Black Friday comes early
Black Friday seems to come earlier every year. Last year, stores started opening their doors for the “official” beginning of the holiday shopping season at midnight, instead of 5 or 6 a.m., on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, stores such as Sears, Kmart, and Walmart are opening their doors at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Next year, who knows – stores may open even earlier. Luckily for you intrepid shoppers, it’s not just about waiting outside a Kmart in line at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to nab one of six or seven $88 24-inch 1080p HDTVs the store has in stock. Instead, you can shop even earlier – in the weeks before Black Friday even comes on the scene. Plenty of retailers are offering “early bird” Black Friday deals that you can grab right now. Here are 10 of the best early Black Friday deals we found on the web.
Gateway ZX6900-49 23-inch All-in-One Desktop for $599.99
Seller: Amazon
List Price: $999.00
Early-bird price: $599.99 (free shipping)
You save: $400
Looking for a fun all-in-one that your entire family can use? The Gateway ZX6900-49 isn’t a powerhouse (it sports an Intel Core i3-550 processor and 4GB of RAM), but it does have a nice big 23-inch high-resolution touchscreen and a roomy 1TB hard drive – perfect for showing off pictures and home videos over the holidays. This picture-stand all-in-one comes with a wired keyboard and mouse and runs Windows 7 Home Premium.
Sceptre 32-inch LCD 720p HDTV for $179.98
Seller: Walmart
List price: $249.99
Early-bird price: $179.98 (free shipping)
You save: $70.01
Black Friday is one of the best days to get fantastic deals on HDTVs. But if you don’t want to wait, take a look at this 32-inch 720p Sceptre HDTV from Walmart – it’s just $179.98, which makes it one of the few 32-inch HDTVs out there for under $200. This HDTV is just 720p (not 1080p, which is a more popular resolution these days), and has three HDMI ports. Of course, if you wait until Black Friday (and wait in line), you can nab a 40-inch 1080p Toshiba set for the same price .
$30 off any two games priced $59.99 and up
Seller: Toys ‘R’ Us
List price: $59.99 (x2)
Early-bird price: -$30
You save: $30
Toys ‘R’ Us’s circular for November 11 – November 17 (this Saturday) is offering a pretty nice deal for gamers. If you buy any two Xbox 360, Wii U, or PS3 video games priced at $59.99 or higher, you can save $30. (If you just buy one, you’ll save $10.) Eligible games include hits such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed 3, and FIFA Soccer 13.
JVC 42-inch LCD 1080p HDTV for $369
Seller: Walmart
List price: $499.00
Early-bird price: $369.00
You save: $130
If you’re looking for a larger, higher-resolution HDTV, look no further. This 42-inch JVC HDTV has 1080p resolution, two HDMI ports supporting CEC, and a refresh rate of 60Hz. Plus, Walmart does have the best deal on this particular HDTV – every else we’ve looked has the same product listed for at least $500.
Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle for $99 (with 2-year Xbox Live Gold membership)
Seller: Toys ‘R’ Us
List price: $249.99
Early-bird price: $99.00
You save: $150.99
If it works for phones, why can’t it work for game consoles? Toys ‘R’ Us is offering an Xbox 360 bundle (4GB Xbox 360 + Kinect controller) for just $99…if you sign up for a two-year Xbox Live Gold membership at $14.99/month. So if you were never planning on signing up for Xbox Live Gold, you won’t save – you’ll actually spend $208.77 more. But if you were going to sign up for Xbox Live Gold anyway, it’s a steal: you save $150.
IMPORTANT: To redeem this offer you must first complete your Xbox Gold Live purchase, after which you’ll receive two codes that you must use during checkout. Follow the instructions on this page to redeem .
Apple iPad 2 bundle with accessory kit for $399
Seller: Walmart
List price: $399.00 + $39.99 – $49.98
Early-bird price: $399.00
You save: $39.99 – $49.98
Apple products are notorious for basically being never, ever discounted. In fact, most retail stores on Black Friday won’t discount Apple products – they’ll just throw in extras and bundles as incentives for customers to buy (perhaps even gift cards). That’s why this Apple iPad 2 bundle isn’t such a bad deal – it’s the same price as if you purchased it at the Apple store (it’s the 16GB, Wi-Fi only version of the iPad 2), but you get an accessory kit worth upwards of $40.
Walmart lets you choose your color of iPad 2 and your accessory kit: either a 9-in-1 kit that includes a leatherette case, car charger, USB wall charger, audio splitter, screen protector, cleaning cloth, 3.5mm cable, wood earbuds, and a protective crystal case; or a 10-in-1 kit that includes a Bluetooth speaker, wood earbuds, wall charger, car charger, cleaning cloth, screen protector, pouch, 3.5mm cable, audio splitter, and stylus. The first kit is valued at $39.99, while the second is valued at $49.98.
Samsung 55-inch LED 1080p 3D HDTV with 4 pairs of 3D glasses for $1599.99
Seller: Best Buy
List price: $2599.99
Early-bird price: $1599.99
You save: $1000.00
Looking to save a ridiculous amount of money on a top-of-the-line 3D HDTV? Check out this deal from Best Buy – it’s a 55-inch LED 1080p 3D HDTV from Samsung , which has a quad swivel stand, a universal remote, four pairs of SSG4100 3D glasses, three HDMI inputs, and 20,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. If you’re looking to spend upwards of $1500 on an HDTV this holiday season, you’ll save a good $1000 by picking up this one early.
Dell XPS 14-inch Ultrabook for $899.99
List price: $1199.99
Early-bird price: $899.99
You save: $300.00
If you’re looking for a nice Ultrabook for the holidays, you might want to check out this Dell XPS XPS14-9092sLV Ultrabook . This 14-inch Ultrabook popped up on Amazon back in May for $1199.99 , and you can nab it now for $300 less than that price. It has a third-generation Intel Core i5 processor, a backlit keyboard, Nvidia graphics, and weighs just three pounds. It’s only 0.71 inches thick, which makes it legitimate Ultrabook territory. Light, thin, and (sort of) cheap – it’s exactly what you’re looking for.
6-foot Monster HDMI Cable for $12.99 and other home theater accessories
Seller: Best Buy
List Price: $39.99
Early-bird price: $12.99
You save: $27.00
Remember: none of these fancy new HDTVs come with HDMI cables. Check out Best Buy’s weekly deal on cables – such as this 6-foot Monster HDMI cable with gold-plated contacts for just $12.99 – as well as other essential home theater accessories. Best Buy also has a 7-outlet Rocketfish surge protector on sale for just $29.99 (regular price: $39.99), and a Samsung 1000W 5.1-channel 3D/Wi-Fi Blu-ray home theater system for $499.99 (regular price: $699.99).
Other deals: Amazon, Newegg, etc.
If you’ve been following the pre-Black Friday hype, you’ll probably notice that there are tons of sites with shorter-range deals. For example, Newegg currently has a 3-day gamer sale going on (ends November 15 at 11:59 p.m. PST), while Amazon has pre-Black Friday “Lightning Deals” popping up every few hours. We didn’t want to mention any specific deals from these sales, since they’re so short-lived, but it’s a great idea to check these sites daily so you don’t miss out on some great savings.
Sites to take a look at include Newegg’s Black November page, Amazon’s Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week , Best Buy’s Deal of the Day page, and Black Friday sites such as BFAds.net to keep up-to-date on all of the flash sales that will be happening this week and next.