Costco Selling Discounted Tickets for KING TUT Exhibit at De Young Museum - $26.99!

Just yesterday (Tuesday), I visited Costco El Camino to grab a copy of the new Family Guy DVD, and a great bargain showed up...

If you have not purchased your tickets for the King Tut exhibition happening at the De Young Museum starting in about ten days (ends in late March), now is the time to purchase your tickets.

Costco is selling the King Tut exhibit tickets WITH audio tour for ONLY $26.99 EACH. (No tax)

To compare prices, here's what you get by going online through Ticketmaster:

• Regular ticket price: $27.50, $3.75 service fee, free will-call or standard mail, and $7 for the audio tour. TOTAL: $38.25.
• American Express cardholder special: $22, $3.75 service fee, free will-call or standard mail, and $7 for the audio tour. TOTAL: $32.75.

Using COSTCO: You SAVE AT LEAST $5.76 and up to $11.26.

(When you buy it at Costco, you are given a voucher with a special code. You go online to the the website specified, claim the code, and purchase your ticket any day and time of your choice.)


Some tips for you crazy folks trying to get to the De Young:
TAKE THE BUS. Yeah, I hate Muni, but it's going to be totally worth it. Although the CultureBus will eventually have a painful death, the 44 bus takes you right in front of the museum. If you don't mind walking a little, the 5 and 71 drops you off at the entrance of Golden Gate Park, and the N-Judah is an extra block walk from the entrance of the park.

If you feel nuts to take your car, use this train of thought: "How early should I arrive to park my car?" Now, add an extra 2 hours to that.

In all honesty, if you have to take the car, be prepared to make it an all day trip. You may want to find a parking space deep in the avenues of the Outer Richmond District and take 5-Fulton to the museum. Good luck finding a space in that expensive garage or something nearby (yeah right).

SF Giants Ticket Deals - Like Insane Deals

Some bad news, Costco doesn't sell the discounted ticket cards anymore because the cards were only valid to buy tickets for the months of April, May, and June. But don't worry folks, if you still have a card and don't claim it for tickets, it's converted into a gift card and redeemable for concessions and general tickets.

Never fear! Ticket bargains are still here!

• The "K-Zone" program will offer $6 discounts per ticket for the Giants/A's game this Friday, June 12th. Buy tickets here and use promo code "GIANTSK". Valid sections for discount: Club level outfield and left field, lower box, bleachers, view box accessible, view reserved, and view reserved outfield.
  
• SF McDonald's restaurants have discount codes (I can't tell the promo code here, might get me in trouble) for you to buy two tickets for $26.00. With all the surcharges for buying it online (it's the only option), it comes out to $34.00 (use will call or standard mail). But on the brighter end, upper reserved seats are just $17 each, a minimum savings of $1, but can save more on the better teams and weekend tickets. Not valid on A's and Dodgers games, but the code is valid for ALL GAMES remaining in the season.
• In celebration of Randy Johnson's 300 wins, $10 gets view box and view reserved outfield tickets for Saturday, June 20th's game. Order here and use promo code: "RANDY". What a bargain since regular view box seats for that evening cost $30 each.
• "K-Ville" offer gives you a lower box or arcade seat with a t-shirt, foam "K," and a stored value to buy food and gifts. It costs $55, but the stored value can be up to $20 if you choose an arcade seat, meaning you chew on $20 worth of garlic fries and spend $35 for the ticket, free shirt, and foam novelty item. Order tickets here. Limited selection of games.
  

Just so I don't get in trouble, here's my sources for the discounts:
K-Zone info. Promo code posted online at Giants site.
McDonald's promo information. Promo code only available at restaurants.
$10 tickets for Saturday, June 20 game. Main Giants website, promo code posted in the "Giants Jottings" section of page.
K-Ville tickets information page. No promo code needed.


Also, a tasty food deal at McGraw's Grill locations in the ballpark: Burger, fries, and small soda for $8.75. It's not advertised heavily as the hot dog meal (hot dog, peanuts, and drink) at the Doggie Diner locations, but it's hiding on the regular menu board at McGraw's. Upgrade for garlic fries is a small surcharge, but well worth it.

Plus, save 50 cents if you take BART and Muni metro to/from the ballpark. Remember to pre-purchase your Muni fare before exiting the Embarcadero BART station, or grab a BART/Muni discount coupon before leaving any of the other stations. For the discount coupon, claim the first portion with the Muni station agent, and when buying your return ticket from the ballpark, surrender the other half to the ballpark employee. More info here on how I advocated to get AT&T to accept the discount coupons.

For more ballpark deals, visit the "Fan Value Corner" section.

COSTCO BARGAIN ALERT: $49.99 Dirty Harry Ultimate Collectors Edition

Being a proud San Franciscan, I had to get the new Dirty Harry DVD collection with all the Dirty Harry flicks, and it comes with some cool extra items like a map, a fake badge, and other goodies.

I remember seeing this in the Best Buy ad for $59.99, their sale price. The actual retail price for the item is $74.99, but its release today had a great bargain at Costco.

Costco's deal price: $49.99, ten bucks less than the sale price at Best Buy.

What a deal!

Getting the Most Rewards out of Buying Stuff

I enjoy shopping for some cool things, especially video games and some expensive stuff. As always, gasoline prices are not going to go down to $1.50 a gallon anytime soon, so maybe its time to get a little payback for what you buy.

