Let us pay homage to buy.com for starting this forum and others like it (remember the Hitachi 753?)

[Scitex]

My wife is still using the Hoover Wind Tunnel that I got from Value America.......

 

[Greg03]

Mercata,
Value America,
Drugstore.com,
Staples Briefcases (I bought 1,000),
1,000,000 paper clips,
SEARS $49 zip drive (I bought over 750).

 

[dew042]

buy.com - 2 1/2 years ago when they had all kinds of coupons... i bought a AIW radeon for $195 shipped and sold it three months later for $30 more than i bought it for.... that's a deal

dew.

 

[yodayoda]

it goes back even earlier than that. do you know why you cannot post coupon codes in AT Hot Deals forum? let me tell you--it had something to do with stackable, reusable Staples Dividends codes. man, i think my roommates and i made off with a few thousand dollars of crap for zip.

hey, who remembers vitamins.com? i still am using some of their stuff today! i kept my 10 page credit bill with $0.01 charges as a souvenir too, hehehe.

 

[xDanielx]

I think anandtech users alone put valueamerica out of business. I used the agn3d boards more back then (i think thats the name, who knows they are gone now) Lots of the users had a strong hate for anandtech, lol.
I remember getting two 27.3gb western digital expert drives, and a 19 inch monitor. I think I had like 5 accounts (not many compared to some users) each with the $150 coupon, which could be used for up to half of a order. They don't make the deals like they used to. To bad that 19 inch monitor was a ProView, really curved an now the screen is all messed up (size changes, weird) but i was just happy to have a 19 inch. Those were the days, the no "rebate" days.

 

[TheDon]

Well, I've had been lurking on different boards since Buy.com was Buycomp.com. I still have a Buycomp.com cap they sent with one of my orders. BTW, Buy has screwed me on more than one occassion.

 

[cmf21]

I still remember the good old days of Value America, DrugStore.com, buy.com and others. Got some incredible deals for free or nearly nothing. Wish they were still around. I also have a copy of the check buy.com ended up giving me after the Hitachi 753 fisaco.

 

[dirtrat]

Well our joined date is the same Oct 1999 and I don't remember you either! The Hot Deals forum was here before October of 1999. As a matter of fact Anand made some sort of software change for the forums or something like that in Oct of 1999. Thats the only reason you don't see any dates or archives before that date. I was a member in the Hot deals forum before that and the Buy.com fiasco had nothing to do with it!

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: dirtrat
Yeah I was here then, so what! Buy.com never started this forum and it was popular way before that fiasco. Lock it!!!!!!!!

It didn't exist before this fiasco, sparky. I was there. I don't remember you.

[The Headline:] FS/FT got overrun with angry, petulant, whining WMC's (who had a point). The regular traders wanted none of it, and saw the whole fiasco and it's endless aftermath as intrusive noise.

Et Volia! Hot Deals was born.[/The Headline] Details at eleven.

On the other hand . . . the great rape of Value America, now that was a true Mongolian Cloister Fvck!!

We all owe Underclocked our male first born for that orgy of unbridled cosumer excess.

 

[TheDon]

Originally posted by: *daniel*
I think anandtech users alone put valueamerica out of business. I used the agn3d boards more back then (i think thats the name, who knows they are gone now) Lots of the users had a strong hate for anandtech, lol.
I remember getting two 27.3gb western digital expert drives, and a 19 inch monitor. I think I had like 5 accounts (not many compared to some users) each with the $150 coupon, which could be used for up to half of a order. They don't make the deals like they used to. To bad that 19 inch monitor was a ProView, really curved an now the screen is all messed up (size changes, weird) but i was just happy to have a 19 inch. Those were the days, the no "rebate" days.

I bought my first ReplayTV from Value America with the $100 coupon. They sent me two units by mistake. I tried for three weeks to return the darn thing, (yes, I'm honest), but they never did want it back. It's still sitting in the basement, and I'm still using the original one.

 

[bradolson]

I love reminiscing about the good old days. I remember that Excel spreadsheet that went around with a couple hundred Staples codes. I remember using something like a $93 off $100 code on a zip drive. The thing I remember most was that unless a code was for at least 50% off, people laughed at it. $20 off $20 buy.com, $10 off $10 reel.com, Beyond.com, ValueDollars, the list goes on and on. If someone had a $10 off $30 they were laughed off the forum. These days people get excited over $10 off $100 and 15% dell coupons.

There were also the good old referral deals that could be exploited. I remember the biggest being the Visitalk.com deal where you referred 4 people and got a $10 amazon.com GC. They were stupid enough not to manually check these things, so me and several hundred friends (all with the same e-mail domain, coincidentally) got $10 GCs. There was also the Amazon $5 promotional GC refer-a-friend "stacking process" that was probably the reason they stopped that program. I still have all my old order confirmations from 6/99 to today and some of the actual packing slips from the truly great deals just so I can prove that they did happen.

