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.
Every so often it's nice to cover a story with a happy ending. Here's a new one: When Verizon upgraded the phone system in his hometown of Irvington, NY, 80-year-old widower Charles Whiting lost the outgoing message -- recorded by his late wife Catherine -- on his voicemail system. Whiting would call his voicemail everyday just to hear her voice, and feel like she was still with him.
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
debi said 7:10PM on 3-19-2008
that is such a great story...i'm glad he's able to listen to his wife's voice everyday. it's so sweet..
Reply
Kathy Klisch said 8:02AM on 3-20-2008
Can I get My Mom's recording from her old telephone number? It has been 12 years. It was the only voice recording we had. Kathy
Reply
Gwen said 2:07PM on 3-20-2008
way to go Verizon! such a nice thing to do for someone!
Reply
cheri said 2:07PM on 3-20-2008
Why does Verizon keep our personal messages anyway?
Reply
Joe Blow said 2:12PM on 3-20-2008
Wow, finally a nice story...thats refreshing. Instead of death and mayhem, the media should try articles like this more often.
Reply
Lillian said 2:14PM on 3-20-2008
That is great for this particular situation, it is so sweet for him to have the voice of his loved one back!!!!
The only thing that bothers me is that these companies have our phone messages???? I also wonder why they would keep outgoing messages???
For what purpose???
It's a little too creepy.
Reply
larry said 2:18PM on 3-20-2008
Thumbs up for Verizon! Such a thoughtful thing to do. There are still people in the world that are compasionate. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.
Reply
Lon Horiuchi V said 2:18PM on 3-20-2008
Part of "CONDITIONING" is when we're sold bs like this as a way of "conditioning" us to think that retaining information on us in dossiers is a good thing.
We've just been advised that another form of electronic communication is being archived against us, but it was done in a pretty wrapper like this love story.
This is NOT a good thing.
Communications between people are private, and are not the property of anyone else simply because they're not sent through the Post Office.
Reply
BARB said 2:19PM on 3-20-2008
THAT IS GREAT THAT VERIZON CAN FIND OLD VOICEMAILS, BUT WHAT ABOUT
PROVIDING CUSTOMER SERVICE TO THEIR EXISTING FIOS CUSTOMERS?????
I WAS ON HOLD FOR 6 HOURS THE OTHER DAY, WAS THAT SO THEY COULD RETRIEVE AN OLD VOICE
RECORDING??? PROBABLY!!
Reply
JanLar said 2:20PM on 3-20-2008
This man is a neighbor of mine, and after reading about this in the local paper I was in tears. Although I questioned why he had not taken videorecordings of all their trips together, that too would have helped ease his heartache. I too have messages left on my answering machine from people who are very dear to me and because I almost lost my Mom in a so called simple operation, the first thing I did when I got home from the hospital was listen to her sweet messages she had left me and then ran to Staples for a mini tape recorder. I now save all my messages from the people I love that way. I am so happy he was able to get his message back, but please sir, get a tape recorder and tape it over and over on the tape for future problems may arise such as power outages have erased my messages in the past.
Reply
bruce laudeman said 2:26PM on 3-20-2008
great thing to do verizon
Reply
jack said 2:33PM on 3-20-2008
Verizon is such a crappy company..I think it is great they would finally do something to help a customer!
Reply
RuttRoh24 said 2:23PM on 3-20-2008
I have been with every phone company out there and Verizon is the best. Barb, six hours on hold???? Sounds like you got bigger problems.
Reply
Chris said 2:26PM on 3-20-2008
Makes me ashamed for all the smack ive talked about verizon. Someone deserves a raise...
Reply
laineyb said 2:28PM on 3-20-2008
Oh for the love of god, you people are freaking paranoid! If Verizon did not keep a copy of your outgoing message, how the heck do you expect it to be played for anyone? It is not like your phone stores the message, of course it is sitting on a server somewhere.
Reply
Mark said 2:28PM on 3-20-2008
This is a voice message recorded for the purpose of collecting messages. "Hi, this is so and so leave a message at the beep" They weren't recording peivate messaages.
Reply
undrgrndgirl said 2:28PM on 3-20-2008
good on ya verizon! how wonderful for this man...after losing my soul mate last june i know how important the seemingly trivial things - like having a voice recording - can be...
Reply
james carter said 2:30PM on 3-20-2008
its good that verizon cares about people thats better than att. who only cares about $$$$$$$ if they had to do this for him they would have charged him.
Reply
laineyb said 2:47PM on 3-20-2008
Barb, if you stayed on hold for anything other than, say, a couple million dollars - you might want to try therapy. JMHO
Reply
BJTurner said 2:32PM on 3-20-2008
Just a response to those who don't know that there voice mail and out going msg are recorded in all telephone company data bases not on their home answer machines so the only msgs that are stored are the ones you put there how else could you use your cell phone? Nice story
Reply