A Perfect Storm Target Match-Up Post! (ie - get a super fun game on the cheap side)

(I'm sorry about all of the ' action going on in this post, something is up with blogger and it simply will not let me space this post the way I really want to.)

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I've said it before but I'm saying it again -I'm all about games. Right now at Target you can get The Game of Things, plus a card deck game, (a $32 value!) for only $9.99! (Or $9.94 after the bag credit. :p)

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The Game of Things is similar to most group games - you can make it serious, funny, naughty, opposite, whatever! The rules are sorta simple - pretty much everyone writes a response to the topic card and whoever is not matched to their response at the end of a round by the other players wins! (Actual rules can be found here, but I will dumb them down at the bottom of this post.)

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Right now Toys R Us has "The Game of Things" on sale in their weekly ad (page 11A, top left corner) for $14.99. (Normally $27!)

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AND go HERE for a $5 off coupon - making it $9.99 (Saving you, like, $17!) There is a 2 print-per-computer limit, so if you haven't used this one yet, you should be able to print it twice.

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Now, you can pick this up at TRU when you're there this week getting all the child-centric board games that count towards the Hasbro/Toys R Us rebate,

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OR,

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you can take the Toys R Us ad (actual print ad, not Internet print out, unless your store is lax on that rule) to Target to price match the game (also normally around $27) and get a free hasbro card game as well. (page 16 of this week's Target ad talks about the promo; The Game of Things isn't listed or shown on the ad but is a game by Hasbro and has a promo sticker/tag by its normal shelf price tag in-store. If you still aren't sure about this, go to a scanner or ask an employee to scan it for you - the promo should come up on their screen.)

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You may be squeamish about "doing this deal" at Target, because the new coupon and price-matching policies exclude other stores "buy-one-get-X" promotions AND they also exclude you from price matching and then using a Target coupon on said item being price matched. Plus its a bit involved and there are a lot of you out there who have been very turned off by Target lately.

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However, the buy-game-get-card freebie is Targets own promotion, so you will be able to price match, get the free card game AND use the manufacturer coupon to get everything for $9.99!

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Here's where it gets complicated - normal cashiers don't have the power to price match at their individual registers, so you can check out "up front" or just go straight to Customer Service, since you'll have to stop there anyway.

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AND ideally the way that Target wants its "guests" to perform price adjusting when using a coupon is to use said coupon at time of purchase at the front registers and then get reimbursed later, as to keep the wait time down for the rest of us in line at Customer Service, but they'll still take a coupon at CS. However, I see this as bringing in more people than necessary to error the transaction, so you need to decide if you want to make one long purchase at the registers and then get reimbursed at Customer Service (for convenience and sake of time), OR if you want to make this purchase first at customer service and then continue with your other shopping and do two transactions at Target, that is assuming that you are there to purchase more in the first place.

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If I were you (which I was, 'cause I already did this and it totally worked) I'd do the transaction first at CS and then continue shopping and purchase everything else separately, which looks like this: find the game (it's in a wooden box and can be found in the "party" or "adult" section of the game isle), pick out which free card game you'd like (you get to choose between scrabble slam, monopoly deal and something that is like pictureika; they should all be well marked that they are the free-game-with-purchase) and then go to Customer Service. Wait your turn (obvs.) and then let the service person know that you are going to price match the big item. They will scan the Game of Things, do some fancy button pushin' to adjust the price and then scan the card game, which will automatically show up as free. (They might go in a different order with the card game scanning and price adjustment, but that part should not matter.) Your total should say $14.99 (plus whatever your sales tax is; so in the D/FW area it'd be $16.23) - then when you go to pay hand over your coupon for $5 off. They'll scan it and then you're down to $9.99! ($10.84 D/FW - because the tax is adjusted to what you pay after the coupon) Done!

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I didn't ring this up at a normal register, because I thought the whole thing would give all parties involved - the cashier, the CS person and myself - a headache, but here is what it should look like if you choose to go this way. When you buy both games and use the coupon, the receipt will print out as all are apart of the special promotion - so there will be all of these fancy price numbers everywhere inside a separate box that is marked like so:

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-------Special Promotion -------

##### '''''''''GameofThings '''''$27.00 (or whatever price in which your target has the game listed)

##### '''''''''MFR Coupon '''''''''$5.00-

'''''''''''''''''''Refund Value ''' $23.12 (or some other number) T

###### '''''''Card Game ''''''''''''$5.24

'''''''''''''''''''Refund Value ''''$3.88 T

'''''''''''''''''''--------------

''''''''''''''''Package Subtotal $32.24

'''''''''''''''''''''Card Game Free $5.24-

'''''''''============

'''''''''''''''''''Package Total $27.00 (or again, whatever price yours is going for.)

