page for all the details on the double your savings promo.

10% off orders at GiftCertificates.com

There is a new promotion running by GiftCertificates.com, you get 10% off your online purchase if you use coupon code HOLIDAY2. Get an early start to your holiday season gift buying with a versatile gift that lets the "gift receiver" get what they want! And they can't blame you for their purchases, so you have a level of assurance that they won't hate your gift :)

Free Dashboard Confessional "Thick as Thieves" song at Amazon!

We all like free! This is a legal, free mp3 song offered by Amazon to entice users to try its new MP3 store. Free Dashboard Confessional "Thick as Thieves" song at Amazon!.

The song comes from their album "The Shade of Poison Trees".