Want to get some big savings on toys for Christmas, but don’t want to hassle with fighting crowds on Black Friday?

Some retailers are hoping to both blunt the madness and increase their own sales by offering Black Friday sales BEFORE the Friday after Thanksgiving. Today and tomorrow over at Toys R Us, for example, there are “Door Buster” specials for in-store savings and coupons. You can find the printable Toys R Us coupons online and check out their sale online too.

Just head over to toysrus.com and click on the 2-Day Only Mega Sale. I would link to it, but its done via Flash or some other nonsense, so I can’t actually find out where to link. I would think that would be a bad idea for retailers online, but who knows.

Anyway, good sales on Melissa and Doug Toys, Zhu Zhu Hamsters, and a Lego table like the ones they have in some doctor’s offices, or in the Carter’s Outlet store in the Park Meadows Mall (although this is regular Legos, not the big toddler-sized Duplo Legos).

Don’t forget to check Amazon.com for prices before heading out to buy. If you signed up to get your free Amazon Prime two-day shipping as a “Amazon Mom” (even if you are a Dad!) everything ships free, even if you don’t spend over $25.

Happy Holidays, and good hunting for toy deals and more online and off.

Christmas Toy Deals With No Black Friday Hassles originally published at Undefeated Daddy

As mentioned earlier, Amazon has started a program that it calls Amazon Mom. Despite the name, it is open to Dads, Grandparents, and frankly, anyone. All you have to do is go to amazon.com/mom and fill out a form. No proof of being a primary care giver for a baby or toddler is required. As long as you care about being a good dad or mom (or pretend to) that’s all that matters.

The key benefit of Amazon Mom is that you get three months of free membership in the Amazon Prime program, and that means that you get free shipping on any size order (no $25 minimum is required). More importantly, it is free 2-day shipping. That can make the difference between getting a Christmas present ordered on Amazon in time for Christmas Day or not.

The Amazon Mom program also offers discounts on diapers and wipes, but you need to subscribe to regular orders to get the 30% discount on diapers and baby wipes.

Don’t forget, Amazon free super-saver shipping is available on orders of $25 and above. However, that kind of shipping has a time frame of 5 to 7 business days, and it gets slower with the Christmas rush as the holiday draws closer. That makes the free Amazon Prime 2 day shipping such an important part of finding good online deals for baby stuff and Christmas gifts for kids.

I’m bringing this free offer up again now because we are officially within the window where those three months of free 2-day shipping include Christmas (and New Years if you care.)

Go sign up now while you have plenty of time and aren’t rushing to make last minute shopping decisions. It will be sitting there waiting on your Amazon account come December 17th when you really need it.

Free Amazon Shipping for Parents Through Christmas originally published at Undefeated Daddy

The guys over at Slickdeals have noticed that you can get a free Amazon Prime membership for “parents and caregivers”. The main benefit of Amazon Prime is that you get free 2-day shipping. Unlike the free standard shipping you get when you buy more than $25 worth of something, this eliminates the possibility of having to wait 2 weeks or more for something you buy from Amazon to show up.

This is an especially good thing for parents who have a child’s birthday coming up and want to save money by buying toys online but are worried about whether or not their kid’s presents will show up in time for their birthday. With free 2-day shipping, you can eliminate all the worry and guesswork about whether or not it is too late to order from Amazon.

Make sure you set a reminder on your calendar though, because if you don’t cancel the free 3-month trial before the three months is up, you automatically get charged to buy a full one-year Amazon Prime membership.

If you can hold out, wait to sign up for a free Amazon Prime trial until there is less than 3 months until Christmas. That way, you can get free 2-day shipping for all of your Christmas presents that you buy online from them.

Free Amazon Prime For Free 2 Day Shipping originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Savvy parents know that Melissa and Doug make some pretty great toys, especially those quality, wooden toys like you had when you were a kid. Alex brand toys are also good high-quality children’s toy makers, but I didn’t really see them on sale.

Anyway, many Melissa and Doug toys are on sale at Amazon.com. To find them, navigate through Toys and Games menus until you can choose the brand. Then choose eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping to screen out all of the scumbag retailers that think it’s cute to list a rock bottom low price with a high shipping charge. I hope Amazon wakes up and bans these sneaky retailers, but until then, it’s your job to not get suckered. Watch out for companies that have a toy priced $9.95 with a $7.95 shipping charge when all of the legitimate retailers are charging $16.95 with free shipping.

