judyonthenet

So earlier in the year, I had expressed desire to purchase a couple gaming systems this month. This month, the God of War red PSP bundle came out, as did the uber-popular 80GB MGS4 bundle (not to be mistaken with the limited edition MGS4 40GB bundle). I was originally prepared to take the hit for both, but then June rolled around, and I had a change of heart. I’ve been trying to figure out honeymoon stuff (it’s been stressful, more on that in another post), and seeing how much it was going to cost us, I decided I didn’t really need another handheld, nor should I be spending $540 to play one game. I almost fell for the Walmart $100 giftcard deal for all Blu-Ray players, including the MGS4 bundles, but I knew it wasn’t worth trying because of the demand and limited numbers (around 4) per store. Release dates passed, and I patted myself on the back for not blowing ~$760 on video game hardware.

But then the Microsoft Live eBay cashback deal happened. For a period of time, clicking eBay ads through Live search would yield a 35% cashback on just about any Buy-It-Now auction. You could use it 3 times and get up to $250 back each time. The only catch is that you won’t get the cash back until two months later, but whatever. In case you can’t tell, 35% is pretty frickin’ huge, especially on eBay. Scalpers who horded all the Walmart MGS4 PS3 bundles were hawking them on eBay for $600 (probably even cheaper ones were available earlier, as I found out about the eBay deal six hours after it was posted on Slickdeals), which is a $200 profit for the seller if you include the Walmart giftcard they get. (Minus ~$70 of taxes, eBay, and Paypal fees.) I just wanted the Walmart deal or better, and 35% makes the bundle $390, which is about $50 better plus I’m not forced to buy $100 of stuff from Walmart. So yeah, I bought one. I debated spending an extra $60 or so to get the limited edition grey bundle, but I decided I’d rather save the money and get an 80GB. About 10 days later, my new toy showed up in a giant banana box:

The seller is apparently not a good speller.

And why the heck not, I got the red God of War bundle while I was at it. A little under $140 shipped, I picked it up at the local UPS hub on Friday.

So for about $530 (less than the MGS4 bundle alone with CA tax), I got both the MGS4 bundle and God of War PSP bundle. Sweet. I couldn’t think of anything pricey to get for a third purchase, so I didn’t buy anything else. It’s not like I didn’t spend enough money anyway. Plus, I won’t actually have my rebates until August, so really, at the moment I’ve spent about $800. I’m not worried about not getting it… I mean, Live still has eBay cashback active, just a smaller percentage. btw, if you’re going to do a Buy-It-Now auction anytime soon, the Live cashback is back up to 20% after dropping to 10% right after 35% died. That’s still a decent chunk of change, but keep in mind, sellers might have inflated their price accordingly, so I’d make sure to compare prices to regular auctions.

Initial impressions to appear later, hopefully.

Get this game! Looks like they’re matching the Best Buy price this week.

Of course, it drops 31 days after it was shipped to me, so I can’t get a pricematch… damn Amazon. Nevermind, Amazon decided I was within the 30 days and gave me a $10. I guess Amazon is going to have to stay awesome. (Credit goes to CAG.)

This is just what I got in the last week…

The damage (from top to bottom):

Final Fantasy III for DS new - $16.99 from Amazon Deal of the Day for April 10. Yes, I hate JRPGs. No, I don’t know why I got this.
Kingdom Hearts II for PS2 new - Traded my sealed Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX (+ ~$3 shipping) for it on CAG. I got RotTK9 from trading a $8.96 clearance game ages ago.
Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD new - $5 + tax from Best Buy. It basically means I preordered MGS4 from Best Buy, but I’m not ever going to pick it up :P
Call of Duty 4 for Xbox 360 new - $34.99 from Amazon Deal of the Day April 14. I would have waited months later for a deal on the GotY edition, but Kelvin’s ex-coworkers are bugging him to play.
Gears of War used, Bioshock used, Viva Pinata sealed all for Xbox 360 - $65 shipped from a trader on CAG.
God of War 2 for PS2 - $17.99 + at Circuit City.
Team Fortress 2 for PC* - $18.99 + tax at Best Buy. I’m waiting for a deal on Orange Box so I can play too.
1 year Xbox Live Gold subscription + UNO code + Robotron code* - $35 from a trader on CAG.
Total damage for the past week = ~$201

