GatewayRedbirds.com

Good call. I hate that store but it just may be worth a trip. I actually bought my Panny plasma there because it was the last in the STL area and popped up on their website at a drastically reduced price. They were clearing stock for the 2010 models and I snagged it.

Funny story about that place. Sorry for length.

Right when the big screen TV craze was just hitting, a buddy of mine wanted to show off and get a huge TV. That place was about a mile from his house, so it was the first joint we went to. I came with as dude-support (his wife was furious that he was going to spend 3 grand on a home theater). We walked in there in the middle of the afternoon, there were probably 8 other customers in the entire store, zero of them anywhere close to the TV section. There were, though, three floor reps leaning back and chatting in the TV area. So buddy and I start moseying around, looking at the biggest TVs in the place. We even walked directly past these guys. This was the conversation:

Rep: "Hey guys, hows it going?"
Us: "Fine, interested in your big screens"
Rep: "Well, there's a few on sale over yonder"

So buddy and I are all "Uhh, that was weird, do they not want our business?" After another like 10 freakin minutes, no one ever approached us. My buddy is a total [expletive] alpha-male type, and a salesman (he was a top-10 country-side sales rep for years with T-Mobile, and is now in charge of their entire Colorado sales force). So he walks back up to these guys, who never once moved, and asks if there's a floor manager around. One of them says he is. So buddy says "Oh good, may I speak to the store manager, please?" The guy is confused, shrugs, gets his radio and brings out the store manager. Buddy shakes his hand, walks the whole group over to a 55" Samsung DLP TV. I remember his general speech pretty well:

"Well [store manager name], I came in here with a three thousand dollar budget, and didn't want to go to another store. We have been here for almost a half hour, we even spoke directly to these three reps. They never once asked us a single question about our needs, which is confusing, since I know you run on commission. So, I am going to go to Best Buy now, to buy the exact same 2500 dollar television, a stand, and a surround sound system. I'll be back in an hour to show you the receipt. You might want to train your salesman to take interest in your customers."

Sure enough, we walked out, rung up 2850 in stuff at Best Buy, and buddy marched right into the American store. The manager was mortified and gave buddy his card, assuring buddy that any purchases he made store-wide from then on would be completely at store cost. Buddy waved at one of the dudes who was there earlier, who looked angry enough to jump the shelving to choke us.

It was awesome. Sorry for sharing a long story, never been in that joint since.

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Let's Go Cards! Let's Go Hawks! Let's Go Bulls!

Here's a couple hits from a quick search for "lcd hdtv" over at my beloved slickdeals:

42" LG, only 60hz if that's an issue, for 500 shipped
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3147166

46" Curtis, some el-cheapo brand, for 470
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3155810

Here's a pretty awesome deal for an LG 42" Plasma with a bunch of free 3d glasses n stuff
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3155936

That one's only 720p, but in my opinion 720 on a 42 inch plasma looks terrific, the 3d stuff is just bonus land.

Unless you find a kick-ass deal at the American store closing, I just can't say enough how awesome it is to find a deal online, especially if you go through a site with no tax or shipping. If you are patient, deals pop up for TVs all-the-stinkin-time.

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Let's Go Cards! Let's Go Hawks! Let's Go Bulls!

Wait... you actually want to be assaulted by salesmen in these stores?

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Underachievers, please try harder.

If you're gonna spend 3 grand on a tv I think you'd want the salesmen to at least come up and see if they can help you.

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No go at American. But that LG is tough to not pull the trigger on. No rush but that's a great deal.

1080P is a huge up-sell. Unless you're going for a minimum 50 inches, it really means nothing unless you wanna sit about 4 feet from your TV. Even then, I'd start at 54 if 1080P content was my primary watching.

Yeah, this was the first of anyone I knew to get a real HDTV, so we were pretty much hoping that someone would at least talk to us about it. I definitely don't like pushy doucher commission-based sales reps, but the dudes sitting there jerkin each other while we looked around for 20 minutes pissed of my buddy. Like I said, he's a real jack-off, sales is his thing, and he wanted to flex his jack-off salesman muscles after the crappy response. Also, he had a captive audience (me), so he really pushed it. Still, it was pretty awesome to witness the manager's tail-between-legs look.

Good luck on that TV! It's good to be patient. In the next week or two, you'll probably see a terrific deal pop up. If you can wait four months, of course, you'll be able to get absurdly good prices around Thanksgiving, so I'd recommend that if it's not a summer need. Last year there were multiple 250, 300 dollar bargain 40/42" TVs, and plenty of moderate to high-end brands for like 500. Two years ago I bought a Sharp 40" for 500, a similar model will probably be just 300 next Black Friday.

I hardly use my TV except for movies and a game or two a week, but damn to I love readin up about em.

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Let's Go Cards! Let's Go Hawks! Let's Go Bulls!

Looking to get a new tv and came across this deal:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00752RAB ... slicinc-20

Seems to be a good price. I'd like to get a Samsung, but they are just way too pricey for me. Anyone have this tv?

Also, is 240 hz really necessary? I've read that it's not.

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Make sure it has teh internets capability

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This has wifi capabilities but the adapter is sold separately which prolly has something to do with the price.

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