Forgive me, I know this gets asks a lot, but searched and didn't see anything really recent. My nephew is insisting on buying a 30gig ipod this weekend. I stopped him from buying one today, figuring that there must be some way to save a few bucks off list, or get a free accessory, or something.

Any ideas?

To answer my own question, Amazon and Circuit City both have it for $20 off list and free shipping.

I'll probably recommend that he do Circuit City w/ in-store pickup, and buy the service plan.

Ygm

If he can wait a tiny little bit then I would do the following:

Sign up for e bates (e b a t e s.com - remove spaces) which is free and get 2% cashback on your purchase at circuitcity.com
Sign up for their creditcard and use it to pay for your purchase (5% cashback on their site and 1% elsewhere).

If you do not mind a refurbished ipod, you can get the 30gb from the apple webiste for $199.00 with free shipping.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...nclm=Certified

Awesome tips people, thanks! I'm going to try to convince him to go the refurb route, but if not I already had the previous option in my shopping cart.

I've been looking at getting a 60gb myself, and was leaning towards the refurb option through Apple with the 2 year warranty - still cheaper than new w/o a warranty.

However, there are rumors that the next generation might not be far away, so I'm trying to decide whether to hold off or not...

The Apple.com educational store also has lower prices than the standard list.

just bought a black refurb from Apple at that price and am loading it up tonight for weekend driving. Looks brand new out of the box

He ruled out the refurb, he wants it today. Impatient whippersnapper....

Today's quandry: I want to do the Circuit City deal to save 2% and the $20 off, but their extended warranty is only for 2 total years, not 3 total for Best Buy's.

Do we pay the extra $26 to get that extra year (really less than $26 because I'll get RZ points....)?

Go to Apple.com and click education...find a college in your area and choose it and then boom you can get a 30 gig for 30.00 off..and engraved...no refurb, brand new

Yes, but we have the same problem at we do at CC. Apple only has a 2 year warranty plan for sale. Is the extra year that BB offers worth $30?

He's decided yes.

So all we saved over list is the RZ points, the 1% from that website, and 10% off an accessory thru a gift card coupon in the store.

We have 30 days to return it though, so will be on the lookout for better deals.

I got my 60g in the past from PC Connection for $369, currently it's $364, free ship and no tax, $274 for the 30g.

NOt a deal per say, but you may want to wait a week or two. There are rumors that Apple will announce the 6th gen IPod in that time.

Thanks, Cope. Just bought my 1st iPod.

Just wanted to add a note about replacement plans. I think they are pretty important given the track records of ipods. Not sure if its the same on the website, but for the store Apple's replacement plan is only an additional year and can be purchased via student discount for ~$50. So thats two years total. However, say something happens with the ipod (which is common), Apple will only replace it with another ipod of the same generation. So, say two years later, your ipod battery dies and the 6th generation ipod has already been on the market for a year and the old 5th generation is discontinued elsewhere, they will still find a 5th generation ipod (most likely a refurb) for you.

However, those extended plans at CompUSA, BB, CC, etc. they will give you store credit for another purchase. My bro purchased an ipod mini with a 3 year placement plan at CompUSA. Back then, the minis were similarily priced with the 30g video ipod. Anyways, his ipod died early and he had a chance to replace it with another mini but I told him to wait until the minis were discontinued. A few months later, the nano replaced mini, and he walked away with a brand new 30g black video ipod by paying only a $20 difference.

Bump! I'm now looking for best price for ipod. 30g

I did this, but it still says 249.00 for the 30 GB..
I even added it to my cart to see if it would be deducted, but it wasn't.

I don't know if this is permanent or Apple's way of saying they don't care if you are a student because they can easily sell that unit to a non-student this holiday season, but I noticed the same thing the other day. I'd guess it changes again after Christmas, but that's only a guess.

That's actually the way I did it for mine. Engraved and was quite a bit cheaper. It was the cheapest I could find at the time.

I bought a refurb mini(looks like there are only nanos left from the link) for my wife for chistmas. It looks brand new. Not a scratch on it. I think it was a 2GB for $99 which was a steal. Already hooked it up, updated the firmware and loaded it with music for her.

Great deal.

I believe that Apple has taken away the student discount.

Sorry!

= J

Don't be sorrry. Westlaw paid for my Nano.

any new suggestions? Accidentally left mine at the airport...I think

Amazon has good deals on new ones right now