This post originally appeared on The Wirecutter – A list of amazing gadgets.
Let’s be honest. Most of the gadgets people buy during these crazy holiday sales aren’t for gifts. (And you shouldn’t try to buy people who like gadgets electronics for presents anyhow.) But there’s nothing wrong with getting a great deal on something, whether it is for you or someone else. Maybe you need a massive TV set, and if you can get it for cheaper this week, and so why wouldn’t you?
There’s a ton of sites that do nothing but aggregate Black Friday deals, coupons and door crasher specials. We’ll point you in the direction of the ones that we think are worth your time. Sound good? Cool. Let’s get down to the deals and the places to find them.
(Last updated: Sunday, 22:00 November 23rd, 2012. We will update this post every day this week. Follow @wirecutter on Twitter to know when we’re updating, or just check back every day this week.)
Why You Should Trust The People Choosing These Deals.
This list is filled with gear selected as worthy of your time and money because it is worthy of our time and money.
Geoff Morrison writes for CNet and Sound and Vision and others and has focused on AV and Home Theater for about a decade. Tim Barribeau has been focusing on cameras for reviewed.com, DPReview and PopPhoto. Nathan Edwards has focused on Computers and reviews for half a decade and currently writes for Maximum PC, PC Gamer, PC World, and others. Seamus Bellamy has written for The Wirecutter since about its start, and has written for Maclife, Maximum PC and has written two tech books. Brian Lam has been writing about technology for over a decade, for Wired Magazine and after that, for half a decade he ran Gizmodo. Michael Zhao, a junior, has worked with Brian since he was a teenager first at Gizmodo and now at The Wirecutter.
What I’d Buy if I Wanted to Buy Stuff
There are obviously a lot of deals out there, but most of them stink. Here are deals on gear that is extremely good and at a good price, or gear that is good enough at an amazing price. We will list only things here that we’d recommend friends and family buy.
Sunday 11:26 AM, November 25th, 2012
- MacRumors noted that AT&T is selling refurbished iPhone 5 handsets at $100 off of their regular price. You’ll have to sign up for a two-year contract to get hold of one, but that’s a great deal on The Best Smartphone.
- Amazon has a pretty good deal on the Fujifilm X-Pro1, which will give you a great lens and a filter for just $1700. Someone on SlickDeals spotted this combo: grab the Fuji X-Pro1 for $1400, get $300 off the $600 35mm f/1.4 or the 18mm f/2, and get a free lens filter, which usually runs around $54.
- Holy Crap: Sears is selling the Craftsman Nextec Rotary Tool with LED Work Light and 40 accessories normally goes for $103 but you can get it right now for $34. If you’re a DIY type or a hobbyist, having a multi-use rotary tool like this on hand to buff, cut, grind and engrave wood metal or plastic can make life a whole lot easier.
- Target has the Pentax Optio WG-2 tough camera for $180, and they’ll give you a free $10 gift card. It usually goes for around $240, that’s a pretty decent deal on a camera that’ll handle some pretty serious abuse.
- On Monday, Timberland’s online portal will be offering 30% off everything on their entire site. With winter coming this would be a great time to pick up some new cold weather footwear.
- Buy.com has the Nikon Speedlight SB-910 if you’re a Nikon shooter, for just $460. It’ll usually set you back $550, which makes this a really good deal on a very good strobe.
- If you’ve got $21, you should use it to buy one of the greatest movies ever made. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (normally priced $50,) is great for so many reasons I don’t even know where to begin. Actually, yes I do: Toshiro Mifune. It’s worth buying for his performance alone.
- Holy Crap: FatWallet says that on November 26th, Joseph A. Banks will be selling men’s Signature Wool Blazers for $179 (regular price $595 – $895.) Every guy should own at least one blazer: you can wear it with jeans and still be dressy! While you might not have anywhere to wear one right now, you’ll be glad you took advantage of a sale like this the next time someone expects you to clean up your act and pretend to be presentable for an evening.
- PASS: Walmart’s selling a Black & Decker cordless 18v drill with two Ni-Cad battery packs for $49. Why a pass? because while some places are selling this thing for up to $80, a quick look at Google Shopping reveals that whole lot more are offering it and other similarly specced cordless drills for below $50 on a regular basis. It’s a cheap drill, but you can get it anytime you want for this price. No need to run out on the worst shopping week of the year and get it.
- Wes Anderson’s Rushmore–one of my favourite movies–is being sold by Amazon for 55% off its regular price. If you don’t already own it, you can scoop it up right now on Blur Ray for $18.
- For the next hour, you can pick up the second season of Community for $10.
- If you own an XBOX 360 and don’t already own Dishonored or Battlefield 3 Premium Edition, you can buy them from Amazon for $30 a piece (regularly $60 per game.)
Saturday 8:20 PM, November 24th, 2012
- Holy crap: A good price on a good receiver. The Pioneer VSX-822-K was one of our alternate picks in our A Solid Receiver article. It matches our Onkyo pick with 6 HDMI inputs, and while it lacks component video switching, it has AirPlay built in. One of the main reasons we didn’t pick it was because it was $80 more than the Onkyo. Its price has fluxuated a bit in the last few months, and it’s currently matching its all time low at $250 (normally $380). This is a great deal, and cheaper than the Onkyo by $30. It’s worth checking out, unless you need to switch component video sources (like a Wii, for example).
- Holy crap: Amazon has the Coen Brothers Collection, which includes Blood Simple, Fargo, Miller’s Crossing (one of my all time favourite films) and Raising Arizona on Blur Ray for $20. Given that this boxed set normally costs $70, that’s a steal.
- PASS: Amazon’s also selling Walker, Texas Ranger The Complete Series for $131, which is $109 cheaper than it’s regular price. It’s not that $109 isn’t a good deal for eight seasons of television, it’s just that Walker, Texas Ranger is, well, awful. Seriously, I wouldn’t buy this for an enemy.
- If you want to invest in a TV show that’s so bad it’s good, check out MacGyver — The Complete Series. You can get all 139 episodes of what’s arguably one of the best bad shows in television history on DVD for $35. Why not on Blu Ray, you ask? Because it’s 80s TV, and you really don’t get that much more visual fidelity out of it on Blu Ray than you would on DVD, so you might as well go cheap.
- Lowest price ever on good sound bar. The Yamaha YAS-101 is normally $250, but is currently $199. The YAS-101 was one of our alternate picks in our Best Cheap Soundbar article, saying “If the room you’re buying a soundbar for doesn’t have a lot of extra floor space, you might consider Yamaha’s $250 YAS-101 as an alternative.” This is because the Yamaha’s subwoofer is built into the bar, instead of a separate unit, which is usually the case.
- Half price (!) on a tiny stereo amplifier. The Dayton Audio DTA-1 is normally $60, and right now it’s $30. It’s about the size of a paperback book, and puts out about 10 watts per channel. I reviewed it for BigPictureBigSound, and found the performance to be surprisingly good for $60. It would be great for a small stereo system in a den. It doesn’t play too loud, but it’s only $30! You can even run it off batteries if you want. A cool product at a great price. I gave it 3/4 in my review, and the current Amazon average is 4.4/5 (73% 5/5).
Saturday 7:32 PM, November 24th, 2012.
- The Jawbone JAMBOX is on sale at Amazon right now for $130. Given that it’s normal price typically hovers around $150, that’s not bad. But it’s not the greatest deal in the world. It is a decent speaker, though.
