Tag: Deal

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Rock Band 2 + Xbox 360 Live Points Deals

Wow! It’s been quite awhile since my last post. Things have been quite busy at work and with the darn construction going around here, I’ve been waking up at 9am. I haven’t gotten a chance to blog about Joe’s Birthday BBQ or my recent camping trip. Hopefully my workload won’t be as bad in the coming weeks.

Anyway, the following deals are time sensitive, so I thought I’d blog about them now before they evaporate. Amazon.com has a few Xbox 360/Rock Band deals going on this weekend:

Xbox 360 Live 4000 Points for $40 or Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points for $16. These are normally $50 and $20 respectively. You’re basically getting a 20% discount making it 100pts/$1 instead of 80pts/$1. Pretty good deal considering Live Points don’t usually go on sale and if you order $25+, you get free shipping and since these are considered “gift cards”, they’re not taxable (even in WA).

If you’re seeing a different seller on the main page, please look on the right side, and you should see Amazon.com as seller and the lower price. Given that this deal started earlier this weekend, it’s currently back-ordered, but you’re still allowed to purchase it at the discounted price.

If you’re wondering if it’s better to get the 1600 points or the 4000 points, the better deal is the 1600 points because at 4000 points, you save about 5 cents, but the savings are pretty negligible. I would recommend buying 2x1600pts to qualify for free shipping.

Buy Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and get a 1600 Live Points Card

Here’s your chance to add the new Rock Band game to your collection and set yourself up with 1600 Live points. That means the 84 tracks from the game plus about 10 downloads with your points. This deal will keep you rocking for a while! Offer limited to products shipped and sold by Amazon.com. Promotion ends on October 4, 2008 at 11:59PST. Offer good while supplies last. Limit one per household. See Details.

*Details

Order the standalone version of Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card by October 4, 2008 in our Video Games Store and receive the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card free. To redeem this offer place both participating products in your cart and proceed through the check out process. At the end of your order the cost of the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card will be deducted from your total order. This offer applies only to the purchase of the standalone version of Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card offered by Amazon.com and does not apply to products sold on our site by third-party merchants or through third-party areas such as Amazon.com Marketplace or Auctions. Limit one per household.

How to Qualify for the Rock Band 2 Points Card Promotion:

-This offer applies to qualifying purchases made before 11:59 p.m. PT on October 4, 2008 while supplies last on the “the standalone version of Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360” and “the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card.”
-Offer does not apply to out-of-stock items.
-The cost of the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card will be deducted from your total order at the end of the check out process.
-Offer can only be applied to orders placed after 12:00 AM PT on September 21, 2008, and before 11:59pm PT on October 4, 2008.

Since I was planning to pick up Rock Band 2 already (just didn’t want to pay retail), getting a free $20 worth of Xbox 360 Live Points made a pretty sweet deal. Too bad I had to pay WA sales tax, but even considering that and the fact that the 1600 is really worth $16 this weekend, I’m still saving over $10.

Finally, this probably isn’t time sensitive, but Xyon informed me there was a new free Rock Band song: Stephen Colbert DLC hits Rock Band. The song is called Charlene, a pretty short and hilarious song by Stephen and the Colberts. Those flawless expert achievements are finally within reach!

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Motorola SURFboard SB5101 Cable Modem

So I finally picked up a Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem. Amazon.com finally had a deal for $43.99 – $20 rebate, making it only $23.99 shipped. Well, I had to pay sales tax too, but that’s because I’m in Washington.

There has been discussion on threads if the rebate is valid for Amazon.com given that the rebate form is hosted on Frys.com and that Amazon.com doesn’t actually list the rebate. However on the rebate form, it does state that Amazon.com is a valid retailer to purchase from. Then there was doubt about the UPC matching given that apparently there are 3 UPCs for this particular modem and something about the color of the box.

I got the modem today and the UPC do indeed match (6-12572-14827-3) and mine came in a blue/black box if that matters.

Previously, I had posted my results from Speedtest.net using my D-Link DCM-202 flashed with a special Comcast firmware yielding these results:

speed test with d-link dcm-202

A couple days later, TekMan showed me his results:

TekMan's Motorola SB5101 speed test

I was shocked how much of a jump there is just based on the cable modem alone! At this point I was determined to find a deal and get my own Motorola cable modem.

