TazErase

I'm aware of this because I have had offers as well. JayMacFla is one of the first people on line and is a BF veteran. I have had numerous offers over the years to pick up items and they give me a small fee because they know I'll be first on line, and they don't feel like spending all day on lines. For example, last year I picked up a DSLR camera for my dad, for family I have never asked for a penny, but if I remember correctly it was a $1700 camera for about $900. For an $800 savings, if I was looking to pick it up for someone else I could easily get about $80 for it, probably double. There is also the fact that she could be picking it up for other people and not asking for anything extra, but still someone else's money that she is spending.

Taking an 11 month old and a 23 month old on Black Friday will definately earn you a lot of evil glares from other shoppers. If there truly is no other option, one of the best things i could recommend is make sure you get a carriage and put the youngest ones in there to prevent them from getting trampled. Keep the others VERY close to the carriage and tell them not to let go. Taking 5 kids is definately dangerous, but you asked for the best way and not critisizm, so that's the best I can suggest if you MUST go out BF.

There are also auction websites such as Quibids.com where you can win them real cheap, if you don't win cheaper than what you spend, you can buy them for the same face value of the card plus about $1 shipping fee.

BABW allows you to buy them unstuffed even in the stores and then you can give them UNSTUFFED for Christmas and they can get them stuffed. With 4 kids they have at least 20 or more of these bears although in most cases we get them stuffed at the store on the first day when we make the purchase.

Front Page news for Poughkeepsie Journal with my daughter and I standing in line. The other in the picture is one of our Black Friday friends we meet every year and compete for first and second place with. This year was my turn having arrived an hour and a half before them, lol. http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201011260333

With all the other stores having midnight sales and other earlier sales, and also open on Thanksgiving Day, the line grew much slower than in previous years. By about 4pm the 3rd group arrived!!! Usually if you're not on the line by noon the latest all the good deals are gone. The line did get bigger after midnight and much more than in the past 2 years though. Heard enough of the whiners crying about it being unfair that my group consisting of 3 people were getting 3 of the $189 laptops and how they feel they should be allowed to get 1 as well. 1 lady even had the nerve to cry about her needing it for a friend who's mother recently died, and how she knows I'll do the right thing.... yeah I did the right thing, I BOUGHT THE DAMNED COMPUTERS FOR MYSELF, lol. All she had to do was arrive 12 hours earlier and she could have gotten one as well. The ad said minimum 3 per store, we had 13 available.

OK, so my family and I are first on line. We get a camera, 3 laptops, a desktop, and a Nook. We go to where we pay for our items, being first on line we get there immediately. Then after getting our laptops we are told we have to go stand in line in the photo department for the camera and on the line in front for the Nook. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?!?! By the time I finished in the computer section the lines were through the store. OK, so I get on line in the photo department, an hour later I get my camera, but still no Nook. I am told for the Nook I have to get on a third line. WTF!!!! Not sure if it was a matter of being over tired or adrenaline, but I made it quite clear they will deliver the Nook to the photo section for me to pay for there. After about 5 minutes they had a Best Buy employee go over to the front and return with my Nook. How the heck does Best Buy expect people not to want to riot and strangle the first employee with a policy like that? I spent over $3000 in their damned store and they want to have me standing in lines so I don't want to return next year?

Tonight's weather forecast : in the low 30's and snowing. At least being first on line means I'm under the mall awning since they do not allow tents here. Might actually be a little quieter than in years past, not as many will arrive as early.

They refused to let the sites leak the info any earlier, their mistake, I already found what I need in Lowe's and Sears which are actually in the same mall I'll be at for my other shopping any way. I don't wait until Thursday morning to figure out what stores to visit and what time, that's done about a week before. By holding out on allowing the release of their ad all they did was cause a lot of shoppers that plan way in advance by checking sites like these to find alternatives.

Best of luck to all of you. I'm getting ready to head out soon to Best Buy and not sure I'll be able to get internet there. Hope to hear good news from all of you Friday (after I get some sleep, lol) Wish I had a Gottadeal t-shirt (or for my region, more like a sweatshirt or jacket, lol) just to get the publicity out there for you guys. You guys have been the best and my first source for all BF deals from the very first to the last as posted. Actually, not sure I want to give too much publicity and encounter the added competition, lol. So far I have been extremely fortunate at my location that not too many are aware of the online doorbusters and only know about the ads in the paper, until I tell them, lol. As long as I'm there first I don't mind giving out some of my secrets since I'll have first shot at the items. You should ad a place for people to upload some of their BF pics and/or videos. I know you have links to some, but it would be nice to have a section of the forum where you can post the pics themselves instead of just links, and dedicated to BF shopper photos.

