Black Friday - Update #1

Hi All,

It is most magical time of the shopping year.  Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  To get you primed for Black Friday here are two sites to check out.

http://bfads.net/

http://www.black-friday.net/

If you do not want to be a crazy person and get up at 2 in the morning to wait in line in 21 degree temperatures let me give you a two secrets.

1. Most of the sales start on-line at midnight.  It is much easier to stay up late then wait in line.  This usually does not apply to doorbusters, but unless you want to wait overnight, you will not get those anyway.
2. Many stores will price match on Black Friday.  So lets say you wanted a TV that will be on sale on Friday, but you do not want to wait in line.  If they stock the TV regularly, not a guarantee with BF sales, you can buy it before Thursday then go back in at the tail end of the doorbuster time frame and do a price match.  This is very hit and miss, but most stores will do it.  If you really wanted to ensure this works and the store is being jerks about it you just return it during the time frame and have someone else come with you and they can buy it after you return it.  Given this is a pain in the butt, but so is waiting 6 hours in line.

Good luck on your sales.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 11/25/09

Hi All,

One last one for this morning.  Amazon is offering Black Friday deals all week, and rotating them each day.

You can find them here.

Since you are there, they are offering $3 in mp3s for free as well.  You can find this here.

Later,

John

Black Friday Advice

Hello All,

First things first.

1. Check this site to plan out your shopping.  They have almost all of the ads and they are searchable.  Reading every ad on Thanksgiving is not an efficient use of your time.
   
   
2. Black Friday is a gimmick.  There may be other good deals at a store on a certain day, but be prepared and know before you stray from the reason you went in.  When the Garmin for $90 is sold out at 7:01 do not just throw down $300 for the other one they have left in stock.  Go back home, check Amazon or whatever and order it online.  Remember it is worse to be suckered into an overpriced item than it is to go home empty handed.
   
   
3. Check online.  I am going to put that again, for emphasis.
   
   
4. Check online.  Amazon, Buy.com, and many online versions of brick and mortar stores have Black Friday deals as well.  You can shop in your robe and never deal with the insanity that is Black Friday in person.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  Free shipping and your own house is better than waiting hours in line for disappointment.
   
   
5. If you must have the gift today or the item you want is not one of the door busters, ie several hundred dollars off, just wait until 10 am or so.  You can often get a late start and not deal with the 5 am insanity.  The people that get there for the store opens are up at 3 am and in line at 4 am.  By 10 am they are exhausted and back home, sleeping.  Most of the rest of people are scared to venture out at all, leaving the $10 copy of Grand Theft Auto IV for you at 10 am.  I have nabbed some sweet deals using this strategy and not waiting in line or gotten up way too early.

Hopefully everyone finds what they want and saves a bundle of cash.  Good luck.

Later,

John

Black Friday - Post One

Hello All,

Many of you have been asking me about Black Friday deals. I do not want to reinvent the wheel so I will link to other posts about the topic.

Gizmodo has a nice guide here.

Of note in their listings

• A Dell Mini 10V Netbook for $249
• A Toshiba 16" Core 2 Duo for $399
  
• A Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS for $149
• A Western Digital 1TB External Drive for $78
• A 23" Dell Monitor for $219
• A Samsung 46" LCD TV for around $849 from just about every store there is
• Batman Arkham Asylum PS3 and 360 $37
• Dragon Age PS3 and 360 $39
• Forza Motorsport 3 $39
• Left 4 Dead 2 $35
• Pikmin $15
• PlayStation 3 120GB w/ LittleBigPlanet GOTY & God of War Collection $299
• PS3 package at Best Buy $299
  
• Resident Evil 5 PS3 and 360 $19

More to come.

Later,

John