How would you grade this year's Black Friday deals?

iGen

iGen

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I'd grade this year's deals as an 'F'.

I went to Best Buy, Target and ToysRUs, and walked out of each store empty-handed.

It seems like retailers are being particularly stingy this year to meet Wall St earnings estimates.

 
Walked out empty-handed because of stock issues or because the prices weren't low enough for you?  If it's because of stock issues, I sympathize.  If the latter, you either already had every single game or system put on sale or lacked the funds to take advantage of the sales.  I ended up with every video game-related item I wanted (and a few for friends) at Best Buy using GCU to get 20% off already low prices.  

The list of $24.99 games for XB1/PS4 reduced to $19.99 with GCU was pretty good:  Shadow of Mordor, The Evil Within, Metro Redux, Wolfenstein, Forza 5 GOTY, Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse (with all DLC).  The higher priced tiers were also competitive and even better with GCU - picked up Alien : Isolation, NBA 2K15 and Diablo III Ultimate because I'd waited on those knowing prices would be better during Black Friday sales.

XB1 and PS4 controllers at $39.99 each, including the higher retail priced Call of Duty Advanced Warfare XB1 controller.  

Flat screens of all sizes were at some of the most reasonable prices ever.  The Target XB1 Assassin's Creed bundle w/ the $50 gift card for $329 was probably one of the best BF console sales in awhile.  The only really weak bundles were for Wii U systems.

Some CAGs had foresight to bank some of their gift cards from trade-ins (like Target's first 3x deal or BB's many +50% or +100% offers) to lower their out-of-pocket expenses for the specials.  

I buy a ton of games for myself, son, nephews, etc and even I found bargains that couldn't be passed on.  Black Friday is what you make of it.  Sorry to hear your story wasn't a happy one.  

What were you looking for that you couldn't find?  There are CAGs in the trade forums who offer their BB GCU discount to those who don't have if themselves, and I'm sure at least one of them could've had opportunity to get stuff in the Early Access online event.

 
I consider the deals relative to previous Black Fridays, and relative to promotions during other times of the year.

I do have GCU (and Elite Plus) and I know how to take advantage of them.

A lot of games may be $20 off or 50% off but those are marked down from MSRP.  Look at what they're trading for on EBAY or Amazon Marketplace to see their true value.  This year, there were very few products that I couldn't get on EBAY for the same price or lower, not even considering sales tax.

As for the flat screen TVs, my local Best Buy had < 40 Panasonic TVs ($200) in a city with population of ~half a million. People had been camping out since beginning of this week.

 
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I ordered Disney Infinity 2.0 yesterday on Best Buy for $31.99 for my son.  And ordered some DVD's.  For the most part, I don't depend BF for a lot of deals.  I had no plans to buy anything yesterday or today.  So anything I did buy, was good.

 
If they dropped this PM/Deal ban during BF weekend, it would have been so awesome to pick up an xbox one with Halo MCC from BB..  Everywhere pretty much was selling the system as low as 329.99.

My friend picked up his XB1 from Walmart.   They had a nice deal but not worth the walmart rush.  I could have gone in and used 150 in visa gift cards, and 175 in RZC at BB and pay a little out of pocket.... The AC bundle wasn't worth it.

 
I was sad there wasn't a deal on super mario 3d world other then ebay don't know how use ebay. It's the only good wii u game I don't have but got a few things I really wanted.
 
I didn't think it was that great for games. I was hoping someone would have a deal on Super Mario 3D World but nothing, outside of B1G1 X% off. Kinda surprised since Hyrule Warriors and MK8 got some decent discounts. I did lack out on some cheap, older games but still, I didn't spend that much this year.

LoveDragonDon said:
I am most disappointed with this year's Collector's Editions sales. NONE at all! :(
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It seems like a more CEs these days sell out than they did in prior years or stores are ordering fewer units and/or more flippers/resellers. Either way, I don't see many CEs lining up the sheves of stores these days like I did in the past. I think I purchased like 3-4 CEs this year but all at full price.

 
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Wolfentein Panzerhund Edition $50
Disney Infinity 2.0 starter $32
LotR Shadow of Mordor $20
Walking Dead season 2 $16
InFamous Second Son $13
Tomb Raider Definitive Edition $13
Sly Cooper 4 $6

Plus a bunch of DI figures that I won't bother listing.

Oh, and all my shopping was 100% online. Yeah, just terrible year for Black Friday.
 
I bought a second DualShock 4, so my kids can play LitteBigPlanet 3 together.

I had almost no interest in the games offered at sale prices. The one I did, Diablo, I already had. I know, deals make people excited, but most of the games were not that great for my tastes.

iGen said:
I consider the deals relative to previous Black Fridays, and relative to promotions during other times of the year.

This year, there were very few products that I couldn't get on EBAY for the same price or lower, not even considering sales tax.

As for the flat screen TVs, my local Best Buy had &lt; 40 Panasonic TVs ($200) in a city with population of ~half a million. People had been camping out since beginning of this week.
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I've found that superbowl week has better TV deals, and you don't have to fight crowds for the super low spec tv's. You can get a higher spec for the same price during the superbowl.

I bought a few years ago, a sony WiFi LED tv for $999 with PS3. The same TV during black friday week, was $1099.

 
I think the prices were good, selection kinda meh though. I only ended buying a few things just for the hell of it and saw no instant buys I had to get. Game-wise I got the new Disney Infinity set and Diablo 3. Amazing deals on the PS4 and One though, too bad I already upgraded.

 
Money's tough to come by, so I had less to spend this year. Plus Best Buy, being the only video store within walking distance, had better stock online rather than in store. It's a C because it's the same as last year. I've had better deals year long, but at least I got Arrow S2 for $10.

 
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Best Buy - A, Sears - C (would have been A except for the horrible website problems and store pickup inventory not being accurate), everyone else - F

 
Between Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday, I had a couple of pickups. 

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition for :ps3: ($19.99)
Assassin's Creed Rogue for :360: ($35 even)
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for :360: ($29.99 + tax)
Destiny for :360: ($31 and some change)

Not bad. Better than I've done the last couple years. Although I heard that Rogue was on sale as a Flash deal for 25 bucks. Still kicking my own ass about missing that one. Didn't even know it was going on until after I ordered my copy for $35.

 
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