Tech Bargain Thread: Post Your Deals Here!

Couperin47

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lmao, Refurbs of these drives ? They originally were notorious for being crap (well not as bad as the Ultrastar IBM drives from the factory in Hungary, which literally drove them out of the business...) you have to have zero respect for your data to consider these, barely useful as doorstops....
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)

LoweTek

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Dell will have a Labor Day Door Buster at 2PM on September 2nd:

LG 75 inch model 75UM7570PUD $999 and you get a $250 Dell E-Gift card for later use (can't use it on this TV) netting the price at $749.

I know nothing about this model so if you're interested do your research. I got a pre-notification of the deal because I bought my Sony from them. If you decide you want one, don't mess around. Be on their site at 2PM sharp. They'll be gone by 2:30.
 

Harry Hooper

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Walmart has the Hyundai C2S3T 240GB internal SSD drive with 5-year warranty for $28.99.

Edit: Same price at Amazon and $1 more at Newegg.
 
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Couperin47

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I rarely post here anymore because sales and price changes at Amazon mostly make it irrelevant, but with a few caveats, this is a hell of a bargain, ends 9/24 at midnight PST:

Dell U2412M Ultrasharp monitor, refurb. This is their old flagship 24" 1920 x 1200 monitor. IPS, LED backlight. Still selling new for $160 - $180 depending on where you look. Sold by and shipped by Newegg but seems to be coming direct from Dell. If the listing is correct you still get a full 1 year warranty. Refurbs direct from Dell have always been very clean for me.

The unit is pure quality, the stand is solid. You get vga, DVI-D with HDCP and Displayport 1.2 inputs. NO HDMI input (it's a 16:10 native after all). It will NOT include a Displayport cable (inexpensive ones now available lots of places including Monoprice). 3 port USB 2.0 hub.

with free shipping: $89.99

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824260423?Item=N82E16824260423
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
I realize that this isn't tech, but I figure we must have some DIYer weekend mechanics around here:

Advanced Auto Parts is clearing out all their Mobil Super motor oils. Prices vary from store to store, but I got 5 qt jugs of blend for my wife's Tahoe for 2.75, and 5 qt jugs of full syn for my Malibu for 6.65.
 

Pandemonium67

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Printers are tech, right? My HP8720 died of printhead failure so I ended up ordering a Canon TS9120 all-in-one from Amazon. Only $104 -- cheaper than buying a new HP printhead.

Tom's tech guide ranks the TS9210 No. 1. Amazon's price is much, much lower than competitors.

I hope it's not a piece of shit.
 

Couperin47

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Printers are tech, right? My HP8720 died of printhead failure so I ended up ordering a Canon TS9120 all-in-one from Amazon. Only $104 -- cheaper than buying a new HP printhead.

Tom's tech guide ranks the TS9210 No. 1. Amazon's price is much, much lower than competitors.

I hope it's not a piece of shit.
It's an inkjet, it will do what all inkjets do: unless used almost every day it will clog, then waste half it's ink trying to unclog with limited success. Friends don't let friends ever buy inkjet printers anymore. If you print a lot, they are stupid and expensive to run, if you print only occasionaly they are guaranteed to be clogged and not work when you need them...lasers are always the answer unless you're only interested in very high resolution photographic images on expensive specialty papers.
 

Couperin47

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Jeez, now you tell me.
Actually there was and is a long thread on printers here, but over the last 2 years a significant majority on this site tends to ask questions about things like tech in Blind leading Stupid and other portions of the site, they avoid this Byte Me for whatever reasons. The consensus on inexpensive laser printers is universal, and Canons & Brothers tend to be favored.
 

stepson_and_toe

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Aug 11, 2019
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I've been doing a lot of looking into replacing the spouse's inkjet and basically I've been finding through Amazon reviews that almost everything I look at gets one star from 15% to 26% of the reviewers. The biggest problems seem to be wi-fi connectivity, ink clogging, and the manufacturers trying to foist ink deals on customers. Just about every printer I've looked at is wireless. I think you can hook it directly to your computer if you have the proper cable but they don't ship with one. The manufacturers have decided that the best way to make money is on ink, followed by people having to re-purchase a printer that clogs, jams, etc. The Epson Eco Tank sounded great, especially as there were buy-backs of your old printer, even if it didn't work, then I looked at costs and reviews. It is very frustrating.
 

bigq

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The manufacturers have decided that the best way to make money is on ink
I worked for HP and I can tell you that this is 100% true. But I left there in 2011 so it is hardly a new strategy.