Even if the high shipping cost retailer has the lowest price by a buck or two, you are better off sticking with the honest retailers that are straightforward and upfront with their customers. You can be that any online store that is willing to try and dupe shoppers with phony low prices is not going to be the best Internet retailer to deal with if there is a problem with your order or you need to return something. Weasels are weasels.

Have a great day and hope you find some top kid’s toys for your child’s birthday or occasion, or even just for fun.

Melissa and Doug Toys On Sale at Amazon.com originally published at Undefeated Daddy

One of the best parenting tips out there comes courtesy of the adult shopping world. Just like regular department stores like Macy’s and JC Penny’s, as well as clothing stores like Gap, Land’s End, and so on, start changing over their catalog of clothing to fall clothing lines during the summer, kid’s clothing stores like the Children’s Place and others start switching over to their Back to School clothes and winter clothing lines at the end of summer. That makes late summer (like now) a great time to get good deals on kid’s clothes.

For example, the Children’s Place store is having their “Last Chance” end of summer sale right now. Many items are just $2.99 ranging from t-shirts, to shorts, to pants, and even some shoes are available online for girls, boys, toddlers, and baby.  That is a great way to stock up on children’s clothing for cheap.

Add Children’s Place online coupon code BTSA7A (expires 9/1/2010) and save even more. That coupon code for Children’s Place knocks those $2.99 items down to $2.54.

Shipping is a flat rate of $5 during this sale, so if you buy more than two or three things and use the discount code to save on your order, that should add up basically covering the cost of shipping, so it’s like getting free shipping on your Children’s Place kid’s clothing store order.

Watch for sales like these at your favorite kid stores to find great discounts on child shoes and clothes, which is an important parenting skill considering how expensive buying kid’s stuff can be, and how fast the little kiddos outgrow it!

What are your favorite kid clothes and kids shoes websites to save money buying baby clothes and toddler shoes, as well as for those older children who have moved beyond the “T” sizes.

Good luck finding your own great deals.

Children’s Place Summer Sale Plus Coupon Code originally published at Undefeated Daddy

As a thank you to the Denver community for funding they receive as part of the SCFD District in the metro Denver area, the Denver Zoo offers free admission on 8 days throughout the year. The 2010 Free Days at Denver Zoo are listed below.

• January 9
• January 18
• February 7
• February 16
• October 13
• October 21
• November 7
• November 13

Don’t forget that members get discounted admission to Denver Zoo for special events and get general admission free every day of the year.

Finding online coupons to Denver Zoo is not likely. They don’t really promote themselves that way. If you go searching all over the Internet chances are you’ll just find a bunch of kid event pages or free stuff for kids type websites that have a page that says online Denver Zoo coupons, but won’t actually have any coupon codes for the Denver Zoo.

Denver Zoo coupons can be found occasionally in various magazines but are not very common. This is one of those locations that people are already planning to go to and they aren’t waiting around for a coupon to give them discounted admission to the Denver Zoo, so why give out coupons?

You can find good coupons for other Denver attractions and fun places for kids in Denver.

Have fun visiting all of the animals at the Denver Zoo

Denver Zoo Free Days 2010 originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Disney is closing several of its retail outlets across America. Every Disney store that is closing will be issuing 15% off total purchase coupons that can be used another Disney store retail outlet. They will also have an online shopping code that can be used at ShopDisney.com by entering the Disney website coupon code into the order form at checkout.

Since many cities have more than one Disney store, parents of kids who love Disney might want to watch for when their (mostly) local Disney store will be closing and drop by for both the free 15% coupons, as well as any markdowns and clearance prices that they might have. Rather than ship stuff back to the warehouse, closing stores will likely offer sales and prices below what you can usually get as a great deal at the Disney Outlet website at Disneyoutlet.com

Here is the details from the official Disney press release. All stores will be closing within “the next few months” during 2010. Check and see if there is one near you going out of business and then keep an eye on the local news for details about the closing, or watch the Disney.com website.

**

Disney Store Closing Several Stores to Focus on New Interactive Stores

This statement was released by Disney Stores. We lost our Disney Store several years ago in the first round of closings, and it was absolutely heart-wrenching for me. I know there are going to be many people very upset about this, and I just want you to know that my heart goes out to you. I definitely know the feeling of having your local “touch of Disney magic” closed down.

