The Juggle Zone: Bargain Blog

It's not "news" at this point, but I wasn't ready to post before.

Mikey was a great guy with whom I had the honor of sharing R' Fink's "Book of Shemot" class/shiur, during my freshman year of YU. Mikey went through so many trials and tribulations, yet smiled through each and every difficulty he encountered. He took life "day by glorious day," and set an example for all. Mikey was an inspiration, and my thoughts are with his family.

Funeral audio and video are available. YU's tribute. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Obituary. Other people's memories of Mikey.

Posted by dwallach at 2:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm not a big Ebayer. Though I've bought a couple things off Ebay, I don't buy there much because the deals aren't that great (though the things I bought were reasonable). There's also the concern that there is something wrong with the item, or that it will never come.

For similar reasons, I've never sold on Ebay. Though I have plenty of stuff lying around that would be fine for selling on Ebay (e.g. my FAR stuff), it's not clear to me that the effort is worth the payoff. There are 4 costs involved:
1) item (sometimes free)
2) listing fee
3) Paypal fee
4) shipping

There are ways around some of these things, such as not taking Paypal, though it is one of the easiest ways of accepting payment online. There are also occasional free shipping deals available at Officemax, but the frequency is not high enough, and the usual limit is too low.

Finally, there is the concern that after paying all the costs and fees, the buyer could turn out to be using a stolen credit card number, so Paypal will do a charge-back. This can happen long after the item has been shipped, and the seller is out of luck.

A thread on FW pointed out an interesting article from the New York Times (available in the Star Tribune's site) on auctions with spelling mistakes. The premise of the article is that auctions with misspellings are seen by far fewer bidders (searches don't find these items), so they don't get bid up as high. It's an interesting theory, might have held water, but with the publicity it has now gained is probably pretty dead now. Ironically, one person is trying to sell a "FRANKLIN WORD SPELLER/ HAND HELD COMPUTOR." Personally, I think the seller should keep the speller, and use it!

Posted by dwallach at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ants piss me off!

I understand it's cold outside, and warm inside, but can't they find somebody else's house to invade?

Of course, I should be thankful that we haven't been invaded, we just have a few renegade visitors. But in some ways, that's worse. When you get invaded, there's a nice big highway which gives away the ants' entrance point. With our renegades, there's no way to tell where they're coming from.

In the battle against ants, Raid (and other such sprays) are not that useful, and has a big drawback. The smell is horrible (plus it can't be good for you). So when I encounter a small number of ants, I have a different solution. The masking tape roll! Similar to a lint lifter, I unroll a length of tape slightly longer than the circumference of the roll. I then re-wrap it backwards (sticky side out). The I just roll the tape along the floor (or any other surface that the ants climb onto), killing and picking up the ants in one swift motion. I should patent this!

Posted by dwallach at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 8 - 6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9 - We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the whole world? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life.

December 12 - The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry, we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again. l don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.

December 14 - Snow, lovely, snow! 8" last night. The temperature dropped to 20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life! The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn't realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way. I wish l wouldn't huff and puff so.

December 15 - 20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly. We aren't in Alaska, after all.

December 16 - Ice storm this morning. Fell on my rump on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel.

December 17 - Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20 - Electricity's back on, but had another 14" of the darn stuff last night. More shoveling. Took all day. God dang snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

December 22 - Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white stuff fell today, and it's so cold it probably won't melt till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to pee. By the time I got undressed, peed and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plow on his truck for the rest of the winter; but he says he's too busy. I think the shmuck is lying.

December 23 - Only 2" of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she nuts!!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she's lying.

December 24 - 6." Snow packed so hard by snowplow, l broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son of a gun who drives that snow plow I'll drag him through the snow and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I've just been! Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was too busy watching for the darn snowplow.

December 25 - Merry f---ing Christmas! 20 more inches of the darn slop tonight. Snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. God I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she's a freaking idiot. If I have to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26 - Still snowed in. Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She's really getting on my nerves.

