As stated in previous post,I paid $750.00 for our first Dish setup. I am by no means rich. What I did as I had done for many years was to take our federal income tax return and apply that money to something the whole family could enjoy. It was 1997 or 1998 when I made the purchase. Called Dish/Echostar direct and paid for a Dish setup(receiver,dish,install kit). Our upgrades came when receivers died or when I purchased additional receivers locally at Sears.One would have to go back to pre 1999 to not have had at least the old full-rebate offer. That will be nearly 14 years ago. Sorry, but the vast number of current subs did get the FREEBIE deals from the time Dish was just over 1 million subs, only the wealthy who had the $500 plus to buy the system between 1996 and 1999 may have a weak point, but they can afford to do what they want anyways, being rich as they are.