Photo 88/365 Scrapbooking Deal of the Decade

The other day, I was browsing 2peas and someone posted about a megadeal at Ms (that's Michaels, the craft store for those of you who don't know scrapbook shorthand). I usually find that the deals aren't really a deal, or is stuff I don't want, or is generally not worth a trip to the store, or worse, the store is out of stock by the time I get there. But this time, it was something I wanted, the price was right, and I even went out of my way to a different store so in case they didn't have it, it would be easy to stop by another store on the way home.

What was the deal? It's pictured above. I've been wanting this font for a while and was even looking for it on ebay. I was willing to pay up to $30 (including shipping). Talk about being a cheapskate since the original MSRP was $149 a couple years ago (see I'm sooo not cutting edge, lol). But no one pays full price for this kind of stuff. It would regularly go on sale and as other die cutting tools became more popular, was often 50% off. Still too expensive for my tastes, hence my search on ebay.

The price, the price! you're still waiting for me to get to that, right? Ahhh, the suspense! It was on clearance for $9.99. That's right, $9.99. Let me say that again, $9.99. Can you tell I'm thrilled? But wait! There's more! Since it was the final clearance price, I was able to use a 50% off coupon. That's right, I paid a whopping $5 for the set. And it was the last one in the store (much to the dismay of the woman in line in back of me). It looks like the box was damaged by a box cutter, but the box is still sealed and the contents looked intact so I didn't mind.

Many peas posted that the managers were surprised they were flying off the shelves. Duh! Do the math! Was $149, was $69, hard to find on ebay for less than $20. What the heck was that Micheals buyer thinking, pricing them at more than 90% off? I'm sure he could have priced them at $14.99 or $19.99 and they would have still sold out (they're sold out all over the country, based on various 2peas posts). I understand pricing things to move. But this was rediculous (I'm not complaining, just opining).