I spent way too much time researching this, so it would be great if is helped someone else out.
Plasma is less expensive, with better contrast. But, it runs very hot, and uses more power. Most people purchased plasmas early on because LCDs didn’t come that large.
LCD is a little more expensive, but uses less power, won’t burn-in (even though everyone says plasmas do not any more), and has a great picture.
I have one of each (LCD in bedroom, plasma in living room). I like the LCD way better, and would not buy another plasma.
I would highly recommend buying from costco, even if the other place offers a slightly better deal. The reason is that the panels can have bad pixels. When I checked at the time, costco would allow a return up to 1 year of the purchase date. Everyone else had an “acceptable failure” rate of a percentage of the total pixels, in which they would not allow a return/replacement.
