I don't consider what I got a waste of my time. I bought 32 games and paid a total of about $167 with tax. I got $210 in rebates, which may or may not be in CompUSA giftcards. They don't really say, not that I care much either way. Sure many of the games are total crap most likely, but when they are paying me to take them, maybe I will find a gem in there. Plus I got some I've wanted to try like Freedom Fighters and Wrath Unleashed and some more I liked but already own and can give as gifts such as Gladius and Brotherhood of Steel.
But like I said I went to 4 CompUSAs total and only 1 of them had anything worthwhile. The other 3 had nothing marked down below 9.99 and the stuff that was 9.99 was total garbage anyway. Most of the halfway decent stuff was still in the 14.99-19.99 range. Also as far as I can tell there is no way to tell what is on rebate until the receipts print out. I didn't even know there WERE rebates until my first bunch of purchases when they all started printing out at the register.
All the ones I bought had big white stickers right smack in the middle of the box saying "Video Game Blowout $4.88" and then a UPC# SKU# and 12/9/2004 on it. They even restocked since my initial visit was last Sunday and when I went back again this past Saturday they had some games they didn't have the first time. Other CompUSAs I went to had lots of "Manager's Special" stickered stuff but nothing worth getting.
I can tell you that in my second wave of purchases the following had $10 mail in rebates (my first wave was already sent in so I no longer have the forms):
Fugitive Hunter, Gladiator, Shadowman 2, Hidden Invasion, Blowout, P.N. 03, Xfiles, Drake, Chaos Legion, NHL Hitz 2003, The Two Towers (GBA).