For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the tech news recently, Hewlett Packard (HP) released an overpriced, essentially featureless tablet deemed the “HP Touchpad” on July 1st of this year to a luke-warm reception at best. My personal laundry list of qualms with the tablet includes that it lacks a rear-facing camera, there have been almost no app developers willing to choose to develop for its native WebOS, and probably most importantly of all, HP laughably priced this tablet exactly the same as the industry leading iPad. Once all of this was taken into consideration, it was very easy to see that this tablet was a terrible buy and was (as I have been saying from the very beginning) destined for failure.

Fast forward 7 (yes, just 7!) weeks later to this past Thursday, August 18 when HP made the announcement that they were no longer going to be making the Touchpad. While this came as a huge shock to the 9 people who actually purchased this device since July, the rest of the tech world wasn’t as much shocked about it, as they were about how Hp had broken the news. Supposedly there was practically zero internal discussion about the decision prior to the news being released publicly, which, as I understand it, is unorthodox and somewhat unprofessional. The real story, however, didn’t begin until Friday August 19.

The story, and my first hand account of all of its glory, goes like this:

I was just getting out of work around 10:30pm EST when one of my friends, who is a fellow tech-enthusiast, excitedly sent me a text message informing me that Hp Touchpad’s were selling for $99 at Amazon.com. Immediately I was excited and wanted to know more, so I pulled out my phone and searched Google to see what I could find. Initially very little came up, however I did find a small forum discussing the rumor that there may be $99 Touchpad’s on sale sometime this weekend. With that information in mind, I drove the 25 minute drive from work to my apartment thinking about whether or not this tablet that I had been bashing for nearly two months would even be worth the $99 bucks.

When I got home, I put the Touchpad dilemma on the back burner and did some other stuff for a while, but soon thereafter,I found myself back online, at that same “small” forum called slickdeals.net. No longer constrained by the limitations of my handheld device and mobile internet connection, I was free to do some serious digging into this issue to see what exactly was going on. After about 10 minutes or so I learned that earlier, the Canadian BestBuy website was indeed selling Touchpads for cheap but had run out of stock. However, not long after that, I heard that hp.com was indeed selling 16gb Touchpads for $99 and 32gb models for $149, BUT you had to be a student enrolled in some student rewards program to have access to them. Lucky for me, I am a student, so after taking a few minutes to sign up for their program I got my first glimpse of what would become a familiar sight this weekend: the Hp Touchpad being displayed next to a price of $99. Immediately after this I got my first experience of what would come to be another familiar sight this weekend: the “out of stock” message. That’s right, right from the beginning, the 16gb Touchpad was out of stock (for me). If it would have been in stock I probably would have ordered 2 right then and there and that would have been the end of it.. but then I wouldn’t have such an epic story to tell.

So, from this point, I decided to navigate to the 32gb model to see what it’s price was. Sure enough, it was sitting there in stock with a price tag of $149. Again, in hindsight, I really should have just picked up 2 or 3 of these and called it a day with this whole Touchpad thing. But at this point I had no clue how much everyone else was going to want these things and subsequently make it impossible to find one later… so instead of picking up a few right then and there, I went and made myself dinner and passed up my first chance at getting one of these tablets. About 45 minutes (and one delicious meal) later, I decided that I would go order one of these things just for the heck of it and if it ended up being a waste of money, at least I gave it a shot.

It was about 1am when I finally sat down and got to business ordering one of these. I quickly learned that HP had sold out. I was sort of shocked at this point, mainly because one of the biggest stories I had been hearing recently about the Touchpad is that the retail stores were complaining that they wanted to send HP back all of their stock of the item because no one was buying them. So, I figured that if BestBuy was rumored to have 250,000 of these things, then surely HP had at least that in a warehouse somewhere. This is when it began to dawn on me that if I wanted to pick one of these up then I was going to have to act fast. I quickly relocated the slickdeals forum dedicated to the Touchpad deal (which I noticed was beginning to grow at a rapid pace) to see what the good word was. The majority of the people there were aware that HP was indeed showing an “out of stock” message on their site and people were starting to speculate about whether retailers would be dropping their prices that night (or technically, that morning) as well. The general consensus, however, was that retailers were waiting til 7am the next morning (Saturday morning), for a reason that I still do not know.

While I was slightly upset that I had missed the HP.com deal, the forum was actually pretty entertaining to watch, as it kept growing larger and larger, at a faster and faster rate. It actually got to the point where every time I read through one page of posts and hit refresh, two more pages had been generated. This is when I really knew that this deal was going to be BIG. People were throwing rumors around and information was everywhere, but there was simply no way to determine the real information from the fake. The only thing that I (and apparently everyone else) could think to do was open a tab in my web browser for every major retailer I could think of, search for the Touchpad on each site, and keep one eye on the retailer’s prices and the other on the forum.

