23 November 2008
Black Friday
Posted by Jerry Kidd under: Buying Technology Tools; Fuel Economy .
From Filmosity via Flickr
I don’t know too many people who haven’t been affected by the current US economy.
The news has been all doom and gloom for far too long. Many of us are staring at the holiday season and thinking about how we can provide gifts for our family, friends, acquaintances and clients.
Quite a few of us are also faced with having to replace or upgrade failing phones, computers and other tech gear.
Fortunately for us, Black Friday is upon us this week. Black Friday is defined by StreetAuthority as: “In the retail world, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving (which is always on a Thursday). The day marks the advent of the holiday shopping season and the point at which most retailers begin making profits (also known as going in the black).”
You and I might define it as the time to buy when the prices are at their lowest as many retailers offer tremendous values on some items in order to drive traffic to their brick and mortar and online stores. In times past you had to wait until Thanksgiving to see what stores were selling what products at what prices. Today we have it so much easier. Here are a collection of links to web sites that have aggregated Black Friday ads, as well as one site that is a year round technology bargain hunters paradise, one site that is a (tech and everything else) year round bargain hunters site and one site that will help you protect those price guarantees.
Year Round Technology Bargains
– http://www.techbargains.com/
“This is a great site dedicated to helping you save money on all your technology product purchases. They search the Internet and physical stores for the best deal on the best products. TechBargains helps you find hot deals on the latest Tech products as well as great prices for ANY product via our Low Price Search Engine. The site features continuously updated Bargain News Headlines with all the latest sales, bargains, coupons, and deals. See what is on Sale, so you can save the most money. Discount Coupons for most of the major online stores. Hot Tip articles to educate users on specific topics. Recommended products database with a short list of products you should consider buying. Rebate and vendor information helps ensure you get the best deal with the maximum amount of safety.”
Protect your price guarantee
– http://www.priceprotectr.com/retailers.jsp
“PriceProtectr now supports 150 retailers and here’s a list of each one, along with the pertinent information to help you get the most out of your next purchase. Use Price Protectr to track prices of things you’re thinking about buying, and save money even after you buy.” This one will help you keep the stores price guarantees honest!
Year round shopping news and deals
– http://dealnews.com/
“At dealnews, every deal we list is the lowest price we could find for that product, sold by a reputable store. That means we list the best deals period, regardless of our relationship with the seller, and we ban stores with a history of poor customer service.”
Sites devoted to Black Friday
– http://www.2008blackfridayads.com/
“Here you can find all the 2008 Black Friday Ads before the circulars come out in the newspaper. They also offer direct links to each store so, if the retailers allow, you can purchase the items online on Black Friday without having to stand in line at the store!”
– http://www.blackfriday.info/
They have ads, coupons, rebates and deals posted in an easy to use format.
– http://bfads.net/
Different from BlackFridayAds.com, this one also offers buying guides and helpful articles on how to choose between items, in addition to the ads from the retailers that they also feature. It’s a good idea to check this one as well as the others in case one or the other misses an ad important to you.
– http://www.iblackfriday.com/
This site lets you view the 2008 black Friday ads weeks in advance. Not only can you view the ads, but they also let you build out your holiday shopping list so you know exactly what items to buy on Black Friday.They also show you how you can buy these items online on Thanksgiving morning instead of having to stand in line on Black Friday.
Shopping guides published here previously
I get a lot of emails and calls asking what phone to buy and /or what computer to buy. There really isn’t way that I can recommend one model of phone or computer over another, as both purchases are entirely subjective. But, here are a few posts that will help you choose a new computer: http://realtytechbytes.com/what-laptop-should-i-buy-in-2008/ and http://realtytechbytes.com/what-computer-should-i-buy/
I hope that you enjoy the holiday and if you must go shopping on Black Friday don’t go until you’ve checked out the sites I’ve mentioned.
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Sara Bonert Says:
25 November 2008 at 7:11 am.
Black Friday is one of my favorite days of the year. The only way I can explain it to my husband is to say, relate it to the Superbowl for shopping. This year I think the deals are going to be above and beyond what we have seen in years prior. So this year I have described it to him as, imagine the Cubs making the World Series… I’ll be there at 5am when the stores open, along with the other crazies!
Jerry Kidd Says:
25 November 2008 at 3:32 pm.
Hi Sara-
I totally get what you are saying! Ever since I discovered that all the tech stores observe Black Friday I have been psyched up! I like shopping online, but there really isn’t a good substitute for the religious experience of walking into Fry’s Electronics and smellin the ozone in the air…
Best regards,
Jerry
