Universal Remote & eBay

I also got a great universal remote recently. It’s called the MX-500, and I’m not sure who makes it, but it retails for $140 (and Amazons for $85) but I got it used for $45 on eBay. Just got it in the mail yesterday, and though the manual isn’t well thought out, it’s finally all programmed. Anyhow the cool thing about this remote is that you just point your other remote at it, and it “learns” the infrared codes that the other remote is sending out. So even if your components aren’t in the “pre-programmed” memory, it can do anything that your other remotes do. (Except the Dish Network remote - for some reason they decided to use UHF instead of infrared?! WTF?)

Anyhow it has replaced 6 other remotes, including the TiVo remote (though the TiVo remote is actually the best form-factor remote ever, so that might stay on the coffeetable). I highly recommend it!

Another note about eBay: here are some coupon codes you can use if you pay with Paypal:

C1-Holiday2005 [10% off]
C2-Holiday2005 [$5 off $50]
C1-Holiday2005 [$15 off $100]

They expire 11/30.

I'm still upset at (OK, jealous of) eBay for making so much money for doing basically nothing while everyone else does all the work (packing, shipping, etc), but you do find some good discounts on there. And even though they took $18.95 when I sold my telescope for $595, I guess I would never have gotten that much anywhere else. >Sigh<