Black Friday articles

Some good advice from other writers about Black Friday

Black Friday tips from Yahoo:

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/467/how-to-prepare-for-black-friday/

Looking to buy a Digital Camera?

http://bfads.net/Digital-Camera-Buying-Guide

The 5 worst deals?

http://bfads.net/5-Worst-Black-Friday-Deals

PS3 Black Friday bundles

Are you in the game? This is for all the gamers out there. As you may or may not know, my personal preference to gaming systems lies with the Playstation 3. This comes from not only only the PS2 and an Xbox, but also from working at Best Buy. I saw a lot more Xbox 360s come back due to "technical" hardware problems then I did PS3's. I think it's just a better machine, and has more longevity than an Xbox. Also, I'm not a Halo guy, so whatever right. I've had a couple people ask me about the Playstation 3 bundles that will be on sale Black Friday, so I scoured the ads, and this is what I found.

*The PS3 bundles are all the 160 GB hard drive and are priced at $299.99

Best Buy

Little Big Planet

MadNation Racing

Cars (Blu Ray movie)

Wal Mart

Bundled with 2 games

Uncharted 2 &

Medal of Honor

K Mart

Uncharted 2

Karate Kid (Blu Ray movie)

Shooter Voucher (whatever that is)

Target

Star Wars II: The Force Unleashed

Prince of Persia (Blu Ray Movie)

Hastings

$25 Gift Card with purchase

Okay, let me just give you my quick philosophy on PS3 bundles. Don't get excited about one store offering one more game than another store. In this case it's quantity over quality. Just because Best Buy is doing 2 games and 1 blu ray, doesn't make it better than Hastings 25 gift card deal. Unless it's a game you really want, don't be fooled by the numbers game. These games have no resale value, so you can't bring the games back and return them for store credit. I don't think GameStop can take these games either. So unless you can sell them online (for minimal value) you won't be making money off the extras. If the Game or Blu Ray does interest you, then by all means, buy the bundle.

But if not, maybe looking into "pre Black Friday" sales. Some stores were doing PS3/Move bundles and receiving a $50 gift card back. The week after they were giving out a free PS3 controller with the purchase of ANY size PS3. (A controller is usually 49.99 as well.) These sales might be more useful to you. And you wouldn't have to stand in line either. Keep looking...my guess is this weekend there will be ANOTHER bundle that might be better for you.

Also, if you're looking to buy the 320 GB size....well, it looks like Black Friday is not for you.

Now to rate the bundles against each other.

Best Buy: The quantity is better than the quality. Little Big Planet was a game of the year....the game is also like...3 years old. I hear good things about LBP, but I just don't know about the replayability. I've never heard of MadNation racing. So...that's my review of that game. Cars, great movie, also the oldest of the titles being offered. So if you have a youngin that wants to a PS3 this might be for you...if you're a gamer, I suggest looking elsewhere.

Wal-Mart: Offers Uncharted 2 and Medal of Honor. I've never played them, but these games seem to be more adult oriented. Uncharted 1 was great, and MoH is a shooter which lots of people love.

K-mart: The only difference between this and the Wally World is you lose out on MoH and you get Karate Kid. So if you're not into shooters and love Jackie Chan and Little Will Smith. Here you go. Jacket on, Jacket off.

Target: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. A very popular game, and if I'm not mistaken, the newest release of all the bundles. Prince of Persia also came out not too long ago.

Hastings: If none of those interests you, you can receive a 25 gift card and use it for other gifts. If you're savvy enough. Ask them to ring the PS3 up first. Pay for it separately. Then use the 25 gift card to pay for the rest of your stuff. (This only works if you get the gift card right away.) But if you're planning on using the gift card for other PS3 items, I recommend looking for a better deal pre-Black Friday. Like I said, a PS3 controller values at $49.99.

Some Pros and Cons of Black Friday

You have to take the good with the bad; a motto in my life that I apply to Black Friday shopping. The end result of shopping are the products you receive (at major discounts) but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into them. So here’s my pros and cons list of many things Black Friday

BLACK FRIDAY

PRO: The money you save. This is the time of year when all these products are CHEAP…below cost sometimes. You will not find a better deal all year long.

CON: Everyone else knows this. So it’s hard work to get the products before everyone else does.

BEST BUY

PRO: I worked for Best Buy for a couple years, I know the preparation the associates go through. This is their super bowl. 90% of their staff are highly motivated and are working to HELP YOU make good decisions. They also want to up sell, but it’s not because they are commissioned based…. They want to help the revenue for their store. There’s not much personal gain, they just BELIEVE in the products they are selling.

