Guys, I just took advantage of a spectacular deal. Its the "microsoft Live Search cashback" thingie. Its a promotion by Microsoft for their live.com search engine. They're giving cashback if you purchase a product that you searched for via live.com. Various stores are participating.
Its a little complicated and your experience may vary, and it takes 2 months for the cashback to be paid to you, but it seems to have worked for me.
The program gives cashback from various stores (for instance, 7% off J&R, other electronic stores participating too).
With ebay tho, the cashback is a spectacular 25% off 'buy it now' items on ebay if you pay with paypal. I just got a brand new das III for $86.
Here are some details but since its complicated I leave it to you to read the fine print, but if you have any questions about my experience I'll be happy to tell you.
I came across the initial description of it here:
http://www.spoofee.com/index.php?section=deal&did=525345Read the comments (tiny link uppper right corner of the post) and see the details.
You basically have to get a live ID, link your paypal account to it. (It took me all of 3 minutes to do both).
The FAQ on the program is here:
http://search.live.com/cashback/faqMore details here at MS cashback site:
http://search.live.com/cashbackList of participating stores and average cashback:
http://search.live.com/cashback/storesOnce you've set up your live ID and paypal account linked to it, you merely go to live.com and do a search for a product. You'll see the MS cashback icon next to products that are participating.
TO get the ebay deal tho, the trick is to do a search so that an ebay result appears in the top part of the search results (the gray shaded area). So for instance, at live.com search for "t43". You'll see an ebay.com link in the gray shaded area. Click it.
Now at the ebay site, you'll see the icon at the top of the page that says "25% off microsoft cashback". That icon will stay with you throughout every page right thru the paypal payment. Make sure it does.
You have to purchase in the next 60 minutes once you arrive at ebay.com.
Once at ebay.com, just search for anything you want. As long as its 'buy it now' and takes paypal payment (NOT via third party payment system, however), then you will get 25% cashback.
So as you know I've been on the hunt for a blue cherry keyboard. Well, at this point I had a choice of a scorpius m10 for $44 ($59 - 25%) or a DAS III Professional for $86 ($115 - 25%). (Guess which one I chose, hee hee). If it doesnt work out I should be able to resell it on ebay for about that price, as the 'completed listings' inform me.
It also means that you could get a new DSI Modular Mac (with browns or blues) for $112. (Cuz DSI has an ebay store and they're selling both for $150 (minus %25 = about $112). Not a bad deal at all compared to retail.
Of course your experience will be your own. The comments indicate it will take a long time for the cashback to come in. However what makes me confident in my case is that the "ms cashback" icon stayed on the pages right thru payment followed by an email saying its been credited to my cashback account.
Well, I had to get the DAS rather than the spacesaver modular mac because I dont know yet if I like the blues and its harder to justify $112 over $86 I guess (I had a hard enough time justifying $86 over $44!). At least with the DAS I know I can resell it for about that much if need be. And anyway I'm waiting for the black PC version of the DSI modular board which isnt out yet.
So I'll play with the DAS and the smk88 for 6 to 12 months and once the black modular is out I might pick that up - and hopefully by then I'll have a job so the extra money shouldnt matter as much. Anyway I'm pretty happy with a new DAS Pro for $86 (which is what its used price is).