A week or 2 ago, there was a Circuit City deal for $20 after rebate, but required price matching to Office Depot and the fact that I had to actually visit a store discouraged me from attempting. When I saw this Amazon.com deal on SlickDeals, I knew I had to get it.

I ordered it last week for $44.99 + tax shipped and then it dropped a dollar further to $43.99. I did get my dollar back through Amazon.com’s 30 day price guarantee. Anyway, the modem arrived today and I called Comcast to update the MAC address so I can associate the new cable modem to my account. After giving him the information, he tells me the registration server was down and told me to try back at 3am. I had called around 11pm and the thought of me going internet-less for 4 hours was a scary thought.

So I sat around filing my rebate and did a couple other things while the clock ticked away. When the clock hit 1am, I knew I had to check to see if I can register my modem yet. I called and indeed the server was back up. Registration only took a few minutes and my internet was up and running in no time. Whoopee!

Of course, the first thing I do is another speed test:

My Motorola SB5101 speed test

This purchase was definitely worth it. I did 3 tests with my D-Link DCM-202 and they average to around 18000Kbps down and 1500Kbps up. I did 2 tests with my Motorola SB5101 and they average to 23000Kbps down and 3100Kbps up. Quite a performance increase for just $25! Of course, this could just be the initial burst speed, but I’m still excited about the speed increase.

Now I have a spare cable modem or if I sell it, it’ll probably pay for my Motorola cable modem completely!

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Free Catan (XBLA) with 12 Month Xbox Live Gold Subscription

Not exactly a freebie, but if you’re planning to get a 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscription, you might as well sign up now and get Catan on Xbox Live Arcade, which is based on The Settlers of Catan board game.

catan Because you’re such a valued Xbox LIVE® gamer, we’d like to offer you the chance to give the gift of Catan on us! Through strategy, trading, and a little bit of luck, your friends can vie for control with their opponents over the resources and territory of a newly discovered island.

Now through March 25, 2008, get your friends to sign up for a new 12–month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership, and they will receive a free copy of Catan.*

GIVE THE GIFT OF CATAN

Here’s how your friends can get their free copy of Catan:
1. Sign up for a new 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership.
2. Register at: xbox.com/sm8

*Gift to Friend Offer: Offer good only to new 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold members who have subscribed for membership and registered at xbox.com/sm8 between February 25, 2008 and March 25, 2008. Limit: one gift per recipient. This offer is nontransferable. This offer expires on March 25, 2008, while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. Any gift returned as nondeliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6-8 weeks for the shipment of your gift. Offer is not combinable with other Microsoft offers or rebates. Open only to legal residents, aged 14+, of the 50 United States (includes the District of Columbia).

I tried loading the page and it showed: Page unavailable. Not sure if it’s because I didn’t sign up for a 12 month membership during the time frame or if it’s just not up yet.

Update:
The page is finally up and you can find more details at www.xbox.com/giftofcatan.

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Squishables – So Cute!

So Tera first introduced me to this website: Squishable.com a few days ago. The stuffed animals on their site were really cute, but I was wondering why the price was so high. $38 for a stuffed animal. Then of course, based on the pictures on the front page, I had no idea how big they were. I clicked on the gallery and none of the pictures loaded. Turns out NoScript was blocking all the images from being loaded. Temporarily allowed squishable.com to run scripts and then came the pictures.

The size was a lot bigger than I had expected. I was expecting it to be the size of say giant fist, but this is like a giant pillow. Still not sure if it’s worth the full $38, I began to contemplate if I wanted one. My sister is fond of piggies, so I added a Squishable Pig to my cart to check how much shipping would be. Shipping was $6 extra, so that put me at about $44 shipped.

Some of these guys look funky, but some of them are so cute and adorable (see the cow). Ungsunghero questioned who would actually carry around big stuffed animals like that. I used to when I was small. I even lost a few of my favorites that way.

