Five dirt-cheap tech gifts for the holidays

A Bluetooth headset for just 10 bucks? Let's see your secret Santa beat that!

(Credit: Office Depot)

Two-week warning, folks. That's how long you've got left until the fat man sings. (Chanukah-celebrators have even less time.) If you're still shopping for stocking stuffers, secret-Santa gifts, fifth-night-of-Chanukah trinkets, or whatever, look no further: I've got five guaranteed-to-please gift ideas:

• Buy.com has four HP-branded 4GB USB drives for $29.99 shipped (after a $10 mail-in rebate). That works out to about $7.50 per drive. Knock out four stockings with one purchase!
• Buy.com also has a refurbished 4GB SanDisk Sansa e260 media player for $37.99 shipped, though you must pay with PayPal to get that price.
• Office Depot has a no-brand (but well-reviewed) Bluetooth headset for $9.99.
• Staples has Skullcandy's Ink'd Earbuds for $9.99 (after a $1 instant coupon). These noise-isolating in-ear 'phones are available in a variety of colors.
• For the shutterbug in your life, Amazon has the Joby Gorillapod GP1 flexible tripod for $21.95. It's available in several colors.

Of course, there's always the old-standby Starbucks gift card (which includes Internet access, and therefore qualifies as a tech gift, wink-wink). I sure do love those, yes I do. Say, have you thought about what to get your favorite blogger this year? (Shameful, Rick, just shameful...)

[Perry_Clease]

"Of course, there's always the old-standby Starbucks gift card (which includes Internet access, and therefore qualifies as a tech gift, wink-wink). I sure do love those, yes I do. "

Also iTunes gift cards. On Black Friday there was $5 off (with a coupon) for a $25 iTunes card at Long's Drugs

[djumblatt]

if you go through Joby's website (http://www.joby.com/) directly they will sent you a $5 coupon for your purchase if you are a new customer.
I did that and with free Fed_Ex shipping I got myself a nice Gorillapod for $16.95. Just an FYI

[Jimlex]

Sweet! I just grabbed up two of those SkullCandy earbuds. Now I've got my Secret Santa gifts!

[perfectfire]

Well reviewed? It only has one review.

[abundantsnotbob]

Dirt cheap? Those are some good deals, but I asked them and I wasn't allowed to pay with dirt. Oh well. I might buy the flash drives if I needed them. btw thanx for showing where the good deals are. Merry Christmas.

[JRockDetroit1]

I have been grabbing a bunch of items off of buy.com the past few days as well.

This 1gb Sandisk Flash drive for $5.99 (free Shipping, before %5 coupon code). Personally, I bought it for use with my lowly Dell 530S in ReadyBoost. It raised the Windows Experience Score a whole point!

http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-1gb-cruzer-pattern-usb-flash-drive-sandisk-1gb-cruzer-pattern/q/loc/101/207935939.html

The Jabra BT2040 Bluetooth headset for $8.99 (free shipping, before %5 coupon code). Not a big fan of headsets but this is something I can use while my Q9C is charging.

http://www.buy.com/prod/jabra-bluetooth-headset-ear-bud-over-the-ear-bt2040-gn-jabra-bt2040/q/loc/101/205708698.html

Also grabbed a ~$15 Pink Sansa Express for a coworker in our secret santa dealio. Buy.com is beginning to be a daily stop for me right after the Cheapskate and Engadget! Thanks Rick.

[rickbroida]

I'm glad you said *after* the Cheapskate. ;)

[jamestracy]

Warning: Do not buy the refurbished Sansa e260 (or any refurb). I purchased this player back in August and thought it was great for a month until it gave up the ghost. Buy.com refused to offer a replacement or even repair because it was past their 14 day return policy. Sansa was only willing to do phone help by trouble shooting the software but that was it. Sansa wouldn't not even allow me to send it in for repair. I read all the glowing reviews of this player at buy.com and thought I was making a good purchase...wrong! After doing some googling, I found web site after web site of how many problems people have with these Sansa players. Even the Sansa web forum is full of people crying for help because their players don't work. I only purchased this mp3 player over the ipod because it had an FM radio but now I have a $40 paper weight. Buyer beware.

JT

The Gorillapod is cool, but there are a lot cooler tech gifts I'd rather get than these. And there are many better options if the above are what you're after. e.g. You can get a 16GB USB pen drive for $34 at Amazon, which seems better than four 4GB drives you have to do a mailing rebate to get the deal on.

Anyway, there are many other good ideas for tech gifts under 50 at DeGeeked.com: http://www.degeeked.com/answers/detail/top-10-tech-gifts-under-50-for-2008

You can see all their tech gift guides here: http://www.degeeked.com/listing/category/tech-gift-guides