18 replies to this topic

[Brad]

Just throwing this out there... how many of you would find copies of previous year's ad scans useful? We have the text lists of the ad items from 2003-2009 posted at all times, but we take the scans down a few days after BF each year. I have full Black Friday newspapers from the past 3-4 years (and a large-format scanner to make scanning easier), but I don't know if it would be worth the time to scan and post these older ads. These would be clean scans of the final ad, not poor photos or chopped up scans like some of the leaked ones we normally post. So let me know what you think. Are these pretty much useless by now? Should I scan them? Just scan the "main" stores?

[Rockfordmom]

useless to me, if I wanted to check something the lists would be fine

[Illinoismom]

I keep the previous years ads till the new ones come out, in my binder

[bigjimslade]

I think they would add to the confusion during the ad rush of black friday and to new visitors. I could also see other sites stealing them and taking credit. I see them as useless.

[Miss Star]

A couple of black friday sites still have them up from last year, so I don't think it would be necessary and I agree with bigjimslade it could definitely make for some confusion.

[conj]

no need. text versions are great

[tinkrbel]

not needed. They'll just take up space and cuse confusion. Imagine some poor sod shows up somewhere looking for last years sale:P

[Brad]

thanks everyone. i guess that makes the decision easy. saves me some time, lol.

[mcwalker]

I agree with all the comments--the lists are just fine to the extent that I want to check a reference. I used to keep the pdfs, but have deleted them. On a related note, I am somewhat curious to see every time I come on the forums, that there are more people viewing the Black Friday Archives (28 as I write) than are looking at the current Black Friday Discussion (currently 11). I know that there are great "how to" references, and I know that the balance will change dramatically soon as BF draws closer and the ads start coming, but I find it curious anyway. Are you shopping last year's merchandise, reliving memories of sugarplums and great deals, or just living in the past?

[Brad]

On a related note, I am somewhat curious to see every time I come on the forums, that there are more people viewing the Black Friday Archives (28 as I write) than are looking at the current Black Friday Discussion (currently 11). I know that there are great "how to" references, and I know that the balance will change dramatically soon as BF draws closer and the ads start coming, but I find it curious anyway. Are you shopping last year's merchandise, reliving memories of sugarplums and great deals, or just living in the past?

A lot of those could be the various search engine bots. There are A LOT of threads in there for them to crawl compared to this year's BF boards.

[tucsondesertrat]

I don't use them for anything.

[Scott]

I agree. And I hate going to a site that has scans only to find out that they are the previous years scans. On that note, it could drive visitors to the site, but then you would just have upset new visitors. Kind of a wash. I think the text versions are fine.

[happysunshine28]

useless to me

[crazypurgatory]

I save the BF ad scans. I like the idea of being able to look back to last years deals to compare the prices. but I don't see a need for you to go through all that work. Everybody should know by now to save them as soon as then come out because they might be pulled. It's not like they take up a lout of space on my hard drive.

[magickallight]

My lists change from year to year - they would be FUN to look at - but of no real use to me...

[Tarmax4]

There fun to look at while I wait for the new ads to come out.

[bpr]

Though not very useful, I do enjoy looking over them. Sometimes I like to look at them and see what I got last year. I save copies of the ones that are posted here, so I have most of the ads I like from the past 5 or 6 years.

[jaymacfla]

If you lose the ads and in addition lose the data that is sometimes collected with them, you lose valuable insight to the proper perspective when it comes to pricing. I see a lot of folks here who really are convinced that in previous years that prices were better. If you look back at the items that were better deals, what were you really getting? The quality of today's items are far superior to what we then judged as a deal. If you lose the data, shame on you. Love the past and like all of history you will be doomed to repeat the same mistakes all over again. I believe that the old ad scans of the high tech items are especially useful as a tool if you know what you are looking at. The internet is a data mining heaven of information that can spec out any piece of technology with a little work.

[flyjar]

I have all the ads you posted last year before BF in pdf saved on my computer. I use them as a reference to compare prices to this year's prices. But I only keep last years, beyond that I don't find them very useful.