Just checked the ad and although I had to magnify the small print, it says 1 ticket per item per customer.

Thank you very much. I'm going to look for the policy on it and should they give me a problem I'll take down the managers name. Hopefully they do something about it unlike Walmart.

During my recon Saturday I spoke to the manager, they hadn't had a meeting yet to determine what their policy is yet but he thinks it is 1 ticket per item not item type.... I promised to see him Friday when I am in the top 10, probably number 1.

I wouldn't think it would be among the faster moving items. You could probably show up right before the sale ends and still have a decent chance of getting one. It depends how important it is to YOU also. If it's your primary MUST-HAVE item you should get in line Thursday for it. Appliances at least in my location don't often sell out.

There are different levels of reward cards as well. With the silver premium you also get year round free shipping on any items ordered through Best Buy online.

I'm lucky for the fact that the local Best Buy is in the mall and the mall doesn't allow anyone to camp out earlier than Thursday morning, lol. I fully intend to be #1 again this year.

Very nice laptop deal. I still have the $229 laptop from a few years ago. I guess that makes my final decision, I'm getting on line early for Best Buy. I was seriously thinking about it but wasn't 100% sure until now.

Can't hurt to go or at least call and see what they can do. If you do it quickly they might be able to help you out. They are usually pretty good with price matching and they have decent customer service.

Just got home... scored 5 Acer netbooks. That covers most of the main items I was trying to get Black Friday. Also solves trying to find out how to get a netbook for my mom that was upset she couldn't go out to get the BF deals because she's watching the kids. Best deal, and unlike some stores they didn't have limits of 1. I got 1 for myself, 1 for my daughter, 1 for my son, 1 for my mom, and 1 for my sister-in-law. Makes BF a lot less stressful not having to take half the family with me to get the netbooks I needed to get hold of and able to help out my family at the same time.

I'll go by later today or this weekend to speak to the manager and find out what he is planning. If he's planning to do 1 per type and mess me up I may have no choice but to contact corporate. That and the fact the ads weren't very good last year is why i stayed away from BB last year. I usually spend about $2000 or more, last year I didn't spend 1 cent there on BF.

Let me guess, you're the one that kept beating them every year? lol... They don't even know what they want to buy yet? Hey Riven, want to go drop off the BB ad for them and given them the website? lol

The location I go to started that about 2 years ago. If you get 1 laptop they do not allow you to get a second laptop even if it's a different laptop deal. Kinda messes up the point of standing on line so long when you get there and they only allow 1 laptop, 1 desktop, 1 tv, etc. In the past I used to be allowed to get a Toshiba laptop and a Sony laptop by myself. I understand allowing 1 of each item, but it messes things up especially when there was no warning that they changed it to 1 of each TYPE. Maybe that's just this manager's rule, if so I'll try contacting Best Buy and if I show him the official response through corporate maybe he will allow it. As of right now I am going with my wife so I can get the Toshiba laptop and she can get the Compaq netbook.

I usually try hitting HD on BF but I'm not sure if I will this year. I have my schedule pretty much made up at this point, and since I haven't seen HD's ad, well, they are not on my list of places I intend to go to. At this point they would need an extraordinary ad to get me to change my schedule.

After past experience with my local Walmart I'll NEVER EVER go there for their "HOT ITEMS". I did that once and out of 40 available the employees got first shot before the general public. By the time they were done there were only 18 left and lots of screaming customers. In fact I over heard the manager actually take 1 for herself and put another on hold for her son to pick up later in the day. I even contacted Walmart corporate and they haven't responded (that was about 2 or 3 years ago) so I don't bother with them for the hot electronics items. I'd rather stand in line 24hrs longer at BB and actually get the items I'm on line for rather than get all upset as employees walk off with all the doorbuster items. Not sure if things have changed since then, but it's not a chance I'm going to test out.

Emachines are usually very good machines, however some have problems. I still have an Emachines from about 4 years ago working fine, but 2 years ago I bought 1 and my mom bought 1. Hers died about a week later and had to be sent to Emachines for repairs. About 2 weeks after she got it back she had to send it out a second time and it's been fine ever since. Mine was fine until recently the dvd drive stopped working. My options are either pick up a new computer for $219 or buy and install a new drive for about $60. Computers pretty much are outdated every 2 years or so, so I think I'm going to get the $599 HP at BB this year..... and while doing my early scouting... that 23" LED screen is BEAUTIFUL, lol.