Free Republic

(Not an ad. I just got 50 masks for $14.) I'm a free shipping junkie, I might be able to get a better deal for with-shipping, but I'm not a sharpie. Amazon is a monopoly. (What's wrong with that? "Economy of scale", but it just benefits the Behemoth, eventually prices rise.) Most people don't think of looking anywhere else. I only accidentally used NewEgg because they had something I wanted, a specific phone battery, that Amazon didn't have. The only little downside was, you have to search around for tracking, otherwise, it was free shipping, my stuff arrived reasonably quick,...

Samsung's got some new friends in its legal battle against Apple -- including farmers, African American small businesses and an electronics retailer. Legal experts, nonprofit organizations and technology companies have filed amicus or "friend of the court" briefs in support of Samsung, urging the US Supreme Court to consider the patent-infringement case. They want the nation's highest court to better define design patents and limit the damages that can be awarded. And they're using Apple v. Samsung as the case that hopefully gets the federal government to enact patent reforms, preventing so-called patent trolls from cashing in on intellectual property....

Newegg, the online electronics retailer worth at least $2bn in annual revenue, has tweeted yet another hint that it will begin accepting bitcoin payments in the near future. The California-based company posted this teaser today: "Still waiting for an update, but will let you all know as soon as we receive word! RT @TheIanMerrill: @Newegg do you take #bitcoin yet?" There has been much online speculation over the past month as to what Newegg might be planning. A company of this size accepting bitcoin would be one of the biggest gestures toward mainstream bitcoin acceptance yet.

On Friday, two sites reported that online e-tailer Newegg seemed to be inadvertently shipping out counterfeit Intel CPUs to punters. A storm of letters from my learned fiends has ensued.HardOCP reported that one of its forum members, a Vincent Waller from Oregon, had had the misfortune of unboxing his Core i7-920 only to discover it was a rather horrid fake. Waller took pictures and posted them on the forum. HardOCP reposted the photos in an article. From the outside, the box looked completely legitimate, it was only when Waller got to the inside that, he said,  things started to look...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Internet retailer Newegg Inc. plans an initial public offering of stock worth up to $175 million, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission on Monday. City of Industry, Calif.-based Newegg focuses on sales of electronics, hardware and software to consumers and small businesses. The company did not specify the timing of its IPO, on which market it intends to float its shares or its intended ticker symbol. Newegg said it plans to use the IPO proceeds to repay debt and for general corporate purposes, while using $25 million to expand in Canada and...