* means not pictured

This isn’t counting the Okami game I preordered from Amazon yesterday (and it got delayed a week… bah!). I’m not in any rush to get any of these games; I’m very preoccupied with Fire Emblem: PoR at the moment, and Kelvin hasn’t even determined how to network the 360 yet. (I swear I’m just going to get an insanely long ethernet cable if doesn’t figure it out soon.) I just really like game shopping and read too much CAG :( The rest of the year is going to be even more painful, as I might be making several large purchases at retail. May has Wii Fit ($90!!), June is particularly painful with the God of War PSP bundle ($200) and MGS4 PS3 bundle ($$$$$! aaah, Limited Edition Gunmetal bundle… WANT), and October has Fallout 3 Collector’s Edition ($70) with presumed new PC purchase ($$$$$!) to play Fallout 3.

New thing I learned today: Robotron: 2084 is an arcade shooting game from 1982, unique in its time for its use of dual joysticks for one player.

I did a bit of shopping this weekend, and GameStop and JoAnn’s is getting some thumbs down from me…

GameStop has this booklet ad they have on their counters all the time called “The Guide”. I don’t know how long they usually lay around, but the most recent one (with GTA4 on the cover) advertised that God of War 2 for PS2 was going to be Greatest Hits. This means it’d be getting a price drop from $39.99 to $19.99, but it also means it’d be getting the obnoxious red banner on the cover. I consider myself a bit of a collector (and a bit anal retentive), so I wanted to get the game before stores were flooded with Greatest Hits versions, even tho both version have identical contents. God of War was amusing enough, so God of War 2 was probably also amusing. According to the CAG forums, the ad said deals were good through April 6th, so I figured I’d be able to get the game at the Greatest Hits price minus the Greatest Hits banner pretty easily last Saturday (April 5th).

Oh, how naive I am! Even though the ad had been around GameStop stores for a few days already, the GameStop system was never updated with the new price. I walked into the nearest GameStop last Saturday, greeted by a guy behind the counter who, based on his enthusiasm in greeting me, I assumed was the manager. I wanted to get God of War 2 for $20, but it was $40 in the system. I said it should be on sale, and I asked about the booklet ad they usually have. The guy said the ads were in the back and weren’t supposed to be out yet, but he could bring one out from the back, which he did. I flipped through the pages and found the advertised $20 God of War 2 game, pointing this out to him. He said since the ad isn’t supposed to be out yet, it should drop in price later this week. I asked when, and he said Tuesday… no wait, tomorrow. I asked if the ad says when it’s valid, and he said it should, and we both looked through booklet until we found it on the back. He read outloud that prices are “valid through April 6th” and followed it with “which must means it starts tomorrow”. What the hell, does he think I don’t know English or something? I’m like, “Come on, that’s totally not what it means!” He mumbled some mumbo-jumbo about how he hates “lawyer legalese” and how he’s not sure when the price is valid. He won’t give it to me today, so he gives me the store number to call and check tomorrow. He spent the entire time checking out his screen, so I don’t know if there was some corporate email with vague instructions on how to deal with the ad or something. What a bunch of bull-honkey.

The good thing to come out of that was he let me keep the ad. The next day, I went to Circuit City, grabbed a copy of God of War 2, and used the GameStop ad to pricematch it. The customer rep only hesitated to ask the guy next to her if they pricematch GameStop, to which he mumbled “uh-huh”. She rung me up, giving me an additional $2 discount from their pricematch guarantee, and I was able to use $13 of leftover Circuit City credit. Sweet. This was a satisfactory retail experience, by the way.

Also, the price officially dropped today, so if you’re looking for the game without the greatest hits label, you might want to check your local retailers soon.

I dropped by JoAnn’s this weekend to pick up some tulle. I’ve been visiting JoAnn’s a lot lately, as they have something on sale every weekend (but of course, never at the same time). With my recent urge to become more crafty (in a crafts sort of way, not in a shady politician sort of way) and seeing how ridiculously expensive veils are, I decided to try to make my own veil. I saw in an ad that tulle was on sale for 50% off, so I made sure to visit last weekend to get some fabric.

