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)
plasalai said 4:23PM on 4-27-2009
im so tired of hearing about all these people that dont pay any attention. It's everyone elses fault that they dont understand their signed contracts and the ramifications of breaking the designated caps. If anything the phone company is completely in the right and should not take any money off any of these bills. Maybe that will open up the eyes of some of these people that just sign their name to things without knowing what it is.
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Steve said 5:03PM on 4-27-2009
Why do companies charge $60/month for 5GB on mobile broadband, which is $12/GB but then charge over $500 per GB on overage (ATT for example)? This guys plan must have been a lot more expensive than that. I know these companies CAN charge anything they want, but why be that greedy? How would you feel if you went to get your car repaired for $75/hr but after 5 hours they charged you $1000/hr? I got another gripe. Why can't they just cut off the download or warn you when you get to a realistic limit like double your normal bill? Why let it continue to $62,000?
plasalai said 5:09PM on 4-27-2009
its becasue there is a cap adn jsut like with minutes you get hit with huge overages also your not suppose to roam with those. He was in mexico which means he was roaming even if he had the international data plan it only gives you 150MB per month thats why it was soo high.
Also they do tell you how much that has been used. every carrier has software that must be installed on the computer in which to use the aircard and one of the main options will say something like usage so you can check that.
This really comes down to people not paying attention to the rules.
If your on the highway and your speeding and get caught and cant tell the cop sorry i didnt know the speed your still in the wrong.
brian said 6:24PM on 4-27-2009
This is called negligence. People need to understand how critical and serious is piracy. I think all wireless carriers as well ISPs should track IPs linking to illegal download websites...
http://www.livbit.com
MadMike said 5:06PM on 4-27-2009
There is absolutely no reason for the wireless companies to charge that much. That is complete crap.
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Walt said 5:55PM on 4-27-2009
I think this company should be free to charge its essentially criminal rate to this man. He should also publicize the name of the carrier so that the carrier can be met with general derision and contempt for such practices in the national media spotlight. Hopefully they would lose a great deal more than $62,000 in business as people fed up with the carrier consider this the last straw. And the free market and free press punish this sort of practice.
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Emmanuel said 8:53PM on 4-27-2009
I totally love that they blamed Mexico... LOL ! priceless !!
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Dylan said 9:49PM on 5-07-2009
That story is insane; I can't even begin to imagine what it was like to get a $62K phone bill, especially when that guy probably thought his downloading plan was somehow unlimited. Terrible! I wonder why he believed the plan was good to go--misrepresentation perhaps, or just a mistake? If there was any funny business going on, this particularly riles me because I work for the consumer advocacy website http://www.fixmycellbill.com, powered by a company called Validas, where we slash the average cell bill by 22 percent. It costs five bucks if you want to implement our suggested changes to your plan (the average consumer currently saves around $450 annually through us) but we will analyze your bill for free without any commitment of purchase, just to let you know exactly how many dollars your carrier is ripping you off by. I could go on and on about how shifty these cell companies can be in their attempts to make you overpay. We stop them and have currently put over $5,000,000 back in the pockets of consumers. You can check out Validas’s fixmycellbill.com in the national news media, most recently on Good Morning America at http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6887412&page=1.
Good luck to everyone in keeping your wireless expenses down in this rough economy.
Dylan
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