Best Buy usually has a good line, and they are pretty good in crowd control. They’re one of the more organized Black Friday retailers I have been to…. That being said:

CON: They have a LONG line… and it’s in the cold. You have to wait outside for over 12 hours (If you want a door buster). IN THE COLD. But if you dress appropriately you can get through this unharmed.

That’s not the only line. Inside there’s one too, which can be annoying. Especially for the hot computer deals. They have a separate line for those, so you don’t have to wait to with everyone else. Unfortunately all the hot deals are in one line. So be prepared to spend ANOTHER couple hours inside waiting to be checked out. (At least it’s warm)

Wal Mart

PRO: INSIDE. Warmth. So you won’t have to pile on the clothes. I don’t know of any other Black Friday sales that allow you to wait inside. And you don’t have to start lining up as early as Best Buy. (At Best Buy to get a good spot in line you’ll have to line up 3-5 pm. At Wally World, you could get there around 930 PM or so and should be able to find a spot in line.)

Plus it’s Wal Mart, they have almost everything you need. So you won’t have to do much shopping anywhere else. Does another store have something you want? Wal Mart has a pretty decent price match policy. When I worked at Best Buy, we tried to be super strict about it.

CON: Warmth is nice….but I did Wal Mart black Friday last year, and the disorganization was SO FRUSTERATING. First off… we got there and didn’t know where to line up. Finally figured that out after an hour. My nephew and I were lined up near the GPS station to buy the GPS they had on sale. And all throughout the next 3 hours we would ask associates, “Are we in the right place?” We received a bunch of maybes, I don’t knows and yes’s….. try figuring that one out. Half an hour before they released the door busters we find out we’ve been standing in the wrong line. So they had to move our whole line to the other line. Luckily there were enough units and a riot did not ensue…but it was close.

Wal Mart employees are not as knowledgable as they should be. Granted, Wal Mart has many more departments it’s hard to keep track of everything. But it felt like NO associates knew what was going on. Where are the GPS units? No clue. Where are the digital cameras? “I don’t know” says the associate working in DIGITAL CAMERAS! A little more training might help. Who knows?

But there are also a lot of customers at Wal Mart…. I mean, A LOT! So be prepared to be treated like cattle. That many people in a building at one time can be very unnerving. Patience is definitely a virtue if you shop at Wal Mart. More people also means VERY LONG LINES to checkout. Bring a handheld game, or get some new apps on your smartphone. It takes a lot of time.

PRE BLACK FRIDAY SALES

PRO: Something new this year? A lot of retailers are doing “Pre Black Friday Sales” on the weekend. Good for retailers. It helps them get customers in all month long. Good for consumers too. I bought a laptop because my family needed one. I wasn't sure if I could get into Black Friday in time to buy one. I got a great deal on it, and we have one of our Black Friday items 2 weeks early and off the list. For electronics: Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon have had a sale every weekend, and plan to until Black Friday.

Con: The deals are still better Black Friday. If you're willing to do all the waiting and hard work; Black Friday will still have better deals. But if you don't want to chance it, or just want some extra sleep. Pre Black Friday deals are pretty good too

UPDATED:

Some of my friends had some things to share about Black Friday experiences.

Crystal Weber Western One of your cons should be RC Willey's checkout line, RIDICULOUSLY unorganized!!!

Kasey Wardell TOYS R US:

Oh my heck it was actually amazing! Haha! I didn't wait in line. I got there 30-40 minutes after the doors opened. We were free to roam the aisles without having to stand in line for a certain toy. I was able to go in and get the items I really wanted then actually browse for other things that peaked my interest. The check-out line was crazy long but it went really really fast! I thought I'd be in line for at least a half hour and it was no more than 10 minutes.

I had a larger outside toy that I needed a ticket for and I was able to pay for it at check-out but just drive around back and show them the ticket and pick up the toy that way instead of waiting for them to bring it up through the crowd. There were no crazy parents, rushing, or chaos.

It was handled well by employees and customers. I had actually heard by someone that worked there during the holiday last year that the year before the managers actually kicked out parents for pushing and causing unnecessary drama so last year it was handled well!

Tips for the Black Friday Newbie

Never been to a Black Friday? Gonna try it out? What's the big deal? Well, the big deal about Black Friday is that it's a shopping day where prices are DRAMATICALLY cut. Big ticket electronics (laptops, tvs, etc) are about 200 bucks off. You can buy clothing items from 3-9 dollars. Kitchen appliances are sold at 3 dollars! It's Madness...... so how do you get a leg up on the competition?

