Brad

When they can't show a price until you go through checkout, there is usually something legally preventing them, such as a minimum advertised price set by a manufacturer. They can't show a price lower than $XX, so they make you actually go through the checkout process to show the price, which is somehow OK, lol.

Flat-screen TV prices to plunge for holiday season http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/23/technology/lcd_tv_prices/index.htm

Info is here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?182523-Dates-Ads-Were-Posted-(2006-2009)-amp-Ad-Item-Lists-(2003-2009)

Just a reminder that we have a big thread in the online deals sub-forum where you can find out the latest coupons (and post any new codes that you find). That threads is especially handy as Black Friday gets closer and the deals from Kohl's get better... View that thread here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?150164-Official-Kohls.com-Kohl-s-Online-Coupon-Code-Discussion-Thread

Here are the dates (according to our records) when various ads were posted during the past 5 years: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/images/dates.png 2010 Ads # 10/7 - Half Price Books # 10/18 - Harbor Freight # 10/22 - True Value # 10/26 - Ace Hardware # 10/28 - Freds # 11/3 - Gander Mountain # 11/4 - Bass Pro Shops # 11/4 - Kohl's # 11/5 - Sears # 11/6 - Walgreens # 11/7 - CVS Pharmacy # 11/7 - Macy's # 11/7 - Express # 11/8 - Tanger Outlets # 11/8 - Lowe's # 11/9 - AAFES # 11/9 - Target # 11/10 - RadioShack # 11/10 - RiteAid # 11/11 - Michael's # 11/11 - Toys R Us # 11/11 - Hastings # 11/11 - JCPenney # 11/11 - Costco # 11/11 - Sam's Club # 11/11 - Meijer # 11/12 - Best Buy # 11/13 - BJ's Wholesale # 11/14 - Menard's # 11/14 - Office Depot # 11/14 - AJ Wright # 11/15 - Big Lots # 11/15 - OfficeMax # 11/15 - Shopko # 11/15 - Walmart # 11/15 - Staples # 11/15 - Tractor Supply # 11/15 - Navy Exchange # 11/15 - Modell's # 11/16 - Kmart # 11/16 - JoAnn Fabric # 11/16 - Pep Boys # 11/17 - Cabela's # 11/17 - Dick's Sporting Goods # 11/17 - hhgregg # 11/18 - PetSmart # 11/18 - Burlington Coat Factory # 11/19 - Sports Authority # 11/19 - GameStop # 11/20 - Guitar Center And here are links to text lists of the items in the ads (at least the ones in our database) dating back to 2003: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2003.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2004.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2005.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2006.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2007.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2008.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2009.txt http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/2010.txt

The mobile skin can be accessed using the drop-down menu at the bottom left of every forum page. Or just go here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/forum.php?styleid=28

Our Walmart affiliate rep let me know today that I'd be once again hearing from our good friends at their legal rep's office about their BF ad very soon, lol. As with the past 2 years, they won't let us post the ad until 11/21 (the Sunday before BF). Before you get too upset (and make your annual pledge never shop at WM again ), don't be surprised if they let us post it earlier than that, basically as soon as it is first leaked. Say what you want about them, but the last 2 years they realized that they shouldn't punish sites that play by the rules when the ad is available elsewhere and have let us post it within a day or so of it being first leaked.

finally a new free shipping coupon. http://www.gottadeal.com/Coupons/Store/Kohlscom

There you all go - anyone who volunteered to help with the database stuff for the BF ads should contact SC about helping him as well. I've received so many responses that the majority of those who have volunteered simply won't be needed because there is only so much work and so many ads that we need help with, so if you want to help out, SC has another opportunity for you. And to those of you who claim all the deals get posted before you can, I don't believe that for a second We have very few deals posted on here compared to other sites. So go steal those deals if you have to! Keep in mind that our big holiday giveaway which will be announced very soon always involves posting deals, so if you want to increase your chances, learn how to find and post deals!

Great response so far. If only we could get as many volunteers to post deals here on the forum on a regular basis.... (hint hint)

Anyone who would like to volunteer, please PM me. While this has always been a "non-official" event, we want to make sure there is a smooth transition and that everything is handled well this year. Keep in mind that this role requires you to be VERY organized and spend a significant amount of time working on it, so PLEASE only volunteer if you know 100% you'll be able to handle it as you'll have A LOT of people counting on you. Thanks to eve for taking care of this these past years. She's done a great job and hopefully that can continue with the next volunteer.

