Save 50% on Consumer Reports' top-rated pillow + Early Prime Day notables + Crazy-cheap laptop upgrades
Rick 'The Cheapskate' Broida
We’re a full three weeks out from Amazon Prime Day, and I’m already sick of hearing about it. Still, these two deals merit your attention:
🎦 During the event (July 12-13), you’ll be able to buy the Xgimi Elfin Portable Projector for $479, by far the lowest price on record. Regular price: $649; previous low: $550. I’ve reviewed this; it’s darn near perfect. Sharp, bright picture, excellent auto-keystone and auto-focus, Android TV built in. Highly recommended at this price, so mark your calendar!
📺 Available right now, Amazon Prime subscribers can get the Amazon Fire TV 4K 43" for just $200, a $170 savings and by far the lowest price to date. This smart TV features an impressive four HDMI inputs and an Alexa-compatible remote. (“Alexa, watch Hacks on HBO Max.”) Great for a den, bedroom, etc.
DISCLAIMER: Some of the links included herein are affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase via one of them, I may get a small commission. I promise you, now and forever, that I won’t choose deals based on whether there’s an affiliate option available.
How I saved 50% on Consumer Reports' top-rated Coop pillow
Why do so many Ebay sellers offer Coop pillows for half price? Don't know, don't care.
Recently I started waking up with neck pain, making me wonder if it was time for a new pillow. Because I’ve decided sleep is too important to cheap out on, I consulted Consumer Reports, thinking, “Whatever they recommend, I’m buying, price be damned.”
Their top pick: The Coop Home Goods Premium Adjustable Loft. Price: $72. Honestly, if it would help me sleep better, I’d pay $700 – but, me being me, I still searched the interwebs for a lower price.
Amazon and Walmart both charged $72, same as Coop proper. And few other stores appeared to carry it. But, then, something weird: I found lots of listings on Ebay, most of them priced between $34 and $36. How? Why? Is this some kind of gray-market pillow situation? What could possibly account for this kind of discrepancy?
I reached out to Coop PR and never got a response. Well, OK, then… damn the tor-pillows! I picked an Ebay seller with good ratings and placed my order. A few days later, it arrived: Coop packaging, Coop branding, Coop instructions. No discernible difference from the real deal, though I guess I can’t say for sure because this is the only “deal” I’ve seen (literally and figuratively).
One of the pillow’s claims to fame is that you can pull out some of the memory-foam/microfiber fill if it’s too thick for your liking or add more if it’s too flat. (The box included a big package of extra stuffing.) After a few nights, I ended up removing a few handfuls; now I’m quite happy with it.
Moral of the story: Just because Amazon or Walmart doesn’t beat a manufacturer’s price doesn’t mean there’s not a better deal out there somewhere.
How I turned a 2013 laptop into a modern powerhouse for $37
I spent just $37 to give this 9-year-old laptop a new lease on life.
Also recently, I unearthed a long-forgotten 2013 Lenovo IdeaPad U310 laptop, which I decided to boot and evaluate in order to determine its fate.
Unsurprisingly, it was slow. Not because of the Intel Core i5 processor, which has plenty of life left to give, but because of the measly 4GB of RAM and oldfangled mechanical hard drive. Thankfully, by removing four underbelly screws, I quickly gained access to the innards, where I found I could easily upgrade both.
At Newegg, I bought an 8GB RAM module to replace the 4GB one. Price: $21.68. And Amazon produced a 128GB internal solid-state drive (SSD) for just $16. Or I could do 256GB for $23, 512GB for $37, etc. Those are shockingly low prices for SSDs; how things have changed in recent years!
With the extra-RAM breathing room for Windows and the significantly faster storage, this 9-year-old laptop felt fast and new. Not bad for a $37 investment.
By the way, there’s another great way to revive and repurpose old computers, and that’s by installing CloudReady or Zorin OS. (I wrote about both back in issue #13.) These Chrome and Linux operating systems require far less horsepower than Windows, so you can probably get by without any hardware upgrades. And they’re both free!
EXCLUSIVE: Preserve old photos, slides, and more and get 50% off
Let ScanMyPhotos handle the heavy lifting -- er, scanning -- of preserving your precious memories.
Our kids won’t have this problem, but most people of my generation (and older) store boxes and albums packed with photos, slides, VHS tapes and the like. This stuff not only takes up space and deteriorates with time, but also doesn’t get viewed very often – if at all. Oh, and never mind the risk of a fire, flood, or other disaster destroying those precious memories.
Solution: Scan all that stuff into digital format, where it’ll last much longer, then enjoy it on your phone, tablet, TV, digital photo frame, etc.
You can do this manually, but with photos it’s time-consuming and difficult to get good results. And who has the necessary equipment to digitize slides, negatives, and videocassettes?
Solution: Ship everything to ScanMyPhotos.com, and save 50% on any order when you apply promo code DealSecrets at checkout.
Prices vary depending on what and how much you’re sending, but here’s one example: It normally costs $170 to scan about 1,800 standard-size photos. With the code, your price drops to $85. I feel that’s a very reasonable rate for what you’re getting, especially considering the time it would take you to scan them yourself. Check the site for other options and pricing.
Thanks for reading Deal Secrets! Questions? Comments? Hit me up on Twitter or Facebook, or shoot me an e-mail. I’ll do my best to respond to all inquiries!