- Steam’s been offering great deals on games all week, and today’s no different. Today, they’ve got a number of flash sales and huge discounts on a wide variety of recent and popular games. For example, you can pick up the insanely entertaining Borderlands 2 for $30 (50% off of its normal price,) Deus Ex Human Revolution for $8 (75% off!) or Shogun Total War 2 for $10 (a 66% savings.) My favourite of the bunch? $15 for all three Warhammer Dawn of War II games. I’ve been playing this one for close to three years and it never gets old. But if you want it, you’d better hurry. It’s only being offered as a Flash sale item for another hour.
- You can pick up the itty-bitty teeny-weeny Pentax Q for just $300 (Costco membership required.) Usually, they go for the better part of $400. These are the smallest mirrorless cameras you have ever seen, to the point where they look like toys. And they have pretty mediocre image quality. But they’re adorable!
- PASS: Amazon is offering 30% off all Marmot clothing and equipment, which sounds like a sweet deal, but the prices I’ve seen posted for it kind of suck. For example, the Marmot PreCip, our pick for Best Cheap Rain Jacket, is currently selling on Amazon with a base price of $70, which is more expensive than we’ve seen it on the site in the past.
- For $50 (normally $62.60) you can grab a Drinkwell 360 Pet Fountain that’ll recirculate your pet’s water to keep it fresh throughout the day so that your dog or cat will want to drink more often and not dry up like a raisin. You’ll eventually have to replace its charcoal filter, but it’s a small price to pay to keep your filthy four legged friend from drinking out of the bathtub.
- Another big Pentax deal is in lenses from B&H. They have the Pentax 50-135mm f/2.8 for $750 (usually $1200+) and the 16-50 f/2.8 for $750 (usually around $1000). Those are some pretty damn good deals on high-end glass, if you’re a Pentax shooter.
- Holy Crap: Amazon has 14 different Kurt Vonnegut books for $2 a pop on Kindle. Get some literature in your life.
- Today only at Fry’s, you can pick up a really good deal on a carbon fiber tripod from a very reputable brand. They’re selling the Vanguard Alta+ 254CB for just $170, and according to the print ad, it includes a SBH-30 ballhead. I’ve seen that same tripod with a slightly different head for prices from $224–$350. So this is a very solid deal, and the cheapest you’ll see a good carbon fiber tripod. Carbon fiber is lighter than aluminium and better at absorbing vibrations, but also a bit more fragile.
- If you want to pick up World of Warcraft — I don’t know, maybe you hate everyone outside your doors, whatever — Groupon has the game, the first two expansions, strategy guide, and a month of playtime for $5. I wouldn’t recommend this for my friends because I actually like seeing them, but I’m pretty sure it’s a good deal, as Amazon sells it for $20.
- Sony has ongoing educational discounts available. Combine that with black friday deals and you can get our absolute favorite compact camera right now, the Sony RX100, for $585 including two years of damage protection. Only good for you teachers and students, though. This is valid for the megacamera RX1, among other things!
- Today only, you can pick up The Forever Marilyn Monroe Blu-Ray Collection for $28 (regularly $73.) A seven film collection that spans Monroe’s career, the boxed set features a number well known flicks like Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and kind of crappy picks like River of no return. But the good outweighs the mediocre in this one, so it’s worth your attention if you’re a movie buff.
Saturday 12:21 AM, November 24th, 2012.
- Holy Crap: The James Bond movie collection on Blu-ray for $100–That’s 22 movies for 67% or $200 off the original price of $300. Obviously no Skyfall, but it’s all about Casino Royale anyhow. Nuts.
- It’s $10 cheaper at new egg with a $15 rebate, but with amazon prime, our favorite mid range Asus RT-N56U router is $80 flat. No rebate BS. It’s usually around $100-$115. I have the higher end model from this and I like it a lot.
- Nearly $200 off a $1200 base model Macbook Air 13, spotted by eagle eyed editors at Macrumors. They’ve got a fantastic guide there, too, if you’re into Apple deals.
Friday, 12:49 PM November 23rd, 2012.
- Arguably the best newspaper strip ever to grace the printed page, the Complete Calvin and Hobbes boxed set is just $50 on Amazon. That’s the hardcover version, which usually goes for $95-ish.
- The Panasonic LX7 is a bit bigger than the S100, but has a faster lens, and arguably takes better photos. Gizmodo thinks it’s the better of the two cameras.
- Our pals at Gizmodo have a deal going with SoundEarPhones.com to provide 25% off everything in their online store. Just use code GIFTCARD25.
- Stack Social is offering a bundle of great deals for Mac owners. If you don’t already own it, you can pick up a license for Parallels 8 for $60–a savings of $20. When you buy it, you’ll also get free copies of Virusbarrier 6, Rubbernet, Mac Optimizer and SnagIt for Mac.
- How about a $300 projector? The ViewSonic PJD5123 would be a great projector for the occasional movie night. Shine the image on a wall, or on a sheet outside. It’s not going to have the picture quality of a more expensive projector, and it only has 800 x 600 resolution, but for $300 it’s quite a deal, and this model’s lowest price ever. It has a claimed 2700 ANSI Lumens, which should be pretty bright. Though it says it’s 3D-ready, there is no HDMI input so Blu-ray 3D won’t work. There aren’t any professional reviews, but the average Amazon customer review is 4.5/5, with 70% 5/5 and 21% 4/5.
- To go with the ViewSonic above or that portable projector you’ve got kicking around, Elite Screens has some deep discounts on their electric (as in, retractable) screens. This 100-inch 16×9 screen is only $310 ($53% off). So for $600 total you could have a 100-inch TV in your home. Want bigger or smaller? Many of Elite’s other models are on sale as well, like this $223 84-inch model, or this $480 120-inch. Any screen is going to look better than shining a projector on a wall or sheet, because the texture of the surface won’t be as visible (even the smoothest paint will have visible bumps).
Friday, 11:25 AM November 23rd, 2012.
- This Canon PIXMA MG5320 Wireless Injet Photo All-In-One Printer has over 300 reviews with an average of four stars, and it’s currently being sold for $50. Hard to argue with that.
- Holy Crap: SanDisk Extreme SSD is going for under $1 a gigabyte. You can snag 120GB for $85, 240GB for $160, and 480GB for $315. It’s easily the best deal we’ve ever seeen on a solid state drive.
- Looking for some dirt cheap DDR3 RAM? How does 2 sticks of Kingston HyperX Blu 1600MHz 240-pin DDR3 Non-ECC CL10 Desktop Memory for $52 (78% off) sound? If I hadn’t just spent $1500 on plane tickets I’d be snatching that up. But I’m poor now, so in Amazon’s warehouse it shall remain.
- The New York Times is offering 50% off the price of a 26 week subscription!
- One of our favourite pairs of cans, the Audio-Technica ATHM50 Professional Monitor Headphones with Coiled Cable is on sale for $106. It’s one of the best prices we’ve seen for these.
- Walmart’s got Creative’s D80w Portable Bluetooth Speaker on for $29. That’s a 52% savings, which makes this a cheap and portable means by which one could bring the noise.
- CHEAP EXTERNAL BATTERY for just about any USB charged smartphone or tablet under the sun. Amazon’s selling the New Trent IMP120D iCarrier 12000mAh Heavy Duty 2A/1A Dual USB Port Battery Pack for $54. Yeah, it’s got a crappy name that’s as long as your arm, but it’s very well reviewed and you’ll be hard pressed to find a 12000mAh battery pack for less.
