I’ve briefly mentioned Entertainment Books here before. For the unfamiliar, this is a book of coupons specific to your area (though some of the coupons are national, such as car rentals or hotel discounts) with a huge variety of savings. Is it worth it? Well, that depends. It depends on your area (does the book for your area feature places you patronize?) and how often you use the services listed (e.g., there are a lot of restaurant coupons; do you eat out?). I can’t tell you if the Entertainment Book is right for you. But it’s worth checking out.
And if you check it out right now, you’ll see that purchase of a 2007 book currently comes with a $25 restaurant gift certificate and $1 shipping. The cost of the books varies by area, but ranges from $25-$45. I’d say that if you’re buying a $25 book this is a great deal, and if you’re buying a $45 book, still a pretty good deal.
Entertainment Books make great gifts for hard-to-buy-for relatives who like to pinch pennies, by the way. Just sayin’.
I see that I can have free shipping but don’t see anything about a $25 restaurant gift certificate.
I don’t see the gift certificate offer either.
?
Hmmm… I edited the link… is it showing the GC offer for you now?
Nope, unless I’m being stupid and staring right at it… But I don’t think so.
We buy the Entertainment book every year simply because my sons’ school sells it as a fundraiser. I wouldn’t buy it otherwise. It is mostly restaurant coupons, and unless you travel a lot around the area your book covers, you probably won’t use many of them. And most of the coupons are of the “buy one burger, fries, and soda, and get one burger (but not the fries and soda) free” variety. I usually see better coupons in my local paper, and I don’t have to buy a $25 book to get them. We probably save about what we spend on it every year. It’s not even a very good fundraiser, in my opinion–the school only earns $5 a book–that’s only a 20 percent return. And around here, it seems as though every school and group sells it, so everyone pretty much just sells it to their relatives.
When we lived in Orlando, we loved the Entertainment book. We were married w/ no kids, and the “buy one get one free” format of most of the coupons worked well for us. Driving to the various locations wasn’t an issue either, as we weren’t in a hurry or paying babysitters when we went out.
The book’s great for forcing you out of your rut and getting you to try new places– lots of the Orlando restaurants were small, family-owned joints that we’d never have noticed without the coupons. We found some really excellent restaurants with it.
And in Orlando, they sell like hotcakes. The schools make TONS of money with them– they also contained coupons for area grocery chains ($5 off $25 or something close to that) that easily covered the cost of the book. I’ve seen tourist websites recommending that week-or-more vacationers buy them because of all the potential savings on a (pricey) Orlando vacation. Plus, there were coupons for Gator Land, mini golf, airboat rides, etc etc etc– lots of non-themepark entertainment.
…So yeah, it was great for us. Now we live in a town of 12,000, and I doubt we’ll ever have one to buy here!
Here they are $10.
Mir:
Maybe it’s just for your area (the gift certificate), and not a general freebie for all?
S.
I swear, I see the deal on the homepage! It must be keyed off a cookie that’s getting geographical data. Hmph.
Yes, you do get the 25.00 gift certificate. It comes up at the end to say that if you register your entertainment book when you get it that you will receive a 25.00 certicate in the welcoming email. There was nothing posted on the site when I went there but I needed to buy the new book anyways and was waiting for free shipping.
HTH
Having been burned by similar schemes like these in the past I was sceptical (shocking… I know) when my wife bought one of these, but thought “fine” because it was for a school fundraiser.
But, sweet bejebus, was I wrong. We got our money’s worth (and then some) out of it, and now I sing its praises to anybody that will listen.
Now with this on top of it? How could I not?
Mir, I just got an email offering me the same deal that you posted….so you aren’t the only one in the bubble 🙂