Back to school sales plans by Walmart, JC Penney, Target and others

Smart Money has a great article on back to school sales plans for some of the biggest chain store retailers in the country! They list them in a nice easy to read format!

Regular readers of this blog already know about the penny sales at the major office supply chain stores, but there's a whole lot more!

So check the Smart Money story if you are interested in finding out what JC Penney, Walmart, Target, Staples, Circuit City, Best Buy, Office Depot, and K-Mart are planning. (Yes, K-Mart is still around!)

Almost free penny sales at Staples, Office Max and Walgreens

Lots of cheapies this week! Dig into your Sunday paper and run to the stores!

Sale at Office Max (no rebates!)
We start with the penny items, a 12-inch flexible ruler for just 1c, limit three per customer per visit.

Then at 10cents you can get the Sharpie Mini pen, limit 4. Available in assorted colors, and can be added to your keychain!

At 25 centts, you can get Office Max branded gluesticks or glue, or poly binders. Limit 3 glues and 4 binders per customer.

At 29c, you can get self service color copies, for 8.5" by 11" size, on .20/24 lb paper.

And at 50cents, you can get the TOPS composition book, wich has 100 sheets. Four per customer!


Free after rebate at Walgreens
Two office supply items are available for free after rebate, when using the monthly Easy Saver Catalog single check rebate program of Walgreens. The items are as follows:

• Pilot G2 Gel Ink pen (pack of 2), $1, free after rebate
  
• Crayola Washable markers, your choice of 8pk Classic, 12pk Doodling or 20pk SuperTips. Price is $2, free after rebate.

There's also the regular Accu-Check rebate, but for this you have to use the rebate on the box. This rebate is separate from the regular Walgreens Easy Saver catalog. So after a $20 mail-in rebate, you get the Accu-Check Compact Plus or the Aviva Blood Glucose meter for FREE! Limit one per. Sales tax, if applicable, is not refundable by the mail-in rebate program.


Sale at Walgreens (with in-ad coupons)
To get the nice deals you need to use the coupons, but the coupons are in the Walgreens weekly circular, which is readily available inside the store, usually near the entrance or the customer service or checkout areas. You can also find it in your Sunday paper!

All deals mentioned are using the coupons! Lots of 5-cent stuff, including a Penway highlighther, multiple colors, but limit 3 per customer per store per visit :) Next, a 5-pack of PaperMate mechanical pencils, limit 3 per customer per store per visit. Then mini composition books for 5c each, limit 4 per customer. These are 80 sheets, and your choice of 3x5 or 4.5x3.25. Last but not least, 2-pocket Penway folders, in assorted colors, limit 5!

At 10c each, you can get a 22x28 white posterboard, limit 5. This is good not just for posters but for multiple purposes, for example you can use it as mailing filler material!

At 12.5 cents each, you can get assorted design pencils, limit 16 please! This is an 8-for-$1 deal, but you can get as little as one and as many as sixteen.

At 19-cents, you can get a 10-pack of Penway pencils, or a 12" flexible or wooden Penway ruler (limit 3 of each). Also, 100-pack of Acco paper-clips, limit 2 per please! Also at 19-cents, but without a coupon and no limit, are a 2-pack of Penway erasers and a 15-pack of eraser pencil caps. NICE!

At 29-cents, you can get 130-sheet college ruled filler paper, or 150-sheet wide or college ruled paper. Limit 3 per customer.

At 33-cents per, you can get 50-sheet legal pads from Corner Office, your choice of size between 5x8 or 8.5x11. Limit six!!!

At 39-cents, you can get a 5-pack of Bic Brite Liner highlighters. This is a NICE DEAL! Limit 3!


Free after rebate at Staples!
One item is free after Easy Rebate, a 10-pack of Zebra Cadoozles 0.7mm mechanical pencils! Limit one per household, the price is $2. Sales tax is not refunded!


Sale at Staples!
A trio 5-cent items at Staples, so load up the basket! A 12-pack of Staples-branded pencil cap erasers, limit 3 or so per customer. Two-pocket paper folders, limit 10 per customer. A plastic protractor, 6-inches, limit 2 per customer. All these, just 5c per package! Oh my!

Then at 25c each, you can get Simply plastic assorted binders, either half or one inch thick. Limit four per customer per store per visit.

eBay sellers special: 25c fixed price listings until July 29!

eBay has just launched a new special to entice people to use fixed price listings from July 16 to July 29, as they will only charge a 25c listing fee. This is only for "Fixed Price Listings", not all eBay listings. This is especially good if you are planning to sell items that would otherwise have high listing fees, since your risk now is much lower, namely 25c per item, instead of the standard fees.

And speaking of eBay, if you are selling or plan to sell more than a few items, do consider investigating the eBay store and ProStore options, depending on the number of items and volume. This can save you on listing fees, especially if you have a lot of slow selling items. You can save a lot in listings fees and unlike an auction, you don't have to sell it unless the buyer pays your prices, or makes a reasonable best offer.

Free stuff in the Sunday paper (July 13, 2008)

We have a couple of nice freebies promoted in the Sunday paper this week, starting with Rite Aid, where you can get the 6-oz Crest Expressions toothpaste for free after the Single Checks Rebate for $2.49. Limit one toothpaste per rebate catalog. You have a choice of flavors, the ad shows three different ones, which look yellow-ish (citrus?), red (berry?) and green (mint?). Be sure to check with your local store for details. And the good thing with Rite aid rebates is that they can be submitted online, no need to be mailing receipts!

Next up, we have a mail-in rebate at Office Depot, that can get you a six-pack of TOPS Colored Junior Size Writing Pads. The amount is $7.49, which you will receive a mail-in rebate after you go through the whole song and dance.