December 27 - Temperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze, plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him, he only charged me $1,400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28 - Warmed up to above -20. Still snowed in. The woman is driving me crazy!!!

December 29 - 10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30 - Roof caved in. The snow plow driver I beat up is now suing me for a million dollars. Not only the beating I gave him but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up his rear. The wife went home to her mother. 9" predicted.

December 31 - I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shoveling.

January 28 - Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?

Posted by dwallach at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No! Not with any of my 200(!) pairs of earplugs that I got for free! I signed up for a free sample a while back, and instead of getting what I thought would be one pair, I got one case of 200 earplugs.

As you can tell, UPS finally delivered ... but to my house! It seems that they're not so cool, after all. In fact, though they came through on their promise to call me back (they left me a message on my voice-mail), the re-route request that I made didn't make it's way down the ranks to the delivery guy - he delivered to my house, the "old" address.

Oh well, at least I got my package. Now all I need to do is figure out what to do with all of the earplugs.

If you're interested in getting your own, ask me for a pair. If you don't know me or live near me, order your own "free samples."
UPDATE: It seems that linking doesn't work - you have to copy and paste it (http://www.earsoftfx.com/ear.cfm) to your browser.

Posted by dwallach at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I previously posted with enthusiasm the ability to enter an alternate delivery address on UPS's website. Despite entering a new address late Monday night, they attempted delivery at the old address again on Tuesday. While I can understand that they might not be able to reroute the package, one would think that their little computerized tracking gizmos would have an alert for the driver when he tries to deliver the package. But clearly, they don't.

As of 2:30 this afternoon, the website had no new delivery information, so I called to see if a human did. The CSR I spoke with confirmed the above information, then said she'd send an alert to the delivery center to confirm they'd be delivering to the new address today, and they should be calling me back to confirm within the hour.

I'm not holding my breath. Especially considering I'm in absolutely no rush to get this package that I know almost nothing about.

Posted by dwallach at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not everyday that a quality company offers a free sample of a quality product. Imagine how much easier it would be to go on a long hike with a product like this!

Posted by dwallach at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not often that I really love a product. I'm not one to be particularly brand specific, except with a few things (Kleenex tissues, Bounty paper towels, Pepsi cola, etc.). In general, it comes down to whether there's a discernible difference.

On a related topic, I've never really liked packaged orange or grapefruit juice. Though Tropicana does a decent job of producing a decent product, they were missing the mark of tasting like the fruit they'd squeezed. If you've never tasted fresh, hand squeezed orange juice, there's really nothing like it.

Last night, in Pathmark, I picked up a carton of Tropicana Ruby Red grapefruit juice, and noticed a label declaring it to have a "Great NEW Taste." I bought it anyways, not expecting much. However, much to my surprise, it really did taste different ... and better! This stuff comes quite close to tasting like grapefruit!

And on the (off) topic of great products, we had to replace our answering machine recently, and I bought an AT&T 1719 digital answering machine (AM). It's not often that technology impresses me, as I often have expectations beyond market offerings. In the case of AMs, I had always hoped for a marriage of Caller-ID and an AM, but had never seen one (nor did I have a good idea for how the machine would tie messages to numbers on an LCD screen). Well, either for that reason or for financial reasons, this machine has only a single digit LED display, hardly an efficient means of displaying phone numbers. But what the AT&T engineers did do was store the phone numbers of the callers with the messages so they can be played back with the message (read by a robotic voice). Cool!

Posted by dwallach at 2:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those of you who watch the rebate meter, you may have noticed that while it's fairly high now, it's nothing compared to what it has been at in the past. However, it's hard to keep track of just what the variation is in the amount.

For that reason, and because it was an interesting problem, I wondered if I could use the data in my rebate tracking database* to calculate the amount of money that I have had tied up in rebates over time. With a lot of manipulation in Excel, I was able to produce:

The peak was on 5/23/03, when I had $1215.99 in outstanding rebates. On 10/11/03 I bottomed out at $103.89. I'm now back up to a healthy $400.22.