When I got to JoAnn’s, I asked a sales associate to help me choose a tulle for my veil, and she directed me to the 108″ wide white tulle. It was $2.69 a yard (I didn’t realize they had tulle that was above $1.99 a yard), but the sign was there saying tulle and matte net was on sale… except for “shinny tulle” (this exception was handwritten on the sign). I’m guessing they meant “shiny”, which eliminates pretty much any tulle with color in it, including some of the ivory shades. Maybe I’m wrong, but every colored tulle I looked at was labeled “shiny”. The ivory tulles weren’t white enough anyway, so I stuck with the white, even though my dress color may be paler than the tulle. This was just for fun/practice anyway, though I was disappointed I wasn’t going to be able to make my rainbow colored veil :P

I grabbed the bolt of white tulle and brought it to the area where they snip the fabric. I asked the lady to make that the tulle was 50% off, so she scanned it… and it wasn’t! She said it was probably because it was extra-wide. I’m kinda pieved, because nowhere on the signs does it say it excluded extra-wide tulle. The ad might have hinted at it by saying their tulle price range maxed at $1.99, but I thought it just meant they don’t have tulle more expensive than $1.99 a yard. And I’m pretty sure the lady who pointed out that bolt to me told me it was 50% off (and that the shiny stuff wasn’t). Luckily, I have a 40% off coupon handy, so I use it just so I can get my four yards of tulle that day. (Though in hindsight, I should have just bought it this upcoming weekend, since there’s like unlimited 50% coupons for next week. Ah, well, I lost $1.) I feel like the limitations on the tulle borderlines false advertising, so I’m seriously considering writing to JoAnn’s and complaining. No shiny tulle, and no extra-wide tulle. Pretty much the only tulle I can get is 78″ white tulle… maybe the black tulle wasn’t shiny. Grrr.

Edited 4/13 to add: I dropped by JoAnn’s today and saw that actually a lot of the colored tulle wasn’t shiny. I must have been blind when I was looking for tulle. The unadvertised exclusions still suck though :P

New thing I learned today: Tulle is indeed pronounced like “tool”. Good to know I’ve been saying it right.

Yep, I finally got my copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in my hands, as I’m sure 90% of all US Wii owners did in the last 24 hours.

I pre-ordered mine at Circuit City last month, doing their “Pre-order SSBB, get a $10 gift card when you get the game” deal. I also got a Circuit City gift card through credit card rewards, so I didn’t have to pay for anything. I managed to get up in morning on a Sunday to make it to Circuit City’s opening time at 10AM, even with losing an hour from daylight savings. Well, I got there a minute or two after, as when I got in, there were already a handful of people standing in line at the customer service desk.

All these folks were waiting for Smash, of course. There was a large cardboard display with all the store’s copies sitting behind the customer service desk. There was a kid with his dad in front of me, and when it got to their turn, the girl at the register denied them a copy because they didn’t pre-order. “Sorry, all our copies are going to pre-order. We have 39 pre-orders but we only got 35 copies.” The kid seemed really bummed; I hope he found his copy elsewhere. And I hope for that store’s sake at least four of their pre-order people turn out to be slackers and not pick it up today.

I was at the end of the line, so when I got my copy, there weren’t any people left. As the register girl was working on my transaction, some guy comes into the store and starts talking to her. I’m guessing he works there, as the people behind the counter seem to know him. Before he even asks anything, the girl tells him he can’t have a copy of Smash because they got more pre-orders than copies. The guy says she must be kidding. “Who the hell preorders?” I glare at him. The girl enunciates very slowly for him, “Thir-ty-nine peo-ple pre-ordered. You can’t get one.” The guy keeps saying she must be kidding over and over again, which does not convince her to give him a copy. I’m not sure why this guy doesn’t get why CC had so many pre-orders; they’ve only been advertising a pre-order deal for the last three months. He then says he’s gonna go across the street (I’m guessing to Best Buy or GameStop) to get a copy (like that’s a threat?). The girl finishes my transaction, and I leave, and the guy comes back (instead of going across the street) to further complain about how ridiculous that that many pre-ordered and how it can’t be true. What a douchebag. I hope they didn’t give him one.

Anyway, I spent like five hours playing the Adventure mode. I think I’ve had enough Smash for today.

Last, last Saturday, Susie was thrown a baby shower by a couple of her friends and Greer. Since this was for her second child (ETA: early March!), she wanted a small get-together that only included her closest friends and family (which I’m considered a part of, I’m assuming). None of my friends have made babies yet, so this was the first baby shower I’d ever been invited to. Because the baby shower was just an atypically small affair, it was decided that it would be a tea party. Like, a party where you sit around and drink tea in fancy cups and stuff. Another first for me.