- Look, I wouldn’t buy it one of these for myself, but if you have a kid in your life that won’t stop screwing with your iPad or are looking for a cheap ‘wow’ gift for your office’s secret Santa, it’s hard to argue with the 7″ Coby Kyros tablet. It’s on sale at Walmart right now for $69 (regularly $99.)
- If you’re a movie lover, there’s no excuse not to pick up the Planet of the Apes Five Film Collection on Blu Ray for $23. That’s over half off of its regular price. When you’re in the mood for camp, there’s few things better.
- Monoprice has two great deals on cables. The first is a 10-foot High Speed HDMI cable for $5. This connects your cable box, Blu-ray player, or media streamer to your TV. They have shorter cables for less, too, if you don’t need 10-feet. Monoprice has been our pick for cheap cables for over a year. The other deal is for specific situations. It’s a 50-foot HDMI cable with Redmere technology. This means the cable is more likely to work with different TVs and sources (an issue with some long cables). Also, the cable itself is thinner than most 50-food cables, so it’s easier to snake around your room, around corners, and so on. It’s usually $67, but right now it’s $47. Remember, there are no picture or sound quality improvement with more expensive HDMI cables, so for $5 for 10-feet or $47 for 50 with Redmere are great deal for perfect 1080p picture.
- One deal I would NOT get is the EH6000 series from Samsung. You’ll see this advertised everywhere. At first glance, it’s a great deal: an inexpensive LED LCD from a major company. However, I found the performance to be mediocre, and there was a serious lip sync issue. David Katzmaier at CNET gave it a 3/5 and in his review said, “Lighter black levels hamper the EH6000’s picture quality compared with many TVs, including less expensive models. Its connectivity suite is anemic with just two HDMI inputs, and at this price numerous TVs offer apps and Smart TV functions that this Samsung doesn’t.” Pass on this TV, and check out something like Panasonic’s ST50 series or Samsung’s own E450 Series.
- Holy Crap: A Wirecutter Exclusive — Sign up for a Year’s worth of access to Decide.com to help you make smart buying decisions. Regularly priced at $30, it’s a good deal that’ll help you find other good deals all year long.
Friday, 9:25 AM November 23rd, 2012.
- ThinkGeek’s Black Friday sale is live, and they have pretty good buy-one-get-one-half-off deals onmugs, t-shirts and robes. I like the 4th Doctor and the TARDIS robes, myself.
- Holy crap: CrashPlan is currently selling one year/one computer backup plans for $2.40, and Family plans for $5.76. It’d be stupid not to take advantage of this. But you’d better do it fast because the price increases every two hours. gogogo!
- ThinkGeek also has a Dali-esque melting clock for $7.50. That’s half off the normal price, and $13.50 less than we’ve seen it elsewhere.
- If you’re wonky enough to both like mechanical keyboards and care which type of mechanical switches they have in them, Amazon has a great deal on a Rosewill keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches for $60. Those are the same switches that give the Das Keyboard its clacky feel.Overclock.net has the definitive primer on the difference between each type of switch.
- Lenovo’s Daily Doorbuster deals on top of its Black Friday sale are pretty rad, and the T430, our favorite workhorse laptop, is down to $780 with the 1600×900 screen and 9-cell battery as we recommend in our writeup of the laptop. That’s $220 off their regular price, or about 20 percent. That’s if you get it from Lenovo.com and use the code BFDEAL4 at checkout. This expires at midnight tonight.
- Macy’s is selling a seven pieceZwilling J.A. Henckels Pro “S” Cutlery Setfor $200 (regular price $300.)
- 6PM.com is having a huge sale on clothing, with brand name clothes from brands like Patagoniaon sale for between 30-75% off.
- Dell is selling their Inspiron 17R Laptop for $650, which is $240 off their regular price for it, but It’s got lousy reviews from users, so I wouldn’t buy it even if it’s a good deal. That said, their award winning XPS 13″ Ultrabook is on sale today $150 less than you’d usually find it, so if you’re into skinny Windows 8 laptops, you’ll want to take a look at that.
- Staples has the Brother HL-2240 Mono Laser Printer on for $50, which is $20 cheaper than I’ve ever seen it anywhere else. It’s a great printer that will serve you well, provided you only need to crank out text. and the occasional greyscale graphic.
- Today’s Amazon Gold Box deal is the Canon S100 for $230 with a free 8GB memory card. This isa great compact camera, and the improvements to the current generation S110 are minimal.
- Another very good advanced compact camera is the Panasonic LX7, which is currently hitting $300 at Amazon and B&H. It usually goes for more like $400, so it’s a pretty solid improvement.
- DiscountMags has more than 90 magazine subscriptions marked down. Prices start at just $8 for two years. For those of you who still like bundles of dead trees being delivered to your house.
- If you’re tired of Lego sets all coming in themed kits, Wal-mart is selling two 650 block boxes for just $30 — they usually run around $45 each. If you full your cart to $45, you get free shipping. If you’re having trouble checking out, look at this forum thread for hints.
- Earlier this week, we pointed out that Amazon had Lightroom 4 for $100, down from $150. Newegg has beat that, selling it for just $80.
- Amazon’s selling Livescribe pens at a discount. You can save $60 on a Livescribe 8 Echo Smartpen ($118,) or $50 on the 4GB model.
Friday, 12:15 AM November 23rd, 2012.
*We’re not including some stinkers that you might otherwise be fooled by. Please remember to check the sources list at the bottom of this post if you want to see more deals, and also tweet anything you think is a killer deal to us at @Wirecutter on twitter.
- Apple’s black friday sales are pretty bonkers. Macbook Pros for $100 off (Even retinas), Macbook Airs for $100 off, and big iPads for about 10% off. Accessories are pretty nicely discounted, too, like Earpods for about 30%.
- Holy moly, our favorite Airplay Speaker by Audyssey is $150–It’s usually $350 or so.
- PASS: The first generation Nest thermostat, which we love, is $200 at Amazon. It’s thicker than Generation 2 but no big deal. Gen 2 goes for $50 more, though, so I’d rather have generation 2.
- Best Buy has iTunes $100 gift cards for 20% off.
- Amazon has Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 for $100, which usually fetches $125-$150. Grab either a physical copy, or as a download.
- Due to price matching and some insane lens rebates, you can grab a Canon T3i with its kit 18-55mm lens, as well a 55-250mm and a 75-300mm, and a 16GB SDHC card for just $606. That’s an incredible combo deal.
- PASS: Belkin’s 65% off sale is for older/second rate gadget cases and routers we’re not crazy about.
- A 64GB Sandisk MicroSD card for $40 instead of $100. Most of the time, these are about 60.
- Last year’s favorite Superzoom, the 20x (500mm equivalent) Canon SX260, is $200 at Amazon.Decide.com says this price is red hot. I’m going to get one of these to photograph surfers
- Roku streamers are 20 bucks off.
- An entire list of $4 blu-rays at Amazon
- Monoprice computer monitor arm for $17. Normally $30, with an MSRP of $60.
- A 240GB SSD laptop drive by Sandisk (SATA 6) for $155.
