Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.
Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.
Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.
Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.
HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.
HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.
HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.
GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.
Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.
Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.
Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.
Considering all of the packaging, plastic, paper booklets, fuel costs and everything else that goes into delivering your favorite artist's CD to the music store, it would seem that downloading is definitely the Earth-conscious way to go. And true enough, downloaded music's ecological impact is half that of the store-bought variety. But when you start burning your downloaded music onto blank CDs, the Earth-friendly aspects of MP3s go out the door. According to Digital Europe, a research project formed to study the sustainable development of technology, the energy used by your computer to burn music onto blank CDs is more than three times more harmful to the environment than plain old store-bought CDs. 
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Richard Englefield said 7:04AM on 4-19-2007
An interesting story. I question the veracity of the content which suggests a thirty second download to CD is harmful to the environment. Should we all cease and desist using our computers?
Richard
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Edward said 7:48AM on 4-19-2007
Wow, is that the new discovery? If yes, danger looms around us. Now how should one deal with this kind of issues? I mean is buying be considered the best option rather than burning from once PC?
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Keith said 7:43AM on 4-19-2007
THE SKY IS FALLING...THE SKY IS FALLING...THE SKY IS FALLING !!!!!!!!
Believing the environmentalist wacko mantra is a sign of mental defect.
If we listened to all they say we'd conclude,the only way man can stop destroying the planet is if we all stopped breating simultaneously. But,then our decomposing corpses would probably cause even more environmental damage.
The biggest green house gas polluter in the State of Washington in the year 2005 was Mt.Rainier.What do we do go put a cork in the volcano!?!?!?!?!?
The Earth is renewable,Lake Erie proves that.Back in the '60s and early'70s the lake was pretty much dead.Decades of industrial dumping had killed the fish and polluted the beaches turning one of the Great Lakes into a large wet landfill for all intense purposes.When dumping was put to an end the lake,over a period of time,cleaned itself and is now a recreational destination for millions of midwesterners.Granted there were some man made efforts to cleaning up Lake Erie but,a huge majority of the lake's cleanup was natural.
Uncontrolled pollution is a threat to us as human beings but,not to the planet.If we went back to the ways we had before,we could and would cause our own extinction.But,to say that man is destroying the planet is awful conceited.Only God can destroy this planet.We can destroy ourselves and do some damage but,after we're gone,the planet will live on and heal itself.
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Sue said 8:06AM on 4-19-2007
Interesting thought, but two plus two doesn't equal four here. So if we at home burn a CD its three times more harmful as compared to a store bought one. I'm sorry did a new technology come out that I'm unaware of, to my understand the music industry has to burn to CD's in the same manner we would, but of course on a much larger scale.
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KAM said 8:08AM on 4-19-2007
Keith
You mentioned a great point, a perfect example. And you didn't even realize it.
How did Lake Erie prove the earth can renew itself when it was Man who screwed it up and THEN Man who helped fix it? We dumped in it, hurt it badly - then we saw our errors and stopped hurting it.
This "sky is falling" as you call it is the same thing. A realization that Mans ways are hurting a living breathing thing, and we need more controls to HELP it renew itself.
Being defensive and arguing isn't the way. Being aware is an important first step to any change. Just make as many changes as we can, each be willing to sacrifice as we can. Is it such a big deal to conserve electricity, change a few lightbulbs, and save some gas? It's a win/win come time to pay our own bills as well!
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chuck said 8:19AM on 4-19-2007
"the energy used by your computer to burn music onto blank CDs is more than three times more harmful to the environment than plain old store-bought CDs"
yeah, but you can put, what 150+ mp3s onto a CD-R versus 15 on a store bought CD?
so 10x fewer burned CD-Rs then CDs bought, for the same music.
so the net result of burning at home is still better.
great analysis guys.
chuck
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Bob said 8:24AM on 4-19-2007
I can just see Al Gore and staffers driving in a motorcade of SUV's to the store to buy music so they won't pollute by burning to CD's themselves.
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pup45 said 8:36AM on 4-19-2007
Bob, you have obviously got your political glasses on, so you cannot see anything!!
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Andrew said 8:52AM on 4-19-2007
What a weak report full of liberal produced farces & lies. Go ahead and take advantage the lie-of-the-day so you can elevate your own pseudo fame by having your name attached to a story. If you really cared, and we know you don't, you would turn your computer off for ever and walk home before it gets dark. I hope you don't have a refrigerator and TV which operates from fossil fuels that produce electricity. Shouldn't turn the lights on when it gets dark as well because it comes from power plants that produce billions of tons of pollutants despite most of it is captured before leaving the stack. Take a guess what water treatment plants operate off of to provide you drinking water. And please do not tell me your mail is delivered by gas guzzling mail trucks! This could continue with everything you use on a daily basis.
AOL has turned into a site generating too much liberal pollution of its own by allowing reports like this one to be posted. Hear the lie long enough and someone will believe it.
Andrew
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MrsMom said 9:26AM on 4-19-2007
The thing is, there've been a lot of environmental successes, and each one was initiated despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth of industry. We outlawed DDT and saved the pelicans, we outlawed CFCs in lots of products and saved the ozone layer, CA required fuel and emissions standards and cleaned up its air. Each time we were told it would be the end of the car or air conditioning or deodorant industries. We can do these things, but we have to accept change and act responsibly with a will to do what's right, not what's convenient.
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laila said 11:30AM on 4-19-2007
you guys can say all you want now, but, when disaster hits the
earth,
which difinitely will, it has in the past and it will in the future,
then you will wish that you had'nt been so ignorant! do you realize
that one second of your life is more precious than millions of cds?
i wonder what would music mean to you when you are finally hit with
the reality? are you going to be fighting for your life with the
music playing in the back ground? if you value your life, and
specially if you have children of your own, then not only will you
make these small sacrifices, but you will encourage every one that
you know, your family and your friends to do the same! i dont know
how educated you guys are, but i believe the word of a scientist who
has spent years and years of his/her life studying, reading,
experimenting, investigating, digging, and discovering the tragic
truth about our earth, any time over your words! what would these
scientists possibly gain by spreading these fabricated lies and
exagerations about the future of our earth? there is no monetary
gains for them......but if everyone listened, adheared, cared, and
made positive changes to consuming energy in their daily lives, then,
these scientists might gain something.......they might gain something
which is abslutely priceless........they might gain the gift of life!
and we just might benefit from their gain as well!!! have you ever
thought about that???
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Zing said 11:43AM on 4-19-2007
Well, I see the "Pave The Earth" crowd is weighing in with the usual Republi-cr@p.
According to Andrew,
"What a weak report full of liberal produced farces & lies. Go ahead and take advantage the lie-of-the-day so you can elevate your own pseudo fame by having your name attached to a story."
Andrew, try clicking your heels together and saying "Liberal" three times. It won't change much of anything, and it will look pretty stupid. But then...
"AOL has turned into a site generating too much liberal pollution of its own by allowing reports like this one to be posted."
Sorry Andrew, you're forgetting about freedom of speech. I know it's difficult. I keep forgetting that the constitution doesn't matter (except of course the part about the right to purchase assault weapons. That part is sacred!)
This crowd will be whining just as laoudly about the need for universal health care when they come down with environmentally induced cancers a few years down the line.
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Randy said 2:43PM on 4-19-2007
Each year, billions of CD's and DVD's are manufactured, while millions of these discs end up in landfills and incinerators. For those of you who would like more information on the environmental impact of this, visit our website. There is a new disc recycling campaign to help the environment.
http://www.cdrecyclingcenter.com/
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