SynthDude2001

Yep. That part was fun when they opened the doors and the mad rush began (This was at Best Buy)

lol....the thing is, we're actually college students without a whole lot of money, so we didn't get to buy too much stuff...but I think it was fun for the experience anyway :)

Only been once so far, but that time it was with a friend and her boyfriend

about 10pm last time

Pontiac Bonneville... ('92 SE last time, '94 SSEi this year) Has a ton of space, but I don't have the money to come anywhere close to filling it

Hmm...I've only ever been once (and didn't spend a whole lot of money at the time), but I guess I'd say I enjoyed spending the time with friends the most. :)

I think I need to hide my wallet from myself on that day, else my waistline will suffer

Definitely! That'll be especially helpful if I'm ambitious this year and want to do more than one store (and have the money to do so, lol ). Knowledge is power, as they say.

I've only had one experience before, 2003 (which I also told about last year here), nothing too exciting. Got to Best Buy around 11pm, two friends were already waiting for me there, we were the very first in line. It was cold that night (for Texas standards ), but being there with friends was fun...the lines got insanely long around 4-5am, and once the employees got there (and security guards or maybe a police officer, I forget), they had to keep an eye on the line to make sure no one got in front of us, lol... Local TV station brought a truck and (briefly) interviewed one of my friends around 5:30am; doors opened at 6 and there was a mad rush for everything inside...luckily (depending on how you look at it), we were/are all poor college students and didn't have much money (it was more for the experience, I guess), so we only bought relatively few things..we were out in about 10-15 minutes and then crashed at a friend's house for the morning. :) Last year I was having major car problems (as in, the thing wouldn't even start ), so I didn't get to go (although I did get a friend to pick up two DVD's for me at Best Buy). This year...car is in working order, I'll be armed with a PDA and cell phone (to use as a modem, eventually), and this website...I'm ready

I have, especially since I didn't get to go last year! (Although I did finally crack on that X51v a few days ago...hopefully I'll be web browsing while waiting outside in the cold for 8 hours )

What I want: -Huge hard drive (400GB+ ideally, HDTV capture can make any hard drive appear small ) -Maybe a good inexpensive (~$500?) HDTV for my mom's house -DVD's, boxed sets (Simpsons, 24 season 4 if it's out yet, maybe others) -Axim X51v -Maybe a laptop but probably not since I won't have that much money (unless everybody throws tons of money at me when I turn 21 the week before Black Friday ) That's all I can think of now...I'm sure there will be more though

That works for me. Although realistically, $500 or less almost certainly

1) How excited are you about this years Black Friday? I'm very much looking forward to Black Friday this year (assuming there are good deals) since I didn't get to go last year - my car wouldn't start at the time. 2) What's on your shopping list? What items? Nothing specific at the moment...whatever I can afford. Electronics and computer stuff, mostly. 3) Parents, do you dread shopping for the hottest toys and/or video games? I'm a parent? Why didn't someone tell me? 4) Do you bring anything to sit on while camping out at 2AM waiting for a store to open? I'm thinking about getting a collapseable lawn chair. 2am? That's when the amateurs get there. 10pm all the way. But I really haven't decided yet. When I did Black Friday before (2003), my friends and I did have chairs (and blankets, it was 35F out there ). If I or my friend can hop out of line to throw the stuff back in my car right before they start letting people into the store like we did that time, I'll probably bring it. :) 5) What stores ads are you anxious to see? Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, CompUSA maybe...basically anywhere that sells computer/electronics stuff. 6) We're currently at 5,898 members ... do you think we'll break 10,000 members by Christmas? It's certainly possible. 7) I can't wait until we upgrade to vBulletin forum software v3.5 with new features and goodies. Plus we're going to have several giveaways and prizes this holiday season. Awesome. I was really disappointed that I didn't get to go to any of the sales last year due to my car troubles, I felt somewhat left out.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I probably should wait until next month.. New model coming out + end of quarter = (hopefully) big savings on last year's model. Oh, and thanks for the links, RossMAN. I'd found a little info about the X51v in my searches too. If what I'm reading is correct (and who knows if it is), it's just an incremental upgrade with twice the flash ROM and stuff like that. If that's the case, I don't particularly care since I'll be using a 5GB microdrive for storage when I get my x50v.

I've decided that I almost certainly want an X50v (and maybe a GPS kit to go with it). Unfortunately, the last coupons from a few days ago are dead. Does anyone know when the next deal would be coming around for this? Ideally I'd like to see right around $300 (or less) for just the X50v. Would I have to wait until their financial year's end next month? (I'd rather not wait that long )