MarkRaby

Hm. I might step in to get a 2 GB SD card for $30, but other than that, like others have said here, *big fat yawn* Seriously, what is with advertising things like the PSP and Xbox 360 in the context of a sweeping deal like the Motorola thing? (PSP - FREE AFTER REBATE!!!! Or, regular price if you don't sign a service contract and commit to paying a $500 fee if you cancel early)

Yes! I would definitely be interested in it. It's right on my path of usual BF stores.

Wow. Which heaven did your CompUSA fall out of? I'm pretty sure at the CompUSA here, not a single employee was even outside. They just opened the doors at midnight and it was a free-for-all, including the 50 or so people that jumped out of their cars at 11:59 PM. Inside, once again, I don't think there was any sort of management or supervision overlooking anything. It was basically "form your own 200-person lines any way you want. We don't care what you do."

Yeah. CompUSA was the definition of unorganized in terms of their BF sale last year. The one I went to wasn't a particularly large one, and it was shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the entire store. Absolute chaos. Nobody knew where the lines started, or to which register each line went. Since I plan on getting the big stuff at Best Buy or Circuit City this year, I will not have time to go to the CompUSA sale at midnight if they do it again, but I may go back later in the day to try to pick up anything that maybe wasn't super popular.

Even though the big box guys (Best Buy, Circ City, etc) are always crazy, there's usually at least some order to the madness. In terms of pure chaos, my vote has to go to CompUSA, for last year's midnight opening. There was no security, no attempt to bring order to things from the employees, AND NO LINES AT ALL. CompUSA, typically a pretty calm store, has no real lines set up. They've just got a handful of registers. For those who didn't go, you can just imagine how insane it was to not have any sort of official lines, with hundreds of people wanting to check out.

I am very much considering making the biggest purchase of my life with a $1,000+ HDTV (I'm deeply considering the 50" plasma, or at least the 42" LCD). There's also a good chance I'll be buying a digital camcorder, which, depending on which model I go with, may or may not be a huge purchase. Anyway, what's everyone else eyeing in the ad this year?

This question seems to come up every year, so I thought I'd get it up here ASAP (apologies if this has already been asked! I couldn't find anything using a simple search). I'm also curious to see how many first-timers we have here. With four Black Fridays under my belt, I'm actually beginning to feel a bit like a Black Friday veteran. Of course, my first Black Friday included getting a JC Penney snowglobe, waiting 2.5 hours in Best Buy's line for a $5 PS2 game and a $40 portable TV, and then going to Radio Shack for a $5 M&M radio. But this year will mark my first really big Black Friday. It's all been growing up to this point, to now where I actually have a good income and can spend, spend, spend!

I started doing Black Friday in 2002, when I was 16 years old. For the first couple years, I really didn't have a ton of money, of course, so waiting outside for hours didn't make sense for me. I'd get to JC Penney a couple minutes before they opened to get one of their snow globes, and then I'd hit any other stores I wanted, and since it was the small stuff I was interested in, I never really had a problem getting anything that was on my list. Last year was the first time I really had a purpose for going early. I got to Best Buy sometime between 2:00 and 3:00. I was about 25th in line (you have to remember, they did not have, or at least did not advertise, the door busters here so there was not as much excitement about the laptop and other stuff that you guys were all clamoring for), and got the two semi-big things I wanted (home theater system and a flat-panel PC monitor), allowing myself to get out of the store by 5:15. This year, since it seems Best Buy will at least be handing out tickets for the door busters (even if they don't put them in the flyer), and I have some big stuff to get this time, I plan on getting there around midnight.

I've noticed a lot of people talking about replacing TVs and computers (and other stuff) on BF, so I was curious to know, if you are looking to replace some of your household stuff, how old are the things you're replacing? For example: I want to replace my TV this year with a bigger, HD one. The current TV I have now is a 27" SDTV and I got it about two years ago, though it was the cheapest one you could get. It was from Best Buy's in-house Insignia brand. The colors bleed terribly, the sound isn't the best, and overall image quality just leaves a lot to be desired. I'm looking for a 42"+ HDTV, flat-panel, wall-mountable, with at least 720p. I also am looking to get a new digital camera to replace the bulky 5 MP one I currently own. I just got it last year, and it's not a bad camera, but it is rather big for its level of performance. I'm hoping to get a digital camcorder that can take 3+ MP still shots, for a reasonable price.

