Bargain Bastards

I know this is sort of a contradiction from what I posted a few days ago regarding buying new video games, but this is actually a pretty sweet deal. I was always planning on buying Call of Duty: Black Ops on launch day as I know I’ll get tons of playing time with the multiplayer, but Halo: Reach was going to be a used purchase for the single player only. However, I’ve changed my mind due to the current deal running at Best Buy.

If you’re not a Reward Zone Member take a minute to sign up and then make sure to Opt-in to the Gamers Club so that you receive better deals on video games. The Gamers Club also makes it easier to get gift certificates back when you purchase games. For example, normally for the reward zone you need to spend $250 in order to receive a $5 gift certificate, but with the Gamers Club you only need to spend $150 on video games to get a $10 gift certificate. So this deal would also net you $120 towards that $150 you need for another $10 credit, so you’re next gaming purchase will get you a $10 gift certificate. So if you already have at least $30 worth of video games purchased since your last $10 gift certificate you could get both games for $65. Now let’s look at how it will all go down.

Now that you’re a reward zone gamer club member you have access to special deals, but what we’re interested in right now is the 500 bonus points you get for preordering Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops (both offer 500 points each, so 1000 points). So each game will net you a $10 gift certificate for preordering them, so there’s $20 right there. Bestbuy.com is currently running a promotion where if you buy (or pre-order) any game or accessory over $39.99 they will mail you a $25 gift card (make sure to add the gift card to your cart, I don’t think it just automatically appears). So essentially you’ll have to buy the games up front for $120, but you’ll get back $45 in gift cards and if you’re anything like me and buy Movies/Video Games at Best Buy all the time, the gift cards will get used eventually so it’s just like having $45 bucks in your pocket.

Now as I mentioned before, if you already have at least $30 worth of games on your gamers club account, this purchase will net you another $10 gift certificate giving you a grand total of $55 in savings, basically buy 1 get 1 free for 2 of the hottest releases this fall! And that’s not all, if you find you don’t like one of the games and can’t see yourself playing it that often, sell it on eBay or Glyde the 1st or 2nd week it’s released and you’re sure to make at least $50 back, so you’ll almost get 1 game for free. This is what I will be doing with Halo: Reach. I’ll play through it and then sell it on eBay, thus allowing me to get Black Ops for next to nothing.

Also, if you don’t want to wait for bestbuy.com to ship the games (since they don’t guarantee release date delivery) make sure to do in-store pickup. I don’t see any stipulation regarding using that option instead of shipping as far as the $25 gift card goes.

Just an FYI, make sure you add the $25 gift card to your cart, see the image below. Click that link on either games product page and add the gift card to your cart. After you add 2 qualifying games the gift card will drop it’s price to $0.

If you haven’t heard of ShopKick yet, don’t worry it just launched today, but I have a feeling you’ll be hearing about it a lot more in the coming months. Basically what it is is a location based reward program where you get points for going to certain places and doing certain things (mostly scanning items). If it sounds a lot like Foursquare, that’s because it is, but with one huge difference, you don’t check in at places. The participating locations have a device installed near the doors that emits a sound that we can’t hear, but the iPhone can, so when you enter the store with the app open it will automatically “check you in” and award you the points for visiting the store. Once inside the store there are other ways to gain points, like scanning different products. I’m not sure what their plan is for other ways to gain points, but at the moment it looked like scanning was the only way (at least at Best Buy). And the point of all this is that once you gain enough points you can redeem them for different rewards, whether it’s credits on facebook or gift cards to different stores. There are a handful of options right now and I’m sure that will grow in the future. So that’s the gist of the service itself now let’s talk about my experience with it today.

Chicago happens to be one of the markets were the devices have been placed in Best Buy stores around the area. Today was the first day that the service has been activated along with the app becoming available in the App Store this morning. It just so happens that we venture out to Best Buy every Tuesday during lunch to check out the new releases and kill some time away from the office, so it was a perfect chance to test out ShopKick and see what it’s all about.

The app itself is very pretty, the graphics look nice and it works as you would expect it to. It finds your location and finds different stores in the area that you can either check in to the normal way and gain “non-reward” points that basically just level you up in the game (kind of like MyTown), as well as stores that are participating that you can go to and get points for walking in the door and scanning stuff. With app in hand we made our way over to Best Buy to try it out.

As we approached the front doors I launched the app as I wasn’t sure if the app needed to be running in the foreground (I’m pretty sure it does) to pick up the sound that the in-store device is emitting. The phone didn’t register the sound at the exact moment we walked in, but it picked it up while we were still close to the front of the store. My co-worker also signed up as we were in the store and the first time he launched it after verifying his account, it picked up that we were in the store and automatically awarded him the 75 points. So it seems like you don’t have to remember as you walk into the store as long as you launch the app at some point during your visit, and if you’re going to be scanning stuff you’ll have it open anyways.

Now let’s talk about the scanning of products to get bonus points. For Best Buy there were 5 featured items that you could find in the store and scan for bonus points. I only went through and found 2 of them because I didn’t really feel like rummaging through the store with my phone out looking like a jackass… And actually that’s kind of what I felt like as I was grabbing a Blu-Ray of The Bank Job and scanning the UPC with my phone. Ok, actually the Blu-Ray wasn’t terrible, but I did feel awkward as I grabbed a box for a set of computer speakers and flipped it around to scan the UPC. So while I found the scanning to be a little weird, it definitely makes you walk around the store and look at stuff you wouldn’t normally look at.

So the App itself works very well for everything that it is supposed to and I managed to rack up almost 200 points in one visit to Best Buy today. I’m still a little foggy on how many points I’m going to have to get in order to redeem them for a decent size gift card. The app says the Best Buy Gift Card is 500+ points and denominations start at $2, so that would lead me to believe that it’s 500 points for $2… so while it’s not the greatest reward I’m not spending money on anything so it’s basically money for free. So we’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks after it’s been out for a bit and if there are any changes I’ll let you know, but as of right now I’ll continue using the service to see how many points I can build up and see if it’s actually worth the time.

shopkick.com

Next time you head to your local electronics store to buy cables to hook up your new fancy HDTV or Blu-Ray Player, don’t! If you need them that day, then by all means buy them, but open the package carefully so you can return them in a few days because I’m going to point you to 2 sites that will change the way you buy cables.

Places like Best Buy will try to upsell you on Monster Cables or at the very least their own Rocket Fish brand, and they will be very pushy about it too, but stand your ground. For a 6 foot HDMI cable you’ll probably end up spending between $50-80 in the store if you give in to the pressure. Now if you wait and buy OEM cables online you will save yourself a lot of money… and I do mean a lot.

Monoprice and Firefold are the 2 sites that I use to buy all of my cables at and you should too. A 4-8 foot HDMI Rocket Fish cable will cost you anywhere from $59.99 to $79.99 in the store (Monster cable will be more expensive than that), but over at Monoprice.com you can pick up a 6 foot HDMI cable for $3.04 + shipping. The funny thing is shipping usually costs more than the actual cable itself and the combined price i still usually less than $10.

So if you need to purchase cables, that day, then go to Best Buy and buy the cheapest cables you can find. Once you get home go online and order the same cables from Monoprice or Firefold. Once the new cables come in the mail go back to Best Buy and return the cables you bought for a full refund. This way you can enjoy that nice new HDTV while you wait for the cheap cables to come in.

Monoprice.com | Firefold.com