With the death of HD DVD we saw a sudden spike in all things Blu-ray now that Sony holds the reigns to our HD video disc future.  Thankfully, it seems that there might be an alternative option for those of you willing to take a returned Blu-ray player.  At a local retailer next to a Costco, the Sony Blu-ray Player BDP-S301 is down to a much more affordable $229.95 price tag and we welcome the price drop.  Apparently this local retailer picks up stock from Costco that is either unsold or returned merchandise, but from what we saw nearly all of the items maintained original factory seal.  We are on a quest here at Cellfanatic to find some quality sub-$200 Blu-ray players before we finally commit to a standalone drive and let the Ps3 stick to the video games.  Although this might be hard with the upcoming firmware update to the PS3 which will improve Divx playback and enable the online interactive portion of Blu-ray discs.  In the meantime, has anyone else out there seen any really hot deals on Sony Blu-ray players?