My first year, I went Black Friday shopping at 9 AM.... there were no deals left to be had. And that was early for me. If you want to get ahead of everyone on Black Friday you have start early? How early? 5 Am? No..... 3 AM? No...... try Thanksgiving Night. Yep, the day before Black Friday. It's a turn off for many people because of this reason. People start lining up outside of Best Buy in the early afternoon. (1-3 PM) Most people actually just set up tents and leave.... a little of a faux paux. Not really fair, but it hasn't stopped them from getting good deals yet. At Wal Mart, the lines start at 10 PM Thanksgiving Night. So getting there an hour early is a big plus.

Find Door Busters. It's no use lining up for items if they're not marked as "Door Busters." Door Busters are items that are hot items that most people will want. In our examples it'll be a 200 dollar laptop. You can get the Ads on Thanksgiving day in your local paper....of if you're really savvy, you can look online. A lot of ads get leaked before hand, so you can see the sale items weeks in advance. Looking at the Ad gives you an idea of when stores open. Door Busters are the items people are willing to cut their Thanksgiving short.

Shop with a buddy. It's helpful. Shopping with friends will give you company plus give you numbers to wait in multiple lines.

Dress Warm (For everyone not going to Wal Mart). You'll most likely have to wait in line OUTSIDE. It's cold at the end of November. Surprise. But dress in layers because you will have to go inside and shop... for hours. Beanie, Hand/Foot warners, Hoodie, Jacket, Gloves.

Finally Price Match. Most stores will Price Match a competitors Ad. For instance. Say you wanted to shop Wal Mart for their door busters. But there were some items you wanted to buy at Best Buy. You can have Wal Mart price match it. There are certain rules though. You have to have the other store's ad. The item can't be a door buster. The item has to be in stock at the other store. But...if you play your cards right, you can save yourself some shopping trips

Need to know something about the BF? Want to know Deals? Tips? Send me a comment.

BLACK FRIDAY.....comes EARLY?

Walmart will start it's Super Electronic Deals Special (or whatever it's called) this weekend. The sale starts Nov. 6 at 8am. Items include some Vizio LCD tv's, a compaq laptop, PS3 bundle, and others. Best Buy followed suit, by having their sale start a DAY earlier. They offered their own brand LCD TVs and a laptop on it's own.

Now the products aren't top of the line, but you're saving over 100 bucks on the laptops, and I would guess 50-100 dollars on the TVs. The quality isn't great, but the Value can't be beat. Best part is, the products are AVAILABLE ONLINE! I got my laptop this morning. (Remember, if you're too lazy to go to the physical store, you have to pay shipping) But shipping isn't too bad, if you're scared people are lining up for these products, like I feared.

Amazon.com is doing a gold box deal where they slash prices on certain products every hour. http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox?ie=UTF8&ref_=cs_top_nav_gb27

Keep checking on those, because there might just be something that catches your eye. And it will be a great value.

My thoughts on the products. The TVs are simple and not high quality, but they'll do the job.

Same with the Laptops. An Emachine from Best Buy, a Compaq from Wal Mart, and a Compaq from Amazon (At 10 PM Mountain Standard Time). 2GB Ram, with a 250 GB hard drive is nothing to write home about. But if you're looking for something very simple, just to browse the internet or something. Its hard to argue the value of a laptop for under $300. My theory is that on the actual Black Friday, you might be able to get a laptop in the same price range 300-450 with better specs. But if you want to avoid standing in line for HOURS in the cold or in stupid Wal Mart....then I recommend getting the laptop early.

My other good deal? Check out the $50 Itunes gift card for only $35. Walmart on Saturday

In the Holiday mood!

Taking a break from writing about the heartbreaks in life. I'm going to try to delve into some other area of expertise. Shopping. I like to buy things. It's nice to have new stuff. Thank god my parents have instilled a "Frugal Gene" in me.

New things are nice. But saving money while doing it? It's a rush. You're talking to the guy who buys his clothes only when he has a coupon. I'm the guy that has like eight seperate reward programs, so when I do buy things, I get a little of it back. I'm the guy who has price match down to an art.

So the lesson today kids? In approximately four weeks, it will be Thanksgiving. Cool, I like that holiday, but what that means for me (and subsequently my family) is that BLACK FRIDAY will soon be upon us.

What is Black Friday? It is the Friday after Thanksgiving where retailers DRAMATICALLY slash prices on items. From Game Systems, Televisions, Computer Systems, etc etc. Retailers call it Black Friday because it's the time of the season where stores go from losing money (the red) to making a profit (in the BLACK.)

I want to help you folks out. If you've never done a Black Friday before it's....an experience. Sometimes a bad one, sometimes a good one, and sometimes, well....it's a little of both. So all of November I'll be blogging about shopping the big event and maybe I can help you navigate the stores to find the perfect gift for someone this Christmas.