Press release as follows:

Making the decision to not renew a store lease is never easy and we take these types of decisions very seriously. We value Disney Store cast members and our guests, and hope that for those of you affected, you will continue to be a Disney Store fan. The stores that will be closed over the next few months are listed below and will begin to offer discounts and clearance specials soon.

Closing stores will also provide coupon offers in-store good for 15% off your entire purchase at participating alternate locations. DisneyStore.com will offer 15% off your entire purchase and free shipping for all purchases over $50. Limited time only. Offers may vary by store. Please visit your closing store for more discount offers and more details.

We continue to plan for the future and look forward to launching newly designed Disney Stores across the US and Europe. Look for these highly interactive new stores to roll out over the next five years.

Again, thank you for your continued support and remaining a loyal fan to the Disney Store.

USA

ALABAMA

Riverchase Galleria – Birmingham, AL

CALIFORNIA

South Bay Galleria – Redondo Beach, CA

COLORADO

Southwest Plaza – Littleton, CO

FLORIDA

Broward Mall – Plantation, FL

GEORGIA

Arbor Place – Douglasville, GA

IDAHO

Boise Town Square – Boise, ID

ILLINOIS

Yorktown Center – Lombard, IL

Spring Hill Mall – West Dundee, IL

INDIANA

Glenbrook Square – Fort Wayne, IN

Greenwood Park Mall – Greenwood, IN

KENTUCKY

Florence Mall – Florence, KY

MASSACHUSETTS

Silver City Galleria – Taunton, MA

MICHIGAN

RiverTown Crossing – Grandville, MI

Southland Center – Taylor, MI

NEW MEXICO

Coronado Center – Albuquerque, NM

OHIO

Belden Village Mall – Canton, OH

SOUTH CAROLINA

Broadway at the Beach – Myrtle Beach, SC

TENNESSEE

Coolsprings Galleria – Franklin, TN

Opry Mills – Nashville, TN

TEXAS

The Parks At Arlington – Arlington, TX

West Oaks Mall – Houston, TX

Collin Creek Mall – Plano, TX

VIRGINIA

Dulles Town Center – Dulles, VA

Valley View Mall – Roanoke, VA

CANADA

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Metropolis at Metrotown – Burnaby, BC

MANITOBA

St. Vital Centre – Winnipeg, M

ONTARIO

Scarborough Towne Centre – Scarborough, ON

**

For those of you in Colorado, you may have noticed that the Disney Store at Southwest Plaza is on the list of closures. The one in the Park Meadows Mall closed some time ago, but there is still a Disney Store up in the Flatirons Mall. So, watch for the Southwest store to start going out of business and then head down for the big sales and the coupon. Then you can use it up at the Disney store in Broomfield.

Disney Store Coupons and Disney Website Coupon Codes originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Square Trade offers extended warranties on tons of stuff. In fact, chances are that if the retailer you are buying the product from offers an extended warranty, SquareTrade does too. It operates as an online business at www.squaretrade.com.

The difference between them and electronics stores or other retailers, is that they aren’t trying to make up their low profit margins on pricing by selling way over-priced warranties. (Circuit City went out of business when they couldn’t sucker enough people into buying warranties anymore.) Instead of price gouging naive customers with overpriced extended warranties, SquareTrade operates more like a traditional insurance company. What they do is estimate how frequently a certain product or type of products requires warranty service, and the average cost of each warranty service. Multiply that out, and you get the overall expense of offering the warranty. Then, you add on a normal profit margin to each warranty sold and, voila, a profitable company that sells reasonably priced warranties. This is a good business model, unlike trying to squeeze the maximum dollars out of every customer’s pocket ,and then hope that they don’t realize that they have been cheated. That means that their warranties are priced like they should be without a huge markup.

The other very important difference is that when you have a SquareTrade warranty, you have a warranty that was explained, represented, and sold by Square Trade. When you buy a store warranty, you have a warranty that was sold by an employee at the store, who may or may not have fully understood it. Either way, that warranty is NOT a product or service of that store. That warranty will be from some third-party that you have never heard of. That means the store will only be able to say, "Sorry, we aren’t who you need to talk to."

However, the most important difference between a SquareTrade warranty versus a regular warranty from the store is that the warranty company doesn’t care if you have a good experience or not. You didn’t know who they were when you bought the extended warranty in the first place, and you won’t know who they (or one of their many subsidiaries) is when you are contemplating buying a warranty next time. In other words, they have no incentive to give you good service or worry about getting a bad name. On the other hand, SquareTrade is a stand alone company that would quickly go bankrupt if it got a bad reputation. In fact, they need your repeat business. The only way that is going to happen is if you are a satisfied customer, which means giving you a much cheaper price than in the store, and actually trying to satisfy you if something goes wrong while your product is under their warranty.