My current printer is a Cannon MG6620 inkjet. I use it maybe once or twice a month. Haven’t noticed any clogging issues over the past two years since I bought it. My wife prints pictures on it from time to time. If not for that I would buy a laser printer.
 

Couperin47

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I've been doing a lot of looking into replacing the spouse's inkjet and basically I've been finding through Amazon reviews that almost everything I look at gets one star from 15% to 26% of the reviewers. The biggest problems seem to be wi-fi connectivity, ink clogging, and the manufacturers trying to foist ink deals on customers. Just about every printer I've looked at is wireless. I think you can hook it directly to your computer if you have the proper cable but they don't ship with one. The manufacturers have decided that the best way to make money is on ink, followed by people having to re-purchase a printer that clogs, jams, etc. The Epson Eco Tank sounded great, especially as there were buy-backs of your old printer, even if it didn't work, then I looked at costs and reviews. It is very frustrating.
Virtually all modern printers have a USB 2.0 input as does any computer made in the last decade, also all Android phones do too. USB 2.0 cables, generally reliable up to 6 feet for any old brand and 10 feet from any good brand can be had for just a few bucks. A USB printer cable will have one "A" connector (the large flat USB plug you see everywhere) and and "B" connector which is square with 2 rounded corners:

https://images.app.goo.gl/h1u788DwzCWPc6GQ8

For your phone, which I know is clumsy, you need a "B" to whatever size mini or micro or USB C connector your phone uses. Look at inexpensive Brother & Canon laser and multifunction units, in b&w there are many choices under $150. Color starts at double those prices, but be aware almost all units come with 'starter' cartridges which are, at best, half filled and the replacement set of carts for color (black and 3 colors) from the printer maker will generally cost more than the price of the cheapest color models....
 

stepson_and_toe

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Another problem is that the manufacturers think that everyone needs an all-in-one printer (print/copy/fax/connect to every bit of electronics you have). We have a scanner and in the extremely rare event we need to fax, we can just go to the apartment manager's office. All we need is to be able to print text (in color when applicable).
 

stepson_and_toe

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USB 2.0 cables, generally reliable up to 6 feet for any old brand and 10 feet from any good brand
Thanks, I was unaware of the distance. Fortunately, that is not a critical factor in our set-up. As for our phones, they just plug into the computer USB port or I just email.
 

Pandemonium67

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We very occasionally scan, print often enough, and sometimes copy -- and also want to print nice photos now and then. Is laser still the way to go for those needs?
 

Couperin47

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We very occasionally scan, print often enough, and sometimes copy -- and also want to print nice photos now and then. Is laser still the way to go for those needs?
Even the cheapest b&w multifunction scans decently (in color btw), copying can be very handy, almost no one uses faxing anymore for 2 major reasons: 1. They will only work with old real landlines, NOT with any VOIP phone service via the Net. 2. The only major organization I know that still is mired in the 70's and actually REQUIRES faxing, as opposed to email, is....the IRS. What laser, both b&w and color, can't produce is high quality photo-type images, the kind medium to high end inkjets can do with quality coated papers. Things to look for in a multifunction: a decent autofeeder (usually limited to 25/30 pages) and the ability to do true automatic 2 sided copying, which can save a lot of paper. Units that have both generally are barely $50-60 more than a basic "just printer" in the Canon lineup.
 

Marceline

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We use a B&W laser at home and then print photos from CVS on those occasions we need to. Unless you are a pretty avid photographer and printing stuff constantly I would say it's much easier this way.
 

stepson_and_toe

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Aug 11, 2019
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We use a B&W laser at home and then print photos from CVS on those occasions we need to. Unless you are a pretty avid photographer and printing stuff constantly I would say it's much easier this way.
If you are a photographer (which I am), you probably would want something especially designed for printing photographs. Fairly recent higher-end DSLR cameras can easily produce images that can be printed quite large. I routinely printed pictures taken with a Nikon DSLR that is about 10 years old at 18"x12" size, and sometimes that was after I cropped the original photo. My current camera is about 4-and-a-half years old and I have some photos taken with it that I could print out at 54"x36" (a good portin of a door). I do most of my printing on 19"x13" paper, so that printer isn't particularly good for printing out the crossword puzzle or the shopping list as paper and ink runs ~$7 a page. So, you are right, if you don't need it, don't buy it; use CVS or WalMart, etc., to print photos. I should have added my photo printer is an inkjet but the ink is a bit different than your run-of-the-mill inkjet; it's pigment-based.
 
