Show of hands: Who remembers the year I ended up buying us a new HDTV because I bought my husband a Blu-ray player and then realized it wasn’t going to work with our old TV? That was… not my best year of planning. Ahem.

I ended up with a decent deal on a Panasonic VIERA and we love it, but pardon me if I’m just slightly bitter that this 50″ 1080p Panasonic VIERA at Amazon is just $600—that’s $100 less than I spent years ago on a set with lesser specs. Hmph. And it’s hard to overestimate the free shipping and lack of tax (for most of us; I know some folks still have to pay tax).

Probably you shouldn’t buy one on a whim like I pretty much ended up doing, but if you’re in the market, you could do a lot worse.