The holiday of 1999 is what I remember from this forum. We got so many great deals delivered right to our door. I never stepped foot in a mall or a store unless it was for groceries, and even then I had a lot of food from a mexican food website were we had a coupon for $20 off a $20 purchase!

I remember the KB Toys Deal of the Day. We got huge Scooby Doo stuffed animals, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lego's and a Batman tent - all for less than $5.

I remember bidding on things from Mercata.com too, we bought our first DVD player from them for a whopping $25, and the first DVD was free from the points I had from Start Sampling.

And Start Sampling, someone would post here that they had samples available, and it was a rush to get there!

I remember buying my boys a Game Cube from Toys R Us for less than $20 by layering the codes posted from a box of McDonald's Chicken Nuggets. Mine was delivered (free shipping too) right to my back door while other parents were waiting in line at the store in the cold to get 1 of the 5 they had in stock.

There was a place too, called Boo.com and we bought items there for next to nothing. The UPS and Fed Ex men knew me by name, and the elderly neighbor across the street actually told my husband he might need to be worried about the frequent trips of the delivery men to my door while he wasn't home. Oh and we had Dunkin Donuts coffee for years, and got the coffee bean grinder from Mother Nature.com practically free. I even gave the Fed Ex guy a few pounds of coffee for the holiday.

Most of all, I remember the friendships I created here, how we helped each other with codes, when things were in stock and when they weren't, free shipping codes, and how to layer the codes or go through a point system for rewards. Christmas morning, 1999, when my kids came down the hall and saw the entire living room full of wrapped gifts, was the best ever. And we all took a moment, fired up our computer with our free cup of coffee, sweetened by the free sugar from the grocery store website, drinking from the cups from Mercata we bid on for under $1, and joined here for warm holiday greetings. I'll always remember the closeness we felt for each other.

What do you remember from the Dot Com Holiday of '99?

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Catt
~ Mirror Mirror on the wall, I am my mother - after all! ~

I was 18 years old and joined a coupon website. My mom called and still calls me the "coupon queen" and I used to swap coupons on here for double coupons at Ralphs. I got so many items with my coupons for free I would take them to the local Women's shelter. My mom was so proud, but so in awe at the same time!

ahh the days of couponing and free time to coupon!!

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-Kristi

Great question!

I remember the Start Sampling website - being so excited if there was a "green dot" next to the item up for sampling...

I also remember the Sears $5.00 off purchases five dollars and up - I made a lot of trades for those coupons - my daughter's wardrobe consisted of numerous little turtlenecks and stretch pants from the toddler's department - $5.98 per item meant that every new outfit was running us less than $2.00...

There was also a drug store that let you order your first item free, including postage, but I can't remember the name...

Oh, also there were the "Pillsbury Dough Boy Points" that got me a free glow-in-the-dark sleeping bag, and all those Pampers Points!

Ah, the good old days!

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"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." - Thomas Russell

Kristi, that's why I joined MyCoupons, it was 1998 (my membership was reset during a server move so it shows 1999) and I joined this site to trade coupons (for stamps!) for my then newborn son Steven for diapers, formula and other things. That's when I discovered the LWIF forum, Barb and I talked about dumpster diving and the rest? Is history!

I had just lost my mom too, in 1996 so after Steven was born I started going through her recipes one by one. I would post a recipe, share a story on what I remembered about her, and the members here helped me get through my grief. I remember this lady at the funeral home telling me 'you know, when your mom dies, she takes your childhood with her' and I just couldn't accept that. My childhood, however perfect or imperfect, was a gift my mom would never take away. The members here helped me with that.

devinmom, I remember those coupons from Sears! Great times, huh?

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Catt
~ Mirror Mirror on the wall, I am my mother - after all! ~

yes I remember when you were here so much posting those yummy recipes. I think it was you who posted the Sticky Chicken?
I think of you everytime I make a whole chicken, but could never get it to last so many meals!

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-Kristi

The Latin food website was Querico. I still have a magnet from them somewhere.

I remember those wire bathtub caddy things from either Amazon.com or Drugstore.com that were full of bath products (mango and spring rain, I think) that were mis-priced. Lots of us ordered a boatload of those and they honored the incorrect price. We got them for $3 or so and they were huge and had so many bath goodies in them.

I remember more.com. If you ordered their weekly deal you got that item for that price for life. They sold Bayer aspirin for a penny and some nice Mach 3 razors for $1 a package. I got in on those and a number of other items. Unfortunately, it turned out that those prices were good for the life of the WEBSITE, not MY life. lol.

I remember all the Drugstore.com $15 off any purchase coupons.

I remember all the free Dunkin Donuts coffee beans that were given any time you rated a website on epinions.

I got a Barney Actimates doll from the KBToys Deal of the Day. He was $5 or $15 or something unreal like that. They sold for around $80 in stores.

The Tupperware deals were incredible. The Surprise Boxes were about $10 each and worth $100. That's where I got all the Tupperware I own.

There were some very fancy Christmas cookies, brass chargers, and a four tiered serving thingamajig that I got from someplace called... oh... was it entertaining.com?

Those were the days....

I remember the Toy Story Beanie Babies---we still have Jesse and Bullseye kicking around here somewhere--i think they were Barnes and Noble freebees.

Drugstore.com was selling those expensive razor blades for $1--cant remember the brand now, but they were like $10 in stores.