I asked my sister if she wanted a giant piggy for Christmas and she questioned me how big it was. As you may have noticed, I’m not good with describing sizes, so I said about 1.5 pillow sizes. She said sure, and then when I was about to place the order, I noticed it was out of stock. I thought I still had time before Christmas and added myself to their newsletter as they said that when new stock comes in, we’ll be notified via their newsletter.

However, later in the day, I noticed it came back in stock and I added it immediately to my cart. I think what happened probably was since I added it to my previous cart, my session had expired, but they didn’t increase the stock count. Anyway, I did a quick search for a coupon for squishable.com but didn’t find any, and decided to make my purchase. This was yesterday.

Today I received in my email box a newsletter:

In honor of pre-Solstice commercialism, we’re offering a discount coupon from now until Thursday, Nov 22nd for 10% off all our squishables! Use it yourself, or pass it on to a friend (or enemy)! Why? Cause we’re in a good mood! This one’s only good for Google Checkout – just enter SQNOV10 in the coupon field when you get to the checkout screen in Google Checkout. Nifty!

I’m like NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I just placed an order yesterday and now I get a 10% off coupon. Scenarios went through my head. Is it too late to cancel? Should I try to email them to see if they’ll apply the discount to my order. I went with the latter route and sent them an email:

Hi,

I just received your newsletter providing a 10% off coupon. Unfortunately for me, I had made my purchase yesterday. I was wondering if there was any way to retroactively apply the coupon.

Regarding how I heard of this site, my friend just IMed me a few days ago and said look how cute the animals are.

Thanks in advance!

They were really quick and replied:

Sure, no worries at all. We’ll refund you 10% later today!

It’s on one condition, though. You have to promise to email us and tell us how you like the little guy once he arrives!

Thanks,

Aaron & Zoe
squishable.com

I’ve already gotten my refund ($3.80 worth) and am a super satisfied customer.

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Xbox Live Turns 5ive – Freebies for Everyone!

I first saw this on angel-grrl’s blog, but then realized that it’s pretty much scattered across the web, especially on deal sites. I’ve been stuck in a meeting since 1 and didn’t really have time to check deals during that time.

Apparently today marks the 5th anniversary of Xbox Live and they’re giving a way a bunch of freebies: Xbox Live is 5IVE: How to Get the Free 500 MS Points

Microsoft is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live in a big way. It has released Carcassonne for free and it is also giving away 500 Microsoft Points to every active member who joined the service in 2002. If you were wondering how to get those precious MS Points, we have the answer.

To claim your 500 Microsoft Points, all you have to do is register on this web site using your Windows Live ID associated to your gamertag. You can register until midnight (Pacific Time) on November 29, 2007, and after you do so, you will receive an e-mail with a 25-digit code that lets you to activate your Microsoft Points through your Xbox 360 console. Don’t expect that email to arrive instantly as the deadline for that email is December 21, 2007.

It is also worth mentioning that these 500 Microsoft Points expire on June 30, 2008, but we are sure you’ll spend them way before that date.

If you missed the Carcassonne freebie link above, here it is again: Reminder: Get Carcassonne for Free

Microsoft is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live and as a gesture of thanks to the gaming community, all eight million Xbox Live members will have the opportunity to download Carcassonne for free between 12:01 a.m. PST on Nov. 15 and 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. In addition to this, every active member who joined the service in 2002 will receive 500 MS Points for free.

Named after the medieval fortified town of the same name in southern France, Carcassonne is the video game adaptation of the classic tile-based German board game. Designed for two to five players, Carcassonne is set in a medieval landscape made up of tiles. Players start from a single tile and then draw from a pool of remaining tiles to create a growing landscape and gain points for ultimate victory.

Carcassonne features the complete 72 tiles from the original board game, all rule sets, and the 12 additional tiles found in the Rivers 1 Expansion Set.

I’ve played Carcassonne in real life with a bunch of friends, and although I suck at it (still haven’t really figured out the strategies yet), it’s rather fun. I haven’t tried to play it via Xbox Live yet, but being free makes it tempting now.

According to Kaos, they are also giving away themes and gamerpics which usually cost money for free.

Since this probably expires tonight, I decided I would post it now, instead of later.