TDIRunner

I use Turbo Tax since I own a rental property in a different state which adds some complications. With that said, I've usually filed my taxes by the end of January or within the first week of February. I typically have my federal return by the middle of February and state return in early March (Illinois is pretty slow). I've used Turbo Tax for probably 8 or 9 years now. It's pretty simple and straightforward. I like how they show you the prior year numbers for comparison and and as sanity check that you are entering the correct data in the current year. If I ever get rid of that rental property, I might switch back over to doing everything myself.

How do you get to the $5 coupon? I may as well use it on a $5 or $6 game before the month ends.

I just checked and my subscription expires at the beginning of March, so luckily, I won't miss out on too much. I've saved enough in the past 10 months to cover the cost of my current subscription. It still sucks, but I didn't get screwed over as bad as someone who bought their membership in December (unless they were warned).

Yeah, that's a crappy enough deal to keep me from renewing going forward.

That sucks. I was not aware of losing the 10% on used games. I tend to defend GS most of the time, but that's a hard pill to swallow. Do the $5 coupons expire, or can they be saved and stacked?

By all means, anyone who didn't play BOTW at launch should still try to play and enjoy the game today. Hopefully my comment didn't sound like I was saying it wasn't worth trying anymore. I was just saying that playing it for the first time, but not having anyone to talk to could be disappointing. Luckily since you are enjoying it for the first time with your daughter, you DO have someone to discuss it with which will hopefully make the experience even better. Better late than never. I'll toss in one more example. I will also say that the Bioshock series of games also fall into the category of best games I've played in the past 10 years. However, I didn't play any of those games until many years after the third game came out. When I played them for the first time, I was truly amazing at how immersive the world was and how interesting the story and lore was. Unfortunately, I had no one to discuss the game with because hardly anyone else was actively playing the game at the same time as me. I still loved the games, but I can tell that I missed out on something great when the games were new.

I agree with this statement 100%. Funny thing is that for me, buying the game at launch (Wii U version) I was able to save a decent amount of money compared to people who bought it a year later. When BOTW launched, Amazon Prime was still doing 20% off pre-orders which I was able to get. 12 months later, BOTW was still selling for $60 (as most first party Nintendo titles do), but anyone getting into the game at that time wasn't experiencing the game in the same way as the rest of us at launch time. BOTW was one of the best games I've played in the past 10 years, and getting to discus it at the same time as everyone else when it was new was a great experience that would be difficult to replicate today.

If you think all cars and trucks depreciate evenly then you know nothing about the automobile industry. Re-read what I said in my last post. If you want to discus further, feel free to make a thread about car buying. I'll talk about cars all day long and enjoy it almost as much as talking about video games.

At the risk of derailing a thread that was pretty ridiculous to begin with, this statement is also false. Whether or not buying a new car is a good idea or not is completely dependent on the situation. It's usually a pretty good idea to buy new over used on cars or trucks with good resale value such as Hondas or full size heavy duty trucks. These vehicles tend to sell for only a few thousand less than then brand new counterparts even when they are 18 months old with 20k miles. It would be foolish to buy used in that situation. Again, I'm not saying that someone should always buy new. But they should do their research to see what is the best deal in their current situation. It's always going to be a case by case basis.

So you want the consoles to be a lot more expensive when they are new? Because that's what you are saying above.

Like I said before, not wanting technology to improve is irrational. No one is forcing you to buy anything. Just wait longer in between new console purchases. That's what I do.

How much more transparent do you need it to be? Nowadays we typically know about most of this stuff at least a year or two in advance.

The console manufacturers could release new systems every 6 months and it wouldn't change the fact that no one gets screwed over since no one is forced to buy anything they don't want to own. Technology will continue to improve. To want otherwise is irrational.

I'm not a Harry Potter fan at all, but that entire section of the park is outstanding.

Of course they know that. So does everyone else. That doesn't make it a conspiracy.

Except for the fact that such a thing is impossible to do. Technology will ALWAYS improve. It's impossible to release something that won't be improved on in the future. Otherwise nothing would ever be released. If I said that people who bought an NES were dumb because if they had waited 30 years, they could have bought a Switch instead, I would sound crazy. But that would essentially be no different than what you are suggesting. Your argument they some companies are deliberately holding back doesn't hold water either. If the launch model PS4 had the power of the Pro model when it was first released, it would have probably cost close to $1,000.

I recently started a new job at a university, so I'm around a lot more younger students. I've sort of gotten used to seeing young kids walk around while texting, but what has really blown my mind is seeing all of these students walk around with their eyes down on their phone while also wearing headphones. So they don't even hear me when I try to warn them that they are about to crash into me.

I've always been surprised by the hate for MK Wii. I probably have more MK hours logged with that game over any other and I've played every single game since the original was released. With that said, I'm just glad that the motion control gimmick was not forced on you with MK Wii.

That's your opinion. Some early adopters would disagree. For the record, I'm typically not an early adapter of anything because FOR ME, I feel that you do in fact get less by buying early. But again, that's an opinion, not a fact. Anyone who buys something on day 1 makes that choice knowing full and well that what they are buying will be out of date in the near future. It's not unfair if they make that choice and they certainly aren't getting screwed since they knew about it in advance.

That's how it is with ALL technology. The early adopters are NOT getting screwed over because they know exactly what they are signing up for and they choose to do it because they get to do it first. It's not unfair. No one is getting screwed over.

I only had one bad experience which just happened to be on NA. We made a trade. I sent everything on my end, but I only got about half of what he agreed to send me. Oddly enough I should have known better since his feedback included several people saying that he was flaky and took a long time to ship things (he was still positive overall). I gave him the benefit of the doubt and continued to message him, but eventually he just stopped replying. Since no money was exchanged, I had no buyer protection. Fortunately, I got something out of the deal since he shipped one of the items, but overall I got less than what I traded. All things considered, with that being my worst experience, I've done pretty well over the years.

As a Band, I've never been that crazy about them. But the songs Come Undone and Ordinary World are two songs that have never and will never get old to me. Both of those songs are in my car right now.

Except for the fact that many of the prices were outrageous before the sale began. That's simply a product of their pricing strategy which, as many have pointed out, had some flaws. I honestly don't care whether he knew from the beginning or not. I don't see anything worth getting upset over. Some people got some good deals. No one got screwed over unless they made some kind of impulse buy without thinking. Some time down the road the website will probably be back up with what we can only hope are fixes to the pricing. If they don't, I will continue to not purchase from them and I'll be in no worse a position than I was when this entire thing started.

That's assuming that he knew about it up front which is what I doubt. It would have been nice if he could have posted a warning saying that he had a buyer and everyone has 24 hours to make their final purchases, but that could also have an impact in the final sale price of the website. For me it wouldn't have mattered since the prices weren't low enough on anything I was interested in to make one last purchase.

Most likely he took the deal that made him the most money before shutting the doors or transferring ownership. In other words, he did what all of us would have done in that situation. Selling every single game until they were gone would have taken months if not years even with the ever droping prices, which means he would be making less and less money will continuing to run his business which costs money. Again, I'm a little disappointed because I was waiting for prices to drop a lot more before buying some big lots, but I can't get angry about what he did.