First time doing Black Friday...

Over the past few years I've been tempted to do some Black Friday shopping but never have. I've seen the deals, been amazed and jealous all at the same time.

This year, given that I now have a child and budgeting is more important, I intend on taking full advantage of the deals.

One thing I can't seem to figure out is what to expect? I was hoping to get a Wii U and a new television, but if there is a great Xbox One deal or PS4 then I won't pass it up. ( Hell, I may go for a PS VITA at this point. )

I've noticed a lot of the great deals people get are based on them having previous giftcards or price matches or secret ninja tricks? I also can't find a list of sorts of previous BF deals for gaming consoles.

I don't have a specific question really but more of a general WTF DO I DO?

I realize it may seem like I've been lazy but I assure you I've looked things up and all I know is that its good to be prepared and there is hysteria on BF but I have no idea how to approach getting the best deal or what to expect at all.

Any help?

Ok so Black Friday changes every year. Last year the push began to open late on Thanksgiving Day from 7pm to 10pm.

For Walmart, Best-Buy you usually have to arrive 1-2 hours early. If you arrive at opening time you are too late. At many stores at opening time you will have to park in the very back of the parking lot.  If you show up at noon on BF the workers will laugh at you. There are "hardcores" that arrive 4-6 hours early" so there is a chance you might not get your high profile item even 1-2 hours early.

At Gamestop, you have a good chance of getting your item arriving at opening time. Honestly when I try to hit a big box store everything I want is sold out and I just buy something on sale as a consolation prize.

Best Buy and Gamestop have been putting most of their deals online. Walmart has online deals too. For the last two years I really didn't do any shopping at a store. I would just go to Best-Buy.com at 10pm on Thankgiving day, order my game, and go eat some more food.

Also Amazon puts a list of items they have on sale for each day for about a week during that time. Amazon is also SUPER aggressive about price matching. So I was disappointed about buying Tales of Xillia at midnight from a Gamestop store when Amazon price matched it.

For info I like to check http://bfads.net/. Honestly though just check CAG during the week, Thanksgiving day, and Black Friday. Your fellow CAGers will post a lot of deals too.

Easiest piece of advice, help the family relative who goes to Black Friday sales, like your mom. She can give you the tools to find the deals you want, from knowing where to find them, and how to keep track of them.

Of course, you can forgo all that and buy a Amazon gift card and stay in.

Go early, drink a bnch of red bulls, be prepared to defend yourself if you get attacked, either in a store or outside.

GameStop opens at midnight on Black Friday so if you miss the Walmart/Target/BB/TRU Thanksgiving night openings then you have another chance a few hours later.

detectiveconan16 said:

Of course, you can forgo all that and buy a Amazon gift card and stay in.

Click to expand...

Why would you buy an Amazon gift card, as opposed to just buying Amazon items directly?

Do Amazon gift cards go on sale for less than their face value? o_o Where?!

I plan on trying to score everything I want from online sites.

Unless it's a bang up deal that I can't pass on, then I may hit a brick and mortar, but I don't like to deal with a gaggle of turkeys as it is heh.

I did Black Friday for a couple of years when I was just out of college but for me it's really not worth it. As Zero stated, BB and other places put their deals on-line and I expect that to continue. Last year, I wanted to get the 360 bundle w 4 games and to my luck it was available the morning of on-line so I snatched it up.

Amazon seems to PM pretty much everything I want. I don't think I left my house the last two years and I got pretty much everything I wanted, though Amazon does a lot of timed deals. 

Either way, it's not worth it for me to wait out in the freezing cold or go through crowds of people. 

Thanks for all the feedback. Its likely I will be staying home now.

Don't sleep!

I'm hoping to get a new tv and maybe an xbox one. As for some info on what to expect, well from my experience, expect a lot of people, who will get in your way a lot. I remember going a few years back when a mound of people were stuck at the door waiting for the store to open, and once it would open, people charged right through. It's kind of crazy how people act when it comes to store wide deals.