- If you don’t care/need streaming, and just want a cheap Blu-ray player, LG’s BP200 is only $60, though it lacks 3D playback and Amazon Instant Video. By the way, the cheapest Blu-ray player will play back Blu-rays just as perfectly as an expensive player. Even so, even though it’s a little more expensive, if you’re in the market for a streaming Blu-ray player, our Best Blu-ray Player pickis still the best one to get, even if at $100 it’s slightly more money.
- A 3TB Seagate USB 3.0 external drive. $100, best price I could find on Amazon was $130.
- The NYTimes is 50% off for the first 12 weeks!
Thursday, 7:15 pm November 22nd, 2012.
- Toys R Us has taken the wraps off a number of their Black Friday deals including $20 off of any regularly purchase made in the store of $100 or more, a buy one/get one for 50% off deal on a number of popular children’s games, up to 50% off on selected action figures and play sets, up to 50% off on dolls and stuffed animals and 40% – 50% off of a number of toys for preschool aged kids. Why am I not naming specifics? Because I don’t have any kids, don’t spend much time with the few children that are a part of my life, and therefore, have no frigging idea of what’s popular or a good deal when it comes to toys. But maybe you can do something good with this information you know? Make a kid smile or whatnot. I hear it’s good for the soul. All the deals listed on Toys R Us’ homepage look to be in place until the 23rd.
Thursday, 3:15 pm November 22nd, 2012.
- Between now and Monday you can get 25 percent off of replacement headphone tips from Comply Foam by using the code STUFFED at checkout. Comply has tips for pretty much any decent set of in-ear headphones. I use a pair of Comply T-200s in my Astro A*Star headphones. Before I had the Comply tips, the silicon and foam tips that Astro shipped kept falling out of my ears. The Comply tips keep them in my ear and block more ambient noise, for better sound. I’d buy Comply tips for any headset I own, and the vast majority of Comply tips have 4/5 stars on Amazon.
- If you can get past the puppets, Farscape was one of the best sci-fi shows to ever hit the box. Amazon’s offering the whole series in a 26 Blu Ray disc set for $50. That’s $100 off of its regular price.
- Or maybe you’re more of a brown coat kind of guy. The complete Firefly’s available for $8. You’ll never find a better price in the ‘verse.
- PC gamers can being Dishonored’s stabtatistic gameplay home for $25 (50% off its regular price.)
- You can pick up Halo 4 for $60 from Target. Is that a deal? No. But the fact that they’ll give you a $20 store gift card with it is.
- In the market for a new satchel? How does 76% off of a Kenneth Cole Reaction A Stitich In Time Leather messenger bag sound? eBay Deals has ’em for $60.
Thursday, 1:30 pm November 22nd, 2012.
- EA’s Origin store will have 70 percent off selected PC game downloads on Black Friday. The specific deals aren’t posted yet, but if you haven’t picked up the Mass Effect games, Battlefield 3, or Batman: Arkham City, this’ll be a good time to get them without putting pants on.
- Amazon has my favorite SSD, Samsung’s 830 Series, for $118 for a 128GB drive.
- Get 40% off sitewide at Levis.com with the code THANKS until 9pm EST tonight (Thursday). Good time to get some jeans and outerwear.
- This Seagate Backup Plus 500GB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive looks like a good deal. It’s been reduced in price by 40% and only costs $66 BUT I WOULDN’T BUY IT. Why? Because you can get a 1TB version of the same drive for $30 more. That’s more bang for your buck. Like Smokey Robinson said, “you better shop around.”
Thursday, 11:35 am November 22nd, 2012.
- Looking to upgrade your kitchen for the holidays? Home Depot is selling a LG Electronics 30.7 cu. ft. French Door Refrigerator in Stainless Steel for $2198–$1000 off its regular price. Amazon is selling the same fridge for $2200, but there’s only 10 left in stock, so if you want to get it from them, you’d better hustle.
- American Eagle Outfitters is offering free shipping on everything now until November 25th. Plus, you can get 40% off the price of your entire purchase. Just enter code 35787891 when checking out (via BlackFriday.com)
- Lands’ End has clothes on the cheap too. They’re offering 30% off and free shipping for just about everything they sell, excluding their Black Friday door crashers. Use promo code WONDERLAND and PIN number 2126 to make it happen.
- I would have played Skyrim sooner, but I took an arrow in the knee. Fortunately, you can make up for lost time by buying the Windows version of the game from Best Buy for $25. That’s a savings of $35 off the regular price.
Thursday, 10:42 am November 22nd, 2012.
- For the next three hours you can get a Pre-paid Virgin Mobile Overdrive Pro 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot for $40 (regular $80.)
- Belkin’s selling Kindle, iPad and iPod touch cases for $10 and $20 today (depending on the size and type of case.) They’re also offering respectable discounts on a number of their wireless routers.
- Amazon’s offering $20 off the price of Roku 2 XS, Roku 2 XD and Roku HD streaming media players.
- Lowest price ever on a great receiver. Denon’s AVR AVR1613 is normally $399, but is $269 right now on Amazon (just beating Best Buy by $5). It’s got 4 HDMI inputs, a USB input on the front for your iPod/iPhone etc, and even has AirPlay built in so you can stream music directly from iTunes.
- Or pick in this category is the $280 Onkyo, but now that the AVR1613 is similar in price, the decision gets tougher. The Onkyo gets you two more HDMI inputs and component video switching, but lacks the Denon’s Airplay. If you like the idea of AirPlay built into the receiver, and don’t have any component video sources (or don’t mind that the receiver doesn’t switch them), get the Denon. If you have more than 4 HDMI sources, HDMI switchers aren’t expensive.
- Awesome deal on an awesome LED LCD. The Sony KDL-55HX850 was our pick for big LCD in our Best Big TV article (the overall pick, the Panasonic ST50, also has a great discount). Normally over $2,000, the 55HX850 is $200 off on Amazon. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on this great TV.
Thursday, 9:02 am November 22nd, 2012
- You can pick up Prometheus on Blu Ray from Amazon for $10. There’s some other great Blu Ray movie and TV deals on today too: Thor for $9, and Sucker Punch or Caddy Shack will cost you $4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will run you $5, and Season One of Justified can be had for $12.
- How does $698 ($352 off the regular price) for a Samsung 50″ Class LED 1080p 60Hz HDTV sound? Pretty Good? I thought so. You can scoop one up online at Walmart.
- You can get a Dyson DC23 Turbinehead Canister Vacuum with Bonus Mini-Turbinehead Tool for $250. Given that it’d usually cost you $400, that’s a very respectable deal.
Thursday, 8:37 am November 22nd, 2012
- Amazon’s selling season one of The Walking Dead on Blu Ray for $10!
- Canon’s offering some solid Black Friday deals on refurbished cameras. Quality picks include the S95 for $223 ($375 new); the SX40 superzoom for $275 ($425 new). Older SLRs are also marked down by about 25%.
- B&H has the Lowepro Pro Roller Attache X50 Case for 70% off its normal price. If you don’t mind dragging your gear on wheels, it’s a good deal for a roller camera bag.
- B&H has some great deals on Sony mirrorless cameras: Sony NEX-5N for $478.00 including $50 gift card (usually $600), and the NEX-5K in black or silver for $650 plus a gift card (usually $750).
- Fujifilm is doing a holiday long price drop on the X-Pro1 from $1700 to $1400, not a huge price drop, but a very nice camera.
- You can grab the Canon G12 for $300 from B&H, usually $500. It’s an absolute tank of a camera.
