November, sweet november... month of the most important of holidays on Earth - the Black Friday! When all geeks can join in a mad rat race for the best deals, from clothing to electronic gadgets. For about 3 days people get in lines throughout the night, take enough red bull and 5 hour energetic drinks to glow green in the dark just to save some dough for the holidays. This kind of sacrifice may sound stupid for those who never experienced it, but since I came here to the US I can say this is the funniest holidays ever. Which other holiday can we find 47' HDTVs for less than half the regular price? Or get into a Walmart of Target store and see people fighting over cheap doorbuster deals? And hordes of geeks fighting online and killing web servers with DOS attacks trying to purchase half-price electronics? It is not for the faint of hearth, that is for sure!
This has been my approach during the past Black Fridays:
1. Monitor "official" BF sites for leaked ads weeks before the Black Friday - the ones I usually look into are:
• http://bfads.net/
• http://www.blackfriday.info/
• http://www.black-friday.net/
2. Based on the leaked ads, make a list of your targets - when the time comes there is no room for you to decide what to buy, if you hesitate you lose the deal!
2. Create a webmail account just for deals and other junk - apply for email lists on every store you can think of. Stores sometimes send good deals in its email lists and this is sometimes the fast way to score it! Just make sure you create a "junk" email account to use only for that purpose or set rules in your existing email client (webmails like hotmail and gmail are good at that too) to move all emails from these companies to a separate folder. Some stores I get deals via email:
• Newegg - http://www.newegg.com/
• Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/
• BestBuy - http://www.bestbuy.com/
• Target - http://www.target.com/
• CostCo - http://www.costco.com/
• TigerDirect - http://www.tigerdirect.com/
• CompUSA - http://www.compusa.com/
And so much more... some stores also give you discount coupons when you signup, so make sure you do not overlook it.
3. Monitor deal sites and forums for the best deals - the ones I use the most are:
• DealDump - http://www.dealdump.com/
• SlickDeals HotDeals forum - http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9
• FatWallet - http://www.fatwallet.com/
* - make sure you also follow the BF forum at SlickDeals - you need all the information as fast as possible!
4. And lastly, refrain from sleeping. This is key - if you sleep during the Black Friday week you WILL lose good deals. If you sleep during Thanks Giving / Black Friday / Saturday you will lose the BEST deals! In times like these you can't rely on a cup of coffer, you need something "military grade" - in times like these 5 Hours Extra is your best friend! :D
5. Some brick-and-mortar deals are inviting - but think wisely before stepping into the streets. Many times the online stores match or even top the deal. Also, shopping online you can easily cover dozens of stores - while other people are in line for one single store!
I hope you already figured I made a few jokes so far, I am not that crazy to spend 8 hours in line during a freezing night like some people to score a TV or laptop for peanuts. But for those who still think I am a materialistic person, I guess that may be true... but I have to say that most of the Black Friday fun is actually in digging and "fighting" (by fighting I mean trying to get your order thru, not actually fighting a dude over a TV!) for deals than actually spending tons of cash on stuff. And if you are picky with what you buy you do not need to spend a lot on stuff, spend good time with friends - I have had lots of good times with the wife and a friend on Black Fridays - and get out of it with good stuff you can use.
I just wish I had the idea to write this post BEFORE this years' BF... oh well, perhaps no one will notice if I copy / paste it for next year's BF hehehe :D
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