stationchief

it's officially the holidays. I put my Christmas tree up... http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r606/fdbehring/CB%20Tree%202_zpsvv71gbog.jpg

Fine! I put my tree up. Are you happy now? http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r606/fdbehring/CB%20Tree%202_zpsvv71gbog.jpg

Just checkin' in on my brand spankin' fresh newly built Black Friday desktop. 27" 1ms monitor with a 19" on the side (so I can see what I'm doin', ya know), Ryzen 1700X octa-copre processor (cuz I have a need for speed), 16 GB of memory (well, cuz I tend to forget things), a sweet 250 GB solid state drive (I'm impatient when it comes to boot times), and a 5.1 channel surround sound speaker system (cuz I like to feel my media). And the holidays are right around the corner so my case is my lighted Christmas tree with internal RGB lighting! Just waiting for a Geforce 1080 graphics card so I can catch up on a decade or two of gaming. Sweet ride

Time to see who snoozed and losed. Oh, and I'll see everyone in about two months

I'll just pop in on the last day of one month and the first of the next. That'll give me about 2 months to rest in between

So Arizona is in the middle of being violent? Good thing I'm shopping online!

All online experience here for the parts I needed for my new computer build. Wanted to wake up early this morning to get a nice 27" gaming monitor and an extra cheap 17" second monitor from Fry's Electronics morning sale, but instead decided to sleep in. I figured they'd still be there later on. After a while I finally woke up and went over to Newegg online first to get the rest of the internal parts. I had previously put them in my cart and even picked up a few extra things. Absolutely no problems with getting the sale prices and checking out! Got my confirmation emails and everything. Finally went over to Fry's online to get the monitors and the site won't come up! Tried on my phone and managed to get them in my cart but checking out was screwy. Folks are complaining all over their Facebook page that the promo codes aren't working or they can't check out at all. Now their site's up and down sporadically. I'll be checking throughout the day hoping they fix things and get their promo codes working so I can get my monitors!

The charts have been updated and we're just about done before Black Friday hits for 2017! Thanks to everyone for supporting them this year!

You're right. That one and the regular Amazon tablet switched prices. Fixed!

Charts have once again been updated with all the latest released ads up to TRU. We'll be crankin' that one out and getting it ready very soon. We're still waiting for a few more ads, Gamestop in particular, so tune in next time!

Why, are you offering? Unfortunately with everything that's been going on IRL things will have to be as usual for a bit. However, I recommend you stick around because sooner or later you could be getting your wish and a whole lot more. Take that for what it's worth. Wink, wink!

More products have been added and we are now in the calm before the storm of more major ads coming soon. Hang tight, folks!

I love the big ads! Wait, I have to type them up? I hate the big ads!

Let's bring back a fun classic for old time's sake A 'Haiku' is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. It doesn't have to rhyme, but should reference the joy (or lack thereof) of Black Friday. An example of a Black Friday haiku would be: People skipping lines (5 syllables) Crashing carts into others (7 syllables) Glad I shop online! (5 syllables) Be creative and have at it!

Online only. Long as you don't need any major in-store only doorbuster electronics, why leave the comfort of your own couch? Plus most online doorbusters start earlier.

I'll be in Phoenix, Arizona shopping at the speed of light from the comfort of my computer chair as I'll be online

I believe the earliest I've ever been in a black Friday line was at 6pm Thanksgiving eve at a local Wal-Mart when the store opened about 6am Friday. I know that doesn't sound very early, but this was back in 2007. Yup... ten years ago! Back when black Friday was really picking up steam and long before folks at a Best Buy in Florida decided to camp out weeks before. I was looking to get a doorbuster laptop and got behind about 20 others. I just barely got in to nab the last one and even plucked a cheap TV on my way out. The only other time I dared to get in a black Friday line was in 2011 at Best Buy when I showed up about two hours before opening and waited in a line I can't even remember how far it stretched. It was just for a few non-doorbuster items and for the experience of the crowds of black Friday. These days I either shop all online or just vicariously through others. So what's the earliest you've ever gotten in line and how long did you wait? Was it worth it?

The first item has arrived for the charts and the winner is... a 3 month XBOX Live membership at Rite Aid! The major ads with tons of stuff for the product charts should be coming very soon so stay tuned By the way, I typed this while using my right hand. Yay!

It's alive! Its ali-iiiie-ve! One week in and I have feeling back in my hand and up my arm. I'm able to wiggle my fingers and move them in ways which I haven't been able to do in a long time. Looks like the surgery was a success! Next Tuesday the stitches come out and I get the details about my months of rehab. Fun times ahead. We're still looking for more volunteers to help with the charts and as you can see I need as much help as possible this year. Send me a PM if you're interested. Rock on black Friday!

Well, back injections are done and I'm off to have surgery on my chart-making right arm and hand first thing tomorrow. My right hand has since gone weak (thank goodness for speech to text aps!) so there's high hopes that this will repair the nerve damage that happened last year and give me back at least some, hopefully most, of the use of my hand back. Don't worry. I'll be back in time for the first ads to land. Wish me luck!

Back is as messed up as ever, got surgery on my arm planned for the 27th of this month, my body is already completely drained, my a/c unit is leaking, I lost my glasses, and to top it all off the seasonal roaches gave me notice their moving in with me this year. But it's Black Friday season! Hopefully soon I can get a new PC to do the charts with before the ads really hit. Rain or shine, in sickness and in health, Black Friday is gonna continue to rock onward!

It's that time of year again! Time for the... (cue theme song)... 2017 GottaDeal Black Friday Product Charts! I'm now making the official call for volunteers for this year's charts. If you'd like to volunteer to help put the charts together this year please send me a PM. It's pretty simple. As each ad comes in you'll be responsible for logging in to a special website where you'll enter all the items with some detailed information (item's description, price, store, type, resolution, etc) for a particular product. Some are fairly easy, others may require more research and effort. It all depends on how much time you're willing to put in. You'll be granted access to a special forum where we have a lil' community of volunteers who all help each other out every year so you won't be alone. These charts have been extremely popular among Black Friday shoppers among this site and all around the country every year, and I expect them to be even more so this year so I'll need lots of help putting them together. This year's product charts, as well as all of the charts from previous years for comparison, will still be located at http://blackfridaycharts.com. Have a look at a tenth anniversary message posted last year with their past history, how they came to be, all mixed in with a lil' bit of me: http://blackfridaycharts.com/MyStory.html Let the Black Friday madness begin!

Welcome back! It's not really Black Friday without BigJim's webcasts!

Bring it on! But seriously, I'll probably be shopping strictly online again this year. Had to sell the desktop I bought and built last year so I'll probably be building another bigger, badder, and better one this year.