- SmithMicro will be offerings subscribers to its email list 90% off Manga Studio EX4. This is a widely used graphics program for digital inking, so if you’ve been eyeing up starting that webcomic finally…
- K Mart has Garmin Nuvi 40LM 4.3″ Touchscreen GPS units on sale for $90 (regular price $150.)
- Own an XBox 360? Haven’t played LA Noire yet? Pick it up for $9 (Sale ends at 7:00 pm tonight.)
- You can get a HP Pavilion g7-2246nr Laptop Computer With 17.3″ Screen & Next Gen AMD A6 Accelerated Processor, 6GB of RAM and a 500GB HD for $380 (regular price $700) at Office Depot.
- Best Buy’s offering a 16GB iPad 2 at $60 off its regular price (online only.)
- If you plan on keeping your kids away from your new iPad, you’d best think about diverting their attention with a Nabi 2 Tablet. Pick one up online from Best Buy for $130–That’s $70 off its regular price
Wednesday, 7:11 pm November 21st, 2012
- 50% off a 220 piece Craftsman tool set with carrying case? Yes please. It’s available from Sears for $100.
- If you’re still using an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, you’ll want to take a look at this OtterBox Defender Case and Holster, currently on sale for $16 from Amazon (regularly $49.)
- Get in the mood for the season by downloading a copy of the soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, It’s a timeless classic that’ll cost you $3.99
- Kohl’s is selling a 20-piece set of T-Fal’s Inspirations Nonstick Aluminum Cookwear for $80 (regular $150.) It’s a great starter set for anyone moving out on their own, or looking to upgrade their kitchen game on the cheap.
- Looking for a cheap way to get into Apple computers? TigerDirect is selling Apple MC207LL/A Refurbished Macbook – Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, DVDRW, 13.3″ Display, OS X 10.6 for $600. It’s not the fastest Mac laptop out there, but if all you’re looking to do is watch a few movies, sync your iPhone, work on a document or surf the web, it’ll serve you well. This deal’s available until November 23rd.
Wednesday, 5:17 pm November 21st, 2012
- NewEgg is selling ASUS’ RT-N56U Simultaneous 2.4/5GHz Dual Band Wireless N Router w/ USB Storage, Print and Media Server for $70 (down from $95, thanks to a $15 rebate card.)
- Amazon is selling the Dell S2330MX 23″ Ultra-Slim VGA Monitor for $140. That’s $90 off the regular price.
- Building a new gaming rig? Pick up a Corsair Vengeance Series Arctic White C70 Mid Tower Computer Case for $100 today. You’ll be saving $45.
Wednesday, 3:17 pm November 21st, 2012
- If you don’t already own them, Blizzard’s selling Starcraft II and Diablo III for $20 and $40 respectively ($20 off of their regular price.) Either is a great way to ignore your Thanksgiving dinner guests away. You’ve got until the end of the week to pick them up on the cheap.
- Looking for a powerful new desktop system? You can pick up a HP ENVY Phoenix h9-1340t Desktop with an Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3770K, GeForce GTX 660 1.5GB, 12GB RAM, Windows 8 for $1125–$375 off its regular price–until November 27th. Just use code DT1261 to get the discount.
- MartinLogan made their name with massive flat speakers. They’ve recently started making several different series of smaller speakers, and the reviews have been great. The MLT-2 sub-sat system itself hasn’t been widely reviewed by the pros, but the 4.8/5 average on Amazon (29 total reviews) is a promising sign. They’re a pretty insane 66% off their list price ($413). NewEgg has them for a few dollars less, and with 87 customer reviews, they have a 4/5 average.
- The Polk RM705s is another great sub-sat system. They’ve got a 4.5/5 average on Amazon (from 126 reviews) and are going to be tough to beat for $250 (58% off). Consumer Reports gave them a 57 (the class leader has a 63), and praised the Polk for “very good bass” though they found “Treble response is fairly even, though just a tad bright.” They found the midrange a little uneven, which isn’t uncommon with sub-sat systems.
- If you’re keen on Polk, how about a subwoofer? The PSW505 is down to $230 (61% off list). It’s got a big 12-inch, long-throw woofer powered by a 300-watt amp (460-watt peak). From 417 customer reviews on Amazon, the average rating is an impressive 4.7/5. Over at NewEgg, from 357 reviews, 86% give it a 5/5 and 34% 4/5. I’d buy two. (No, really, multiple subs create better bass in any room, even at the same volume as one sub!)
Wednesday, 2:13 pm November 21st, 2012
- This is a big one, literally. Amazon is selling the Panasonic Viera ST50 (our pick for best big TV) for $1500. That’s a full $100 off of its historical lowest price. If you’ve been really good this year, now’s as good a time as ever to splurge. NFL playoffs are just weeks away!
- If you are looking for a soundbar on the cheap, the Vizio VHT215, our pick for best cheap soundbar, is on sale for just $150 on MyGofer.com. That’s $110 off street price. However, a couple things worth noting before pulling the trigger: it’s a) refurbished and b) the specific vendor selling it only has a 2.5/5 star seller rating. So it’s a great price, but not without caveats.
- Monoprice is offering discounts on a wide variety of hardware and accessories for desktops, laptops, home theatre systems and tablets. My personal favourite? a 67% discount on a mechanical gaming keyboard. It’s not a Das Keyboard, but I can almost guarantee that it’ll feel more responsive than what most of you are banging away on right now.
- Newegg is selling a EVGA 012-P3-2078-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti – 448 Cores (Fermi) Classified Ultra 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card for $180 (regular $300.) If you’re building a new gaming rig, it’s a good thing to grab. Just do yourself a favor and throw away the free coupon for Duke Nukem Forever that comes with it. Trust me.
- Olympus will give you a great discount on a refurbished OM-D E-M5. This was our pick for best mirrorless camera over $1000. The refurbished version is $880 with 14-42mm lens (usually $1100) and $1040 with 12-50mm lens in black or silver (usually $1300).
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
- Steam is having a huge sale, with many of the game service’s best selling titles going for a fraction of their regular price. I Just bought Age of Empires III for $9.99 and XCOM Enemy Unknown for $34 (even though I already own it for PS3. It’s really that good.)
- Starting today and running until November 26, Vibram is offering up to 60% off their super creepy FiveFingers footwear. The looks of the things creep me out, but a friend of mine that’s a running fanatic swears by them.
- Sony is offering a good deal on their entry level Mirrorless camera, the NEX-F3. If you buy from Sony direct, you get the NEX-F3 with 18-55mm lens, and an additional 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 telephoto lens, memory card, and carrying case for $650. That’s usually $600 for the kit and $350 for the second lens.
- Microsoft is having a Black Friday sale starting Thursday (eh, close enough). There are some decent deals up now, like a 3 month Xbox Live Gold code for $13 (half off). Most of the stuff is skippable, but they’ll put more deals up on Thursday. If you’re picking up a Surface RT bundle you’re braver than we are, but you can get $50 off of a second touch or type cover when you do so.
- Amazon is selling LEGO’s Star Wars R2D2 (10225) kit for $140. That’s $30 off its regular price. Not too shabby.
- The original The Prisoner TV series is available from Amazon on Blu Ray for $23 (regular $93.) At that price, if you’re a sci-fi or philosophy buff, it’d be criminal not to buy it.