*When I first started doing rebates, I quickly learned to keep a copy of everything (rebate form, UPC, receipt), and to keep track of when each rebate was mailed. To contain that pile of paperwork, I designated a "Rebate" folder. Over time, that folder began to fill, so I started a second for completed rebates. As the number of outstanding rebates began to increase, I needed more order to keep track of them all, so I started an Excel spreadsheet, which I converted to Access shortly thereafter, in order to be able to run queries on the data.

While my method works, there are a number of programs on the market for tracking rebates, including Rebate Rebate and a web based program, Rebate-Tracker, but I'm too lazy to try to convert/re-enter all my data.

Now, what general rebate entry would be complete without a list of a few sites for finding rebates in the first place:
-iBuyerNet
-RebateCatcher
-RebatePlace

And of course, the Official FW Rebate Information Thread.

Posted by dwallach at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We received an "InfoNotice" from UPS today. For some annoying reason, the sender chose to require a signature. UPS tried to deliver a package, but no one was home to sign. Our schedules are unpredictable, and we're rarely home for the UPS guy, which is why I have most stuff I order sent to my work address. So I went online to track the package, to see who/where it was from. It turns out it is from Aearo Corporation. Must be something free I "ordered."

At any rate, as we're not likely to be around for the next delivery attempt(s), I was pleased to find a "Delivery Change Request" option on UPS's website. They let me enter my work address, and they've re-routed the package. They don't have a revised delivery estimate, but I would expect the package either today (Tuesday) or Wednesday (weather permitting).

PS: Because I'm lazy, I used my hacked Digital Convergence CueCat to scan the barcode on the InfoNotice. In preparing this post, I discovered that it seems the makers of the CueCat are out of business, so you may not be able to get these at Radio Shack anymore, but you can try (they're free).

Posted by dwallach at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I have nothing better to do at 3:30 a.m. Saturday night, I was cleaning out my "Rebates & Coupons" folder. It's a place where I save coupons and rebates as I find, often before I even know if I'll use them. As I was deleting expired forms, I came across one for the Oral-B D9013 Rechargeable Power Toothbrush.

Some history: A few months ago my old one died. After spending some considerable time debating going the fancy (read: expensive) route to get a top of the line model (3D Excel) or a cheaper model similar to what I had (which was the only model available when it was purchased), I finally decided to go the cheap route. Then, after buying it, I found a coupon in a weekly circular, which Target wouldn't give me credit for ex post facto (their supposed policy is they'll only do that for same day purchases). However, they would allow me to return the old toothbrush, and buy a new one with the coupon. So I did.

Anyways, back to now, as I was deleting the various expired forms, I came across a few rebates that I had saved while in my "debate between expensive or cheap model" phase. One of the rebates was for the expensive model, so I deleted it right away. The other was a $5 rebate for a cheap model, but I wasn't sure if it was the right one. Therefore, I immediately began scouring the house for the packaging. Despite having made the purchase over 1 month ago, I still had it, well, at least some of it. I found the impossible to open without getting cut plastic case, the generic instruction manual, part of the internal labeling. I was just missing one thing - the piece of cardboard with 1) identification of my model of toothbrush, and 2) the UPC! Digging a little further, I found the UPC. The only remaining challenge was to find the receipt, which under normal circumstances is easy - I save all my receipts by date in an envelope. The only problem is I'm not perfect about filing/re-filing receipts involved in returns, exchanges, etc.

So I searched my Excel spreadsheet (in which I track my credit card purchases) for a roughly $20 purchase at Target. I found one on 11/2/03, but didn't find the receipt. Mad at myself, I hoped against hope that that was a different receipt. Before searching further in the spreadsheet, I remembered that I had placed the original purchase on my Chase (LPG) card. Therefore, I could search that spreadsheet for a Target return (for roughly $20), find the date of the return, which was the same date as the purchase on my regular credit card. (Though I didn't bring the originally purchased toothbrush when I went to try to get Target to credit me for the coupon, I simply purchased a new toothbrush using the coupon, put that receipt away, pulled out the old one, and returned the new toothbrush with the old receipt.)