Being the procrastinator that I am, the morning before the baby shower I went (dragging Kelvin with me) to a local baby boutique near downtown Campbell called Tiny Tots. (It got good reviews on Yelp.) Instead of being a typical upscale-looking boutique, it’s housed in some old warehouse-ish building a few blocks away from downtown across the street from some railroad tracks. Aside from being a baby boutique, it’s also known for its cloth diaper services, apparently for the environmentally conscious. Walking in, the store has a lot of open space, as ceilings are pretty high. Fancy wooden racks of adorable little clothes are all over the place. There were three ladies hanging out behind the counter offering assistance, which I declined because I wanted to check out all the cool baby stuff without ranting in their faces about how expensive everything is. (I’m sure I was loud enough without them following me around.)

Susie had a very specific list of things she wanted (3-12 mo. cute clothing, sun hats, and blankets), so I looked for those things. Right in front of the entrance was the rack of new arrivals, and it included this super-cute red, Asian-ish outfit. It included a top and red, striped pants. Later, I looked up the brand online. The company is called Sckoon, and they specialize in 100% organic cotton clothing and are known for their monkey pants. (What’s so great about 100% organic cotton clothing? I don’t know, but it sure sounds pretentious.) Seriously though, isn’t this outfit friggin’ adorable?

I got this outfit, minus the cap. (If baby #2 is anything like Naomi, she’s going to have a ginormous head that no cap can handle.) I did get a little sticker shock though; $40 for less than half a yard of cloth! I’m indifferent to price when it comes to a gift, but I can’t believe some people pay this sort of money regularly for baby clothing. I found a decent Kissy Kissy baby gown from the “clearance” rack and a white eyelet Flap Happy floppy sunhat that I also thought was totally friggin’ adorable. After spending a good half-an-hour ooh-ing and aah-ing all the high-end baby stuffs, I checked out. They offer a free gift wrapping service where they stick your stuff in a box and wrap it really nice with cute wrapping paper (you choose from several) and ribbon. The ladies working were very friendly and courteous.

The tea party also happened to be in Campbell, more specifically the Pruneyard. Despite living literally down the street from the place, I was still several minutes late because I didn’t realize it was in the Pruneyard. The place it was held in is called Lisa’s Tea Treasures, and aside from the small store area in the front, the main purpose of this place is to have tea parties. Honestly, I never knew such places existed. There are several rooms in the backs with tables of china, and you book time slots of these tables to hold your events. Everything is fancy and pink and flowery and girly, and there’s fancy teaware all over the place. The waitresses are dressed in these frumpy, English maid outfits. Everyone was dressed for tea, which made me feel like a dumbass, walking in with t-shirt and jeans. (For some reason, I thought it’d be like chilling at Starbucks or something.) The tables have fancy teacups, creamer containers (with doily covers), napkin holders, etc., plus a bell to ring for your server!

When I arrived, mostly everyone in the party (about 10 people total) was here already, checking out the tea menu. They serve three different teas and have jars of tea cookies (taste like gingerbread) around the table. There’s cream, sugar cubes, and sugared violet leaves for the tea and a yummy lemon cream for the cookies. We chose an Earl Grey, a fruity green tea, and something called Butter Truffle. Our waiter (unfortunately, he was not dressed in a frumpy English maid outfit) arrived with three, very heavy teapots covered in with funny-looking cozies. Passing them around the table and pouring tea from the teapots was quite a task. I wasn’t a fan of the teas; all of them, including the green tea, were too strong for my tastes. I’m guessing that’s more European-style or something. Everyone seemed to like the Butter Truffle, but it had too much flavor for my mild tastes.

After tea was our “meals”: a sample of bite-sized tea sandwiches. The plate had five different sandwiches (roast beef, cucumber mint, egg salad, pesto, and tuna salad), a fresh-baked scone, and a miniature quiche. The sandwiches were all pretty tasty, despite being five totally different flavors. The small portions seemed appropriate for snacking and sampling the flavors. I was surprised at how much I liked the cucumber mint. The exception would be the tuna salad sandwich (also unfortunately the last one I ate). It had some sort of nut in it that I felt didn’t go with the tuna flavor at all. I ate it all since it wasn’t very much, but it was disgusting to me. The scone was incredibly good; you could tell they were just baked. It was served with Devonshire cream (reminds me of heavy butter), and having a warm, fresh scone smothered in fatty cream really hits the spot. I’m indifferent to quiches, but it was okay (way better than the tuna salad sandwich).