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HriniakPosterChild

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Another problem is that the manufacturers think that everyone needs an all-in-one printer (print/copy/fax/connect to every bit of electronics you have). We have a scanner and in the extremely rare event we need to fax, we can just go to the apartment manager's office. All we need is to be able to print text (in color when applicable).
How is it a problem for a product to have a feature you don’t use? Why is it a problem that MS Word has mail merge, that Excel has pivot tables, that your printer has a port for a phone line.

Even the cheapest b&w multifunction scans decently (in color btw), copying can be very handy, almost no one uses faxing anymore for 2 major reasons: 1. They will only work with old real landlines, NOT with any VOIP phone service via the Net. 2. The only major organization I know that still is mired in the 70's and actually REQUIRES faxing, as opposed to email, is....the IRS. What laser, both b&w and color, can't produce is high quality photo-type images, the kind medium to high end inkjets can do with quality coated papers. Things to look for in a multifunction: a decent autofeeder (usually limited to 25/30 pages) and the ability to do true automatic 2 sided copying, which can save a lot of paper. Units that have both generally are barely $50-60 more than a basic "just printer" in the Canon lineup.
1. Absolutely not true, and I verified that just yesterday morning, sending a FAX via Comcast, because
2. The credit union where my son has an account requires forms (available as PDFs on their website) to be sent by US Mail or by FAX.
 

SumnerH

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How is it a problem for a product to have a feature you don’t use?
Security (having shitty cameras and mics on every laptop sucks), reliability, price, form factor, diffusion of manufacturing focus on making core features work both in hardware and software, knock on effects (phone reviews spend half their time discussing a phone's camera and built-in speakers rather than how well it makes calls/texts/battery life), etc.

And having crappy integrated versions of things tends to suppress the development of better standalone versions.

We went through this with integrated TV/VCRs and realized all the drawbacks of this kind of mash-up.
 

Couperin47

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How is it a problem for a product to have a feature you don’t use? Why is it a problem that MS Word has mail merge, that Excel has pivot tables, that your printer has a port for a phone line.


1. Absolutely not true, and I verified that just yesterday morning, sending a FAX via Comcast, because
2. The credit union where my son has an account requires forms (available as PDFs on their website) to be sent by US Mail or by FAX.
What multifunction unit did that ? I haven't bought a new unit in several years and here I'm stuck with Time-Warner, err Charter err Spectrum or whatever they are calling it this week...and have had no one report any such success, but then can't remember anyone trying in several years....
 

Marceline

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If you are a photographer (which I am), you probably would want something especially designed for printing photographs. Fairly recent higher-end DSLR cameras can easily produce images that can be printed quite large. I routinely printed pictures taken with a Nikon DSLR that is about 10 years old at 18"x12" size, and sometimes that was after I cropped the original photo. My current camera is about 4-and-a-half years old and I have some photos taken with it that I could print out at 54"x36" (a good portin of a door). I do most of my printing on 19"x13" paper, so that printer isn't particularly good for printing out the crossword puzzle or the shopping list as paper and ink runs ~$7 a page. So, you are right, if you don't need it, don't buy it; use CVS or WalMart, etc., to print photos. I should have added my photo printer is an inkjet but the ink is a bit different than your run-of-the-mill inkjet; it's pigment-based.
Yeah that's a completely different use case from most people and makes a lot of sense.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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What multifunction unit did that ? I haven't bought a new unit in several years and here I'm stuck with Time-Warner, err Charter err Spectrum or whatever they are calling it this week...and have had no one report any such success, but then can't remember anyone trying in several years....
One you panned when I brought it up in another post some time ago.
 

stepson_and_toe

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Aug 11, 2019
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How is it a problem for a product to have a feature you don’t use? Why is it a problem that MS Word has mail merge, that Excel has pivot tables, that your printer has a port for a phone line.
Somehow, I think it costs money to add things like scanners, fax capability, etc., to a printer. Also, there is more that can go wrong with the equipment.
 

luckiestman

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Somehow, I think it costs money to add things like scanners, fax capability, etc., to a printer. Also, there is more that can go wrong with the equipment.

