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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
clakimpersonator said 12:04PM on 7-03-2008
This is sad
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J E Ellis said 12:27PM on 7-03-2008
confirmed
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Sharon said 12:53PM on 7-03-2008
This is quite the eye opener. I'm in a rural area with promises of broadband. Supposed to have been about 2 years ago! My son got it about 6 months ago and said it doesn't really make that much difference. Maybe I should reconsider my want list!
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quandmeme said 4:10PM on 7-03-2008
My political leanings are against regulation in general, but infrastructure is, in my view something which the community has an interest in and when market forces are failing, the government should provide leadership.
Cell phones and broadband are areas where other countries have implemented higher quality-solutions that end up being cheaper to customers. Once 3G is national, once DSL is everywhere, we're still caught looking backwards.
I think we have a national interest in higher quality information services and that the market forces are not sufficient. My vote is for regulation on this one.
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dwr50 said 6:45PM on 7-03-2008
High speed is great if like video's. It's necessary if your OS needs 500Mb patches (Apple). It is way overpriced.
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RC said 11:03PM on 7-03-2008
Just abolish dial-up. I hate seeing those stupid NetZero commercials "every internet provider takes you to the same internet, why pay more?"
Because broadband spanks dial-up.
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RC said 11:04PM on 7-03-2008
And broadband is pretty much available everywhere thanks to satellite internet.
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a said 12:33AM on 7-04-2008
I tried broad band from my telephone company and didn't like it people would get there e-meil back that where they were sending me and I got some back when I e-mailed people so I cancelled broad band from the telephone company and went back to dial up
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Tigre said 2:24AM on 7-04-2008
I'm in the boat that wants to get it but don't really like the price. I also don't like the fact that you might not get the advertised speeds that you signed up for and you just have to sit back and take. I want what I paid for.
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Daniel said 4:09AM on 7-04-2008
You think USA Net prices are expensive? Come Down Under for a while, my Yankee friends...your net prices are things that this sun-burned mega-island's inhabitants are green with envy for.
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Nick C said 9:18AM on 7-04-2008
Sure for basic web browsing its not that huge of a difference, but you'll notice it if you ever want to watch video online or stream music. And for the person above that was saying that it was her broadband connection that was making e-mail get sent back. Uhm honey that was your e-mail box. You probably exceeded the max space in your inbox. Depending on your provider you only get a few megs of space, which fills up pretty fast when you factor in spam and "save as new" messages. Had nothin' to do with your broadband connection. E-mail is not dependant on your computer. And if they couldn't get your messages, either their boxes were full too, or maybe your outgoing mail server wasn't set up right. And y'know you don't have to use your ISP's e-mail account, i never use mine. There is such a glut of free e-mail out there, or if you want to be cool, get a domain from like godaddy or something, and have your own account with your own domain name.
I love my DSL, sure sometimes it feels slow, but then that's partially my aging computers fault. When browsers suck up nearly 75 megs of Ram by themselves, connection's only as fast as your computer. I would never be without broadband. I'm a merchandiser and I need to send in my call reports online with pictures, and a 2meg picture takes a loooong time to send over a dial up connection versus a broadband line. Sure its more expensive than dial up, but you can actually USE IT, And its not monopolizing a phone line. When you factor in the cost of another phone line for your modem, and even a "bargain" provider, you're not that far away from even like 2megabit or higher broadband or cable internet. Not to mention that if you want to pay just a bit extra or if you've got a good ISP that gives you a nice modem, you can get wifi built right into your router/modem and with a fairly cheap wifi card on your computer or laptop, you don't even need to string a cable to the computer.
Dial up is good in a pinch, I'll admit that, but for my day to day, I'll take DSL any day.
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