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When the Palm Pre’s availability was officially announced, the price tag of $299 rained on the Pre’s parade.  Not many people are going to be willing to shell out $299 for the Pre, but it does come with a $100 mail-in-rebate.  Of course, the flaw to that is many people will probably forget to send in their rebate and lose out on $100 cashback.  Today, Best Buy announced that they will be retailing the Pre for $299, but at the register, it will come down to $199, as they will take care of the rebate process for you.

In addition, Best Buy Mobile will be selling the Pre for $199 at over 1067 locations, and every customer has the opportunity to leave the store with a functioning Pre all set up for free.  According to Gizmodo, RadioShack is also waiving the rebate form and selling the Pre for $199.  This brings up an interesting dilemma, or so to speak.  If other stores are not going to be waiving the rebate, then what’s stopping customers from buying the Pre at Best Buy or RadioShack?  The only thing I can think of is shortage of supplies, which is already going to be a dilemma, as stated by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. 

If you want to pick up a Pre from either Best Buy or RadioShack, you better plan on staying in line for a long time because the phones in your area will probably not stay in stock for too long.  I imagine many other stores will start to waive the rebate as a way to attract more business.  We’ll let you if anything else changes. 

Read [Best Buy]