Don’t take my word for it. Go online before you go shopping for something. Get a quote for what the extended warranty from SquareTrade will cost. Then, go into the store and let the salesperson tell you how much their extended warranty will cost. The price difference between a SquareTrade warranty and store warranty will shock you. In many cases, the warranty offered by the store is double the price of the Square Trade warranty or more!

Extended Warranty Rip-off Scams Ends With SquareTrade – Money Saving Tip originally published at Undefeated Daddy

With Thanksgiving falling on pretty much the last possible day in November, Christmas has come hurtling toward Moms and Dads like a runaway freight train with a turbo-booster. That means time is tight for shopping for Christmas presents for children, toddlers, and babies. Now, anyone with good parenting skills wants to provide a Merry Christmas (or other happy holiday) for their kids with plenty of presents without breaking the bank or raiding the college fund.

Additionally, no one wants to spoil their kids either. Add to that the fact that a lot of children already have more toys than they can play with, and you have parents torn between buying lots of toys for Christmas to fill up that space under the Christmas tree, and Daddies and Mommies wondering if they shouldn’t buy any new toys at all this holiday season.

Fortunately, it is possible to have it all when it comes to Christmas. The plan is simple. Get great deals on as many toys and presents as fit into your budget, thus satisfying both the no-overspending need AND the have tons of fun Christmas toys to play with on Christmas morning. What about the over-filled toy boxes and closets and shelves?

Before Christmas have a frank, but not depressing, talk about how not everyone is as fortunate as them. Use this as a time to play up how lucky your family is, and how great it is to be part of such a loving household, instead of dwelling on how sad it must be to be in the reverse situation. At the end of the conversation ask them to go through their toys with you and decide which ones should be donated to other kids who might have more fun playing with them. If you have a particularly green child, play up the recycling angle. If you have a got to have it all kiddo, play up the need for plenty of space to put those new Christmas presents.

Make the donation before Christmas to open up some room. As an added bonus, make sure to keep the receipt. Donations to charity are tax deductible, and nothing helps cushion the expense of the holiday season like parents saving money on taxes.

Find Great Deals Online for Christmas Toys and Presents

When it comes to finding the best deals online, there are too many Johnny-come-latelys, deceptive websites, advertising filled webpages, and sites pretending to list only great holiday savings deals links, when they are in fact, listing whatever links offer up the highest commissions to webmasters who send paying customers their way. Get suckered into using one of these bait-and-switch online "deals" scams and you could actually end up paying more than you would have by walking into your local store and grabbing the hottest toys right off the shelf.

To avoid these issues, use online deals websites that are community based. That is, online deal lists that are submitted by, ranked by, and commented on by an active deal community.

One of the best online deals websites is SlickDeals.net (notice the net, not com)

[That is not a paid link or an affiliate link or anything. Hover your mouse over the link and you'll see it goes straight to www.slickdeals.net, or if it makes you feel better, just type it directly into your browser. – The only ads I get any money from on this website are those Amazon ads and the Google Ads]

Slickdeals has a Frontpage that lists what the moderators have chosen as the absolute hottest deals as submitted by their readers. These deals are displayed as a simple list of links. Click on the ones you are interested in, skip right by the ones you are not. If there is a free shipping code or a 20% coupon code, you can be it will be listed there alongside the deal. No need to go find a great price and then hunt all over the Internet to find a free-shipping code or watch your entire savings go up in smoke to shipping and handling costs.

The best part about Slickdeals and their online bargain listing is that every listed deal has a link that says "Discuss". Click that link and you will find a huge user base going back and forth over whether or not any particular deal is a hot deal or not. Even better, you will also find people going back and forth of the quality, specifications, features, and brands of every television, video game, watch, jacket, dress, and toy listed. This is incredibly helpful if you are buying gifts that for that special someone that you aren’t very familiar with.

You will get a much more realistic impression of what makes the best cordless phone, or the top LCD television set by reading the ongoing discussions in the slick deals forum than you will by trying in vain to sort through which reviews are real, which reviews are fake, which comments were left by employees, or which commenters were paid to rate the product high.

