i bought a $1300 matress for $400 a year ago. found a store that sells matresses that got a mark or two on them when being shipped, he gets them on the cheap and sells for half price or less.

 

duxiana is king. try it, you'll love it. (but hate the price... ~$11k for a midrange king)

 

Pillowtop FTMFW! I sleep better on my pillowtop than I've ever slept before anywhere.

 

On the advice of our local matress store owner/s2ki member mentioned earlier, I bought a "fiberbed" that tops my mattress. Like sleeping on a cloud but with support where it's needed because the firmer matress does its job from underneath.

Cost $150+ for the topper and was worth every penny. It comes in feather-bed form as well, but I didn't want to risk being poked and scratched by down feather quills over time.

 

There are mattress places that sell name brand (simmons, sealys, sertas etc) for half the price. $500 should get you a queen (name brand) with box spring.

 

Sears is a great place to shop pricing on mattresses. I got a great deal on a sealy posturepedic I forgot which model. If you go during certain sales the deals get even better. I got free delivery, free base, and like a 15% rebate using a sears card. It was like $950 for a nice pillow top queen. I hated going to all these mattress stores and being quoted 2k for something that was half the price at sears. the haggling just drove me nuts. One guy cut his price like 4 times in the span of 10 minutes. Started at 2400, then to 2k, then to 1.5k, then to FINAL PRICE of 1.3k WITH FREE SHIPPING. I walked out I was so disgusted.