UPDATE: Sorry, but the deal is dead. They’ve fixed the link so that it doesn’t work anymore.
It’s not often that I buy stuff in stores because I can normally find the same item for much less online. I do, however, find myself turning to Best Buy on the rare occasion that I can’t fulfill my gadget addiction over the Internet.
Just a few months ago we moved from Iowa to Illinois, and when notifying the United States Postal Service (USPS) we received some coupons online. Among them was a Best Buy coupon that was 10% off of a single item from the categories I’ve listed below. Huh, I thought it was a pretty good deal since the coupon didn’t expire for about two-months.
Then I noticed that this particular coupon, like most others, was merely an image. The URL of the coupon is:
https://moversguide.usps.com/img/coupon/bestbuy/200804_clientarea.gif
The first thing that popped into my head was that part of the filename for the image is just the year followed by the month. In this case the 200804 represents April, 2008. As it turns out the URL of the image changes from month-to-month almost like clockwork. So the next time you’re looking to buy something from Best Buy check to see whether this coupon applies to you, and adjust the URL to represent the current month. USPS might be changing the URL as more people start to catch on, but by modifying the URL I can see that they’ve been using this structure for nearly a year.
For those of you who have a hard time reading the fine print here is a nice structured list of the things the coupon is valid for:
- Home Theater:
- TV’s $399 & up
- DVD players and recorders
- Blu-ray Disc & HD DVD Players
- Home Audio
- Audio and video accessories
- Furniture $99 & up
- Home Theater installation
- Also valid at Magnolia Home Theater
- Computer Accessories:
- DVD-RW drives
- Flash and external hard drives
- Printers $149 & up
- Scanners $99 & up
- Networking
- Speakers, mice, and keyboards
- PC cameras and gaming controllers
- Digital recorders $99 & up
- Surge protectors
- Flash memory
- Cables
- Graphic and sound cards
- Software
- Blank media
- Ink cartridges
- Printer Docks
- Paper
- Digital Cameras & Camcorders:
- Digital cameras $249 & up
- Camcorders $279 & up
- Digital camera accessories
- Camcorder accessories
- Blank media
- Camcorder batteries
- Premium photo services
- Digital photo frames
- Photo gifts
- Prepaid Best Buy Photo Center Gift Cards
- Batteries
- MP3 Players & Car Electronics:
- MP3 accessories
- GPS hardware
- Car audio
- Satellite radio hardware
- Musical instruments
- CD/DVD storage
- Toys
- Phones & Accessories:
- Pay-as-you-go phones
- Cordless phones
- Answering machines
- Landline and cellular phone accessories
- Phone cards
- Two-way radios
- Major and Small Appliances & More:
- Vacuums
- Microwaves
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not for me, lol
I live in Panama. Not for me either.
Bad luck,
Omar.-
Neither for me. I’m in France or South Korea.
Is it just me or is there a problem with photos going along with comments? Found myself with a new face today, and others had this same face! My first laugh this morning. Lol!
Someone manipulated the MyBlogLog service in a way we weren’t expecting, but it’s fixed now! Thanks for pointing it out.
The categories don’t really matter when I used it they didn’t even check it, just a quick scan and 10% off its pretty nice. I picked up a couple from the post office they have them with the change of address forms.
I would assume that their system would check to make sure you purchased a qualifying product though.
Lifehacker just reported on your article:
http://lifehacker.com/378682/p.....t-best-buy
Congrats!
They sure did… 4,000 hits from them and counting.
Any coupons from other stores?
The Consumerist is on this too! Way to go Cybernet!!!!
http://consumerist.com/378721/.....s-not-expi
This coupon appy for regular price items only and won’t apply sale or clearance items and that will defeat the purpose of using it since regular items at BB are more expensive that other stores especially online.
I do not buy electronics item at regular price any more. I only buy at sale price plus coupons only since our econnomics are suck now. Save money for gas and lucnh instead. Everything goes up but salary.
Coupon that BB mail to your email or in regular US email or some floating on the web mostly can use and apply for sale or clearance items.
However, lately, some BB stores, cashiers, checkout computers do not accept coupon for sale items.
Good luck for someone who could use this coupon for sale item by having some kind of argument with store manager to have them manual over-ride the coupon.
FYI, you can find a lot of these at your local post office. It is inside the moving package. I have like 10 of these useless coupons in front of me here.
Wow… I never really thought that any of our articles would be pertinent to the Consumerist community. Go figure.
Of course there will be restrictions on some things, but if you’re going to pick something up at the store anyhow why not see if the coupon applies. You can normally get stuff online cheaper with or without the coupon anyway.
“Coupon valid 4/1/08 5/31/08″
You gotta read the entire article, and not just click on the link.
You’ll have to modify the URL according to the current month.
Have they already been alerted? I’m getting:
——————8<—————-
Not Found
The requested object does not exist on this server. The link you followed is either outdated, inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it. Please inform the site administrator of the referring page.
——————8<—————-
And it’s still April.
Link isn’t working for me either
I guess they found out that we found out about their little trick.
If you’re lucky and you downloaded their coupons for the next few months, you can of course still use them.
anyone have a link that works?
Nope, looks like they’ve caught on. Sorry guys, the deal is dead!
I downloaded the coupon last week, hope it’s still useable…gonna come over to the states and use that coupon on the Canon XSi this weekend!
I’m in Texas and got this coupon in the “Change of Address” packet at the post office. A friend and I both used one to buy televisions recently and it worked–we saved a lot of money.
COUPON STILL PRINTABLE HERE:
http://consumerist.com/378721/.....not-expire
By the way, Best Buy still honors them. I used it today(4-24-08) on a new tv. $149.99 Saved!