Don’t even bother searching for something like best computer monitor. You’ll be on a shifty website before you can say widescreen. Instead, head over to slickdeals and read a few of the discussions about some of the computer monitors on there. By the time you are done, you’ll know what some of those numbers mean, and more importantly, why it matters whether or not it has HDMI inputs or built-in speakers. (Yes, if they are big on photos and videos. And then, no, if they have other computer speakers that they will probably be using anyway.)

Here is another money saving tip. Torn between whether or not to get the extended warranty? Don’t buy it from the store or website! Instead, check out the extended warranties from a company called SquareTrade. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

By the way, a couple of other deal sites that I have had good experiences with are GottaDeal.com (which also has a coupon code section) and DealNews.com.

Cheap Christmas Toys 2009 Shopping Deals and Tips originally published at Undefeated Daddy

In this era of video on demand and high-speed connections to the Internet, no to mention the specter of wide-spread piracy, Disney’s little only-sell-our-famous-movies-every-10-years marketing gambit seems even more tired than it always has. That being said, Disney has released the move Snow White onto a "high definition digitally re-mastered" DVD edition. Frankly, 90% of the world just wants to be able to let their kids watch a nice movie, but, if your marketing guys tell you to make a big deal out of all that stuff, go nuts.

The downside is that the Snow White DVDs can become overpriced very quickly depending upon where you buy them. Disney is mass advertising its two-disc Blu-Ray / DVD combo package of the Snow White movie. Under normal circumstances, such a box set would beg the question, why would most people want both the regular DVD and the Blu-Ray DVD? If you already have Blu-Ray, then why would you want the regular DVD? If you only have a regular DVD player, then what use do you have for the Blu-Ray DVD?

The answer, most likely lies in the fact that the executives who run the Disney company have proven themselves to be not the most forward thinking people on the planet, over the last several years. They no doubt believe that the world will continue to abide by its release-once-a-decade shenanigans just as they have in the past. The fact that there was no Netflix or other rent anywhere systems the last time they used this playbook, hasn’t crossed their minds. After Snow White goes "back in the vault," millions of people will now find it very easy to rent.

Nor, has Disney considered that while most people choose to acquire their movies legally, that when faced with the choice of not being able to buy the movie because it isn’t being sold, or downloading a copy off of the Internet, people are going to be very willing to make an exception.

In other words, this "going back in the vault" bit isn’t going to work anymore, but Disney hasn’t realized that yet. Releasing this multi-pack means that IF Blu-Ray ever does become the DVD format that everyone has in their home, the people that bought the Snow White DVD will already have the Blu-Ray copy in the box waiting for the day that new DVD player shows up.

What does this all mean to the Undefeated Daddy?

My three-year old daughter will no doubt want to see Snow White someday. Frankly, I want her to see it some day. It is part of the national lexicon, and frankly, it’s a pretty good movie, too. Even if she isn’t interested today, it’s only a year or two away, so I figure I might as well buy it.

But, I’m not paying some big price tag for a half-century old cartoon even if it does come as a Blu-Ray combo pack (ESPECIALLY if it comes as a Blu-Ray DVD combo pack). Defeated? Hardly.

Fortunately, there are plenty of good deals going around on the Snow White DVD release. Some of the best deals involve Internet coupons coupled with a low-price on an Internet retailer like Amazon’s website. Add these together, and that is a price I’m willing to pay for a product I am willing to buy. Winner!

As of this write up, go to Amazon.com (click the link above, it takes you right there and I think I get like 22 cents or something if you buy it and add Snow White to your cart. It should be $19.99.

Then, use the coupon code SNOWHITE (only one W) and it should take $10 off.

Bam! Get the Snow White Super Deluxe Mumbo Jumbo Remastered Special Double Disk High Flying Whiz Bang Edition for $9.99. Buy some other stuff to make your total order $25 and you get free shipping. (If you don’t need anything from Amazon, then buy something you will need for sure later that doesn’t go bad like reams of paper, toner or printer ink, or whatever.)

Don’t anticipate an upgrade to Blu-Ray soon, or already have Blu-Ray? Wait six months and sell your extra DVD on eBay. You won’t get a lot for it, but you might make your money back.

FYI, if the coupon code above doesn’t work for you, or it has expired by the time you read this, use this search engine to find the latest Snow White DVD deal chat at the online deal websites that I use for most of my stuff.

Snow White DVD originally published at Undefeated Daddy