Ahh, Black Friday (News - Alert). What’s better than waking up at 2 in the morning and rushing to the mall with a tryptophan hangover and a lower intestine full of pumpkin pie? We can name a number of things we’d rather do around the holidays, including sharing a guest room with that creepy 3rd cousin who smells like sour milk, or listening to grandma passive aggressively assault mom’s choice in napkin holders.
Regardless, this year annual “running of the deals” is sure to draw millions of shoppers eager to kick off the holiday season. While the savings can be pretty substantial, if you can’t convince someone else to go in your place, it’s good to have a plan.
For those of you who would like to keep your Black Friday shopping as succinct as possible while still capitalizing on all the glorious deals, the team here at TMC has assembled a short and sweet list of the technology sales you’ll want to keep an eye out for this Black Friday. And since we’re not big fans of leaving the house before 3 a.m., we’ve included some of the best online bargains we could find as well.
Best Buy
Maybe it’s the fact that sites like techbargains.com offer agoraphobia-friendly deals on the hottest technologies year round that make brick-and-mortar shopping seem so primitive, but for some of the craziest deals of the year, you’re going to need to march down to Best Buy and stand in line like an animal. This year the double B’s deal is offering a 42-inch Sharp television for $199 and the 4G-enabled HTC Thunderbolt Free with a 2 year Verizon (News 
- Alert) contract. The store is also offering a number of limited, online-only sales that have yet to be priced. Highlights of which include a Wii bundle and a Gateway (News - Alert) laptop that are sure to go for ridiculously less than normal.
Wal-Mart
When you talk about Black Friday sales, the name Wal-Mart is usually not all too far behind, and this year the store’s deals are as low as your average trampling victim. Wal-Mart boasting a 40-inch Emerson (News - Alert) LED TV for $250, and a 51-inch Samsung one for just under $500. There’s also a $200 Compaq Laptop and an HP printer for $20.
For those who have held out on buying a Wii during previous Black Friday gatecrashes, the console will be going for $100 while supplies last, Xbox and Playstation 3 can be had for $200.
Newegg.com
Newegg’s Black November sale is a great place to pick up a deal and goes on all month long. But the online computer store totally pulls out the stops for the whole week before Black Friday, offering egg-citing (sorry) deals consumer electronics and computer components. While you’ll be able to snap up i7 CPUs and Blu-Ray Drives at crazy low prices, this year’s highlights seem to revolve around audio and included a $999 MartinLogan surround sound system for $299, and a pair of Polk Audio Ceiling speakers for $69.99.
Plus everything on sale is shipped at no additional cost and comes backed by Newegg’s incredibly knowledgeable and helpful customer service professionals should you have any issues.
Steam
The PC video game platform Steam is well known for its ridiculous sales, and the Holiday event is one of its largest. Historically this sale has started close to Black Friday, but information about timing has yet to be released. While we don’t have details yet, last year’s deals slashed prices on some recently released games by up to 90 percent, and offered bonus gifts for completing in game objectives.
The most attractive part about this sale is you won’t even need to roll out of bed to buy those hot titles for the PC gamer on your holiday shopping list. Steam is an entirely web based platform, so all transactions are handled via download. Simply give the email of the giftee and they’ll find a shiny new plaything under his or her virtual tree. Steam’s selection is awesome, and whether it’s a quirky Indy stocking stuffer like Super Meat Boy, or ribbon bound box full of carnage ala Modern Warfare 3 this platform’s holiday sales should keep you covered this holiday season.
Between the Bing Crosby Christmas songs on repeat and the guilt-inducing Santas at every entrance, holidays in the mall suck enough already. Keep these deals in mind and you’ll be able to knock out everyone on your list, without losing your sanity.
Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
