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Black Friday Webcast Thread - Details, Schedule & More


bigjimslade

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I shop for DVDs online on Thanksgiving .. most stores offer free shipping, so that's one less thing I have to worry about trying to get.

 

I've never shopped for a "ticketed item" online - but from what others have said in past years, they are normally not available online or if you are able to order it, your order could possibly get cancelled.

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You have to watch for certain stores whose website stock isn't kept up to date, I'm sure others can chime in on who they are. BF has turned into an all week thing for me between catching Amazon deals and being up whenever each stores deals go live.

 

I don't think I've been stung by the backordered then cancelled issue but I think BB had some issues last year or the year before as did Target on some item they had a misprint on but were going to honor via web only.

 

I have all but given up on Walmarts website (until well after I've returned from BF shopping) after the fiasco of not being able to log into my account then eventually logging in only to have cart emptied then restock it only for multiples to show up and then disappear altogether when I tried to login again no more than a couple minutes later with the "remember me option selected.

 

I've had pretty good luck with BB, RadioShack and Target online.

 

GOOD TIPS for BF Web Shopping:

 

Have an established account for each site you might purchase from

Know your login info

Ensure your Credit Card is up to date

Make sure your address is up to date

If it all possible write down item numbers and bookmark the pages for each if available beforehand- some ads have them

 

And finally, if you plan to go nuts, notify your Credit Card company so you're not the poor sod stuck (in line) processing a fraud call wasting your and everyone else's time.

 

Awesome tips! :gdclap:

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Awesome tips! :gdclap:

 thanks...I'm pretty sure it's all stuff I saw on here a couple years ago and makes great sense.

 

I've been that sucker more than once with the fraud issue. Early on with CC's and last year or the on before with debit card running up 0.2x or less charges at walgreens or cvs.

 

 Phone number on debit card said it was the banks fault and of course there was nobody answering the line so I was forced to use a credit card for mere cents. It would be nice if security questions were about me but it was all about my parents past properties and cars which left me playing phone tag with my mom standing in another line. It's one thing to ask the city a property is but why would I know the county, it's not like I'm paying the taxes on the property.

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I was visiting the in-laws in Alabama last Thanksgiving, so I did the lion's share of my BF shopping online, primarily at  Amazon (with a smattering of Bestbuy.com thrown in). Now, I DID make the ten-mile trek to the nearest BB store Friday morning, and since I wasn't really going for any of the big-ticket items, I pretty much got what I wanted (primarily, a Harmony remote for my in-laws).

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Thanks for starting this. I too would love to do online shopping, esp for Walmart. I know that they're prob gonna start their sale at 8pm again, but I'd much rather do that from home then go out. Maybe I'll start looking, planning and bookmarking pages Sunday. Thanks to pp for that awesome tip!! :)
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When it gets closer to Black Friday, there will be an exclusive online Black Friday forum opening up; so definitely keep a daily eye on the forums. 

 

As for what times specifically, you can look through the 2012 BF Archive (linked) for the hours sales went live last year. It does vary with each store. Also, if its a good deal you are seeking on a specific item, we probably won't know if hot items will be sold online on Black Friday until the very last minute (or like when the sale goes live). 

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Here's what I can make out from last years threads, if you need help converting times refer to BigJims webcast thread :)

 

Most of the stores did not pre-notify GD when the sales would go live so it was a waiting game mostly.

 

Walmart - nobody too happy with their online sale last year or the year before. Most items in store only with a list of 72 ONLINE only mostly bundle deals available starting 5am EST 11/22-Thanksgiving

some items appeared to be live as early as 3am however any orders placed were then cancelled

 

Sears - preBF shop your way rewards members 6pm EST 11/18- Sunday, Thanksgiving specials Wednesday 9 EST, BF 4 EST

 

Target - started updating at 11/22- Thanksgiving 1am, most not updated til 4 am EST

 

Best Buy - issues accessing the reward member preview 11/19- Monday 12 pm EST, 11/22- Thanksgiving 2:50 am EST

 

BonTon - 11/21- Wednesday 8 am EST

 

ToysRUs - 11/22- Thanksgiving 9 pm EST, B1G40%, b1g1f, b1g2f deals took longer to post up by 11:24 pm EST

 

RadioShack - Thanksgiving midnight EST, not all items

 

KMart - "Triple Doorbusters" online from 6am-8pm Thursday, 8pm to 6am Friday and 5am-2pm on Friday, all EST

 

Kohls - 11/21 2 am EST lots of delays/issues to begin with

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Bestbuy prices usually start to drop around 2:30- 3:00 am. Ive never bought much from Walmart online, because of the horror stories ive heard about their online sales. Last year I did buy my nephew a bike, and picked it up in our local store without any problems. Im pretty sure i was able to order the bike around 3:00 am. Edited by Kim3498
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Another helpful tip that i've found true for myself is that depending on what item your looking for, if its a really hot item at a huge discount.  Your best bet is to be online checking the store's website frequently until, you purchase it.  As the hotter doorbusters may be online, but if you wait until everyone else knows that its online.  You may miss out on the deal you want, for example a few years ago I got a walmart laptop.  After I did checkout, it was sold out. Best to know when they'll estimate it should be up, and just stay up and surf the gottadeal and the stores you have to buy from, closing everything else.  As speed matters when processing your order, ticked items are limited.  So even if they had 5,000 your competing against a million others users.

 

From what i've experienced online if store runs out it depends on what the item is, you may still get it just a few weeks later. It takes time for the stores to take physical inventory of what each store sold for the day of black friday, and how many of each the store has on hand.  Then its got to make its way back to a warehouse, from a store, and then put back into the system, to be shipped to the customer.  If you've got a store near you its worth the extra effort to call them and see if they have any of the item in stock.   You may be able to help yourself out more than what the warehouse can, if they have said item on hand.  The warehouse may not know when and if they'll be able to fill the order.  Give the online store a call, tell them that you've contacted said store and then have them have the store put it back and save it for you.  I know its alot of work, for something that you wanted.  But I've had success with it last year.  Got a wrong gps item and worked with online store to get the correct item.  The store i went to had over 100 of them and the warehouse none.

Edited by hack2222
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I'll be following this for more advice. Honestly, last year I was just...let down with the whole BF experience. I really loved it when it was about getting in line for the stores to open, and only the hardcore were out. Last year we wandered into stores that were packed with people and their kids, itty bitty kids. I was just over it. I think this year we may all just congregate at my house with our laptops and iPads and shop in our jammies.

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We're getting a lot of questions about online Black Friday shopping. It's a little early to be able to give decent predictions as to when a store will put their items online or which particular items will be offered online.

 

But rest assured, we'll cover the online dales better than anyone. In a week or so we'll open our dedicated online BF sub-forum. We also will have our great online BF tracker again this year which will have sale start times, list of ad items you can order at the sale price and much more.

 

So for now I'm going to merge all the threads asking about this stuff into one main thread to keep the forum less cluttered.

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It use to be Thanksgiving I got my kids list, compared it to my which door buster list I was going to hit and headed out after 5 or 6 hours sleep. Now I get the list a few days before Thanksgiving, I take my laptop in the kitchen and stayed glued to gottadeal to let me know when the sales were going live. I try to get all I can on line verses brick and mortar. I do not want to shop at midnight that night when I got up that morning at 6 AM to start cooking.

 

I agree with BGndr, what's up with all the itty bitty kids at midnight shopping? Black Friday is a crazy adult shopping time. It's not for kids.

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