42" HDTV from Best Buy: $699! (Updated 5/13) YMMV

(Price in Title originally came from Panny 42" started at $1099 on 1/27/08. Now reflects a generic $1000 TV price.)

ALERT 3/2/08: This deal was, until page 130 or so, a $700 off a $1000+ TV deal. It is NOW a $400 off a $1000 TV deal, and BB is offering to pay $30/month for DirecTV for you (a $360 value). While the totality of the deal has changed, many of the ideas and processes remain the same. See recent posts and contribute to the summary below to continue to help the community get the most out of this offer.

ATTN: DO NOT PURCHASE INSTALL WITH INTENT TO RETURN. Results are increasingly YMMV. If your receipt doesn't reflect a decreased price on the TV only, back out of it before completing your purchase. Do not open any merchandise until returns are completed. Many users are opting not to even bother with the install. This is the OP's recommendatiion as well.

Combination Page
Select New/Yes for everything. Good for up to $400 savings. (and/or up to $360 in cable bills, for a total of $760 in savings/payments if you purchase a $999+ TV).

Purchase the following:
1) DirecTV HD reciever 99$ (Some posters report this as free or not needed.)
2) Quality television closest to $999 without going under. (Panasonic 42" 720p here for ~$1199! Or Insignia (BB brand) 1080p 42" LCD for ~$1000. Prices vary by week.
3) Blu-Ray Disc Player Example Player $399
5) Installation $200 (may vary) Ask for "Single Component" or "TV only" install, it's cheaper. AVOID INSTALL IF YOU INTEND TO "RETURN" IT.
6) Home audio (any for $500+)
7) PlayStation3 Console $399

(Calculated from $999 Generic TV price
Total price: $2600.
Instant savings: $400.
Price at Checkout: $2200

Then you proceed to return each of the items other than the TV.

(Tip: Returning can be done in any order. If returning install, return this FIRST, as posters indicate problems with doing it later. Again, OP recommends leaving this out entirely.)

Return the Blu-Ray player. Posters have suggested that attempting these returns separately proves most successful and that going in with the item and credit card in hand, but not the receipt, has brought about easier returns. Alternatively, you can exchange these items for others (ideally placing the new item on a different credit card) to make even the most challenging returns possible.

New price: $1800

Return the home audio equipment.

New price: $1300

Return the DirecTV set top box and cancel your contract with them. (OR, alternately keep the service and take them up on their $360 of savings.) Cancelling the contract is easy and by phone (within the first 30 days, prior to installation!). You may have to sell the box for ~$85 on eBay, Craigslist, or whatever you prefer. FWers have done this cancellation without difficulty for months (including OP). Many report not having to buy the box at BB anyway.

New price: $1200

Cancel installation. (MANY will not get this discount!) Do NOT try to return this at the same time as all your phyisical purchases. This is a YMMV. FWers have posted success with cancelling at night, due to different (and possibly less attentive) staff.
New price: $1000

Return PS3. Possibly exchange for an Xbox 360 or other model, placing the charge on another card, then returning the "exchanged" item.

New price: $600

Get 2% back as a reward zone member (~$15), or 4% back with a BB credit card (~$30). With a new BB credit card, you also get a 0% interest for x time offer (see optional savings at bottom) Limited Time Link, 18mos 0%. There is also an offer for purchases up to triple points, allowing you to get an extra $20-40 off. Link

New price: $585

Complete YMMV price with all returns: ~$585

If you use the DirecTV offer, and were planning to get the service anyway, you will save an additional $360, taking your effective price to ~$225 on that $999 TV.

Optional for extra savings:

Option 1) Use a 10% coupon * to bring the initial (pre-DTV) price of an $1149 or $1200 TV very close to $1000, and your final price under $600. This HAS been done successfully by some FWers, but is very YMMV.

Option 2) Instead of paying upfront $585, put ~$520 in a high yield savings account and pay your new BB card from this account, gaining the remaining balance as earned interest. Remember, two years at 0%! UPDATE: LTO for Panny TVs only, 3 years at 0%

Option 3) Using the 12 month $30 credit from Best Buy towards a DirecTV bill to save $360 more.

-------------------------------------

FWLurker said:
Original Offer (end of September, now dead)

-Included Xbox 360, no longer part of the deal.

Early November Offer (dead as of 11/7)
HD-A3 player was $199, came with 10 free HD-DVDs, was even better with the TV discount, basically only adding $99 to your total cost. This has since been removed.

End of January Offer
Includes a PS3 giving 100$ off TV price! Also returnable. Still valid on 3/2/08!

EXPIRED Panasonic Rebate: Panasonic has a $200 rebate on installation that expired on January 31st, link still available here.

Just to explain the excitement over this post, the ACTUAL price that this deal brought some very nice $1000+ televisions down to was $199 with a free Blu-ray offer at one point, and around $299 with the above panasonic rebate.

sick!

