Brad

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 :)

I wouldn't read too much into the Sunday sale part of the letter. IIRC, they always have a sale that starts the following Sunday (I think we posted that early last year too) so maybe they just want to cover all their bases. If we posted any of their other ads early they'd probably have been included in that e-mail as well. And as for the letter and us not getting one yet, maybe they decided to "partner" with one site (us) and have us release their ad in advance for them....

Nothing yet. I even heard from my WM affiliate rep today and he didn't mention anything about it, so the wait continues...

I know they usually have some pretty good deals at the Sport's Authority / Dick's / etc... type stores, so keep an eye out when those ads come out (they are usually some of the last ads to leak).

Looking forward to an in-depth 20 minute discussion of the pliers set in the ad

If anyone has good availability (especially early mornings and nights) for the next 6 weeks and has above-average typing skills and knows how to do basic image editing (resizing, cropping, etc...), I'm still looking for help with some things. PS, you'll get to see some ads before anyone else if you can do these things... PM me if you are interested.

LOL, I see some people are searching the forum for "haiku", maybe looking for past year's threads to copy from. Those threads have been hidden though, so save your time

The month is still early. I don't particularly remember any amazing deals in past Octobers. I think early November is when we normally start seeing the really good deals, but I could be wrong.

BLACK FRIDAY AD ITEM LISTINGS: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/BlackFridaySaleAds BLACK FRIDAY AD SCANS: 10/12 - Harbor Freight10/17 - Ace Hardware10/18 - Bath & Body Works10/21 - Half Price Books10/24 - BJ's Wholesale10/25 - Marine Exchange10/26 - RadioShack11/1 - Fred's11/3 - CVS Pharmacy (removed)11/3 - La-Z-Boy11/3 - Gordmans11/3 - Sears (partial)11/4 - Rite-Aid11/4 - AAFES11/4 - Bealls11/5 - Modell's11/5 - Kohl's11/5 - Costco11/6 - Hastings11/7 - JCPenney11/8 - Express11/8 - Bass Pro Shops11/8 - Cabela's11/9 - Staples11/10 - Walmart11/10 - Old Navy11/10 - Sports Authority11/10 - Dick's Sporting Goods11/10 - Sears Outlet11/10 - Navy Exchange11/10 - OfficeMax11/11 - Walgreens11/11 - Best Buy11/11 - Gander Mountain11/11 - Sam's Club11/12 - Toys R Us11/12 - GameStop11/12 - Jo-Ann Fabrics11/12 - Michael's11/12 - Tractor Supply11/13 - Menards11/13 - Sears Hardware11/13 - Guitar Center11/13 - Lowes11/13 - Kmart11/13 - A.C. Moore11/13 - Academy Sports11/14 - Macy's11/14 - Shopko11/14 - Rue2111/14 - Sears (complete)11/15 - Office Depot11/15 - Meijer11/15 - Kmart TG11/15 - Meijer TG11/16 - hhgregg11/17 - Petsmart11/17 - Dunham's11/17 - Big Lots