It turns out I made the return on 11/23, so I went back to my envelope of receipts and found the Target receipt! I just "found" $5! And just in time! The rebate has to be postmarked by 1/31/04.

Posted by dwallach at 3:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The makers of Fruit Leather, Strecth Island, have been giving away 50 each day for as long as I can remember. However, I have never succeeded in hitting their website at exactly the right time (e.g. before everyone else). However, today, as I was cleaning up some of my bookmarks, I found the link to the site, and was actually able to submit a request. If you want to try, go for it!

It's funny to note that the "Original" 9 flavors are kosher, but the 4 "Organic" are not. And I'm not the only one to point it out. From their own website:

How is Organic different from Kosher ?
“Organically grown” refers to the farming methods used to grow the fruit we use in Stretch Island Organic Fruit Leathers.

All the ingredients used to make Stretch Island Organic Fruit Leathers are 100% Organic but not Kosher Certified.

Posted by dwallach at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like Amazon, it seems that Buy.com doesn't want to be contacted by phone. Ever. They don't list their phone number on their website, and it's not too easy to find anywhere else. Having done some research to find their phone number, I've actually come up with 3:
949-389-2000
877-780-2464 (7am-7pm M-F and 8-12 Sat, MST)
UPDATE: Buy.com's Credit Department's Fax Number: 949-389-2837
800-880-1030 (UPDATE: It seems this number is no longer in service.)

UPDATE: Mailing address for Buy.com:
85 Enterprise
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

BTW, Amazon's phone number is 800-201-7575.

Posted by dwallach at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)

A recent FW thread pointed out 2 valid $50 MIRs for the Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W Add in a $30 off $150, and the $200 printer (already on sale for ~$149 came down in price to $20 (plus tax on $150). For those of you familiar with Staples' coupons, they are stickler's for reaching the minimum purchase amount. While we were waiting in line, I wandered over to the paper clip section, picked up a package of 500 paper clips (for $1.09), in the event we can into coupon-minimum problems. At checkout, the clerk said the printer was enough for the coupon, and she spent a couple minutes trying to get it to work. When she failed to overcome the intelligent register, I handed her the paper clips, and the rest of the transaction went smoothly. As my parents' old computer is going to move to a new room to make room for the new computer, they needed a new printer, so we got this one. (At this price, it's cheaper to get a new printer than buying the hardware to network the two computers to share the printer.)

Posted by dwallach at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Though the actual check hasn't arrived, as Staples has begun sending monthly updates of one's Business Rewards status, I was recently informed that my "Purchases" between 10/1/03-12/31/03 of $627.46 has earned me a BR check of $30!

Posted by dwallach at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We took a family trip to Fry's Electronics, the B&M of Outpost.com. My parents wanted a new computer, plus an LCD monitor. After perusing the various options, we decided on an eMachines T2682 (2.6 GHz Celeron, 80 GB HD, 256 MB RAM [we added another 256], CD-RW, DVD-ROM), which Fry's advertised with a $50 MIR. For the monitor, though my parents originally planned on a 15", I convicned them that what they really wanted was a 17", so we got the ViewSonic VA720, which came with a $100 MIR. Fry's also offered the Canon i250 printer as FAR ($50) with a computer purchase, so my parents got that as well. At checkout, the clerk was only able to find the latter two rebates - the rebate we were given for the computer was for different models. (I later discovered that the rebate for the machine we bought had expired on 1/11/04, two days before our purchase, but during the same sale). So Fry's gave us a form to fill out, promising to send the rebate form to us when they found. This was a bit worrisome in my mind, and we got a CSR involved who promised to take care of it personally. Two days later, she called back saying she had credited my parents' credit card $50, because the rebate couldn't be found.

