I have to agree, Costco is no longer is any deal for electronics, and the 8.85% sales tax in Tucson is a deal killer for me. I've been considering the Samsung 1400 and had it my Amazon Cart Saved items to watch the price, so when I saw it at Costco last week for $449 I wasn't impressed as it was around $400 on Amazon (down to $370 today for those interested). I recently bought an A35 HD DVD player from Amazon, and was very impressed the service. I paid around $12 for standard shipping (they offer free shipping, but much slower); ordered over the weekend and it was delivered Wednesday via UPS Ground, double boxed. I paid around $407 for it, but still had in my Cart Saved items to track the price. A few days after I bought I thought the price had dropped to $387; it was actually an Amazon Marketplace dealer that had that price. But, I emailed Amazon about the price drop, and they immediately credited my CC for the $40 price difference. :up
But, for those of you considering a BD player, I went back to being "format neutral" with the Panasonic BD-30 player. The first BD player with BD 1.1 "Final" Profile, and it supports HBR bitstream audio output - like my A35 - for outputting DD+, TrueHD and DTS-HD MA audio to a receiver like the Onkyo 605 & 805 for decoding. A big improvement, IMHO. Circuit City has the BD-30 "on sale" for $499, down from the MSRP of $599. I used a CC 10% discount coupon (purchased on eBay for $1.40
) to knock it down to $450 and cover the sales tax and gasoline. I ordered at CC online with in-store pickup; they offer free shipping, but have to charge the tax, so why wait?. I like the Panny BD player much better than the PS3 I had; it's almost as good as my Tosh A35.
