TouchPad Fire Sale Deals: 5 Sites for Deal Hunters to Bookmark

Snagging a discounted HP TouchPad has become something of a contact sport, as bargain hunters scramble to grab the discontinued slate for as much as 80 percent off. The tablets are flying off physical and online retail shelves, with only the quickest shoppers able to grab one. Waiting lists abound, and a number of retailers have started cancelling orders after discovering they had oversold their inventory.

[Related: Can't Snag a $99 HP TouchPad? Here Are 5 Alternatives]

I was one of the unlucky many who Barnes and Noble reneged on this week, but my quest for a fire sale tablet is far from over. Many outlets have yet to drop their prices on the TouchPad, while others are taking a see-saw approach, just briefly lowering the price.

Here are a few more sites to bookmark and keep an eye on to help you in your hunt for the now-mythical closeout tab.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon’s US site has yet to drop its price on the TouchPad. But when it does, the tablets will quickly go. The company’s UK site is on a different continent, which means different warehouses and possibly better odds.

TigerDirect.com

Some folks on forums claim to have grabbed a $99 TouchPad from this discount retailer. The price currently says $399, but apparently it has been ping-ponging up and down. One rumor was that registering for an account on the site then drops the price, but that hasn't been the case for me.

HP Home and Home Office

Currently sold out, but word is that HP has another batch sitting in a warehouse somewhere that it will be making available soon.

Priceblink.com

This retail aggregator brings up a list of prices at a large number of outlets. It seems to update quicker than others like Google Shopping. It also comes as an extension for browsers like Chrome so you can install the extension and it will automatically keeps an eye on prices at the big name places for you.

Forums

There seems to be thousands of people who have spent most of the last week online searching for a cheap TouchPad and reporting back to one of two forums. I'd never heard of Hot UK Deals or Slick Deals before this week, but apparently it's where the big bargain hunters hang out. Keep an eye on the TouchPad threads to find out what sites have just dropped their price and then try to beat the rush to their servers. Good luck!

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TouchPad Backlash: Retailers Say 'Sorry' For Order Errors

Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and Best Buy are facing a backlash from wannabe HP TouchPad buyers after each of the retailers oversold their supplies of the WebOS-based tablets. B&N is facing the brunt of angry customers with many disgruntled TouchPad bargain hunters taking to social networks to speak their mind.

Troubles began when Amazon.com, B&N, and Best Buy offered the discontinued $99 HP tablet on Monday and sold out their stock in record time. B&N sold all its TouchPad inventory and, inventory it mistakenly believed it had, in under an hour, according to reports. It was then forced to send out e-mails to many of the customers who’d bought a TouchPad and informed them their order hadn’t been processed.

B&N's customer service department explained in a e-mail: "Due to unexpected customer demand for this item, our inventory was depleted prior to your order being processed so we are unable to fulfill this item as requested." B&N continued to explain orders were canceled and that credit cards would not be charged.

It didn't take long before users complained on Twitter about the goof. “Thought I had a deal for HP Touchpad,” said Twitter user mal1981. “Got proof of payment and then cancellation from #barnesandnoble. Should have known! Don't trust them!” Users have even created an online petition to protest B&N.

Best Buy declined to comment on the story and B&N did not return multiple inquiries to discuss the matter.

Best Buy and Amazon (through its Onsale sub-site) were also forced to cancel orders and face similar backlashes from customers. Angry customers also flocked to social networks to share publicly their outrage. Grumpy customers complained bitterly about Best Buy and Amazon giving them the equivalent of a Bronx Cheer online.

Determined TouchPad shoppers were likely ticked-off since by the time most customers were notified their order was cancelled many Web and brick-and-mortar stores were out of stock.

Both B&N, through its e-mail to customers, and Amazon, through a comment on its site, have reiterated they are sorry and that customers will not be charged even if their credit cards may show an authorization for the order.

So customers who missed out can go ahead and try their luck with other retailers. If you still want to grab a touchpad we’ve got a list of 5 great sites to take a look at for last minute TouchPad fire sale deals.

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Get Android Running on a TouchPad, Win Up To $1500 in Prizes

A bounty as high as $1500 is up for grabs to the first person to get Android running on HP's ill-fated TouchPad. Details of the contest were posted to the site Hack n Mod following a weekend of TouchPad price cuts and a rush by shoppers to snap up the tablet for as little as $99. As you many expect, following the seemingly sharp increase in the TouchPad's installed base, it wasn't surprising to see the hacking community get behind the abandoned device.

A similar effort to install the Android OS onto the HP tablet is underway by a group called TouchDroid. The TouchDroid team revealed plans to get the Gingerbread version of Android working on HP's 9.7-inch tablet Monday.

Unlike TouchDroid, the Hack n Mod offer includes cash prizes as an incentive. Hack n Mob will reward $450 to first person to port Android to the TouchPad. It pays $350 more if you can get Android Wi-Fi support to work on the TouchPad, $300 more for audio support, $300 if you can get the camera to work, and $100 for multi-touch support. See the Hack n Mod site for complete details.

If you have grabbed a TouchPad, will you be looking to put Android on it? Let us know in the comments.

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A TouchPad for $49? Maybe If You're Rick Astley

With geeks still scrambling to get their hands on the last of Hewlett-Packard's US$99 TouchPads, a $49 deal just seems too good to be true.

And, as the thousand or so people who tried to buy cheap TouchPads on an HP look-alike website Tuesday learned, one should steer clear of things that seem too good to be true.

The prank site -- registered Tuesday as Hewlett-packard.org.uk -- looks legitimate. In fact, many of the links on the site go to real HP addresses.

But anyone who tries to buy the $49 TouchPad gets Rickrolled. It's a popular type of Internet prank where the victim clicks on a seemingly irresistible link -- a $49 TouchPad, or a sneak copy of a Kim Kardashian wedding video -- and ends up instead sitting through a YouTube clip of schmaltzy soul singer Rick Astley singing his 1987 hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up."

Clicking on the TouchPad's "Add to Cart" button brings up the Rick Astley video and the line, "srry no hp touchpad! looooool," along with a running count of how many people have been fooled (925 as this article was completed).

The prank website is registered by Phillip Sullivan of Los Angeles. Sullivan could not be reached Tuesday, and it's unclear whether the name is a pseudonym.

Corporations typically register domain names, even if they don't intend to use them, but in this case, the prankster was able to register a believable-looking domain, hewlett-packard.org.uk, that HP hadn't managed to snatch up.

The site could have been used for something much worse than a harmless prank, according to the Social-Engineering.org website, which first blogged about the prank HP site on Tuesday. "If this were actually a malicious scammer how many people would have clicked?" Social-Engineering.org wrote on its blog. "How many would have inserted credit card info?"

This isn't the first phoney TouchPad site to pop up. Yesterday HP warned about another fake TouchPad site, called Hptouchpadsale.com. "IT IS FAKE!! Do not buy from there," HP spokeswoman Bryna Corcoran said in a Twitter message.

Last week, HP announced it was killing off its iPad competitor due to poor sales. But when it slashed retail prices to $99 it transformed the TouchPad from a flop to a hot item. The TouchPad initially sold for $499.

Most U.S. retailers sold out of the devices quickly when the sale began Saturday, but people are still trying to find them online.

Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com

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