As the beginning of the school year swiftly approaches, we're starting to see the annual uptick in activity including new calculator owners looking for games (and Doors CSE). Since the new, slim TI-84 Plus CE has only been around since this spring, this Back to School season is the first where consumers can buy the calculator. To that end, we've found two ways you can get a TI-84 Plus CE for less than its $129 sticker price:

Target Sale: $90 TI-84 Plus CEs
We discovered that US retailer Target is selling the TI-84 Plus CE for $89.99 plus tax in its stores (and possibly online as well). At least two Cemetechians have purchased the calculator on sale, and reports indicate that only the basic black color is available. However, for 30% off, one can hardly complain! Xx-Target employee and Cemetech administrator Alex "comicIDIOT" Glanville indicates that the sale ends tomorrow, August 1st, so hurry!

TI's "ilyTI" Contest
TI recently announced a new contest, called ilyTI ("I love you, TI"). Slightly self-aggrandizing title aside, the goal of the contest is to create a video or photo of yourself with TI technology, explaining why you love TI Education's calculators. If you submit a 30-second video, you have the opportunity to win a class set of TI-84 Plus CE calculators for your school and a visit from Mayim Bialik, TI's spokeswoman. If you submit a photo, you have the chance to win a TI-84 Plus CE. To enter the contest, you must post your video(s) or photo(s) on Twitter or Instagram, along with the #ilyTIcontest hashtag. Unlike the previous contest, only one submission per day per person is allowed, and no automated (bot/script) entries will be accepted. This contest ends September 18th, 2015, so get cracking on your creative photos or videos.

Good to see activity picking up. I was a little worried late June because from checking the recent posts list here I had the impression that the Summer lull started earlier than normal (although there were still quite a bit of programs being worked on). Also that Target sale, along with the French promotion on TI-Planet, makes me wish I had waited an extra month before buying my TI-84+CE or TI-83 Premium CE. I got mine from Underwood Distributing for $129.99 USD, but with shipping and exchange rate I actually paid close to $200 in Canadian dollar. In comparison, Staples over here sells it for $150 CAD (around $172.50 with taxes), which is $20 lower than I originally anticipated, since the CSE was $160 back when the dollar was still close to parity.

It appears that Amazon sells the TI-83 Premium CE for quite cheap (in France, 79.90 euro, tax and shipping included).

And, well, it does ship internationally, for not much!
- Testing it from Canada yielded (in euro) : 66.66 for the calculator, 13.2 for shipping, 10.15 for additional taxes. Total cost: 90 euro, ≈ 129 CAD, ≈ 99 USD.
- Testing it from the USA (KermM) yielded a total of 90.80 USD, shipping included (!)

Also, I happen to have compiled a list on TI-Planet, of French stores selling the 83PCE, sorted by total costs. Feel free to check if other stores do ship worldwide... (Though Amazon is already among the cheapest ones, so I guess you won't find a better deal)

Anyway, who can resist for such a price?
Have fun with that exact math engine, for a much better price than the 84+CE (when at a standard price, at least).
Note that you'll have to go through the payment process on Amazon in French, but it should be clear enough.

Wow I didn't know that Amazon now shipped calculators internationally. They didn't want to back when I tried with a TI-85.

Anyone know if animated gifs count as photos or videos?

Phew, caught this just in time. Just ordered my first color calculator, should be arriving in the next week or so

Well I was going to enter until I found this little piece of text in the rules : "Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District Of Columbia, Canada (void in Quebec)" and well since I am from Quebec, I am not eligible, however, I have already made a piece of code which I was planning on displaying on my calculator in my picture. I made it using text sprites on my Ti-84 +(This was the third sprite I mentioned but didn't show in one of my most recent posts.) And I'm really happy about how it turned out, decided to just show it to the people of Cemetech instead so here it is

Code:

And here is the result when you run that code...

well, it looks like their nice little sale is over. It lasted until August 4 in my local target store but I went in there today and the 89.99 price tag was removed and it's back to $129.99
http://www.target.com/p/graphing-calculator-texas-instruments-battery-powered-black/-/A-17109657

Thanks for the update, Jeff! In that case, it seems like Staples would be the better option at this point: they have it for $125 before a $15 rebate:
http://www.staples.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-CE-84-Color-Screen-Graphing-Calculator-Silver/product_1558165
Of course, they call it a "TI-SEC84+ Titanium" and a "TI-CE 84", so I'm not sure how much I'd actually trust them.

So, as luck would have it there was another sale this week! However, since I usually do my grocery shopping at the end of the week I didn't catch this sale until Friday evening. My target also has multiple colors! I should also point out that, dependent on your state, this weekend is a Tax Holiday! If your state participates then there's no sales tax! Get this bad-boy (or girl?) for the price advertised/tax-free, where applicable.





Okay. Four. They have four colors.

There is stock in Target shelves now?

Locally at least. Don't forget that if they aren't in the usual Calculator area in Electronics they'll be in Back-to-School/College. Which is where these are, after the season ends most of these will be shipped back as the selection is usually very limited.

Oh I was joking because of how Canadian Target store shelves were always nearly empty, even in their early days. Usually, shelves only contained about 1-3 of each item and they kept the rest in the storage room (if they had anything else in stock there, that is).

But calculator-wise, that's a moot point, because the only graphing calculator that Target Canada ever sold was the FX-9750Gii. I wish that they had sold TI models because they had pretty good deals sometimes in the electronic section.

hey! what's with the dummies book "included inside"? I just bought my TI-84 plus ce at Target and it had no such thing on the package.

It's nothing to be disappointed over. It's basically a 5 page booklet and it should really just be called a "manual." But it's more than likely there because of some agreement between TI & "Dummies Books" to build an association. "Hey, that TI-84CE book was useful, perhaps I'll check out the other Things for Dummies Books!!"

Some stores have "value added" material, and apparently each big store (like Target, Walmart, etc) request a different addition to try to distinguish their version of the packaging. I've been hoping there might be a way to package "Using the TI-84 Plus" (or a short version of it) with the calculator for ages, to no avail.

For what it's worth, I saw that Wal-Mart in Newark, OH was selling the TI-84+CE for $88 - same price as the TI-83+ they had right next to it.

Is it bad that my first reaction is to wonder what the manufacture date on that TI-83 Plus is? Anyway, this is great news, and I'm mildly amused that the WalMart price undercuts that Target price by the slim margin of $2. As much as my personal feelings on WalMart might make me hesitate to suggest it, it looks like those of you who missed getting a TI-84 Plus CE in the Target sale should check out WalMart.

My entry flips the idea that I need to be WITH my calc. Instead, I am ON my calc!

Canadian Staple stores now have the TI-84+CE for $129.99, which is on-par with what Target had in USA when converted to US dollars.