Around 2:30 or 3:00 am EST word had spread that staples had dropped their price, so I immediately made my way to the Staples site to confirm the rumor. However, while Staples was indeed selling the 32gb version for $149, they had the 16gb version listed at $129. Because I was determined to buy two (one for myself, one for my girlfriend), I wanted to just pick up two 16gb versions for $99 apiece and couldn’t bring myself to pay $260 for two 16gb tablets that won’t even have any type of tech support in the future, let alone any ability to return defective units. Therefore, I passed on my second opportunity to pick up these tablets at a decent price and walk away from what was shaping up to be a crazy weekend.

Shortly after this, word got out that Office Depot had just “got the price drop” (apparently the official lingo of frequent slickdeal-ers) so I quickly navigated there on FireFox to find that they too were out of the 16gb version. Fed-up with waiting and facing the realization that I just might not be able to find a 16gb model (let alone 2), I decided to take this third opportunity and locked in my purchase for somewhere in the neighborhood of $165. I was feeling okay about this, but it wasn’t really what I had wanted. The plan was to get two 16gb tablets for ~$200 and surprise my girlfriend with a pretty sweet present when she returned from a week long trip where she had been visiting her family down south. But, the longer I stayed on that forum, the larger it grew, and the more I realized I should probably just take what I can get.So, with one Touchpad “locked” away, I began searching and waiting to see if/when another retailer would drop the price, so I could pick up that 16gb version for my lady.

At this point it was somewhere around 3:30 and the forum had grown into a makeshift digital home-base for everyone in the world that was trying to get in on this deal. Interestingly enough, a few years back I attended the Bonnaroo summer music festival, and in many ways, this forum kind of reminded me of that type of homegrown atmosphere (only for digital tech-nerds). More specifically, at this point people had begun posting a “watch list” of all retailers, broken down into different categories including retailers that had the drop, had the drop but were out of stock (OOS), and all of the rest. Also, people were posting words of wisdom on the front page that included rumors that were pretty widespread and tales of caution such as reminding people to watch out for phishing. It was very strange, yet exciting to watch this “little thread” on SlickDeals turn into such a monstrosity in such a short time.

Anyway, the next retailer the masses got word about was OfficeMax. Once again I tried to capitalize on the deal, but by this time there were just too many people in the SlickDeals forum who received the news at the same time and the OfficeMax website just refused to load up for me. After trying for about 20 minutes I managed to add one of the TouchPads to my cart (I forget which model now) and actually even managed to fill out all of the purchasing information. But by the time I actually got the site to load the final page that had the purchase button on it, it was too late and I had missed out on my fourth chance.

It was starting to get real late and I had to work the next day at 2 o’clock so I was really unsure about what I should do next. I wanted to get some sleep but I knew that if I slept too long there was a good chance I was going to miss out on all of my other opportunities to cash in on this deal since there was a good likelihood the other retailers were going to lower their prices very soon. Luckily, (after an unsuccessful 4am call to the local Wal*Mart), around 5:30, WalMart.com finally lowered its prices to match the Hp website. I acted quickly and picked up one the $99 versions in a matter of seconds, but for some reason there was no option to have it shipped to me, so I had to choose the “in store” pickup option, which made me a little uneasy. Nonetheless, my credit card was soon charged for this and I received an email confirmation, so I was pretty convinced all was well now that I had successfully taken advantage of my fifth shot at the firesale.

6 hours later I awoke to my phone’s alarm. First thing I did (as I do ever morning) is unlock my phone and see what’s going on in the world. That’s when I remembered last night’s events and I noticed I had some new email. I saw that I had something from Walmart, and sure enough they had cancelled my order. This was the first of many disappointing actions retailers would be taking at the expense of the consumer that weekend. Immediately I knew that I wasn’t going to have any chance of arguing against this action but I decided to call WalMart to explain my case and see what was going on anyway. I spoke to a kid about my age and he sympathized with me, but sincerely told me there was nothing they could do and that his manager had (strangely) ordered all Touchpad’s off of the shelves a few hours ago and no one was permitted to purchase them. Therefore, with a little less than a half hour left before my 10+ hour shift at work, I tucked my tail between my legs and temporarily admitted defeat. I knew there was a good chance that a lot of retailers were probably going to cut their prices that afternoon while I was at work, but as I didn’t have any access to a computer, I would be missing out on them for sure.

It was a long, long shift at work, and I did my best to keep up with the forum using my phone but I knew that when it came to actually capitalizing on a deal, my slow touchscreen character input and mobile data connection didn’t stand a chance against people sitting at home with keyboards and fios. So, my shift essentially amounted to me watching and listening to other people cashing in on deals that I had no chance of getting. The only (semi) real chance I did end up having was around 6:30 pm when the forum spread the word that some company was selling their supply on eBay ( in hopes that eBay’s servers could take the massive load that would quickly follow). This gave me a little more hope than anything else that had happened while I was at work because I already had an ebay account so (in theory) all I would have to do was sign in using my phone and then hit buy and I would have it. I wasn’t going to have to put in all of my information like I would have if it would have been an unfamiliar site. However, although theoretically this was going to be very simple, in practice, I had forgotten my ebay password. Therefore, my job and my poor memory had stolen my sixth chance at the elusive Touchpad.