- If you’re in the market for a custom-built gaming PC, Origin PC has some pretty sweet deals. If you buy one of their rigs between now and the end of Monday, they’ll throw in a free 240GB Corsair Neutron SSD, free copy of Windows, and free overclocking. I prefer building my own, but that basically saves $3-400 bucks on stuff I’d be getting anyway, and I’ve had good experiences with Origin’s customer service when I was reviewing their gaming systems.
- Olympus will give you a great discount on a refurbished OM-D E-M5. This was our pick for best mirrorless camera over $1000. The refurbished version is $880 with 14-42mm lens (usually $1100) and $1040 with 12-50mm lens in black or silver (usually $1300).
- MicroCenter has a bunch of great deals on components.The best I’ve seen so far is a Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge processor for $200 (in store only). That’s the top of the line Sandy Bridge chip from last year, works with Ivy Bridge motherboards, and goes for $300-320 elsewhere. It overclocks better than the Ivy Bridge equivalent i7-3770K, and at $200 it’s an absolute steal.
- Visit goincase.com and use coupon code APPLEBYTE25 to receive 25% off any tablet, computer accessory, backpack or bag on the site. The offer’s good until December 1st.
- OfficeMax has a combo pack of Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 for $70, which usually goes for $135
- The fisheye Rokinon 8mm lens is $230 through B&H, usually goes for around $300
- The Vanguard Alta Pro 263AB with ballhead is just $100 through Fry’s (once you include the $25 rebate). This combo usually goes for $210, and even with the rebate now fetches $185. It’s one of our top choices for our upcoming tripod review, but only available in-store.
- Also at MicroCenter stores on Black Friday: A 512GB OCZ Vertex 4 for $340 ($330 after mail-in rebate), great deals on cases I love like the Corsair Vengeance C70 and NZXT Phantom 410, and a Corsair Hydro H100 liquid cooling loop for $90 instead of $120.
- Coffee purists may balk at it, but for those that love their morning cuppa joe on the quick, Kohl’s is selling the Keurig B60 Special Edition Coffee Brewer for $150 — $40 off its regular price.
Tuesday, 7:23 pm, November 20th, 2012
- JetBlue’s got one-way fares on starting at $49. That’s cheap enough to justify an unscheduled adventure!
- If you’re happy with your current camera’s performance but wish you had the ability to sync with Wi-Fi, this Eye-Fi Pro X2 8GB SDHC card for only $60 from Amazon ($99 regularly) is just the ticket. With a little bit of tinkering, you’ll be able to see photos show up on your iPad as you take them on your DSLR. iLounge gave it an excellent A- rating and PC Mag Australia gave it 4 stars. And since it’s the pro version, you’ll even be able to shoot in RAW. Perfect for cheating at Instagram!
- Headed to Vegas in the near future? Take a side trip to see the Grand Canyon. Tours are 30% off right now.
- Between Thursday and Saturday Samsung will be selling a 250GB Samsung 840 SSD for just $170 and bundling a copy of Far Cry 3 with it (though they didn’t say which retailers would participate). That’s a great price per gigabyte. We prefer the 830 series and the 840 Pro series from Samsung, but the 840 is pretty decent (Anandtech calls it “the entry level SSD to buy”) and $170 for a 250GB SSD is pretty great, especially if you think you’d be picking up Far Cry 3 anyway.
- TigerDirect has a Gigabyte Z77 motherboard, Intel Core i5-2500K CPU, and 4GB of RAM for just $385, or $350 with a mail-in rebate. The board supports CrossFireX and two-way SLI, so this would be a good start for a decent gaming rig, though you’d likely want to add more RAM. And the rest of the computer.
- If you buy a smartphone at a Verizon Wireless store on Friday, you can pick up a Jawbone Jambox for $100If you’re in the market for a smartphone from Verizon (our picks are the Droid DNA, Razr Maxx HD, and Galaxy S III), you might as well pick up a Jawbone Jambox for $100 ($50 off). It’s not our top Bluetooth speaker anymore but it’s still one of our favorites. And like we said, if you’re there anyway…
- Let’s keep this simple: 20 rolls of paper towels. $20 bucks. If you’ve got the space to store them, you’d be crazy to pass this up.
- OfficeMax will be selling a Windows 8 Pro upgrade DVD for just $30 on Black Friday. That’s $30 cheaper than the DVD version normally goes for, and $10 cheaper than the download version. Windows 8 isn’t a required update if you’re on 7. The Metro interface can be annoying, but it has the great traditional Windows desktop underneath, and it’s the cheapest way to drag an XP or Vista PC into this decade.
Tuesday, 2:24 pm, November 20th, 2012
- Amazon instant streaming has a bunch of hot new releases available to rent for only $2. Titles include summer blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Prometheus, as well as indie favorites like Moonrise Kingdom. If you’re not in the mood to watch a movie right this minute, you can always rent it now while it’s cheap and wait up to 30 days before watching it.
- Speaking of the Hunger Games, you can get paperback versions of the book for just $2.
- You can get a HTC 8X for free with 2 year contract over Best Buy Mobile Solutions’s ebay store. We still prefer iPhones and Androids for their superior app selection, but by all accounts, the 8X is a solid, if not great phone for those wanting to try their hand at Windows Phone 8.
- If you have an aging laptop, or even a new laptop that could use a performance boost, adding more RAM should be first on your list of upgrades. This 2-pack of Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM for only $63 from Amazon is just the ticket (that’s over 60% off and a full $20 cheaper than the next closest competitor). There aren’t many reviews of laptop RAM available, but considering it has 100 5-star Amazon ratings/111 total reviews, you will definitely be getting your money’s worth here. Here are a few positive reviews for the desktop version: Storage Review, Tech Radar, and Benchmark Review.
- If you’re good on RAM but just need some extra portable storage, Amazon’s also got you covered with the USB 3.0 750GB Seagate Expansion for just $56.50 (30% off). There’s no reviews, but it has a 4.6 star rating on Amazon averaged over 324 total reviews so it’s likely a safe bet.
- It would appear that today’s Amazon Blu-Ray deals are Avengers-themed. First off there’s Captain America: The First Avenger (which includes a DVD and digital copy) for $12.50. Then there’s Thor for $10 (also includes DVD and digital copy). Finally, everyone’s favorite Avenger, Ken Burns! Buy his masterful National Parks series for just $41.50 (60% off).
- 1saleaday is offering the Canon T4i for $680, that’s a major saving over the $800 it’s currently fetching on Amazon. It’s the newest model in Canon’s entry-level DSLR line, and is meant to have pretty great video quality.
Tuesday, 12:55 pm, November 20th, 2012
On the TV side of things, this year is a bit different than previous years. The deep discounts of the tier 1 brands (Panasonic, LG, Samsung, etc), isn’t happening. Most of the deep discounts are with off brands that offer dubious or unknown quality. We’ll certainly see a few great deals here and there, but the 40% across the board drops of old just isn’t happening.
- A great pair of powered bookshelf speakers ($350) Audioengine’s A5 speakers are some of my favorites. They sound fantastic, with lots of room-filling bass from small(ish) speakers. They look fantastic too, as they’re actually made from bamboo. There is a newer model that offers some tweaks, but these sound so good, and are $100 cheaper. Well worth checking out while they’re still available. Plug in your computer, your iPhone, your TV, anything you want to have better sound.