Many of you may have a rewards credit card that usually gives you about 1% of your purchases, back; but how about if I can get you a better return rate on your purchases?

Here's my list of tips on what to do to get back even more money, sometimes up to 5% back.

• Talking about gasoline prices, there are a few gas stations that have "cash only" options for slightly less than credit only. But in about 85% of cases, the gas station you visit does not really care which way you pay, as long as they get their money and you got gas in your tank. Here's how you can get back more.
• First of all, always use your credit card with a rewards program. If you pay in cash all the time, you get ZERO PERCENT BACK. Remember that by using a credit card, you do not pay interest if you pay the entire amount back when your next bill comes along.
• Most rewards cards are 1%, but here's one that can get you 3% or even 5% if you have a business. I use the Costco American Express card and it provides me 3% back at all gas stations, including Costco gas, where it is relatively cheap. 5% is for any business member that gets a business American Express card. Do your research, you might find a better return if you get the right card.
• I spend about $1,000 a year on gas, so 3% back is $30 of fun money I can spend on something else... say more gas. As for my folks, I don't know why they use a gas station credit card, they can only use it at one brand of gasoline, and the REFUSE to fill-up at another gas station that's cheaper. Sheesh, did you know that San Francisco's gasoline only comes from two refineries?

• How about shopping online? Here's how you can kill three birds with one stone, and it only takes a little bit of extra effort to do. Here's the steps:
• First of all, get a free membership with Mileage Plus on United Airlines and once you get your registration done, go to the "earn miles" section and you find the Mileage Plus Online mall. There, you can go shop at many of your favorite online stores, including places like Best Buy and Barnes and Noble.
• Second, make sure to charge your purchase to a rewards credit card.
• Third, make sure you are registered for that store's loyalty program.
• Now, it's time to use all three. I'll give a perfect example, let's use Best Buy!
• The United Airlines Mileage Plus online shopping mall offers Best Buy, where you get one mile for every two dollars you spend. You click on the link to enter Best Buy, go shopping and pick what you want, choose for your item to be shipped or express pick-up, charge it to your rewards card, and register your "Best Buy Reward Zone" loyalty membership to your purchase (Every $250 gets you $5).
• Lets do the return rate math:
• United miles earned: 0.50% return rate
• Rewards credit card: 1% (or possibly more)
• Best Buy loyalty membership: 2%
• TOTAL: 3.5% return rate.

So... think creatively! You can get back more than you think you can.

Costco ALERT: GPS Magellan 4250 only $249.99

If you love Costco and need a GPS, this week is the time to go shopping at your local location or go on their website: Costco.com.

They are selling two Magellan brand GPS products on sale. Their smaller one is only $149.99 and their original price is usually $199.99.

But the mega bargain this week is their Magellan 4250 (see picture below), which is getting some great marks from professional product reviewers like CNET.


I was checking on Google Product Search and the average price for the 4250 is about $300 to $500, but Costco right now is offering it for ONLY $249.99.

I got one today at my local Costco, and let me tell you, they were selling these things like hot cakes. I had to get into the wherehouse right at 11AM and purchase it quickly. Don't forget to bring your $100 off coupon. Some locations even have the coupons at the register for people who forget.

This is one hell of a treasure! I guess the Costco G.M. is right, you'll always find a treasure.

Get it NOW! Click here for the direct link to purchase it online.

Lastly, notice the photo on the top of this blog post? I was chomping down on a chicken bake and noticed that they removed the gold star membership price from their wall. Maybe they are trying to get people to just join as an Executive Member, but it might backfire if people unfamiliar with Costco get a membership and realize that $100 is way too expensive. But they still offer gold star for only $50.

Black Friday Shopping - Akit Style!

Today is Black Friday, and I can tell you, I found some good bargains, especially on a tight budget.

For the last two or three years, I've been driving down to Daly City and Colma to visit the major big box stores to get my hands on some great holiday bargains, but mostly for myself. Yeah... I'm a tad selfish, but when you really need something very badly to fix or upgrade, you'd just have to get up by 4AM and suffer some cold weather.

Today, all I did was that I visited my neighborhood Radioshack, which is about twenty blocks away by car, but only a short 10 minute drive on the non-busy streets. The only two things that I was really attracted to at the store was:

• Emergency Hand Crank radio (my old one is broken) for just $20.00 versus $40.00
• 2 Gig XD camera memory card for $40.00 versus other places that sells it for nearly $80.00.

Luckily, that Radioshack was not too busy, there was only about 5 people ahead of me.

Several hours of sleep later, I went to Costco to buy another case of Mexican Coca Cola, a bottle of juice, and a box of gum. Still, a good bargain for 80 cents a bottle of Coca Cola, and gum that is only about 60 cents a pack (versus $1.25 at the grocery store).

After some years of experience of this massive bargain hunting, here's my quick tips to a not so pissed off holiday:

• Shop at night, you might not get those super hot bargains, but you'll experience smaller crowds and still find some decent deals, especially on DVDs.
• If you go for openings at 4 or 5AM, stick to the smaller chain stores like Radioshack, Kohls, and any Mervyn's location not attached to a mall.
• AVOID BEST BUY AT ALL COSTS! Last year, the line was so long, it wrapped around the entire building.
• Go for online purchases, "Cyber Monday" is just a few days away, and some places will offer FREE shipping.
• Go bid on stuff on eBay, they are significantly cheaper than going to your favorite store.
• This is also a good time to sell stuff on eBay, I've sold an xbox system for over $70.00.