A tipster informed us about the mysterious CircuitCity.com message a week ago, and it seems that the brand might indeed be resurrected. Systemax, of TigerDirect and CompUSA fame, is interested in purchasing Circuit City’s brand name and website for $6.5 million. There is a chance for other potential bidders to submit offers until May 11. Systemax has done an alright job of raising CompUSA from the burning ashes that was the bankrupt brand, but it will be interesting to watch what happens with Circuit City.

It seemed that Circuit City, who was once the US’s largest electronic retailer behind Best Buy, went down in a much more public way than CompUSA by closing 567-ish stores and laying off 34,000 people. Still, it doesn’t take that much overhead to run a website and at least improving a damaged brand is somewhat easier than creating a new one from scratch. There might be someone out there that doesn’t know that Circuit City is gone.

The above picture pretty much explains it all. CompUSA is clearing everything out and here’s your chance to cash in. It’s only the 720p player but when you factor in the seven movies it’s not too bad a deal at $90. But you want the 1080p player don’t you? Yeah, I thought so. There’s even a deal on a 1080p Vizio. Check it out after the jump.

Thanks for sending this in Alex C.

Folks,

Toshiba lost the war… but their pain is your gain!

We have an incredible deal for you. Did you know this HD-DVD player is also an incredible up-convert DVD player? This will usually run you around $79.99, but we’re giving you an HD-DVD player for $89.99 with 7-FREE HD-DVD movies (2 in the box, and 5 by mail) a $140.00 value, FREE! This offer ends Feb 28th, so don’t delay!

How did we get such a low price?

Sony and Toshiba have been battling over two high-definition formats. Blu-Ray (from Sony) and HD-DVD (from Toshiba). This week Toshiba announced they will stop producing the HD-DVD format and will work on the next generation device. As soon as we heard, we fought hard to get a new low price for you. We succeeded: You get the HD-DVD player, 7 Free HD-DVD Movies (worth $140), and the up-convert capability for just $89.99.

Look, all of us have traditional standard format DVD movies. This HD-DVD player not only plays HD-DVD movies, but it also upconverts standard DVD movies to the HD signal. What does upconvert mean? It takes the standard definition signal and converts it into a high definition signal. While it’s no comparison for a true HD-DVD, the upconversion process dramatically increases the quality of your old standard definition movies.

NOTE: Upconverting DVD players sell for around $79. I’m offering you an HD-DVD player, with built-in upconversion, and 7 FREE* movies (worth $140) for just $89. Heck, it’s like paying nearly 50% for the movies and getting a free HD-DVD player.

Look, Toshiba has discontinued this item and will not make any more. Once we sellout of these, they’re gone. This is a once in a decade event that just occurred. If you’ve been shopping for and HD-DVD player or an upconverting DVD player, this is the deal to get. But only if you hurry.

Regards,

CompUSA.com

So your neighborhood computer superstore is going away, huh? You know, some say that after we die a quick and tragic death, our soul lingers around if it’s not quite ready to cross over to the next plane of existence. So you may very well catch a hint of CompUSA the next time you’re in Micro Center or even Best Buy. Maybe a delicate whiff of register ink or a deeply discounted printer cable — whatever the case may be, you’ll get little reminders that hey, CompUSA may not be here in our physical world any more, but it’ll always be around.

Anyhoo, here’s some info about what’s happening with the closings. Basically, if you have an extended warranty, it’ll still be covered by a company called Assurant Solutions, gift cards should be used as soon as possible and won’t be exchanged for cash or credit, and no new rain checks will be issued but those previously issued will be honored.

Furthermore, all CompUSA rebates issued before December 12th will be honored and all manufacturer rebates will be honored regardless of their date of issue since they’re handled directly by the manufacturers themselves. All sales after December 12th are considered final and CompUSA will be honoring the current ad’s prices until the end of the day today. Finally, all products that have been brought in for servicing in the tech shop will be fixed and returned to their rightful owners.

And as someone who used to work in the tech shop at CompUSA, I can tell you that some of those techs are overworked and underpaid and I hope they find great jobs. It’s thankless work sometimes but it’s great experience if you like working on computers. I always told anybody who wanted to run their own in-home computer support business to go work in the tech shop at CompUSA for six months and you’d see all there is to see.

So now my hat is off to all the CompUSA employees who have worked so hard for so long. I know it’s a tough company to work for sometimes but I personally made some great friends there and I think (hope) I can speak for everyone here when I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

CompUSA Consumer Help [Compusaconsumerhelp.com] via Crave

Dallas-based CompUSA said on Friday that active discussions are underway to sell its technical services business, CompUSA TechPro, its online sales operation, CompUSA.com, and select stores in key markets.

The chain’s 103 retail stores will remain open and staffed during the holiday season, offering discounts on computer and electronics ahead of the planned store closures.

UPDATE 1-Gordon Brothers buys CompUSA, will close stores [Reuters]

Looks like CompUSA has been selling the 80GB Zune 2 for some time now and for $1,113.07! It’s probably a typo and I doubt that people would spend that much money on a Zune, but it’s pretty funny when retailers make such bloopers. They’re sold out online so who knows.

It’s not a typo. CompUSA will sometimes put the release date as the price in items that haven’t gone live yet. 11-13-07.

ChrisK, FTW!

Thanks for the tip, Osa

CompUSA

(New York, New York – September 27, 2007) –Novint Technologies, Inc. (NVNT), the pioneer of 3D touch for consumer computing announces that the award winning Novint Falcon game controller will be available at CompUSA stores nationwide beginning the week of October 8th, 2007. The Falcon is a first-of-a-kind 3D interface that makes virtual objects, environments and actions feel real. Using the Falcon, which is in essence a small robot, players feel texture, shape, weight, dimension, dynamics, 3D motion, and force effects when playing touch-enabled games. All CompUSA stores will feature an in-store demonstration unit that will let customers experience Novint’s touch-enabled games firsthand.

“We’re pleased to be the first national retailer to make this innovative game controller available to consumers,” said Paul Ewert, Executive Vice President and General Merchandising Manager for CompUSA. “The Falcon brings a new level of interactivity to PC gaming that will appeal to CompUSA’s tech enthusiast customers.”

“This is a tremendous milestone for us,” said Novint CEO, Tom Anderson. “CompUSA has demonstrated their commitment to bring outstanding new technology to their customers which makes their stores a perfect venue for our products. This will give many people the chance to try and buy a Falcon locally.”

Prior to the nationwide rollout, the Falcon Swoop Tour, which is travelling the country introducing people to Novint’s products, will visit CompUSA’s Mt. Laurel, New Jersey store, offering its customers one of the first opportunities to purchase the new game controller. The Swoop Tour will also make stops at other CompUSA stores. Please visit the tour website (www.swooptour.com) for specific dates and locations.

The exclusive Limited Edition Novint Falcon Bundle, available for$239 MSRP, includes Newton’s Monkey Business™, with 24 fun and diverse minigames, and the Feelin’ It™: Sports Pack, which includes full versions of bowling, table tennis, golf and practice versions of basketball and baseball. Additional games, including free drivers for the Half-Life 2® mod Haptics-Life 2, are available for download through N VeNT™, Novint’s exclusive interface for games, information, software updates, unique content, and community.