That's right, you can buy a 42" Philips LCD with loose change. 

 It took about a year or so for the change jar to reach that level of money. Rewards checks from credit cards were also added to the total. It came to $1200.

Now that's not quite enough money to buy a name-brand 42" LCD, at least not from a brick and mortar store. But it is enough when shopping from internet superstores. The best deals I found were from Amazon and Buy.com. Note that Amazon is always my starting point. I use it for reviews, selection, and pricing. Amazon's price for the unit was cheaper than Buy.com's, however shipping was $100 more through Amazon and I was eligible for $30 off my purchase with Buy.com if I used their credit card.

So I went with Buy.com. It took about a week and a half to receive the tv. One detail I missed out on was that Buy.com has only a 3 day price guarantee and I didn't get around to submitting a price reduction request until about day 5 or 6, so I was too late. It would have been an additional $80 off or something like that (recall that Amazon's price for the item was actually cheaper than Buy.com's, it was only when you factored in the other costs that Buy.com came out a better deal). 

I'm pleased with the purchase, made all the more satisfying because I can always say that it was bought and paid for by loose change.

NOTES: We went with an LCD instead of a plasma exclusively because we have a sunny living area where the TV is located. Plasma tv's have a glass covering, which creates glare. LCDs do not have a glass covering and do not produce glare. I did not base my decision on the "burn-in" issue that gets tossed around for plasmas. I'm not convinced that is a current issue with modern plasma technology.

I recommend the Philip's model for the following reasons:

It's a name brand.

It has a USB port capable of reading JPG files ( for a photo slideshow) and MP3 files (for a jukebox). So I'm setting up a big external hard-drive to take advantage of that feature. It really is a great feature. 

I go through Dish Network currently. Note that there's a one-time setup fee of $100 dollars to get HTDV programming and currently an 18 months contract. Only 35 or so stations have it. Not exactly consumer-friendly.

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