Next years plans.....

[Wayne J]

OK, I went out shopping and noticed that there was no lights available like last year. So in a panic, I started hitting every Lowes and Walmart in a 20 mile radius. Trying my best to get what I needed to do next years plans for my display. I could not get what I needed to do this locally. :( While telling my wife this, she said "I will just drive up to WV and hit all the stores there!" Elated with her support, I gave her a wad of cash and away she went. (what a gal!!)

So.... here is the score.....

328 strings, this should cover the 344 channels I plan to have. (if I don't add more :wink: ) I already have 18,000+ out this year. 8)

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2559/lightsaa3.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightsaa3.jpg)

[klanger]

Wayne, she sounds like a keeper, well done.

Kev

[wbuehler]

WOW

I feel bad now

[FireGod]

I am stopping at 400 channels, it was almost too much to handle this year.

My wife did not buy the lights for me but THANK GOD she never asked me what all those UPS packages cost with all sorts of electronic development parts in them!!

Hummmm.......a wife that buys your hobby materials for you out of state, almost too good to believe.

[cruizer]

I went to Wal-Mart today because I assumed at two days before Christmas they were having sales, but NOOOOO. No Christmas stuff was on sale.

[RJ]

I went to Wal-Mart today because I assumed at two days before Christmas they were having sales, but NOOOOO. No Christmas stuff was on sale.

Here either. I guess different areas do what every they want. I will check tommorrow and the next day and the next day.

[Sean Bowf]

Wal-mart here had a BUNCH of leftovers last year. This year, they had very little...and most of what they had were blue lights (same as last year). I guess their merchandisers got smarter. I will say, that someone at Lowes screwed up and ordered boxes and boxes of C9 bulb holders. Pic attached. What I use these for, is stakes to hold my light string from my mega tree to the ground. They could also be used to stake other things down if need be.

Here is a pic of my haul from last year...got no where close to using all of this stuff up this year: http://img1.putfile.com/thumb/1/017283880.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4395135)

Sean

[JaysonH]

I noticed that too Sean, I just came back from all three Walmarts in our area.. hardly nothing at all. I guess they finally adjusted for overstock from previous years. From their stand point thats good, from ours, not so good of course.

[daviddth]

All our local stores had basically sold out my last week, with a few sets of lights with controllers, but thats about all. I'm not looking forward to a year without a few (ok 10) thousand more lights left to buy before Chrissie next year.

[TERBObob]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news gents , but my wife works at a store like K-Mart , called Pamida ...
They seem to ALL have adopted a new policy about lights .... ( and other Christmas non perishables )
They are NOT gonna discount them , like the used to ... but rather simply put them BACK into stock and store them till next year . :(

[ben]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news gents , but my wife works at a store like K-Mart , called Pamida ...
They seem to ALL have adopted a new policy about lights .... ( and other Christmas non perishables )
They are NOT gonna discount them , like the used to ... but rather simply put them BACK into stock and store them till next year . :(

Thats sad because HD and Lowes have been marked down for a while and I am going to use the $55 in HD giftcards I got to buy more lights :D

Ben

[Sean Bowf]

I figure, that even at 50 percent off, they are still selling them at or above cost... I would think discounting them would be better for the stores than storing them.

Our lowes is pretty picked over, but they are at 50 percent off. I did not check Home Depot. The closest Wal-mart had some items marked down, but not a blanket percentage off everything.

I am not really looking for anything though...but if I stumbled on something neat, I would pick it up. I have plenty of lights for next year...hmmmm....could use more reds and greens... :shock: Actually, most of the time, the lights that are left over around here are multi-color, blue, or white. Most of what I would not mind stocking up on are red and greens. No real need for them, just a back up for the ones the rabbits bite through (lost 2 strings so far this year).

Sean

[zoommedic]

well I went to lowes and was only able to get 33 string of clear. Walamrt all gone, k mart all gone and HD to far to go. Anyone looking to get rid of some for a newbie just starting? I really need 33 string of red and 33 string of green. If anyone has the hookups let me know.

[cmurray]

Local town was picked clean about two weeks ago.
Scouted the next town about a 1/2 hour away last weekend and hit the mother load.

Went back this morning and got 15 thousand clears.

Could have got more than 50 thousand if I had wanted them.

20K lights and 124 new channels already needed for next year.

Joel

[rjanuary]

Ok, I just added up all my shopping trips since yesterday:

White - 7000
Red - 4000
Green - 3200
Yellow - 2500
Blue - 8100
Rope Lights - 18 misc colors @ 18ft each
Misc lights on decorations - 2000

Grand total of lights picked up this year: 25,000!
This will be added to the 4000 lights from last year to bring me up to 30,000!!

Looks like its time to upgrade my hardware. I'm using 52 channels for this year's show and will probabaly need 200+ channels for next year!

Richard

[scottl480]

Went by to see Wayne's display tonight. After the wife watched it for about 2 minutes she looks at me and says...."You need to buy more lights":

So I guess I am off tomorrow to try to find any lights in the greater Charlotte area that Wayne missed.

Great show by the way!!

[Sean Bowf]

Went by to see Wayne's display tonight. After the wife watched it for about 2 minutes she looks at me and says...."You need to buy more lights":

LOL...you better treat her right and keep her around for awhile. She sounds like a keeper to me. :D

I am jealous seeing and hearing about you guys finding reds and greens in the clearance sales...no such luck around here...just clears, multis, and blues.

Sean

[XmasInGalt]

Went by to see Wayne's display tonight. After the wife watched it for about 2 minutes she looks at me and says...."You need to buy more lights":

So I guess I am off tomorrow to try to find any lights in the greater Charlotte area that Wayne missed.

Great show by the way!!

WOW!!! Full wife support. You are a lucky man. I was going to program another song the other day but my wife told me "Don't you dare touch that computer today!!!". I guess I can understand since it was Christmas day. What can I say, I love this stuff!!!!

[fkostyun]

Whats funny, is my sunday score was better than my day after christmas score. From what I can tell my local target found a lot of stuff that was burried in the back that never made it out. Oh well, there loss, my gain!!!!!!

I was only goign to add a few lights... now for somereason I'm going to have like 140,000 this next year.

[Mufassa]

Next year will be my first year and I was shocked after spending $300+ at Lowes Clearance. My wife calls me at work and says.. "I found 3 packs of 2' trees on clearance and bought you 8 boxes..." Gotta love the wife support! We shall see how long it lasts once I start soldering boards and doing sequences. But at least I got it for the Money spending.

--Greg