Maybe but not necessarily. Think about drive up ATMs having Braille. Running a line of scanners with printers and then just printers might be more expensive than only running one production line.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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All I want for Black Friday/Cyber Monday is a discount on Dropbox Premium/Pro plans. I find the service indispensable, but overpriced. Last year Amazon had a 1 year plan for $99 + $50 in Amazon credit, and I'd jump at more of the same. In years past I was buying 1 year subscription cards off eBay for $60ish, but now they're about $100.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)

Harry Hooper

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Newegg will sell you a pair of Crucial 240GB SSDs {CT240BX500SSD1} for $57.98.

Purchases are price-protected for the rest of the month.
 

Harry Hooper

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Unitek metal-case hard drive duplicator unit on sale at Amazon for $34.95, plus 25% off coupon gets it down to $27.40.

For comparison, Newegg has the plastic-case equivalent for $28.47.

Devices come with a 2-year warranty.
 

Harry Hooper

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Staples has the Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw for $209.99.

Amazon has the Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw for $169.99.

Amazon has the Canon Color imageCLASS MF743Cdw for $237.00.
 

Couperin47

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WD Blue 3D NAND 2TB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State Drive - WDS200T2B0A

Newegg had a Shocker special on this 2 days ago which immediately sold out for $179.95. One of the lowest prices yet on a good brand name reliable Sata III 2 Tb drive for those who want a a lot of fast storage. Turns out WD has their own store (had no idea they sold directly) and currently are running the same sale with free shipping. In addition a few remarks at Newegg implied some of these drives (like with most things at Newegg and Amazon) intermix reviews of assorted sizes, might be grey market, not giving you the full 5 year warranty. In this case you are buying directly from WD which utterly eliminates the issue. Get it here:

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-blue-3d-nand-sata-ssd?utm_medium=pdsh2&utm_source=gads&utm_campaign=wd-us-pla&utm_content=298648459158&utm_term=WDS200T2B0A#WDS200T2B0A

Sale price will show up in Checkout. No mention how long this will last.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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They are/were doing the same for Google Fi customers.

Log in to your account to see if you've got the offer. I did and they shipped it out to me a few days ago. Completely free.
 

Saints Rest

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Maybe this isn’t the best place to post this as it’s a request rather than a posting of a bargain, but I’m looking to get my kids iPhones that they can use for Netflix and games, no phone, no text.
What’s the best way to do this?
It could be an old iPhone but only if the iOS can be current so that apps can work.
 

Soxy

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Maybe this isn’t the best place to post this as it’s a request rather than a posting of a bargain, but I’m looking to get my kids iPhones that they can use for Netflix and games, no phone, no text.
What’s the best way to do this?
It could be an old iPhone but only if the iOS can be current so that apps can work.
I don't even know if they still make them, but an ipod touch is basically an iPhone without the phone. That's probably what you want.
 

Bunt4aTriple

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I don't even know if they still make them, but an ipod touch is basically an iPhone without the phone. That's probably what you want.
Yeah, I did that with my 9 year old this year, a new iPod touch. It's been great, especially with leaving her at home for limited periods if we go for a run or to the gym a mile away. She can facetime either of us, use Find My to see where we are, and if there were an emergency and she couldn't reach us, she could hit the panic button on our alarm system and talk to the dispatcher.

She uses iMessage to text with us, grandparents, aunts and uncles and her former teacher. No facebook messenger or interaction with anyone I wouldn't leave my kids with. I don't know if your SR's kids are younger, but it's been a good introduction to using a "phone" responsibly.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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We picked up 2 of these for "silent" home theater use for $549/each (regularly $850). Looks like the sale was just over but I think they'll go below $600 again soon:

View: https://www.amazon.com/beyerdynamic-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones-Touchpad/dp/B07VVC1KH3/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=amiron+copper&qid=1578078884&sr=8-1


After much searching, the Amiron Copper was the only choice above $300 that was wireless, well-built, and had AptX-LL (the new bluetooth codec with minimal lag to avoid out-of-sync dialogue). Definitely the most I ever spent on a pair of headphones but I trust Beyerdynamic's build quality to have them last for many years.