Best Buy feels bad. Their sales associates conned you into buying an HD DVD player will full knowledge that the format was doomed. To make it up to their customers, Best Buy is offering a little something special to everyone affected. If you bought an HD DVD player from Best Buy before February 23rd, you are eligible for a free $50 gift card.

This gift card will not expire and it can be spend on anything in the store. Go ahead and hit up the video game department, putting that $50 toward the purchase of a Blu-ray loving PlayStation 3. Alternatively, you can hit up the movie department and unload on all those HD DVD movies in the clearance bin. The choice is totally yours.

I’d imagine that this promotion will cost Best Buy quite the pretty penny, but that’s the price of doing business, especially when competitor Circuit City is doing something similar. Full details about the $50 gift card can be found here.