- 40% off a decent 5.1 sub/sat system ($119) Like many really inexpensive products, there aren’t a lot of professional reviews to go on. However, this $119 Yamaha has an average Amazon Customer Review rating of 4.4/5 from nearly 200 reviews (65% are 5 stars, 23% 4 stars). The 100-watt sub has an 8-inch driver, while the satellites have a 0.5-inch tweeter and 2.5-inch woofer. One Amazon reviewer liked them so much, he bought an additional set. For a little bit more, our Good Surround System pick has a better objective review track record, but the Yamaha is probably decent for the price.
- 34% off a highly-rated high-end home theater in a box ($730) Onkyo’s HT-S9400THX isn’t cheap, but has a 4.8/5 average review rating on Amazon, was received a positive 3.5/5 by Home Theater magazine, and is THX-certified. Tons of power, plus all the HDMI inputs you’ll need. The included receiver is actually a step up from our Solid Receiver pick.
- A decent 46-inch LCD for $700 ($800) Toshiba’s 46L5200U got 3/5 when reviewed by CNET. They said it had “good all-around performance for the price.” If you don’t want to go with plasma and our 50-inch TV pick, this is a great price on a decent 1080p TV.
- A good 60-inch plasma for $850 (was $1050) We picked Samsung’s step-down E450 series as our 50-inch TV pick. This PN60E530 is not only much larger, but also 1080p. It has a 4/5 star average on Amazon, and a 4.6/5 (111 reviews) on Best Buy’s website. Best Buy’s price is even lower than Amazon’s.
Tuesday, 11:32 pm, November 20th, 2012
- Save up to $3500 on a Leica M9. LensRentals are selling off some ex-rental gear for Black Friday. It’s 10% off across the board, plus 5% back as rental credit — great if you’re a photographer who wants to try some new stuff. At random times throughout the weekend, they’ll also be offering some major deals like the Canon 5D Mark III for $2200 (usually $3300) and the Leica M9 for $3,000 (usually $6500 new, $4500 used.)
- Best Buy is offering the Sony NEX-5R with kit lens, memory card and bag for $650 as opposed to the usual $750.
- Adorama has some incredible deals on refurbished camera gear. You can get the Nikon D5100 for $460 the Nikon D3100 for $370, the D7000 (body only) for $785, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II for $90, the Canon Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 for $350, the Canon 60D for $700, a Canon T3 for $420.
- Need a burner camera, that you’re not too worried about? The Canon A2300 is $80 absolutely everywhere (usually $110). If possible grab the version with free bag and memory card. Free is good. A step up is the Canon 110 HS for $130 at Best Buy, which usually runs $180.
- Save ~$100 on Rokinon MF lenses. The current Groupon goods deal is a pair of Rokinon lenses. the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 for $300-$320, depending on lens mount — which is $150 off list price, but more like $60 off street price. Likewise, the Rokinon 35mm f/1.5 is $400, around $100 off street price.
- Save up to $100 on B&H’s house brand Oben tripods. Oben is the house brand of tripods for B&H, and they’re pretty solid. Until the end of the year, B&H is offering some pretty decent discounts on much of the range. Of this lot, my pick would be a AC-2310L with ballhead for $120 as a decent piece of kit for a starter photographer (we’ve got a much bigger, better look at tripods in the works, if you want to wait for our top pick).
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
- Amazon has taken the wraps off of their Black Friday digital music sale, with popular albums starting at just $3.99
- Between November 20th and November 27th, Good Old Games is selling a collection of five classic games for $10. With 20 different titles to choose from, chances are you’ll find something you like.
- On Friday November 23rd, Apple will be holding their Black Friday sale online and in-store. As the deals are available online and in their retail stores, I say shop online. Anything you buy will be shipped for free. What deals will there be? No idea. But I can tell you that Apple was selling MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops for $100 off last year to give you some idea of what to expect.
- Amazon’s selling Corsair Force Series GT solid state SATA drives for under $1 per gigabyte, with a 120GB drive going for $118, 240GB for $214 and 480GB for $390.
- Photoshop CS6 for Mac and Windows are both on sale this week at Amazon for $500 and $545 respectively. Regular price is $700.
Monday, 6:47pm, November 19th, 2012
- This coupon will net you a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2011 for Mac for $70 at Best Buy. Considering the fact that it’s usually $120, that’s nothing but win (especially if you’re sick of dealing with Pages asking you to save to iCloud every time you open a new document.)
- Between November 23 and November 25 GameStop is selling a 160GB PlayStation 3 for $200 along with five free games and 30 free days worth of PlayStation Plus. That’s $115 off of the console’s regular price, and the games are gravy.
- Starting November 22 at 8pm, you’ll be able to get a Magellan RoadMate 2136T-LM GPS Receiver for $70. That’s 50% off.
- On November 22, 23 and 24th you can save $100 on a 14′ trampoline with a flex steel safety enclosure at Toys R Us. You children and immature friends will thank you.
- Menards is offering Stanley 10-gallon Wet Dry Vac for $40 — $25 off the regular price–until December 2.
Monday, 4:30, November 19th 2012:
- Blu-Rays!: Amazon’s got some great blu-ray and dvd deals: Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Eps I-VI) $70, Star Wars: Original Trilogy (Special Edition re-edit) $30, Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy $30, Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Edition $30, MacGyver: The Complete Series $35 (DVD only), Firefly: The Complete Series $13.
Monday, 2:15pm, November 19th, 2012:
- The Roku 2 XS is our favorite media streaming box, and Best Buy will have it for $80 on Black Friday. That’s 20 percent off the normal $100 price. The XD and Roku HD are also $20 off.
- Best Buy will be selling our favorite backup drive, the 3TB Seagate Backup Plus, for $100 on Black Friday. That’s $50 less than the normal price, and $40 less than Amazon.
- Overkill department: Get 32GB (4x8GB) of G.Skill DDR3/1600 for $110 at Newegg. That’s 35 percent off. If you’re building a new rig, you might as well get 32GB for a little over the price of four 4GB DIMMs.
- If you’re looking for a quiet PC chassis with good build quality, NewEgg has the Corsair 550D midtower chassis on sale for $115(or $90 if you bother with the $25 mail in rebate). This only lasts until November 21st, and you need the coupon code EMCJJJH34
- We like Lenovo Thinkpad laptops generally, and Lenovo is having a Black Friday sale of up to 20 percent off of a bunch of different Thinkpad models, including our favorite workhorse laptop, the Thinkpad T430. Use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY. The current deals last until the 21st, after which they will be replaced with new deals daily from the 22nd to the 25th.
Monday, 1pm, November 19th, 2012:
Note: we’re looking for deals across categories, but many don’t arrive until later this week. We’ll do another update before today is up, too.
- A fantastic Micro Four Thirds camera is the Panasonic GH2 for $500, usually $800 (one day only) Amazon’s Gold Box deal of the day is 50% Off Select Panasonic LUMIX G-Series Compact System Cameras. While the GF3 and the GF5 for $280 and $530 respectively are good deals, by far the best is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 for $500. This is a superb camera, especially if you’re at all interested in shooting video. It usually goes for $800-$900, and was the headline act for Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds cameras for a year. The new GH3 is on the way, but that’ll cost you $1300, and this is still an excellent camera. It’s not the smallest camera on the block, but it’s good, and especially well loved for its video capabilities. (For some reviews, check out these pieces by DPReview, PhotographyBlog, ePhotoZone, and Luminous Landscape.)