California and Nevada also have the same law, and I believe a handful of other states as well. This has led to almost all of the big-name stores to just get rid of the "no-activity" fees on their gift cards, so it's not something that most people need to worry about.

From all I've read, I know that LCD is the more preferred technology, but I've also seen that they're improving plasma (and it can already rest its laurels on things like color contrast and viewing angles), so I was thinking of going for the 50" plasma HDTV door buster from Best Buy, since it seems to be the genuinely best deal on HDTVs that we've seen so far. It's a $3,000 TV for $1,600! Not bad. I'm also picking up a wall mount since they're 20% off. But I just want to know if anyone thinks there's any reason why I should avoid this TV. Is there any between-the-lines stuff I should know about Toshiba's TVs, or plasma, or anything of that nature?

So, for the first time since the store opened in 1992, Media Play will not be opened on Black Friday. In other words, it's the first Black Friday since their parent company filed Chapter 11 and agreed to get rid of all the Media Play stores. Some of their BF deals used to be really good; it was a good last stop because they had lots of deals that were wide-encompassing. For example, they'd usually do buy 2 get 1 free on DVDs, or buy 1 get 1 free on books, or even like 20% off all bargain books...stuff like that. It will be sad to, for the first time, not have the store on my Black Friday plan of attack.

I will be hanging out at Best Buy to get one there

We used to have a Radio Shack around here that nobody even knew about. It was hidden away in a shopping center where stores were coming in and out all the time. It's off of a road that a lot of people never even drive on. So it was the perfect "final desintation" for BF. But I think they went out of business this year. I will probably still hit a Radio Shack some time on BF, since I live pretty close to one, but it'll be sad not to be able to get the door busters at 11:50 AM.

Unless something really spectacular shows up in the ad scan that was missed here, I will probably just do what we've been doing for years. After Best Buy, we head across the street to the mall, my brother stops the car in front of the lower JC Penney entrace, puts the hazards on, runs in to get one of the snowglobes, comes back out and then lets me run in and get one, and then we're on our way. I've rarely purchased anything from JCP on BF.

I brought this up last year (when I had my massive amount of BB Bucks), and thought I'd ask again for this year. For the stores that you'll be going to (or might be going to) on Black Friday, how much do you have available to spend that won't affect your bank accounts? For me, I have Best Buy - $30 in Reward Zone certificates CVS - $5 in ExtraBucks EB Games - ~$25 in store credit Sears - $10 gift card (plus another $10 if I happen to choose to go to that store first & am one of the first 200)

Yeah, we all know this is the big year for holiday HDTVs, and I'm going to be going right with the flock and get my first one this year, undoubtedly on Black Friday. So, to go with my new technology, I have to pick up a home theater system. Does anyone see any really good deals on these so far? I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to home audio stuff, so I'm not sure what's good and what everything's worth and all that. Any suggestions? Thanks, Mark

The 32" TV is a good deal, but I want a bigger TV, so to me the best deal is the 42" HD monitor. It's going depend on what else is out there. I've currently got a terrible quality 27" SDTV, so the 32" HDTV would be a huge improvement and I wouldn't complain about that at all. If I find some amazing deals on other items I want (digi camcorder, DVD recorder, home theater system) I will go for the 32-incher to be able to afford the other stuff.

There may also be regional differences (with Best Buy, there's the obvious doorbuster issue for BF, and also some various things that show up throughout the year. For example, listed cable/satellite companies will vary by region and for over a year, the Reward Zone promos and fine-print details were printed differently for ads in Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati). But once again, in most cases these are all taken care of by the same people who do the rest of the ads. These are all pretty much set in stone in advance as well, but it's just more likely that any smaller geographic area that will have some differences will not get noticed or be leaked ahead of time. So it is always possible that the ad you get will be different, but it'll be because they knew in advance that your area would have separate promotions, not because they changed it at the last minute. Most corporate-owned stores shy away from this, however, because it's just too difficult to manage a bunch of different promotions throughout the whole country.