Not bad I guess, but any time you mention FleaBay here you're going to get flamed.

deeznuts said: Interesting. I'm about to buy a premium anyway, hmmm .... Is it confirmed you can cancel the Directv contract that easy? And you say we can return the box but we might have to sell it instead? I thought Directv owns the boxes now and you can't resale but return, has this changed?

Thanks for the heads up though, this is very very tempting.

I wasn't able to return the box to BB last year, but sold it without problem on the apparently forbidden eBay.

All I did was make one call to DirecTV, took under 5 minutes, and cancelled installation. There was a 20$ charge to my Discover, which was refunded within a week of cancellation.

If you resale and dont return your HD DTV reciever you will be charged the non return fee of I think $349...so you may think twice here as pretty much all equipment from best buy is leased dtv equipment.

you can't screw with DirecTV that easily. possible but may not be that simple.

I don't see why you are getting red, this is a great deal. Thanks.

Many thanks OP.
How do you get $100 off the Xbox 360-Core? Is it B&M discount?

BTW, if you want to push it to the limit, beg the sale person to throw in this one...a Sony - 800W 5.1-Channel Home Theater System HT-DDW790, which should be, yes....FREE (w/ a $999 & up TV purchase) !!!

scary but doable.
i would be worried about directv coming after you for something or another. i'm sure they may have learned from last year

Funny thing is I can actually get away with this deal pretty easily. I've tried to have Direct TV installed before, but can't because they have no way to install a dish without it being blocked.

^^That stereo is garbage...your OP is much better.

Can you return XBOX ?

CheapCheap1 said: OP, thanks again for your response.
Just wonder, if you actually return the DirectTV box (for $99 cr), the $300 discount will actually be wiped out...right???

That's the trick. Last year there was a lot of discussion about this. Particularly astute CSRs (and managers) will insist that if you return the box that they will actually UPcharge you for the return (this was a similar problem with returning installation last year). That's why the OP suggests you may have to sell it elsewhere (and only grants $80 for the sale of a $100 item). If you want to do the same with the 360 and/or HD DVD player, this could prove similarly problematic.

Some people had no trouble returning it, however, so if you try to do this, then YMMV. This is the other YMMV part of the whole lot, however, since you're complying with their T&C to the letter if you drop the HD-DVD attachment or get the standalone (also follows DirecTV's T&C, which you'll see once in the store, has a 30 day free opt-out policy before installation).

The ONLY reason that last year's post was YMMV is because it involved a pricematch to Circuit City before stacking the savings on. That's not the case this year.

mt3ch said: in theory could I get the

50" Samsung 720p $999
XBox 360 Premium $349
$150 combo discount and then

$400 More in savings if I sign up for Direct TV $300 and since im buyign an Xbox 360 save $100?

The whole thing is modular. Simply swap out the TV and Core System for the two things you want. The cheaper 50" Samsung will actually cost you $50 more and you won't get it installed, since you can't get paid $100 to have it installed (panasonic only). If you want the Samsung delivered and installed, the TV will cost you $150 more.

****Please note, if you click on "see the details" in the OP's link, it says that the XBOX 360 HD-DVD player and PS3 don't count as a next-gen DVD player.**** So YMMV on getting the $100 instant rebate on the xbox 360 hd-dvd.

jeese, sounds a bit too complicated for my lazy arse... thanks tho!

CheapCheap1 said: Many thanks OP.
How do you get $100 off the Xbox 360-Core? Is it B&M discount?

BTW, if you want to push it to the limit, beg the sale person to throw in this one...a Sony - 800W 5.1-Channel Home Theater System HT-DDW790, which should be, yes....FREE (w/ a $999 & up TV purchase) !!!

No begging needed, the TV the OP linked is one of the ones listed as qualifying.

can't see the xbox and dvd player on you Plasma receipt!Were they in separate receipt?

telstar said: I wouldn't buy a 720p HDTV today .... spend a bit more ... get 1080i or 1080p.

lots of experts choose 720p over 1080i, for hd action sequences, they claim that it looks better, but the average consumer shouldnt be able to tell the diff, unlike telstar, this isnt my opinion but based on reading reviews of hdtv's

J3T said: telstar said: I wouldn't buy a 720p HDTV today .... spend a bit more ... get 1080i or 1080p.

lots of experts choose 720p over 1080i, for hd action sequences, they claim that it looks better, but the average consumer shouldnt be able to tell the diff, unlike telstar, this isnt my opinion but based on reading reviews of hdtv's

you are correct. you would need to view a 1080p 71" tv at 9' or less to see the difference in resolution between 1080p and 720p.

save your money if you don't fall into this category.

interested to know if anyone tried this recently..... have my eye on a 40in 1080p sammy...