It would have been free if it weren't for the $30 upgrade fee and the $5 taxes.
I got an instant $150 off that really brought the price down. It was from a mailer I got to entice me to upgrade to a 4G phone (and renew a contract). I have had an upgrade available since like November or longer. I've been waiting for a phone I felt worthy of blowing the upgrade. When I called I asked and verified that I could use it over the phone and they said yeah. I wasn't going to pre-order it yet if it didn't count, I would have just bought it when it came out or possibly even waited until I heard about a Note variant for Verizon. So it worked on getting me to renew sooner, at least.
I technically had to pay $85, but they assured me that I would be getting the $50 loyalty rebate taken off my next bill. I actually didn't even know this existed until they told me. Very helpful reps.
So yeah, pretty badass.