Do note that rebates do not refund the sales tax, so if your state has sales tax, consider it a donation to help support your local schools and projects :)


Penny office supplies at Office Depot
Not quite free, but we think one penny is close enough! Office Depot is giving away office supplies at a penny, just like Staples did last week.

The 1c sale includes a 12-pack of red eraser caps, a 6" semicircular protractor, two-pocket paper folders and acrylic rulers. There may be limits per item, but there are many stores and of course you can visit many times. Keep the wig, moustache, and fur coat handy in the car ;-)

1-cent specials at Staples (starting July 6, 2008)

The students are thrilled school is out, but Staples is in a hurry to get them back to school! Their new ad, starting Sunday July 6, 2008, is having a number of 1-cent specials to entice early "back to school" shoppers. At this rate, we are going to have back to school sales the day after the previous school season ends. But that's another story. Here are the 1-cent specials, good Sunday through Wednesday July 9, or while supplies last:

• Purell 0.5oz bottles. Because you can never be too obsessed with germs. After all, the human body has zero germs ;-) Limit two per customer per visit
  
• 8-pack of Dixon #2 yellow pencils, limit two per customer per visit
  
• 2-pocket paper folders, 10 per customer per visit

Apart from the penny sales, there is also a free after Easy Rebate item: Pentel HandyLines retractable assorted highlighters. The in-store price is $5 but after you submit and receive your Easy Rebate, the price goes down to zero. Do note that sales tax is not included in the rebate amount.


Other Notable Sales Items
If you are looking for an all-around notebook at a good price, run to Staples to get the Compaq Presario F761us for just $400 after a $30 rebate. Don't let the price fool you, this notebook has everything you need for everyday work, including dvd burner, dual core processor, 15.4" widescreen, wireless, and things like that as Arnold says.

$5 bonus if you shop using the Chase Rewards Plus shopping portal

Chase credit card members, there's a $5 bonus waiting for you if you shop through the Chase Credit Card Rewards Plus shopping portal in July 2008. Your first purchase will get you a special $5 bonus! And of course you get reward points with all your purchases made through the Chase shopping portal. Be sure to check the website for details and also see tips on how to make sure that you are properly rewarded with the points.

For example, don't multi-task when you are ready to make the purchase. Start and finish in one window, don't jump around to other tabs or windows, or change the url in the original page and return, and things like that. These type of things can confuse or overwrite the tracking mechanism, and you may not get your percentage bonus credit!

Chase also offers generous bonus rewards, such as 8% on Target.com and Overstock.com purchases, 6% on Office Depot, 4% on Circuit City, and even 3% on NewEgg. The last one is huge since NewEgg is usually "rewarding" at 1% in places like ebates and fatwallet, and Citibank's Citi Thank You Network online shopping mall. Chase must have procured a special deal with NewEgg, since even the NewEgg affiliate program is not paying "average webmaster joe's" more than 2%.

4th of July HDTV deals at Circuit City!

HDTV fans, Circuit City has some special deals to celebrate the 4th of July weekend! The deals are good on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so don't sleep on them! Say goodbye to your analog TV, and hello to HDTV! And don't forget that in February 2009 over the air transmissions will switch to digital! So, let's take a look at the 4th of July HDTV specials at Circuit City!


HDTV LCD specials
We start the party with the Samsung LNT4069F, a 40" LCD HDTV going for $1400. This is a 1080p full-HD television, with 120hz frame rate, 3 HDMI inputs, 8ms response time, and HDTV tuner (ATSC, NTSC and QAM). This screen size is great for viewing from 5.3’ to 10.5’ away. The dynamic contrast ratio is 20000:1. Also supports HDMI-CEC.

And now we move on up to the Sony KDL46XBR4 Bravia XBR-Series LCD, a 46" HDTV going for $2440. You obviously get 1080p full HD resolution, 120Hz frame Motionflow rate, 3 hdmi inputs, HD tuner, 18,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, Energy Star friendliness, 1920 x 1080 panel resolution and one PC input too, and all the other Sony goodies you come to expect from the Bravia XBRs. The weight for the body builders out there is 73 pounds. Add an extra 11 lbs if you use the optional base.


HDTV Plasma Specials
But not everyone is dying ot get an LCD, some people prefer Plasma for various reasons. And we have two specials for you, starting with the Samsung FPT508 50" Plasma HDTV going for $1600. This 50-incher is full 1080p resolution, has 3 hdmi inputs, 10000:1 contrast ratio, HD Tuner (QAM, ATSC, NTSC), and weights 107 pounds.

And now we have the Panasonic 50" VIERA TH50PZ80U Plasma HDTV offered at $1800. This has a built-in SD memory card slot for those who want to showcase their pictures on the TV right away. As you can expect it has full 1080p resolution, 20,000:1 contrast ratio, 3 hdmi inputs, HD tuner, and such. It weighs 84 pounds for those weight-lifters out there :)


More Circuit City 4th of July special offers
The above are exclusive online HDTV specials offered at Circuit. There's a lot more offered, so be sure to check more HDTV Specials.

For all the 4th of July specials at Circuit City, not just HDTVs, be sure to check the link in this sentence!


Tuners Demystified: NTSC, ATSC, QAM
It sounds like an alphabet soup, but these are three different types of tuners. NTSC is the traditional analog tuners we have in our older TVs, VCRs and DVD recorders. ATSC are digital tuners that pick digital TV signals over the air. These can be standard definition digital signals or high definition digital signals (HDTV). QAM is a tuner found typically in dvd recorders and DVRs and tune (unencrypted) digital cable channels. The number of channels your QAM tuner can pick up without using the cable box varies from cable provider to cable provider. Some are stingy and only allow the basic cable channels, others offers more.