After the ebay fiasco, my phone’s battery was almost completely dead so I resigned myself to actually working at work for the rest of the evening and gave myself a little break from all the Touchpad madness.

When I got home around 10 pm that evening I jumped back on the forum to see what was going on “in the land of the firesale and learned that I had missed a few deals including a strange situation involving the Hp Small Business site having a supply of Touchpads when the main Hp site did not…but for the most part, the forum was quiet about the prospects of any real chance of getting a Touchpad that evening. At this point, someone did mention that the Kmart site had them in stock still, but at full price, so I navigated on over there to check out their return policy. Sure enough, their policy clearly stated that they would refund any difference in price within seven days of purchase if their official price drops. Confident that their price would indeed drop within the next few days, I took the leap of faith, purchasing one of the 16gb models at full price (~$530), and thus created my own seventh chance.

With two Touchpads pretty safely nestled away from the chance that they would be cancelled, I was feeling pretty good. This happiness was only reinforced the next morning when I talked to representatives from both KMart and Office Depot. Both of them only had good news for me. The customer service rep from Office Depot reassured me that my order was not going to be cancelled and I should be expecting my tablet this coming Wednesday or Thursday. The rep from Kmart said all was well and even offered to refund the difference over the phone. This is where my story really should come to an end. This would have been a great place to stop this tale with a happy ending. If I had simply left well enough alone, I would probably be living that happy ending right now, patiently waiting for my two Touchpads. However, for some reason I kept checking the forum just to see what new developments were happening with the deal. Partly, I just wanted to see if the item would keep selling out or if demand would eventually slow down.. and partly because I never actually wanted to buy the 32gb version in the first place. In my mind, the plan was to get 2 16gb versions for $99 and that plan had not been fulfilled. This was what was going through my mind when word spread late Sunday evening that Barnes and Noble had finally dropped their price. I quickly navigated over to the site and found the 16gb not sold out! Without thinking I immediately purchased the item, making it the eighth chance and the third tablet that I would be receiving unless I cancelled one of the orders.

Now, try as I might, I can’t explain my though-process for this next move. For whatever reason, I just assumed that Barnes and Noble purchase was on the up and up. Because this was the 2nd 16gb version that I had wanted, I proceeded to go into my officedepot account and cancel my 32gb Touchpad that I had worked so hard to get 2 nights prior. I do not know why I did this and I immediately realized it was a mistake, even going so far as to call OfficeDepot and explain to them that I had just “accidentally” cancelled my order. After giving me a lecture about why I shouldn’t cancel orders when they are all sold-out, the guy on the phone told me there was no way I could “uncancel”. I was feeling pretty bummed at this point, and I knew that I had a lot riding on this barnes and noble deal. Somehow, I had put myself back into the Firesale Frenzy.

I awoke this morning to no message in my inbox from Barnes and Noble. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but as long as there was no cancellation email yet, I was still holding out hope. After trying to call Barnes and Noble to see what was going on several times (to no avail), I once again took to the forums to see if anyone had news about Barnes and Noble. What I learned was not encouraging. It seemed that Barnes and Noble had let just about everyone who wanted a Touchpad place an order on their site regardless of whether or not they actually had that many in stock. While this was just a rumor this morning, it did end up being true and I would just like to say that whether or not Barnes and Noble did that on purpose, it was very underhanded and I have completely lost all respect for that company. Anyway, because I was beginning to seriously doubt the Barnes and Noble Touchpad would come through for me, I started looking for another way to get one. Throughout the afternoon I followed leads on various sites, even attempting to place orders that were unsuccessful at TigerDirect.com(ninth) and PcConnection.com (tenth). Finally, as a last ditch effort, I went to the only remaining website listed on SlickDeals that had yet to drop their price and still had stock (which was insight.com) and created an account. I figured that if I had an account and credit card ready to go I might actually have a shot at buying a tab with one click if/when they dropped their price. Around 10:00 pm they actually did drop their price (just as I was starting this article) and I somehow got an order placed (eleventh!).

Which brings us to my current situation. For reasons that still remain a little unclear to me, I have spent the better part of three days trying to get my hands on some tablets that just last week I wouldn’t have touched with gloves on. I mean seriously, I hated these tablets at $500 and $600, but now that they are $100 and there is the very real chance that they are going to be getting Android Honeycomb ported over in the next few weeks, I simply can’t pass up on this opportunity. At the moment, I have one “waiting for me” at Kmart and one that I am not really counting on from insight. Therefore, I am not quite out of the firesale game yet, but with any luck I will be soon. I can’t imagine my story is all that unique compared to other people who have been searching for the elusive Touchpad this weekend, but because the large majority of people haven’t been involved with this madness, I figured it might be interesting to those of you who haven’t been exposed to this ridiculousness this past weekend. I almost feel guilty talking about this though, because I can’t help but think that someone else may read this, only to have it spark their interest in the Touchpad and then dive head first into the hunt. If that person is you, let me just advise you to turn and run now or you will be sitting at your desk in a few days feeling tired, confused, and abused, wondering how it is exactly that you have wasted so much time with so little to show for it.