It would seem eCost has stooped to new lows in order to attract customers to their site. I did some digging and in order to get those deals, you have to first become a member ($40), then you get to watch a countdown in hopes of snagging the ONE SINGLE AVAILABLE item at that advertised price. So it's essentially a $40 raffle.

Freaking unbelievable. Talk about bait and switch. Here's the original link if you're interested to see just how misleading this advertising campaign was:

http://www.ecost.com/HotSheetLanding.aspx?h=HolidaySecretSale&cm_em=KSTATE_HAM@HOTMAIL.COM

They claim to be updating the sales each hour. So far none of the deals I listed have posted, so I'm guessing they'll be saving the best deals for the end at 4pm EST.

I'm waiting too...

They claim to be updating the sales each hour. So far none of the deals I listed have posted, so I'm guessing they'll be saving the best deals for the end at 4pm EST.

I'm waiting too...

Black Friday only, 9am EST to 4pm EST. I'm on their email list, so I was alerted beforehand of the deals.

ecost has a couple good deals:

60GB Xbox 360 for $49
Wii for $89

And if you haven't gotten an HDTV yet and don't want to break the bank, they've got a Westinghouse 32" 720p LCD going for $99.

The best easter egg for me was the "it's a me, Mario!" line. I totally laughed at that one.

I think it's safe to say that Sony has been coasting on the brand loyalty they built in the '90s back when the brand had a reputation for quality products. Most people who buy Sony branded equipment today do so not because they did their research and found the Sony model to be superior to the competition, but because they REMEMBER the Sony name as being synonymous with a superior product.

In reality, today, there is hardly a single product category that Sony is truly competitive in.

Their TV's are decent, but Samsung has dominated and lead the LCD market for a while now. Back when Sony made rear projections and plasmas they were inferior products compared to JVC's and Panasonics and Pioneers respectively.

Sony's audio components are only competitive in the high end models and in that market, consumers go for more elite brands. In the low to middle tier models, Sony's AVR's are bested by Yamaha, H/K and Pioneer while Sony's speakers haven't been respected in the audio community for ages.

Cell phones, do I even need to go there?

MP3 players? Niche market. Sony hasn't been popular in the portable music market since the walkman and discman days.

Laptops? Eh. I'll give them props for style, but in price to performance ratio they get smeared from a number of competitors. Remember the LifestylePC? Yeah, a mini-netbook with a fully featured laptop pricetag.

Basically, Sony has become (or is trying to become) a stylish alternative. They gave up on making their products better, but to retain the high price-points and to justify their existence in the market at all, they tried to make them prettier. Informed consumers don't buy Sony products anymore, now "hip" consumers do.

Really Long Name,

Yeah, that's the thing- Sony products are typically not competitive in price or quality. So why should any consumer be loyal to them? You're argument is basically that Americans aren't Sony tools as much as Japanese or Europeans as we do a better job at being informed consumers and purchasing the best product for the money. What point are you trying to make?

Thank you Silicon Siren for that helpful information. I've been coming here for around 4 years and know about the reply system. Silly me to think that a button should work the FIRST time you click it...

Curse you joystiq and your worthless reply system!