Deal of the Week

Last week, the best I could come up with was a bag of Meow Mix. This week, I had a hard time limiting this column to five real Deals. So let’s get down to business and see what we’ve got…

Circuit City has a 17″ Proview LCD monitor on sale for $179, after a $60 mail-in rebate. This is an extremely good price on a flat-panel monitor, and I’m considering taking advantage of this myself to replace my aging 19″ tube monitor. I won’t be losing screen real estate – a 17″ flat-panel has about as much viewable area as a 19″ traditional CRT. Reviews at Circuit City’s site online indicate that this is a good entry-level flat-panel monitor at an excellent price.

I have a friend who has ties to the monitor biz, and he agreed that the Proview 17″ at $179 is a good price, but “the 19″ at $239 (regularly $299, also $60 off after rebate) is even better.”

Also at Circuit City, you can get the iPod shuffle this week for $69.99. I’m not a huge fan of the shuffle – I want a screen display and the ability to make playlists – but for those of you who have to have an Apple product, this is the first time I’ve ever seen the shuffle for less than $99.

Moving on to Best Buy… you can get a 32″ Westinghouse LCD HDTV for $999. Regular price is $1299, so with $300 instant savings it’s on sale for under a grand. By contrast, there was also a Sony 32″ in the same ad for $1000 more, so you can see that this is a good opportunity to pick up a 32″ screen at a bargain.

Also at Best Buy, you can pick up a 1 GB USB 2.0 SanDisk FlashDrive for $39.99 after Instant Rebate and Mail-In Rebate. This unit retails for $79.99, so you’re getting it for half-off – $40 total savings.

If you want more features than just your basic 1 GB drive, head over to Office Depot. They have a Swiss Army 1 GB flash memory drive – but this is not only a Flash Drive but a Swiss Army knife as well – for $49.99.

OfficeMax has a Brother P-Touch PT-65 Labeler for $14.99. This is also half-off – you save $15 off the normal purchase price, and for this item there are no rebates.

I’m going to wrap up this post by going back to Best Buy, where they have a Toshiba progressive scan DVD player for $59. I’ve been told this is not a Deal, in the sense that this is regular price for this model. However, this unit comes with a personal recommendation from a DVD expert who happens to be a friend of mine. He has owned four DVD players “and this is the best one ever, by far.” He says it’s easier to work than other DVD players, especially regarding the remote. He also tells me that this player does an unusually good job with foreign films with subtitles. “Really simple to work, no problems,” he says. You can get a DVD player for $20 cheaper, he tells me, but it will be a piece of junk. For a quality DVD player at a fair price, the Toshiba appears to be the way to go.

Whew… I feel like I just ran a marathon, but those are this week’s Deals. See you next Sunday.