Black Friday 2009 Survival Guide

Will you be hitting the malls to do your Black Friday shopping the day after Thanksgiving? By doing a little homework ahead of time, you may be able to find some great deals without even having to leave the house--and if you do decide to battle the lines, at least you'll be prepared. Many websites have posted Black Friday specials already. Black Friday 2009 has a complete and constantly updated list of ad scans, though they caution that some of them may be fake. (And you probably shouldn't be fooled by this supposed Apple Black Friday ad at Boy Genius Report--"Apple almost never discounts their products, other than selling refurbished equipment on the cheap," warns The Unofficial Apple Weblog.) TGI Black Friday has a list of Black Friday deals available online now.

Switched lists 10 Black Friday deals to watch for (Blu-Ray DVD players are hot this year), and PC World has advice on scoring the best bargains, for example: "Black Friday and the holidays are the time to buy a new TV...prices are about 25 percent lower than a year ago. For a discounted high-end set, however, wait until a few weeks before Christmas. Retailers generally don't put higher-end products on sale during Black Friday because they know customers are looking for the cheapest products possible."

The dealnews Black Friday Strategy Guide offers more tips: Scan the ads on the sites above, then "pre-shop Black Friday doorbusters online. Once you decide on an in-store only doorbuster you want, search dealnews to be sure no one else has a deal on that or a very similar product. Then, use price comparison engines like Biz Rate or PriceGrabber to make sure that the alleged doorbuster is in fact the lowest available price. Still a good deal? Then it might be worth a trip to the store." But if you decide you can't bear to get up that early the day after Thanksgiving, keep in mind that Cyber Monday, on November 30 this year, is the day that all the best deals move online--and you can check them out here, here, and here.