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.
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Thomas said 2:19AM on 8-17-2008
you must have worked at a crapy HUB or either had bad management because we get in alot of trouble if we dont use a good hand to surface method.. dont use one hub to determine the entire handling of all Ups locations nation wide. How naive...And obviously you sucked at it and got fired. Now you still have harsh feelings toward the company and will go to any extent to try and ruin them.. what a slime.. They spend more money a year training thier employees than you will ever make in a lifetime buddy. Training them to be successful at thier jobs with a small chance punks like you will listen and apply the skills they have to offer.
Thomas Franklin
Montgomery AL hub
Reply
tfranklin29 said 4:48PM on 8-17-2008
you must have worked at a crapy HUB or either had bad management because we get in alot of trouble if we dont use a good hand to surface method.. dont use one hub to determine the entire handling of all Ups locations nation wide. How naive...And obviously you sucked at it and got fired. Now you still have harsh feelings toward the company and will go to any extent to try and ruin them.. what a slime.. They spend more money a year training thier employees than you will ever make in a lifetime buddy. Training them to be successful at thier jobs with a small chance punks like you will listen and apply the skills they have to offer.
Thomas Franklin
Montgomery AL hub
Reply
rafael said 2:16PM on 10-26-2009
Oh yeah, well I know some other guy who knew a friend who saw a UPS guy save a package from a burning building. The whole "I heard/saw/imagined something bad so that implicates the whole company" is just more of the American tendency to jump to conclusions and generalize without knowing the whole story. From the video it looks like this guy was having to wade through poorly tended vegetation and spider webs, and the box looks like it is light enough to contain something unbreakable. So maybe it's partly the fault of the homeowner for not keeping his property in better shape? There's actually no rule that says a driver has to cross onto an undesirable property. Looks like this guy made his delivery, no harm, no foul. Find something else to blow out of proportion.
Reply
Chris said 2:08PM on 8-17-2007
Ummm... I have news for all of you. I worked for UPS, and whatever you catch a driver doing out in the open is NOTHING compared to what goes on in the hubs. I loaded UPS trailers for a year and a half, and on numerous occasions I was told by managers and higher ranking officials that to speed up the loading, I should THROW... computers into the trailers. Most trailers have skids that the packages slide down, but some areas of hubs don't, and a loader must manually walk the package into the trailer, then walk back out to get the next package. So yeah, I was basically ordered to hurl peoples' and businesses' computers costing thousands of dollars to the back of trailers. UPS really doesn't care what you're shipping, they won't handle it with care once they get your money.
Reply
John said 2:37PM on 9-15-2007
I would like to see the person who wrote the caption for this video get in the drivers seat of a ups truck. It takes a real man to sit at a computer and criticize other hard working people. Theres plenty of reason why this driver did that. He could have had permission from the owner of the house, there could have been a dog, the package could have been clothes, it could have been a friend of the driver. If more people worked like we did America would be in better shape. Also, in response to the comment by Chris, remember "hand to surface"? Hurling the package is why you WORKED for UPS and are no longer there. We spend everyday working our butts off for our customers from sun up to way after sun down. Have some respect.
Reply
Neil said 6:24PM on 1-04-2008
So you think that it could have been clothes or the owner gave permission HA! that is real funny. When I loaded trucks for UPS we did throw packages just like the first guy said thats how we were told to do things. I also worked on the sort isle were packages are constantly thrown especially when that belt got jammed up. When I started doing deliveries we would come back another time if their was a dog. So what are you talking about? What he did was "Pure Laziness" thats why he threw the package. You might not want to admit that cause that is were your income comes from. I will say that it is hard work but thats no excuse. I worked for UPS for 5 years until I quit to do other things.
Reply
Merry said 3:35PM on 1-07-2008
Well - that explains some of the packages I receive. Somehow, I'm not surprised
Reply
Julie said 8:14PM on 1-07-2008
I knew a former UPS driver that said drivers would ditch the packages in empty lots if they couldn't find the address.
Reply