I pulled the trigger, I've been real unhappy not having zoom. Since my Olympus d340R from Value America was soooo cheap, I've been hesitating. Already had a ton of smartmedia chips, so I needed to stay in cameras that take smartmedia.
1st CSR at staples called the shopper.com sites and didn't go for anything. Best price was over $300 with tax and shipping. No bueno.
2nd CSR no problem. He couldn't match the $248. since they had bumped up the price and the price reflected the rebate already. Matched the second site (technet) for $275. Didn't call them. Had to charge me the $10.00 for shipping (tried to weasel him, but he was working in my direction, so I let it go). Coupon? No problem, as long as I hadn't used it before for $40 off. Ended up getting it on the truck heading my way for $265.21 less the $50 rebate for a net of $215.21. I guess that's still dirt cheap for a zoom 1280x960, so I'm not complaining.
Probably not as good a deal as the Sony S10 deal, but I have smartmedia all over the place and buying a new compact flash and special batteries isn't what I wanted to do and I don't have to leave my cozy desk to make the price match.
It really does depend on what CSR you get. Some don't want to work too hard and make it easy. I could have kept on trying but it probably only would have saved me another $20.
I'm zoomin baby.
Net price again: $215.21
Of course I still cringe over the DC240 for $245.00 and DC265 for $285.00 at OD that I held in my hands and then put back during the price fiasco at OD last year. Oh, well. I know there will be a better deal next week and I'll be just as sick.
