Brad

Heard from the printer today - shirts will be printed early next week, so I should have them soon. Also, I'll be including one of these new calendar magnets with each BF shirt I send out :) http://i.gottadeal.com/main/images/merch/calendar_magnet.jpg For everyone asking about other merchandise (grocery bags, etc) I'm going to ask that you wait until after BF when I have more free time and we'll figure something out to let people get what they want. Maybe I'll be able to clear out all the swag I have by the end of the year so I can get some new stuff for 2012. So if you want a chance to get some GD merch, don't leave after BF is over - we're open all year long.

If someone gets a copy and can scan it and send it in, please PM me :)

No release date, but those dates never mattered anyway. Once it's leaked, they'll realize they can't stop it from being spread and allow us to post it anyway, just like they've done the last few years. This whole "letter" song-and-dance really means nothing. Once it's "out there", we'll be able to post it soon thereafter, whether that happens next week or a month from now.

The letter has arrived. Cue the fake outrage and threats to never, ever, ever, ever shop at Walmart again, haha

Free necklaces and shipping for holiday shoppers? Desperate retailers are willing to lose money to get sales this holiday season Story: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Free-necklaces-and-shipping-apf-294817338.html

Just another local deal aggregator site. Like you said, no deals of their own - they just make $ when you buy one of the other site's deals through their site via affiliate links, just like we do on GD.

Last year you could buy it for $20 when you spent $40 or more on other items, so it'll probably be the same offer this year.

Pics added to OP. I've also added the offer to the BF site if people want to add it to their online BF shopping list.

Story: http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-data-points-to-modest-holiday-sales-2011-10?op=1 Some highlights: 62% of shoppers expect to shop on Black Friday this year, up from 54% last year and 49% in 2009. 45% of shoppers expressed concerns over the economy that would influence their spending this year, up from 38% the last 2 years. 64% of shoppers said they needed discounts between 30% and 50% to justify buying something, up from 54% last year Thoughts? If these hold true, you guys will have a bit more company while out shopping on BF this year compared to the last few years.

Maybe. They've sent physical letters in past years sent w/ overnight delivery. I think last year was the first year they only sent an e-mail.

Nothing yet. I've been checking every possible e-mail account they might have sent it to, but I'm sure it's coming eventually.

The app is basically a mobile version of the forum, so if you click the link in each BF ad thread, your phone should let you save the PDF file for the ad(s) you want to keep.

I doubt you'll see a B1G1F unless it's for much older titles. They won't do that on anything released recently.

http://www.startribune.com/business/131898003.html Interesting, but retailers will be cutting prices on these as Christmas gets closer, so one store being cheaper now doesn't mean they will be a month or two from now.

Welcome to GD, chrissylynn78 :)

http://i.gottadeal.com/main/images/merch/bfshirt2011.gif Another t-shirt contest! We've done this one the last few years and it's always been pretty fun, so we'll do it again. Below are 3 photos from past Black Fridays. Come up with a caption for each photo and post them in this thread. Entries will be accepted until 5pm ET on Friday afternoon. At that point, I'll choose 5 of my favorites to win Black Friday t-shirts and then (for those of you who aren't as creative, lol) I'll choose 5 more at random from all the other entries to also win shirts, so we're going to give away 10 total t-shirts for this contest! If you've already won a BF t-shirt in a previous contest, you can't be selected as a winner again, but you can still feel free to post your captions. Also, while you can feel free to post more than one set of captions, there is a limit of one entry for the contest per member. Good luck and here are the photos: PHOTO #1 http://i.gottadeal.com/blackfriday/images/caption1.jpg PHOTO #2 http://i.gottadeal.com/blackfriday/images/caption2.jpg PHOTO #3 http://i.gottadeal.com/blackfriday/images/caption3.jpg

Listing: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/BlackFridaySales/Store/AceHardware Scan: http://i.gottadeal.com/blackfriday/scans/GottaDeal-AceHardware-BF2011.pdf

I think he meant that the fact that those were the same prices the stuff was selling for now meant the BF prices haven't been posted yet.

everything will be on ustream as usual. we'll have an actual phone number to call in to. skype is not needed at all by anyone but bigjimslade. all the skype stuff will be behind the scenes.

The 5 t-shirt winners are: setlok73 Elmck Bopeep toninjack ajdana726 Congrats and look for a PM from me soon :)

See here for the past 5 or so years and guess from that history: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/dates.php

Just set up an account/number and sent the info to Dev. He should be able to take calls live on the show and maybe play voicemails that people leave when he's not on the air.

Looks like a number to have people call in would only be $18 for 3 months, which is fine. That would be easiest as everyone could just use their phone. We wouldn't use Skype for chatting or anything - it would just be a way for Dev to take calls live on our regular Ustream webcast/chat.

Hopefully we can just set up a Skype phone number so people can just call in with their phone - no tech expertise required.

Received a tip that all Macy's stores will be opening at midnight this year. As always, take it as a rumor until we can confirm it officially, but there you go :)