I'll give you shoppers hunting for this cdr a tip. Call to check stock!
When I 1st read this deal, I casually checked the Office Depots in Southern Los Angeles area by just running over to the cdr section and looking. I also tried to look for a Yamaha price sticker on the shelf. After 4 or 5 stores, I found nothing. Then when justin44 posted of an available drive 35 miles away in Orange County, I tried to call the Office Depots on the drive there. I didn't consider calling before since I was smitten by the 'wonderful' telephone manners by Office Max, but OD's employees seem to be far more helpful and professional. I confirmed stock at an OD closer at Cerritos (they had 2 in stock), drove there and didn't see it in the cdr section. So I asked one of the employees and luckily was the same employeee I talked to on the phone. Very friendly, professional, rang my Yammy up and I was out of there in 2 mins.
I am upgrading from a previous model, Yamaha 3200E bought for $60 AR from OD last year to this drive and am happy with it. I didn't realize until now that Audio Master Quality on the 3200E didn't support 80min CDs. This F1 also doesn't always have it's LED lit blue continuously like the 3200E which is always lit even without a disc in the drive. I've previously purchased two Lite-on cdrs 48125W ($30 AR) and 52246S ($10 AR) and although this F1 is almost twice as much than both Lite-on's combined, the difference is small enough for me for the peace of mind for a luxury quality drive even if Yamaha has left the business. My next option was a Plextor Preimuim for twice the price of this Yamaha.
I hope Lite-on sees this opportunity to release drives with quality write features to compete and undercut Plextor so that Plextor will lower it's prcies. Then we all win.