My sister may/probably will be resigning from her job at Best Buy tomorrow, so this is my last chance to use her employee discount.
Right now I don't have a lot of money (being the poor college student that I am
) but I just got a seasonal part-time job at GameStop (first day is next week) so I don't have to worry about getting discounts on game-related stuff
I was looking at buying a HDTV since she gets big discounts in the Home Theater section.
I can get one $419 27" HDTV for $279- that's the lowest priced. 1080i and 480p.
The best deal I spotted was a $649 30" HDTV I can get for $347 ($300 off), that has 1080i, 720p and 480p.
I don't want to spend any more than that and even that is pushing it a lot.
I can also get a HDTV receiving antennae for $3 w/discount (they mark those things up a lot, the normal price for this one was $15).
Then I realized the problem.
None of these under-$400 w/discount TV's have a built in HDTV tuner. That means that even with the antennae I can't watch HDTV channels. The only one they sell there is on clearance (so no extra on the employee discount) at $249 (1080i and 720p and 480p support, is also a DVD player and up-samples DVD's to HD resolutions). Way too expensive for me to get both.
Dish Network (whom I go through for TV) wants to charge $150 for setup + $10 a month (on top of my current fees) for 6 months, and $15 after that.
I'm talking about paying $500 for the TV and setup and a monthly fee as long as I watch it. Way out of my price range.
Frankly, I'm fine with just local channels for the HDTV. I really want it for the next gen game consoles; Revolution will have 480p support and they're still considering HD support, and PS3 will have 720p/1080i/1080p support. My GameCube and DVD player already have 480p support so I could use that. But if I can't watch anything on it in HD and the best I can do until the PS3 comes out (and I doubt I'll buy it at launch) is 480p, it seems like a waste.
However, I've never seen anything running in 480p so I don't know the difference it makes. And if I used my GameStop discount to buy a refurb PS2 I could get HD on some games.
Anyone have any suggestions or advice? Should I buy it?
And is there anything else I should buy at Best Buy before I can no longer use the discount? Think of things that get marked up a lot (iPods for example have almost no discount on them; but I get almost 90% off on most cables and can get 16 AA batteries for $1).
Right now I don't have a lot of money (being the poor college student that I am
) but I just got a seasonal part-time job at GameStop (first day is next week) so I don't have to worry about getting discounts on game-related stuff I was looking at buying a HDTV since she gets big discounts in the Home Theater section.
I can get one $419 27" HDTV for $279- that's the lowest priced. 1080i and 480p.
The best deal I spotted was a $649 30" HDTV I can get for $347 ($300 off), that has 1080i, 720p and 480p.
I don't want to spend any more than that and even that is pushing it a lot.
I can also get a HDTV receiving antennae for $3 w/discount (they mark those things up a lot, the normal price for this one was $15).
Then I realized the problem.
None of these under-$400 w/discount TV's have a built in HDTV tuner. That means that even with the antennae I can't watch HDTV channels. The only one they sell there is on clearance (so no extra on the employee discount) at $249 (1080i and 720p and 480p support, is also a DVD player and up-samples DVD's to HD resolutions). Way too expensive for me to get both.
Dish Network (whom I go through for TV) wants to charge $150 for setup + $10 a month (on top of my current fees) for 6 months, and $15 after that.
I'm talking about paying $500 for the TV and setup and a monthly fee as long as I watch it. Way out of my price range.
Frankly, I'm fine with just local channels for the HDTV. I really want it for the next gen game consoles; Revolution will have 480p support and they're still considering HD support, and PS3 will have 720p/1080i/1080p support. My GameCube and DVD player already have 480p support so I could use that. But if I can't watch anything on it in HD and the best I can do until the PS3 comes out (and I doubt I'll buy it at launch) is 480p, it seems like a waste.
However, I've never seen anything running in 480p so I don't know the difference it makes. And if I used my GameStop discount to buy a refurb PS2 I could get HD on some games.
Anyone have any suggestions or advice? Should I buy it?
And is there anything else I should buy at Best Buy before I can no longer use the discount? Think of things that get marked up a lot (iPods for example have almost no discount on them; but I get almost 90% off on most cables and can get 16 AA batteries for $1).