Brad

 

[dirtrat]

How about those $100.00 Valuebucks they gave you for buying those cooking pans? I had enough pans to last me for 10 years after I was done buying everything!

Originally posted by: TheDon

Originally posted by: *daniel*
I think anandtech users alone put valueamerica out of business. I used the agn3d boards more back then (i think thats the name, who knows they are gone now) Lots of the users had a strong hate for anandtech, lol.
I remember getting two 27.3gb western digital expert drives, and a 19 inch monitor. I think I had like 5 accounts (not many compared to some users) each with the $150 coupon, which could be used for up to half of a order. They don't make the deals like they used to. To bad that 19 inch monitor was a ProView, really curved an now the screen is all messed up (size changes, weird) but i was just happy to have a 19 inch. Those were the days, the no "rebate" days.

I bought my first ReplayTV from Value America with the $100 coupon. They sent me two units by mistake. I tried for three weeks to return the darn thing, (yes, I'm honest), but they never did want it back. It's still sitting in the basement, and I'm still using the original one.

 

[Esquire]

what the hot deal forum around before the buy.com wmc fiasco?

 

[MontyBurns]

Just a quick shout out to Mobshop/Accompany. Which delivered a $400 air conditioner to me (free shipping) for $38.

 

[Zambonni]

Another original WMC here. Still frequent this board daily.

Esquire, no, the hot deals section was added because of hitachi/buy.com deal

 

[Lark888]

I was also here in the old forum (prior to Oct 1999) & remember when the members were numbered in the low 1000's. My (now failing) memory is that the WMC were messing up the General Forum pretty badly. WMC were also all over the web in other threads and forums as well. It was an amazing internet. I think I found the Hitachi buy at cpucentral.com (or something like that).

I also believe that the Hot Deals forum was created following the buycomp.com hitachi weekend - however, there were "hot deals" being identified in other forums like the General one before that event. I didn't copy my buy.com check but I did cash it. :0 I think buy.com is still around partly because they learned from the event & stopped charging cards before product was available etc.

Homage should be given to Anandtech - they've made the transition from early day startup (almost hobby) to a steady excellent site. Thanks Anand.

 

[mrwade]

I am still waiting for the two Hitachi monitors that I ordered.

I got my check from Buy.com for my monitor order. I would think that since monitor prices have come down so much Buy.com could now send you a 19" crt monitor for that price.

 

[jhouston]

Agreed!

 

[airmax]

I am one of those WMC, what a memory

 

[TheBeast]

Like another in this thread, I used to spend more time at AGN3d in the old days and that is where the whole Hitatchi craze started after Jeremy (anyone know how he is doing ... ie the cancer) posted it on the main news page.

 

[rickon66]

Since this thread is bringing out a bunch of the old time Anandtecher's (pre OCT 1999 server crash), a question. How far back does Anandtech go?

 

[hansmuff]

ValueAmerica....
Yeah. When the TNT2 cards (32MB non-ultra) were ~ $150, I got it at ValueAmerica for $70 shipped, name brand (Diamond Viper V770). That rocked.

 

[BuckNaked]

Another WMC here... The good ole days.. I was posting at Anandtech well before the buy.com fiasco, the bandwidth it took up in the General H/W forum and all the ire surrounding it lead to the creation of the Hot Deals forum, IIRC...

Dave

Since this thread is bringing out a bunch of the old time Anandtecher's (pre OCT 1999 server crash), a question. How far back does Anandtech go?

I believe I stumbled across Anandtech in late '97 or early '98....

 

[Jester164]

Ah Yes, the days of value america, I was a lurker until that time.
I was originally signed up under another name, in Nov 1999. Wow how the time flies.
I am still using the 7 dollar Epson ink cartridges I bought
VA stuff
2- Viper v770
SB platinum
epson stylus 900 printer
Epson scanner
PIII 450's
40-50 cartridges, 32 meg memory cards, photo paper, printer paper,
And all my relatives still kid me about giving Mirror pans to everyone for christmas. Sort of become a running joke to pass one set on to the newlyweds in the family, Everybody knows what they will get from me.....
I remember the good old days of ONSALE.com with their auctions that werent' fixed.
The good old days of bidding on auctions and then selling it on ebay before UPS even delivered it to my house.
What was that other one, Ah yes, WHATsHOTNOW... now that was a wonderful business plan...
and lets not forget the few buck hubs and switches from PRICEGRABBER days when it would show you stuff discounted by more than 50% and you could find price mistakes in a second and flood all the dealers in minutes with orders.
I remember mailing payments to my credit card two or three times a month!
Sigh, Now it is hardly worth it by the time you get done running around and trying to work a deal and FFFuu...N REBATES make it even more worthless.

 

[UpGrD]

I'm still seeing a shrink do to the WMC ordeal.

Esquire, no, the hot deals section was added because of hitachi/buy.com deal

Thats true........

 

[gwlam12]

hm..my brother's friend's friend owns buy.com. i wonder how he felt at the time all this was going on.