No, I’m not talking about them opening up competing online rentals. This is something way better.

Until December 21st, you can get free movie rentals at Blockbuster stores in exchange for the Netflix mailing labels. You know those top labels you usually throw away? Yeah those. 1 top label = 1 free movie rental. Blockbuster is definitely trying to tout their one and only advantage over Netflix: brick and mortar locations to fix your instant gratification needs.

I drove a Blockbuster 2 miles away to test this out. Chance happens that I just received 3 Netflix movies earlier this week so I still had the flaps. Yay.

They require you to sign up for an in-store membership and provide ID and a credit card. So bring a driver’s license and cc if you aren’t a blockbuster in-store member. My girlfriend is a blockbuster online customer and she still had to sign up for an in-store membership. The membership is free though, just a hassle.

Also, I don’t know if this is the policy at every store, but the name and address on the Netflix flap must match your name and address. So don’t go around asking for them. My girlfriend had her school address on the flaps instead of her home address and explained this to the clerk and didn’t have any trouble at all.

Now here’s the best part. I got 3 movies that were normally 2-day rentals. However, the clerk said they tack on 7 days to the due date so I had a total of 9 days to return what would’ve normally been a 2-day rental.

If you were wondering, I rented Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Hard Candy, and Thank You for Not Smoking.

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This is a follow-up to the post about the Mystery Box of Stuff from Home & Beyond. I got it in the mail today with an interesting twist. I ordered 3 boxes instead of 2. I only recieved 6 items instead of 9. So either: They didn’t send me my full order or I might be getting a “blue box” (read first post to read up on the “blue box”).

Item #1 is the first item in the box that caught my eye. A leopard print Santa Hat! Quality of the hat seems very nice, too bad leopard print isn’t my style.

Item #2 is a iBoost mini. It’s basically a fold-up portable mini speaker system.

Item #3 is one of those button lights that you see in all those informercials on TV. Somewhat useful.

Item #4 is a Spongebob Squarepants holiday porcelain gift set. This is the only item in here that’s probably a valid gift. I know someone who loves Spongebob.

Item #5’s picture came out blurry, but it’s basically a small flashlight. Seems extremely cheap but it claims to be waterproof and have a 10 mile visibility range. I’ll stash this in my car for those times I lose things at night under the seats.

Item #6 is probably the most useless one of them all. It attaches to your belt and swivels open to display an array of bits. Might be more useful for someone that uses tools more regularly. The only handiwork I did this year was change out a old light switch in my room that required only 1 size screwdriver and turning off the circuit breaker.

There you have it folks, those are the 6 items I recieved. Total cost of these 6 items? $15 shipped. The experience was somewhat fun actually.

I’ve been cruising the deal sites lately for the past couple of days for Christmas gifts and I was only interested in buying 1 item. Too many deals just involved electronics and other things I don’t plan on gifting to people. I guess I’m going to have to do my shopping the old fashioned way… at the mall o_O.

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