'''''All Items Must Be returned For Full Refund

----------------------------------

'''''''''''''''''''Subtotal ''''''''''''''''$22.00 (unless you bought more stuff)

'''''%Tax on $22 '''''''''''''''''''$ tax amount

''''''''''''''''''''''''''Total ''''''''''''''''$ whatever total is

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THEN you'll go up to CS and price adjust the NORMAL PRICE, the one that is on the same line as the sku number and the game title (the one that I've highlighted in lime green for you). They should in NO WAY tell you any of the following:

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~ You can't do that. (Yes, I can because it's your matching policy, a current ad, your promotion, and a manufacture coupon.)

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~ The Price Adjustment is only on the $22 or only on the $23.24 so you'll be getting $7.01 or $8.25 back. (No, the $22 is the price after the Manufactures coupon, and the $*23 is the *stores promo price. Stand up for yourself on this one - point to the "MFR Coupon" words on your receipt and then point to your copies of the *New and Improved* Target Coupon and Price Matching Policies. The 5th Question states that MFR Coupons will be used AFTER the price adjustment, so then point to the original price.)

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~ You can't get the free card game. (Again, YES I can because the store promotion is valid on games over $10, of which this game still is after the price adjustment.)

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~ I don't get what is going on. (Speak more slowly. Tell the person that you would like to buy these two items but one needs to be price adjusted, but don't mention the coupon. Show them the ad and it's valid dates, then let the employee do their thing. Once it's time to pay, then pull out the coupon.)

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~ I can't price match the package total. (That's fine, employee, because you're not matching the package total, you are matching the original sales price, which is also currently the same as the package total.)

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The prices in *light blue on the fake receipt indicate what you would receive if you tried to return either game without the other. This is Targets part in trying to prevent anyone from "pulling a fast one" by buying both, keeping one, and getting the full price of the other back, or keeping one for free in the end.

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I hope that this hasn't left you completely lost. Getting a great deal sometimes doesn't seem worth it if you have to go through so much trouble. (Which I assure you this post just makes it all seem like a bigger hassle than it really is.) The Game of Things really is a blast to play with friends but because you run out of the included paper fairly fast (it comes with 500 answer slips - if you have 10 people play 2 complete games that's 10 slips per round, 10 rounds per game, times 2 games = 200 slips, or 100 if you go front and back) I personally would NEVER pay full price for it ever; why should you shell out $27 and then need to supply your own paper after 2 - 5 parties? But if I can get it for $10 AND get something else for free out of it then I guarantee you that everyone at that party will have heard about my great score by the end of the night.

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~K

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*And don't forget that there is also a $5 off coupon for Connect 4X4 on the same coupon site, which is also part of the free card game promotion.

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As promised, "The Game of Things" Rules, as read by K:

1) First select a Reader (who can also act as the score keeper) for that round and then everyone gets a piece of included paper.

2)The Reader selects a topic card and reads it aloud - so it could be "Things you shouldn't do while skiing" or "Things you can always count on".

3) Everyone (including the reader) then thinks of and writes down their answer and gives said response to the reader, who then reads them all aloud.

4) Player A will now have the chance to guess who said what - however, you cannot guess the reader (and in turn the reader of the round cannot guess either, because s/he can see every ones handwriting). So if person A guesses person C said response 1 and is correct, then person C is now out and person A gets to guess until s/he fails to correctly identify another response, at which time the next remaining player has a chance to identify the remaining responses.

5) The end of the round features two players guessing who-wrote-what determined over three response slips, because one slip is the readers, thus making it an intentional throw-someone-off answer. Once the round is over, tally up all the points given, then select another player to be the reader/score keeper. A new round can start once everyone has fresh slip of paper and a new topic card has been drawn.

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Scoring: You get 1 (one) point for every correct person/response connection YOU make; 6 (six) points are awarded to the person who wins the round; The winner of the round is the person still standing, aside from the reader of course. Then you start another round until everyone has had a chance to be the reader; then winner of the game is the person with the most overall points.