Last Thursday I came across this display at “Ocean State Job Lot”, a regional chain found in New England and New York. With about 115 stores, they are similar to “Big Lots” and “Ollies”, but closer in style to “Ollies”
These are the same CREE bulbs previously sold at Home Depot for $8 and up, now at OSJL.
Price is 99 cents a piece, BUT
This is a “Crazy Deal”
A Crazy Deal is a deal where after buying an item, you also recieve a gift card for a like amount.
So in other words, they are free.
Free means absolutely no cost, but not actually. There is the sales tax on $9.90, about 60 cents.
So those 10 bulbs cost me about 6 cents a piece.
At the time, I thought it would be to late to find any other stores with stock, but I was wrong.
This deal is still on, but you have to be quick!!!
Yesterday, while traveling, I was able to stop in 4 other stores and they all still had stock. There are at least 2 brands of bulbs on sale, CREE and GREENLITE. Also MaxLite LED shop lights are $20, not Crazy Deal card though.
Here are some other pictures in the 5 stores I visited.
Remember, buy 10 at 99 cents each ($9.90), get a $9.90 gift card back. True cost of bulbs is the sales tax on $9.90
This last picture is NOT a “Crazy Deal”, just a straight up LED shop light for $19.99
Too bad, I am blessed, so to speak. There are 8 OSJL within a 15 mile radius of our home.
As far as I can tell, no.
Stores like OSJL, Ollies, etc get some of their stock buying distressed, or overstocks. Those CREE bulbs offered were cleared out of some Home Depots recently. HD claims they send that kind of stuff through the crusher, but I doubt that is the case for all items. The CREE’s could have come from HD, or maybe even CREE. I do think CREE is no longer in the consumer light bulb business. Only going for high end bulbs and fixtures.
I got a little more information on this deal.
Apparently, it has been going on in CT for the last couple of weeks. Most stores in CT are out of stock.
However it has just started in MA and RI a couple of days ago. I revisited a few of the stores I went to a couple of days ago, and they are constantly refilling the displays. One manager told me that a second truckload was delivered to his store that morning! So it sounds like each store is getting thousands of bulbs each!
A curious thing happened at one store. While I was at the display loading up, another gentleman walked up and started checking out a CREE bulb. I mentioned to him that this was a heck of a deal, free bulbs.
To that he exclaimed “the CREE’s are 2700K, that’s too orange for me! I prefer 3000K”
I was dumbfounded, and a little hurt that he faulted the deal I found. I was a little short with him and said
“So what are you, a tint snob?”
He told me no, I just like a whiter light. Then he showed me his EDC, an AAA light that had a purplish beam. He knew it was and told me so.
By now I was very intrigued by his reaction, so to “test” him I asked him what do you suppose the surface temperature of the Sun is? He thought for a little bit and answered “probably around 5000K”
Now this was just too much for me. Here was an individual who was knowledgeable about lighting, carried an EDC, yet was completely disinterested in FREE light bulbs!
What a nut he was I thought!
Anyway, after he walked away, I tried to “evangelize” a couple of other customers, telling them the good news of FREE light bulbs. One guy bought just 1. I told him that if he bought just one it would cost him 99 cents, but 10 would be FREE.
He bought 1.
Elsewhere in the store I found another set of “FREE” bulbs, the GREENLITES. Turns out their color is 3000K
When I saw that, I looked up, looking for the first guy, the tint snob. He was over at the registers, in line waiting to check out. I showed him the GREENLITE package, but he still resisted the free bulbs.
Has the whole world gone crazy
In all, with the different stores I went to, gathering as many bulbs as I could,
I could NOT interest ONE person in the good news of FREE bulbs.
It would seen the whole world is headed for darkness, and I am the only one who sees the light :innocent:
Excellent deal, too bad OSJL isn’t in Maine. Home Despot has specials on LED bulbs as part of an ‘Efficiency Maine’ rebate program. All Phillips, Cree and GreenLight bulbs were 99 cents. Local HD sold out in less than two days. Now waiting for the next round of rebates.
Thanks for the info…since my country is 220vac, I am concerned about that ‘dimmable’ description…perhaps it means dimmable from 110vac only, then downward.
Led light bulbs are currently expensive here, not justifiable to switch to them from Cfl.
That is indeed strange, though perhaps they were too engrossed in their own business? Still that seems weird, people read free in a flyer or paper they line up
If it had been me you told my first question would have been how many can i take!
I could believe HD is dumping them if these are anything like my finned 100W Cree bulbs. I’ve had many fail, with another one failing 3 days ago. I have two more left. For warranty purposes, I should have bought them individually so I could have separate receipts. The only other bulbs I’ve had fail were G7 BR30’s, and that was a mechanical rather than electrical failure that’s easy to fix.
I’d buy Cree bulbs at 99 cents each. It’d probably be a decent value even if they keep failing on me, and even if it wasn’t, I’d find a way to recycle the emitters.
Today is March 4, 10 days after the start of this thread.
I am traveling through Massachusetts and Rhode Island today and 100% of the Ocean State Job Lot stores I have stopped in have had plenty of stock of “Crazy Deal” lightbulbs.
Today is March 28. Yesterday I was in the Sturbridge, MA store and they still had lots of these bulbs for sale. Same Crazy Deal!
Elsewhere in the same store, lots and lots of bulbs.
Today is April 12th and this bulb deal is still on in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Today I was in Westfield, MA and stopped in an OSJL. They are still replenishing stock after all this time. This deal has been going on now for months, the chain must have bought all CREE had.
I took this pic today, April 12th
This time I loaded up on Daylight 60W equivalents.
After I bought 40 more bulbs, 10 bulb limit but I did several different transactions, I went back into the store to see what other deals they had and came across this.
I already knew about the $15 LED shop lights and I was actually intending to buy more.
But this time there was something new, MaxLite 100W equivalent 2700K light bulbs. And they were only 99 cents. That is by far the cheapest straight up price for a 1600 Lumen bulb I have ever seen.
There is also another CRAZY DEAL on GreenLite bulbs, buy 12 at 99 cents each and get $11.88 back in a gift card
And a straight up price on an LED ceiling fixture or an outdoor light, each for $6.99
So what I did after buying 40 more CREE’s is buy 3 LED shop lights and 12 of the 100W equivalents.
These are not CRAZY DEALS, but I can use CD gift cards to buy them.
To the left is 1 of 4 receipts buying 10 CREE’s and getting a $9.90 gift card back.
To the right is my receipt for buying 3 LED shop lights at $14.99 each and 12 of the 100W equivalents at 99 cents each. the bottom of the receipt shows that I used CD gift cards to pay for them
If anyone lives near an OSJL in MA or RI, there is still time to get in on this!!!
Today, May 12th, 2017, I was in Massachusetts and went to 2 different OSJL stores. Both had CREE and Greenlite bulbs, still on the Crazy Deal. I picked up 50 more bulbs, got the $50 worth of gift cards and used gift cards from previous deals to buy 8 more of the LED shop lights.
There aren’t too many of the LED shop lights left in stores, from inventory only about 120 spread out over the 100+ stores in the chain. Only the stores closest to the warehouse in Rhode Island have any chance for stock.
Better chance of finding the individual bulbs on Crazy Deal in all stores in MA and RI, even at this late date.
