Industry Turns to Patriotic Themes in Mid-Summer Holiday Promotions

The Fourth of July is yet another opportunity to promote consumer electronics deals, we found in a scan of e-commerce sites Wednesday. Skullcandy used the holiday theme in its “Celebrate Freedom” promotion, which offers free shipping with no minimum purchase requirement through its online store. Free shipping applied to a pair of $14.95 earbuds as well as the $349.95 New York Yankees Mix Master DJ headphones with microphone, the highest priced phones on the site.

World Wide Stereo chose “Let Freedom Rock” as the tagline for its holiday sale that includes 55 percent off Klipsch headphones along with free shipping. World Wide chopped $20 off the list price of the Klipsch Image S3 noise-isolating earphones, bringing them to $29.99, and $50 off the Image One Bluetooth on-ear headphones, shaving them to $199.

Best Buy themed its Independence Day promotion as a “sparkling” four-day sales event highlighted by $30-50 discounts on select Samsung Galaxy tablets. It’s also featuring 25 percent or more off HDTVs, including its homegrown Insignia brand. Shoppers can snare a 19-inch Insignia 720p LED-lit TV for $99 and a similarly configured 32-inch model for $199. LG offers some of the best deals among top-tier brands, lopping $100 off the 32-inch LED-lit 1080p 32LN5300, bringing it to $299, and $430 off the 50-inch 50LN5700, knocking it down to $749.

Plasma TVs continue to represent the best TV deals around. Club Panasonic is holding a “Red, White & Wow” sale with discounts of $300 and free shipping on its flagship Smart Viera VT60 plasma TVs, bringing the 65-inch model to $3,299, the 60-inch model to $2,699 and the 55-inch model to $2,299. Best Buy’s Independence Day sale featured an LG 60-inch 60PN5300 plasma TV for $749 with free shipping. Price comparison site Pricegrabber listed the same plasma model at $820 at P.C. Richard & Son plus $59 shipping and at Dell.com for $849 with free shipping. At hhgregg’s Fourth of July sale, the LG 50-inch 50PA6500 plasma TV is selling for $649, a $250 discount, it said.

Elsewhere at hhgregg’s holiday sale, the LG 39LN5300 39-inch LED-lit TV was cut by $130 to $349, a Samsung Galaxy Note 10-inch 16 GB tablet was shaved by $50 to $499 and a 15-inch HP laptop, with AMD processor, was cut by $120 to $349, we found.

Abt Electronics and Samsung are sweetening the pot for a 46-inch LED-lit 3D TV with a free soundbar in a Fourth of July bundle deal. The UN46F7500AFXZA TV, with a suggested retail price of $2,149, was selling for $1,697 Wednesday, including a $200 instant rebate that ends July 13. The bundle -- including a free 2.1-channel soundbar/subwoofer system with a retail value of $247 -- is available through July 6, according to the deal.