I believe that's like their (and probably other stores') typical answer to people who ask about the BF ads preemptively, the point being that they don't want to drive away sales during the week or so before BF (more so than is already going to happen) by "confirming" that certain items will be so much more discounted that Friday. Any ad scan that is actually from the store is going to be so on the money it's not even funny. Even if there is a mistake, they might not go back and edit it, and just put up a sign at the store saying there's a mistake. That's why the people who do the ads for Best Buy, and Best Buy itself, are extremely careful with what they put together. Most of the stores with big BF sales (including Best Buy) are giant corporate stores and in some cases they outsource the ad creation and printing. They have to start printing them up well in advance to be able to get the ads shipped to newspapers across the country. And obviously, the stores themselves get advance copies, which are printed up well in advance. You can imagine what a headache it would be to go back and change anything at this point. And of course, as shockwave noted below, the logistics people at the company have to plan ahead for securing and delivering ample stock of BF items, and this process could start several months before BF. For them to change anything last-minute would just be impossible to follow through on, if they want to provide any sense of customer satisfaction/loyalty.

This is why it's good to go to Best Buy as your first stop. They've gained the rep for being probably the best at keeping line-jumpers away. There's an especially big guy that works at the local Best Buy here, and last year he was standing in front of the store right as they were about to open, shouting at everyone who tried to run from their car to the front of the store, when they had just gotten there 10 minutes earlier. I don't think a single jumper got ahead of the front of the line. Of course, it helps that they do have the entrance roped off. Compare that with CompUSA, which opened at midnight last year. Here, the line was extending towards the left side of the store. But at about 11:45, people started lining up on the other side. Despite people screaming at them from the line, employees did nothing. I'm pretty sure I saw a police officer there, but he also didn't do anything about the cheaters at the other side of the store. Then, doors opened at midnight and even more line-jumpers rushed the door, again not phasing the complacent employees who clearly didn't care about customer loyalty at all. And of course, I won't even get into what happened on the inside of the store, which probably would have made people who lived in Hoovervilles feel right at home.

With Best Buy, I'm pretty sure there's no limit on how many doorbuster items one person can claim, but they can only get one of each item. Obviously I wouldn't know from personal experience because we're talking about Best Buy BF doorbusters, but that's what I seem to recall from reading personal accounts from other people.

That is true for Iowa, but actually, in Best Buy's favorite guinea pig areas in Ohio, it is not new by any stretch of the imagination. In 2003, we were not given the doorbuster deals that the rest of the country was. Instead, we got an offer where we had to send in a rebate form to get a $20 gift card for every $100 spent (absolute worst thing ever! Rebate center was clueless about this, too). In 2004, the early specials were cut in favor of an instant $15 GC for every $100 spent. The same thing happened last year. So this trend dates back for years. I don't know where you live, but at least in Columbus (and I know at least a portion of Northern OH and a portion of Southern OH), this has been going on for years, and considering its wide spread last year, I don't see it changing this year.

Even though it's been a staple of my life for the past three years, I did not mail out for any of the Best Buy Bucks this year. There are several reasons for this: - Much lower rate of return than last year (less chance of getting a higher BB Buck, higher postage cost) - Most restrictions the promotion has ever had (e.g only $200 per purchase -- this killed it for me) - Other parts of the Monopoly promotion were worse than before (e.g no good McD's food prizes. I loved getting tons of free value meal coupons for when I didn't have any food around. They got rid of the lunch/dinner value meal instant-win prizes) - I actually have a well-paying job now -- my time is more valuable, and I had less time to fill out envelopes - Three years of peeling off the BB Bucks, counting them, and going through the hassle of actually using them was enough for me. Count me out from now on!

Say what you want about Best Buy, but when your local stores don't carry the special doorbuster deals, there's almost no point in going. Do a quick GottaDeal search for "Ohio doorbusters" and you'll see what I'm talking about. If you don't have the $150 computers, $30 MP3 players and $1,000 42" HDTVs, it's pointless. *Ding ding ding ding ding* There we go. It's my first central Ohio Best Buy BF doorbuster comment for 2006!