Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Part 2 - Newfangled Idiot Boxes and You in the console gaming continuum.

So, where were we? Oh yeah - eyeballing the options. We hit a major chain store to pick up some stuff and wandered over to look at the flatscreen television options and get a good feel for what's available.

Mr. Gamer-guy immediately started tripping out that the 32's were not big enough for his gaming needs. It's ok, logic and measurements will only get you so far, I guess. *facepalm* I'm shopping for his pleasure - gotta get what makes babycakes smile.

I'm not having much luck finding a 720p 60hz 37" LED flatscreen that is within price parameters. (read: not more expensive than a bargain 40") and very little luck finding a 39 or 40 on a sales floor that has the resolution and speed that my research has said is the best bet.

Guess I'll be rolling through some pawn shops to see what I can find. The one closest to me is darned near impervious to haggling. *gasp* Dude, I'm a haggling jedi. Finding folks who refuse to dicker is amazing to me. Pfft - I'll find my price - bet on it.

*** Edited ***

Alrighty, I hit the Pawn Shop and got lucky. The lady had a 42" lcd with one dead pixel and no remote for $139, hidden in the back. A little bit of dickering got her to drop the price from $175 to what I paid. Being the cheap ho that I am (not to mention Mr. Hotness standing next to me giving me the puppy eyes) we jumped on the deal. A fast Ebay search netted an original remote for $14, including the shipping. It's a Dynex, which is the Best Buy house brand before they chose the name Insignia for their house brand. We've had quite a bit of good luck with Insignia products, so I'm not complaining. With steak tastes and a hot dog budget, I've gotta take chances carefully. A 42" new telly is running about $300-$400 on the low end. I got this one at about 50% of market retail, which fits within my thrift parameters. The size is WAY bigger than I'd even considered. OTOH, after setting it up my darling was chanting "It's So big! It's BIG. I love it.Oh, it's huge." till I wanted to put him in a rainbow shirt. *cymbal crash*

So far, we've tested out movies and games and it looks brill. The remote should be showing up in today's mail, so that's when I'll do my final tweaking.  He's happy, so I'm happy.

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