Posted by dwallach at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dell finally informed FW that my order for 2 Karmas was cancelled, so they swooped down and took away $4.21 in (as yet unpaid) FatCash! :(

Posted by dwallach at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've been being pretty good about remembering to use FatCash. Every once in a while I check to ensure that the credit I'm due shows up. I recently noticed that the FatCash for an OM purchase was never credited. After contacting them and providing them with the relevant info, they added the missing $1.31 to my account, with an "investigating" status.

I also had the opportunity to combine a $100 GC (from a credit card), with a 15% off coupon and 6.6% FatCash at the Sharper Image. :)

Posted by dwallach at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, a few weeks ago (shortly after signing up) I got the mailing from AHA with a postcard that I had to send back to get the free gift. I did that, and got an email confirmation on 12/30/03 stating that:

We have received your gift redemption certificate and forwarded your request to our fulfillment center. Your gift will be shipped promptly. Please look for it in the mail within 4 -8 weeks.

I called today to cancel, and the CSR insisted that AHA asks their members to check out the benefits on the website prior to canceling. I told her I wasn't interested in doing that, and that I simply wanted to cancel. She then said if I just visit the website once, I'll get the GC. I told her I completed all the requirements to get the GC (which did not include visiting the site), in fact I had already gotten the confirmation email. She continued to insist that I visit the website. Finally, I asked for the URL, and while talking to her, visited the website, and told her so. She then claimed I had to spend some substantive time there reading about all the benefits.

I got a bit angry with her, and finally she said, "Well, I can see you just signed up for the free gift, and are not interested in the benefits." Duh! "I've canceled your membership, your confirmation number is XXXXXXXX, you will receive a confirmation email shortly. " Sheesh! I sure hope that after all that, they don't have the audacity to not send my GC!

Posted by dwallach at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are numerous airfare searching websites out there (Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, etc.). Way back before these existed, I used to use Windows software from United Airlines called United Connection (or something like that). I haven't tried it lately, but it was my favorite (most powerful searching ability). I have been a user of Travelocity for sometime now, though in a recent quest for decent fare I tried some of the others. In the past, I have never found much difference between any of the searches, and the need to register to view results on some is annoying. Despite this, I tried Orbitz and was pleasantly surprised with their search options, most notably the ability to select a travel length and departure/return date range. The results are displayed in grid format.

The strange thing is that I have yet to find a fare exclusive to these sites. In other words, I can search for fares with these sites, then go directly to the airlines website and order the tickets from them, saving the processing fee that they all seem to charge, and sometimes earning bonus mileage as well.

Then there's JetBlue, which chooses to not be listed by these search engines, so you have to check them individually. At the moment, they look cheapest, as they don't have the standard airline booking rules.

Posted by dwallach at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We made our annual New Year's Day trek out to the Tanger Outlets in Riverhead, NY. For those unclear, it's the last stop on the LIE. The last stop. As one exits, one can see where they stopped paving, and earth exists. Kind of cool.

With an AAA card or $5, you can get a coupon book with discounts for most of the stores (though most have minimum purchase requirements). Anyways, I checked online and found a place on their site where you can fill out a survey and print a coupon to pick up one of the coupon books without an AAA card or $5.

We picked up the coupon book, and though it wasn't too useful overall (we saved a few bucks here and there), it really paid off in the Baby Gap where we got some maternity clothes and baby gifts, mostly on clearance, plus an additional 15% off with the coupon. At the end of the day, the savings from the coupon book almost certainly covered the gas, and a bit more.

Posted by dwallach at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It seems the CA GC (gift card/certificate) Law isn't as friendly as originally suspected. According to a document from the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Division of Legal Affairs, "California’s Legislative Counsel has concluded that a merchant is not required to redeem a gift certificate in cash when requested by a consumer." Boo!

Any readers with legal background are welcome to weigh in with their opinions.

Posted by dwallach at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)