I also remember the Test Drives! I was working for a car dealer so I had a lot of dealer codes and could do the 'drive' without really driving!

I just remember the real 'free' deals, very much worth coming here to check out the deals all the time and the fun posts everyone would put up here!

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"It's not about how much baggage you have, it's about whether or not you can carry your own baggage with grace and dignity."

I remember all of those deals too. Remember Entertaining.com we all got a ton of stuff from there in the boxes that had the shredded colored paper!! My delivery guys knew me by name too, I saw them everyday. My sister-in-law didn't believe what I was doing was legal...then I turned her on to drugstore.com deals and the rest is history!!

There were so many great deals, that if you went on vacation or off your computer for a day or 2 you spent hours catching up and getting in on everything....ahhh memories!

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*******If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
But if life gives you limes....make margaritas!!!*******

Amazon.com GCs. My son created a ghost program that clicked away on sites all day and rang up Amazon GCs. Seriously == 3k or more.

DVDs. I think we were paying around 50 cents per DVD. Duncan Donuts Coffee. Drugstore.com. (I thought I would hit menopause before I ran out of free supplies, but no such luck.) Dan's Chocolate.

The UPS guy!

Oh, my.

Dan's Chocolate.

Be still my joyful soul.

I also remember Freeway, a long distance thing. You called the Freeride number first and listened to ads. The more ads you listened to the longer your 'free' phone call could be. Seems like there was a monthly cap of 60 minutes or so.

This, of course, was back in the days when cell phones were not so mainstream and we usually had to pay long distance fees to AT&T, etc.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/199...nce-free-roddy

ETA: There doesn't seem to be an archived page going back to the 1990's, but this is the LWIF board from 2002: http://web.archive.org/web/200410161...php?forumid=12

... and here is the YFB: http://web.archive.org/web/200410161...php?forumid=23

I somehow (can't remember how) found mc in 98 and was still not trusting of the online stuff and giving out my cc info, etc. It was all so new to me. We were active duty military and lived in a remote area so it gave me something to do while dh was tdy often.

I did a few deals, like the more.com and others that have been listed. I knew it wouldn't last and it didn't. Companies that survived learned to limit, and draw parameters for survival. It was interesting and of course fun to get things free, or for $1.

dl

Wow I wish I would've been here back then! I joined in 2002 I believe. There were good deals then too. A lot of freebies including magazine subscriptions that we don't seem to find anymore. I also remember a lot of stores like Walgreen's and Fashion Bug just to name two, always had B1G1F deals where now they just have B1G150%.
I miss the good deals!

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

I remember Dicks Sporting goods had a game, and you would get gift cards....along with free shipping, I got tons of free clothing. I also remember the Drugstore deals. Mother Nature also had some awesome deals. I got so much free stuff..

All of that stuff.....

and Bolt.com
more.com, I think it was with the 9 cents for life deodarant, q-tips and razor blades.

I used to get some grapefruit laundry powder from mothernature.com and a bunch of other stuff.

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

More.com from 1999:

more.com - more selection, more convenience, more savings

Does anyone remember the freebies we got "If You Live in California". If I recall correctly, we had to send in a post-card. 2 of the items I remember receiving were a mini cuisinart? chopper and a George Foreman Grill.

Oh, I almost forgot....was it buybidwin.com? Anyway, you got to play lets make a deal, I think it was and I won T.V. TWICE! I also won a bunch of other stuff from there.

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

And then there was the ponzi (sp?) scheme... cyberrebate.com.
http://news.cnet.com/2010-1071-281467.html

bigstar.com!!

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

reel.com! I keep thinking of places I got wonderful deals...lol

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

What was the name of the site where everybody got the party supplies? Was it Entertaining.com? That's the only thing I didn't get in on, but I know lots of people got themed party supplies free.

Didn't we also rush to the Jellybelly site for free samples of Jelly Beans?

The internet was sort of a naive place then, you could have multiple email addresses for everyone in the family.

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Catt
~ Mirror Mirror on the wall, I am my mother - after all! ~

Beenz!! I remember that site

Redrocket.com? I think that was the name of the place. They had tons of Nick Jr stuff. I got so much free stuff there.
Also Pets.com.

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Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking

I made the UPS, FedEX, and USPS guys all brownies and cookies each week. They knew where to find them on the back porch! I miss those days! My friends thought I was nuts.

(And I still have my pets.com puppet in his box!)

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oupiglet...addicted to free stuff!

Those were the days! I remember a site called Jaboom, where you listed to and rated music, and I received hundreds of dollars of gift cards for amazon.com=got a free jvc 36 in tv!! Freeride was awesome, hundreds of dollars earned there, as well. Got a free 6 lb spiral sliced ham delivered the day before Christmas, lots of stuff from entertaining.com, and so many stores offering free 20 dollar coupons for anything on their site. My ups man called me his job security!

My kitties and hammies had free food for years during that time.I had so much free pet stuff from online deals that I ended up breeding hamsters and had over 20 hamster mansions in my apartment.When the free food ran out, my teddybear hamsters were so beautiful and tame that the pet stores would buy all their babies and I never ran out of free pet supplies.

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We're still working our way through the free printer paper I got back then! (We don't print a lot, but still...)

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

I remember missing out on certain things like beanz because of Web Tv! Ugh

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I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.

Ah yes, the Dunkin' Donuts coffee. That was a sweet deal.

I remember More.com.
I stocked up at Drugstore.com.

Loved those $5 Sears coupons.