Posts Tagged ‘electronics’

Black Friday (on Thanksgiving) for a First-Timer

laelene Posted in lifestyle glimpses,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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My family isn’t big on shopping and my mom’s great at getting deals unrelated to the craze of this time of year. Growing up, we never did Black Friday (who wants to wake up that early?) and we enjoyed a much more chill holiday weekend. However, in recent years with retailers opening Thanksgiving night, it’s become something that I actually considered doing. Lining up at 5 pm at night is far easier than crawling up at 2 in the morning to get in line by 3. This year, Panda and I decided the one item we’d look for is a TV. We had never really gotten a TV since moving to the condo, so we had this giant living room area and no screen to match. What we’ve had is a 24″ that came free with the couch set. Not nearly the size you need when you’re sitting a good 10 feet away.

This morning, the ads came and we confirmed what we wanted: a 48″ Westinghouse at Target. With doors opening at 6, we decided to get into line around 5.

line outside target store thanksgiving night for target black friday store opening sale

It got pretty cold in line, but it definitely could have been worse.

target crackers with deal coupons inside

I’m not sure Americans know what crackers are, but the Brits certainly would!

westinghouse 48 inch tv on sale for black friday at target

Snagged that and went to check out!

broken brand new westinghouse tv screen

Not what we wanted to see upon turning it on.

westinghouse 48 inch tv being exchanged for in-stock 50 inch at target

Of course they were out of stock when we went to exchange it, but we were able to get the 50″ instead.

brand new 50 inch tv versus small 24 inch old one

Now that’s more like it… the old TV was sooo small.

It turned out to be quite the adventure and required another trip to Target. At first, the manager seemed reluctant to give us an exchange for a similar product without charging us the difference (which sort of defeats the purpose of the Black Friday deal, don’t you think?). Luckily, when we found the same brand with a slightly larger screen, she was willing to let the extra $100 price difference slide and gave us an even exchange. At least we got an extra 2 inches for all that hassle!

Snagging an iPad mini retina

laelene Posted in lifestyle glimpses,Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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For the past year or so, I’ve been thinking about replacing my iPad 2. I’ve had it since 2010 and it’s bulkier and slower than I’d like. A few months ago, Target was offering $150 trade-ins plus a $50 gift card. That would make the iPad mini retina 16GB only half its original price! I should have sprung on the deal then, but I missed out and the next week they were offering the iPad mini with the same type of deal. I thought the difference between retina and not wouldn’t be a big deal, so I went to check it out. Unfortunately, the instant I looked at a non-retina screen, I could discern the pixels and it was more obvious to my eye than I had hoped. I set my resolve to get an iPad mini retina the next time I could get it at the $200 price point, with trade-in value and gift cards earned and whatnot.

Finally, on Saturday Panda and I got back from our trip and saw the Target ad for this week – $100 gift card for the iPad mini retina! Between that and my trade-in value around $100 for the iPad 2, I was ready to finally get my new device. Sunday morning, I went in prepared to trade in my iPad and get the mini retina. Then I realized that I don’t have to trade in my iPad at Target, which would give me $91 for it. Since I’m just getting a gift card back, why not go to the highest bidder? Best Buy is quoting $126 for the same one. I’ll certainly be able to spend that sort of money there the next time I get a laptop, TV, or other electronics. So I went ahead and bought the iPad mini I wanted at Target without trading in.

Today I went to Best Buy to trade in my iPad 2 and got that $126 gift card, as promised. I’ll be getting a smart cover for my iPad mini when I figure out which color I like best. I also went by Target again since the first time I didn’t put the full charge on my Target RedCard and I missed out on nearly $15 in savings from the 5% off I get with that card! I had thought that any portion of the charge made on my RedCard would result in 5% off the purchase, but it’s just 5% off the amount charged to the card. Makes total sense, and I should have known that. Good thing I checked my receipt and noticed it, or else that’s a nice meal’s worth of money I would have missed out on.

So now I proudly introduce to you my new gadget, in case you’ve never seen Apple packaging before. Ready for the unboxing?

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Glad to see they had an info card instead of the whole pamphlet printed.

Glad to see they had an info card instead of the whole pamphlet printed.

Of course the plastic part is far more interesting to her.

Of course the plastic part is far more interesting to her.

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Just enough for one hand to hold.

Just enough for one hand to hold.

Trading in that old iPad... farewell!

Trading in that old iPad… farewell!

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