Brian's Brain

Greetings from downtown San Francisco. After meetings here this morning, I headed for Silicon Valley for more meetings in the afternoon....and purchased an Xbox 360 Premium bundle (no, not the stripped-down Core configuration, the full-blown SKU), normally $399.99, for $199.99 (plus sales tax) when the dust eventually settles. You might be asking yourself...."But Brian, I thought you already had an Xbox 360 Premium bundle?" You're right, I do. This one's soon to be dissected for your near-future Prying Eyes pleasure.

But I bet that wasn't your first question. Instead, I suspect the initial thought that popped into your mind after reading the first sentence of this post was something along the lines of "And how may I obtain a $199.99 Xbox 360 Premium bundle?" Well, dear readers, I'll tell you (and no, it doesn't involve bogus Amazon promotions). I've already mentioned the $100 rebates that Micro Center's 19 stores are running on both Xbox 360 configurations right now. Those rebates were initially set to expire on December 3rd, but two days ago the company announced it was extending the promotion through the end of the year.

Believe it or not, there's more; sign up for a year's worth of Vonage VoIP service in-store and another $200 gets knocked off the console sales price, this time up-front (I didn't bite on this particular deal as I already have BroadVoice VoIP service). Yes, you read that right: an Xbox 360 Premium bundle for $199.99 (plus tax) out the door, with $200 in additional refunds down the road.

One more thing....this was my first time in a Micro Center store. And I must say (and no, they're not incentivizing me to plug them) it was a mighty pleasant experience. Fry's has low prices, mind you, but you'd better already know what you want when you walk through the door, because the customer service is uniformly abysmal. At Micro Center, on the other hand, the people were....friendly....and helpful....and competent....wow.

Microsoft may be hinting at upcoming Xbox 360 price cuts to further put the 'hurt' on Sony, but as far as I'm concerned, the promotions underway at Micro Center and elsewhere indicate the price cuts are already here. Happy holidays, everyone!