It takes a small army of people to run the Black Friday site each year and while we already have a great group of people who've been helping in recent years, we could always use more people who are willing to be called on should the need arise if things get really busy. So basically we're looking for people who will have some free time to dedicate to the site. The time period will likely be the month leading up to Black Friday - late October through late November - when 95% of the ads are released. There are no set hours or anything - we're just looking for people who will be around and will likely have time to do some work. Some of the tasks we might need help with include: - entering sale ad item info into database (item, category, price, etc....) - finding sale ad items on store web sites and making a list of links - cropping ad scans into individual item pics for posting on the BF site - contacting the media to suggest story ideas / e-mailing our press releases - various online promotion for the site (responding to news/blogs, etc...) - emergency forum mods (not too likely, but possible if things get busy) So if you are interested, send me a PM and let me know 1) what things you'd feel comfortable doing from the list above and 2) what skills/experience you have that might help you with these tasks. Please only volunteer if you truly believe you'll have the time and are comfortable with doing the kind of work listed above. While these are volunteer positions, should you help out you will be rewarded for your time. You might also get other perks such as seeing ads before anyone else. Thanks :)

The 5 winners are (drumroll please...): Gator Pam cherry33778 his_lil_gemini teach2nuts mcwalker Congrats. You'll be PMed shortly to get your shipping information. Look for another contest soon. And don't worry, we have plenty more shirts to give away and 2 months to do so, so just be patient...

Bumping this for today. If you are using the app (and like it), please take a minute to leave a review for it. Thanks :)

Contest is now closed. Winners will be announced later today.

Android people can use the standard mobile skin. Works fine for me on my BB. Or code an Android app and we'll use that too, lol

Well you can still use tapatalk with other forums that you visit that support it I guess. This app is made by the people who make Forum Runner which is a similar app to Taptalk that lets you browse many other forums. However there is a free and "pro" version of that app. So basically we pay $250/year so that everyone who downloads the GD app gets all the features of the "pro" version for free. That cost also includes updates, bug fixes, etc...

Some of you didn't read the whole 10-words-or-less part, lol.

Maybe we'll have to give away an iPad this year to celebrate the launch of this app...

We had a little app made up that would allow you to more quickly browse the forums on your iOS mobile device. If you are interested in downloading it (it's totally FREE!), go here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/gottadeal-com/id391431083?mt=8# For other devices, we also have an updated mobile "skin" which you can access from the drop-down menu at the bottom left of every forum page. Enjoy, and if you download the app, be sure to leave us a glowing, 5-star review (even if you don't like it, lol). We hope to have a full GottaDeal.com app within the next year that has the forum, the latest deals, Black Friday sales, etc... but this will definitely make browsing the forum easier for those of you with these devices.

We had a little app made up that would allow you to more quickly browse the forums on your iOS mobile device. If you are interested in downloading it (it's totally FREE!), go here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/gottadeal-com/id391431083?mt=8# For other devices, we also have an updated mobile "skin" which you can access from the drop-down menu at the bottom left of every forum page. Enjoy, and if you download the app, be sure to leave us a glowing, 5-star review (even if you don't like it, lol). We hope to have a full GottaDeal.com app within the next year that has the forum, the latest deals, Black Friday sales, etc... but this will definitely make browsing the forum easier for those of you with these devices.

There isn't really a good way to tell the record at one given point in time, but for example during the week of Black Friday last year, at any given minute we had on average nearly 4,000 people on the Black Friday site. This is over 24 hours of course, so during peak times you're probably looking at 10,000+ actively using the site. I got the 4,000 number by taking the number of visits * the average time spent on the site / the number of minutes in a day. The forum record is kind of unofficial because you are considered "active" for 15 minutes after your last activity, so we don't know how many of those 3,677 that set the record were actually active at that time.

We don't send people to the forum as much as we used to back in 06 and 07 as we'd rather keep them on the actual Black Friday site for several reasons, so it's doubtful that record will be broke anytime soon. The number of people on the actual Black Friday site at any given time during the week of Black Friday is probabaly 5-10x that number.

Time for another t-shirt contest. This contest will run until noon ET on Monday morning. To be entered, simply reply to this thread and in 10 words or less, tell us why you love Black Friday! On Monday I'll randomly select 5 people who reply to win Black Friday t-shirts. Easy enough? I thought so :)

Shirts will be printed on Monday so I should have them soon. Next contest within the next 24 hours..... could be here on the forum, could be on the BF site, could be Facebook, Twitter, ????