- You can actually stack this deal with Panasonic lens rebates that are going on right now. The lens rebates will run until December 1st, and of the lenses available, I’d recommend the wonderful pancake 20mm f/1.7 and 100-300mm f/4.0-f/5.6 long zoom. You should be able to knock $75 and $100 off those respectively.
- The Canon SX260 is our pick for pocket ultrazoom, and is only $200: Our choice for pocket ultrazoom right now is the Canon SX260 which normally goes for $290. However, Best Buy’s Black Friday sale will see this 20x zoom camera on sale for just $200 including a camera case and memory card.
- The Nikon D7000 With 18-105mm Lens is an aging camera, but still a good deal for $999/$1250. The Nikon D7000 is a damn good SLR, make no mistake, but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. That said, it’s still a workhorse, and a major player in the mid-range SLR market, even at its age. It usually goes for around $1000 just for the body, but Best Buy is offering a couple of great deals for Black Friday. You can pick up the D7000 with its kit 18-105mm lens (usually $1300) for a cool $1000 — you essentially get the lens for free. There’s also a bundle with the D7000, 18-105mm kit lens, 55-300mm lens, 32GB memory card, and Nikon bag all for $1250. That lens usually goes for $400, and got a nod by PopPhoto’s Dan Bracaglia in our Nikon lens roundup.
- Our Best Small TV Pick, now only $250 (usually $320) Samsung’s 32-inch UN32EH4003 is our pick for best small TV. A 22% drop in this price range is pretty good.
- A Good 50-inch 1080p Plasma for $600 (usually $700) Though not a huge discount, this is a lowest price we’ve seen on this TV. It’s our step-up pick for this size, and at this price only $50 more than the normal price of our 50-inch pick.
- Our 50-inch TV Pick, this week is only $480 (usually $550) Samsung’s 51-inch PN51E450 is our pick for a TV around 50-inches. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on this great TV, and one of the lowest priced 50-inch TVs available.
- A good 46-inch LED LCD $660 (was $1200) We picked the Sony KDL-46EX640 as the LCD option for our TV around 50-inches article. It was $1200 then. It’s only a little more than half that right now.
Sunday, November 18th 2012:
- Best Buy’s got a $99 Sony 3D Blu Ray player with built-in Wi-Fi to put in my bedroom. I’ll likely never use the 3D functionality, but for $99, it’s a nice add-on. The thing also does Netflix, Pandora, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, making for a solid all around connected box, especially at $50 off its regular price.
- GottaDeal.com noted that Sam’s Club is offering a $40 gift card to anyone that signs up for a membership as part of their Black Friday Sale.. I’ve been meaning to join anyway, as the chain provides brisk discounts on damn near anything you can think of all year-round, but having $40 to spend once I do is icing on the cake.
- Big Lots is knocking $110 off the price of a Simmons Overstuffed Rocking Recliner on Thursday. Perfect man-cave chair.
- Dell’s selling the Nikon J1 10.1MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with a 10-30mm Nikkor Lens for $400. It’s white, but it’s $200 off the thing’s regular price, so deal with it.
- Bed Bath & Beyond is Selling Dyson vacuums, fans and heaters for between $50 and $100 off of their regular price between November 23 and November 26. You can pick up our pricey runner up for Best Portable Heater the Dyson Hot for $300–$100 below its listed price on Amazon. That said, don’t count Amazon out just yet. The price for Dyson gear could drop before Black Friday rolls around. It could pay to check back frequently.
- Have a reader in your life you don’t like enough to buy a Kindle Paperwhite? Target’s selling the Nook Simple Touch E-Reader for $49 (regular $99.) While the Nook doesn’t have access to Amazon’s massive library of books right out of the box, you can fix that with a reasonably simple hack.
- My living room’s not big enough for a 50″ TV, but maybe yours is. FatWallet says that Sears is selling a 50″ Toshiba LED 1080p television for $300. That’s $500 off the LCD’s regular price. Crazy, right?
Find Your Own Deals
There’s hundreds of credible deal, coupon and clearance sites out there. Here’s a few that I like.
- The New York Times’ Claire Cain Miller offers some online shopping tips for the holidays.
- Gizmodo: All the black friday deals in one place. The list is unfiltered, so it includes good and bad, but you won’t miss a thing.
- GottaDeal.com: GottaDeal is easily my favourite bargain site. While it features a similar selection to the other bargain and deal aggregation sites, a series of drop down menus at the top of the page lets you filter the site’s data by store, the kind of merchandise you’re hunting for, shipping price, how long ago the deal was posted and how popular a deal it is. What’s more, GottaDeal offers one of the most comprehensive collections of deals, flyers and coupons that I’ve been able to find online.
- FatWallet.com: FatWallet’s a site that you’ll find offering great deals, sales and the occasional print-worth coupon year round. While there’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to how the site’s organized, it’s hard to argue with the low prices the site provides. But the best part about FatWallet isn’t the featured deals, it’s the site’s user forum, where you’ll find a ton of useful information on what’s cheap and how to get it that often gets overlooked by other deal aggregation sites.
- BlackFriday.com: Offering at-a-glance updates of deals from a wide number of major chain stores and online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Burlington Coat Factory, BlackFriday.com is a great jumping off point for anyone that wants to get a good deal on something, but aren’t quite sure what that something is just yet. The site also offers a selection of printable coupons, a wish list to keep track of your pursuits in avarice, and a email newsletter to let you know when new deals come to light.
- TheBlackFriday.com: While not as fast to register their website as BlackFriday.com, TheBlackFriday is almost just as useful as BlackFriday.com, but a bit more cluttered. Once you get past it’s eye-burning design, you’ll find that it offers a deep dive into the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that have gone untouched by a lot of other deal aggregation sites. At the time I wrote this guide up, the site was featuring scanned Black Friday ads from stores like Cabela’s, TigerDirect.com, Craft Warehouse and Pep Boys. Chances are, if you’ve got a hobby or passion, you’ll find something cheap to sate it here.
- Dealzmodo: Our friends at Gizmodo do an admirable job of pointing out some of the best online shopping deals around. It’s updated on a regular basis and, unlike many of the sites we’re talking about here, easy to read.
- Amazon Gold Box: Amazon’s typically cheaper to buy from than your average brick-and-mortar store, so when they put something on sale, it’s gonna be cheap. Updated daily, Gold Box is a treasure trove of low prices on the stuff you’ve been longing for and good deals on crap you never knew you wanted until you saw it for cheap. That said, there’s no real pattern to what they’ll have up for grabs from day-to-day, so you have to check back with it on a regular basis to really use the site effectively. That’s kind of a drag.
- Deal News: DealNews.com isn’t a traditional cheap shopping aggregation site but it definitely gets the job done. In addition to providing links to deals on hardware, electronics, clothing and anything else you can fit in a shopping cart, it also points out the occasional travel deal, will point you in the direction of cheap places to shop locally in a large number of different North American cities and even tip you off on what not to buy during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Ben’s Bargains: Ben’s Bargains has been around for a few years now, and typically features one or two things that I have to show some willpower to keep from buying every time I pay the site a visit. I find there’s a lot more deals on computer hardware, home theatre gear and general geek swag here than you’ll get from other sites, so for me anyway, it’s worth frequent visits if you’re in the market for something that plugs into the wall
- Decide.com: The price tracking site found out that waiting in line for things on black friday is a terrible idea, and that some things are cheaper before and after thanksgiving or Chrismas. You have to read this piece if you’re shopping this month.
- MaximumPC has a big list of PC related deals
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Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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