Best Buy Online $100 Gift Card Offer

[ack_bak]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site//olspage...&type=category

Just one less excuse not to own a BD player for you die hards (yes, I know, some of you are waiting on 2.0 standalone players).

But.. Samsung has announced that the BDP1500 will receive a firmware update this Fall to make it 2.0...

The Insignia player is $299 and also qualifies for the $100 gift card as well (nice deal)...

This holiday season is looking quite promising for deals based on what we are seeing in June...

[crazzeto]

Another good deal, but particularly from bbuy I'd really like to see an at the register discount rather than a gift card...

[Maxx_75]

I would take them up on it if it included the forcomming Sony 350.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

Another good deal, but particularly from bbuy I'd really like to see an at the register discount rather than a gift card...

True, but one could always hang on to the gift card until the big Q4 holiday sales and buy gifts, etc with the money.

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

http://www.bestbuy.com/site//olspage...&type=category

Just one less excuse not to own a BD player for you die hards (yes, I know, some of you are waiting on 2.0 standalone players).

But.. Samsung has announced that the BDP1500 will receive a firmware update this Fall to make it 2.0...

The Insignia player is $299 and also qualifies for the $100 gift card as well (nice deal)...

This holiday season is looking quite promising for deals based on what we are seeing in June...

This would be tempting if their player prices weren't so high.
The Samsung 1500 is $400 at BBuy - but I seem to recall it is $350 at Walmart - so the $100 BBuy gift card is really only worth $50 - and I'd have to buy more overpriced stuff at BBuy to use up the gift card - so it is worth even less in actuality? No rush to jump on this one here, I'm afraid.

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

True, but one could always hang on to the gift card until the big Q4 holiday sales and buy gifts, etc with the money.

I guess that would work out better if I actually had people to shop for at best buy, but the only person I have to shop for there is my self.... For me it's going to take an at the register reduction to get me to upgrade my blu player... Perhaps if I didn't have one at all I might feel differently, but for me this just isn't even near worth it...

[gijoela]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

http://www.bestbuy.com/site//olspage...&type=category

Just one less excuse not to own a BD player for you die hards (yes, I know, some of you are waiting on 2.0 standalone players).

But.. Samsung has announced that the BDP1500 will receive a firmware update this Fall to make it 2.0...

The Insignia player is $299 and also qualifies for the $100 gift card as well (nice deal)...

This holiday season is looking quite promising for deals based on what we are seeing in June...

And this is smackdown...... because? Bargains forum...

In fact already has a thread ack, c'mon.

Best Buy $100GC w/ Blu-ray player (online only)

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by gijoela

And this is smackdown...... because? Bargains forum...

In fact already has a thread ack, c'mon.

Best Buy $100GC w/ Blu-ray player (online only)

I guess you missed all the Smackdown threads in this forum over the past 6 months stating how high BD hardware prices are and how prices were going up, not down?

[SRW1000]

Hmmm, Blu-ray adoption didn't exactly take off after Toshiba called it quits. We were told that it was because all the manufacturers were caught off guard and didn't have enough inventory to cover the increase in demand. (This despite the numerous rumors that the battle was on the verge of tipping, and the nearly-monthly declarations that HD DVD was dead, but I digress.)

OK.

Then this Best Buy offer comes along, just a week or so after the two-week Walmart subsidy.

Why continue offering incentives for something that has plenty of pent-up demand?

Seems kind of odd. You have to wonder who's covering the $100 - retailers, the BDA, or a combination.

Scott

[vinnie97]

^...noticed gas prices lately?

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by SRW1000

Hmmm, Blu-ray adoption didn't exactly take off after Toshiba called it quits. We were told that it was because all the manufacturers were caught off guard and didn't have enough inventory to cover the increase in demand. (This despite the numerous rumors that the battle was on the verge of tipping, and the nearly-monthly declarations that HD DVD was dead, but I digress.)

OK.

Then this Best Buy offer comes along, just a week or so after the two-week Walmart subsidy.

Why continue offering incentives for something that has plenty of pent-up demand?

Seems kind of odd. You have to wonder who's covering the $100 - retailers, the BDA, or a combination.

Scott

Warner announced exclusivity in January. They (Warner) could have gone either way (HD DVD/Blu-Ray) and I am sure the CE's in the BDA were aware of this. So they most likely did not over produce making expensive BD players until Warner made their announcement and I am sure they were watching Toshiba carefully as well (ie firesale prices). The claimed inventory crunch (I can tell you that for well over a month you could not find the Panasonic BD30 player, and my local Costco sold out of the Sony BDP300 player) happened from January-March and we really do not know what happened after that. We do know that new players also came out (Samsung BDP1500, Insignia player, Magnavox player) and that PS3 sales are much higher than last year.

So who knows if there ever was an inventory issue, or whether or not the BDA was simply trying to milk prices before cheaper players debuted.

And as Vinnie97 mentioned, the weak economy will help drive sales as well.

[SRW1000]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Warner announced exclusivity in January. They (Warner) could have gone either way (HD DVD/Blu-Ray) and I am sure the CE's in the BDA were aware of this. So they most likely did not over produce making expensive BD players until Warner made their announcement and I am sure they were watching Toshiba carefully as well (ie firesale prices). The claimed inventory crunch (I can tell you that for well over a month you could not find the Panasonic BD30 player, and my local Costco sold out of the Sony BDP300 player) happened from January-March and we really do not know what happened after that. We do know that new players also came out (Samsung BDP1500, Insignia player, Magnavox player) and that PS3 sales are much higher than last year.

I understand that, but even if Warner had gone with HD DVD, the war wouldn't have been over for the BDA, and these kinds of incentives wouldn't be surprising at all.

Also, from hints offered at other forums, it sounds like in addition to the Warner coup, there were other behind-the-scenes deals that would have ushered an end to the battle, such as more exclusive retail announcements.

Again, we were hearing about the death of HD DVD almost monthly before the actual end came. If the CEs actually believed this, shouldn't they have been building inventory levels as all of these factors were starting to coalesce?

And why offer significant PS3 savings when those units are finally starting to sell on their own?

It would still be interesting to know who's footing the bill for these $100 gift cards.

Originally Posted by ack_bak

So who knows if there ever was an inventory issue, or whether or not the BDA was simply trying to milk prices before cheaper players debuted.

The appearance of cheap BD players should have lead manufacturers to increase inventory levels of more expensive players, wouldn't it?

I would think that they would have wanted to capture the early-adopters that were sitting on the sidelines during the battle, rather than sit back and let them snap-up the inexpensive models coming to market from new companies. The higher prices and lack of competition would have helped them recoup their investment in the early models.

Originally Posted by ack_bak

And as Vinnie97 mentioned, the weak economy will help drive sales as well.

That could certainly be a factor, but we still seem to be in the early-adopter phase at this point. That market is much less likely to be affected by rising gas prices than the general public is.

Scott

[bfellow]

This deal like that other thread is dead. It was only a one-time 2 day online-only thing.