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.
At 12 years old, most of us could barely raise our textbook-filled backpacks, never mind $6.5 million in funding. But that's exactly what Silicon Valley 6th grader Arjun Mehta has done. Way back when he was in 5th grade (last year), Mehta started PlaySpan in the family garage. PlaySpan is a service that works with gaming companies to sell virtual goods inside of their online worlds -- rather fitting since the money to start PlaySpan came from the sale of virtual items Mehta had won by finishing quests in various games. Though the company has yet to launch, it claims to have already signed up seven game companies as customers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
steve said 8:22PM on 3-25-2008
Hi Chris, Welcome to the reality. How is this world going down the tubes. Should the investors in this new company not invest their money? Should they just give it away. Oh yeah they tried that already. It is called socialism and communism. Go find you a dictator to take all your money from you.
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Tom said 7:39AM on 4-01-2008
Hey, give me $6.5 million. I can invest it in a little thing called life. Whose going to get sued if he takes the money and runs? Remember now, he's under age.
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Bear said 10:03PM on 4-07-2008
Oh people shut your whining.
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Chris said 12:21PM on 9-20-2007
Wow. Some 6th graders can't even afford a winter coat to go to school in, some go to school and have to share textbooks becuase school funding is shot. This kid gets 6.5 million in funding for a GAME company that hasn't even lifted off of the ground yet. And we wonder why this world is going down the tubes. What wonderful priorities we all have.
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zakk said 7:04PM on 9-20-2007
It's sort of misleading saying that he's getting that much money. His company is getting the money sure, but he's not getting a chunk from it until the company takes off.
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kenshinro7 said 11:37AM on 9-21-2007
You know I was around his age when I and a group of my friends worked on a videogame concept, I was the leader of course at 13 yrs old, and had some very awesome ideas, since we were young it took us only 3 months to to do what a major company does in a whole year. Our computer teacher husband worked for atari who had conetions with midway games the makers of mortal combat. Well long story short her husband took our ideas we never got them back until the end of our school year some was missing and oh yeah we didn't have a real copyright, and so we were told that our ideas were not needed, yet they were stolen and used in various mortal combat games up until the last mortal combat that has come out, but they were smart they just stole moves from us not orginal characters and they stole death moves and styles that we had for our orginal characters, we received no funding but a big fat stealing ideas from innocent young kids that didn't know what a real copyright ment at that time. But good luck with this kid whoever he is and kudous too him.
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