The Shopping Cart Trick FINALLY worked for me!!! I'd been trying since August, and ended up just taking the HP in February since I still was having no success and needed to establish some sort of revolving accounts on my CR. Today, I tried just for the heck of it and SUCCESS!!! I was approved for a Roaman's card with a $250 CL (small, but typical) and then, much to my pleasant surprise, I got the pop-up on HSN with a pre-approval for $750!!!! My highest CL to date!!! I'm so freaking excited right now it's not even funny. 
I just wanted to share so that if anyone reading this has been discouraged by the Comenity pop-ups before - DON'T GIVE UP!!
Time to tend my garden for a few months.