Before cake (Susie’s friends got a guava cake from Aki’s… yumyumyum….), Susie opened her presents. I think her wishes for baby clothes and sunhats were adequately fulfilled, as pretty much everybody got her that. I surprised only one person got blankets; I originally wanted to give a blanket, but I figured a bunch of other people would do that already. Susie got the motherload from Greer; Greer went baby-clothing-shopping-berserk and must have gotten at least a dozen outfits (+ two hats). I don’t think this baby is going to have to worry about being naked… at least not from 3 to 12 months. After presents, we served cake, and that was about it for the tea party.

Random observation: When the baby shower first started, the room across the hall from us was occupied by a large party of old ladies. Based on the song they were singing, it seems like they were a party of (very old) sorority sisters. In the middle of the baby shower, they left. Minutes later, they were replaced by two dozen little girls, all dressed in frilly dresses and armed with their favorite toys and stuffed animals. Apparently, it was for a little girl’s birthday. Luckily, they weren’t too annoying or shrill-ish. It still surprises me how much some kids get to have. Anyway, I thought contrast between the old ladies and little girls was amusing.

Even though it was my first baby shower, I’m told I haven’t truly experienced the debacle that is a full-blown baby shower (with lots of people and random baby games), but seriously, I’m in no rush. The tea party was pretty neat, if kinda odd for someone not-that-girly like me. I can’t say it was my cup of tea (ohhhhhhh!), but it was an interesting experience. And I certainly had a lovely time ;)

New thing I learned today: Devonshire cream is clotted cream specifically from southwest England, primarily Devon and Cornwall. Clotted cream is made from boiling unpasteurized milk until a heavy cream forms on top, which is then collected. Devonshire/clotted cream has a minimum fat content of 55% and doesn’t need to be whipped because of its thickness.

The biggest news at Cheap Ass Gamer is probably the leaked Toys’R'Us ad for this upcoming Sunday’s paper. It says if you buy Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii at its retail price of $49.99 at Toys’R'Us, you’ll get a $25 giftcard.

You’ll notice there’s a cross for fine print. It just says only one giftcard per customer (so you can’t go hording giftcards… at least not very easily). Get the latest news about the deal at the CAG thread started by MidnightMetal here. You also get some spiffy coin thing if you preorder.

If you don’t get why this is a big deal, let me explain it to you. First of all, $25 is a lot of money, particularly for a gamer. It’s like 50% another new Wii game, 40% off a new 360/PS3 game, and most of the cost of a new DS or PSP game. Second, this is a must-have title for Wii owners. Most gamers get a Nintendo console for one reason: Mario. And this is the Mario title for the Wii, so it’s going to sell like hotcakes, with or without the sweet giftcard deal. Especially since it’s holiday shopping season, they don’t need a promotion like this to have people come to their store and buy this game there.

When this first showed up on CAG last week, most people thought this was a print mistake. It can still change, but I’m more and more convinced this is very planned and not going to go away. 1) Managers have already confirmed this deal, and there’s been no changes in the ad nor have there been any corporate memos, despite all the buzz on the internet. 2) This is a great way to get people in the store during the holiday season. The internet savvy person will go into the store and preorder (1 trip), then they will go pick up the game, coin, and gift card (2nd trip), and finally they’ll go back to use the giftcard (3rd trip). All these trips give TRU potential additional income, since it’s the holidays, and kids need their presents. 3) TRU has had a similar deal before, where anyone who bought Madden could get a second game half off. So I wouldn’t worry about this deal biting the dust before the game comes out.

I picked up a $5 preorder ticket at TRU during lunch. The nice register guy mentioned that he heard from two customers who also preordered that they had read about the giftcard deal on the internet. He seemed kinda bummed that sales peons like him seem to find these things out last.

Edited to add:
New thing I learned today: Shaun the Sheep (from Wallace & Gromit) has his own TV show in England. Also, “Shaun” is the proper way to spell his name, not Sean or Shorn.

I love Shaun! I hope they eventually release his show on DVD so I can watch it too.