Is it worth going out on black friday?

[Sephroth57]

are there really THAT good of deals that i should wake up early on a day off and go out there with a bunch of crazy people. are there any good gamer related sales? is anyone from here goin?

[SirPeale]

I'm going.  First year.  Yeah, you can find some insane deals, as long as you get up *early*.

[Sephroth57]

peale i was expecting you to come out with a big post bulleted with best deals and spots to get to early =p very dissapointing. i know u as the board bargain guy

[grueinthebox]

I'll be working, so I suppose I can't go so far as to say "you couldn't get me out in that mess if you paid me," but short of that there's no way in hell you'd drag me out in that mess.

[Bgnome]

i started working at best buy around a year ago and black friday was insane.  i honestly believe that if you are not planning on spending hundreds of dollars on gift shopping this holiday season, it is not worth getting up at 5am or earlier, mob rushing stores, and standing in horrendous lines for upwards of 10 hours or so.  the few dollars you might save is just not worth the trouble.
that being said,
http://bf2004.net/

[JackTucky]

I'm a "no way I'm going out that day" type of guy, but, if you go out just to watch the crazies, it's can be lots of fun.

Try to get interviewed on TV.  "I had the "Super terrific happy hour" DVD in my hand, but some big old LADY stole it!"  Then, cry uncontrollably.

I MIGHT try to get one of those best buy emachines as a gift, but, I'm not getting there at 5am.

I once went to Walmart in Corydon Indiana the day after Christmas to check out the return lines for fun.  There was some old dude returning a Christmas tree, with some tinsel still left on it  .  They took it back.  They should have told him to take a walk, but, they want his business next year too.

Art

[SirPeale]

peale i was expecting you to come out with a big post bulleted with best deals and spots to get to early =p very dissapointing. i know u as the board bargain guy

Heck, there are plenty of sites for that.

http://www.bf2004.com

I'm going to Wal-Mart.

[maraxle]

Personally, I think you're retarded if you sit out in front of a store at 5am just to save a few bucks on some crap that you probably wouldn't buy otherwise.  Of course, I also think you're retarded if you go see Star Wars at midnight on opening day and stuff like that.  I guess I just value my time and my sleep more than money, plus I don't like crowds.

[SirPeale]

Personally, I think you're retarded if you sit out in front of a store at 5am just to save a few bucks on some crap that you probably wouldn't buy otherwise.  Of course, I also think you're retarded if you go see Star Wars at midnight on opening day and stuff like that.  I guess I just value my time and my sleep more than money, plus I don't like crowds.

I wouldn't do that, but I will be there shortly after opening.

[HaRuMaN]

I'll be so far far away from any shopping establishment on Black Friday...  I'm going camping tomorrow, won't be back until Sunday.   

[paigeoliver]

I worked in retail a few years. Black Friday is a joke. A few of the low end idiot retailers like Wal-Mart have some limited quantity loss leaders, but overall what you get is a lot of people in the store, and nobody buying anything but those loss leaders.

Also, I don't know about other places, but I know 70 percent of the items purchased that day at my store were returned before christmas.

It is also NOT the busiest shopping day of the year, it usually ranks around 10th.

[Generic Eric]

My wife heard from somone that she works with that the first bunch of people at best buy last year got a voucher for a laptop for $50.

Don't know the particulars on the laptop though.

[SOAPboy]

im working black friday, at EB and were having KILLER sales.. ill be hiding everything i want tomorrow..

[fredster]

No, don't do it.

For God's sake, don't do it.

I'm still tramatized from an outing in 1997.

[Hoagie_one]

what kinda rates for trading in PC games at EB?

[SOAPboy]

what kinda rates for trading in PC games at EB?

crappy..

PC games drop in price so fast tradin value drops..

[missioncontrol]

I once went to Walmart in Corydon Indiana the day after Christmas to check out the return lines for fun.  There was some old dude returning a Christmas tree, with some tinsel still left on it  .  They took it back.  They should have told him to take a walk, but, they want his business next year too.

I once had to take a Christmas tree back to Lowes after Christmas...It was one of those fiber optic trees and a week after we bought it the power supply went bad...I couldn't get a new power supply for it because the trees were sold out and I wasn't going to take down the tree just to find a new one to have to put back up so I decided to take it back after the Holidays.....

I felt like a shmuck standing in the return line with a tree....

[AmericanDemon]

I'm working friday.  I'm a cable tech.  I expected to be extremely busy with everyone being off....  yeah....  I have 3 work orders....  I generally have 25. 

Slacking off tomorrow! 

[SirPoonga]

I'm just going to office max.  They have a 200gig drive for $50 after rebates.

[Sephroth57]

rebates suck... are there any true priced, good deals on HD out there? i need a bigger one

[Snarbald]

compusa is advertising a 60gig for $30.

[Sephroth57]

how many HD can you have on one computer? my IDE cable only has 2 slots, do they make ones with more and you can just keep adding?

[paigeoliver]

I have six hard drives in my desktop.

you can have 2 per ide channel. A normal computer has 2 ide channels (thus 4 drives).

You can buy an ide controller card for real cheap, which will give you 2 more channels (for 4 more drives). You can buy multiple ide cards if you want, but i doubt you are gonna fit more than 7 hard drives (plus CDROM drive) in one case.

[JackTucky]

Just got back from Best Buy.   No more emachines at 6:30am.  I wasn't going to get there and wait on line at 5am.  Oh, well.

BTW, they were showing the lines around the building on the news helicopter camera.

Art

[crashwg]

DAMN YOU STUPID REBATES!

I was planning on going to bestbuy when I found out that they have ATI Radeon 9600XT for $99 then I notice that it was after $100 in rebates!!!

[paigeoliver]

I went to Officemax and it was a joke. All the "deals" required large amounts of mail in rebates, and I never seem to get those back. 

The also didn't even seem to have most of the advertised stuff.

[crashwg]

What about rainchecks?  Do those apply on black friday?

[shmokes]

CompUSA was great.  I got there right at 6am so the line was already on its way in.  Everything I wanted, I got.  And then I got in line and there were only two people  in front of me (spent 45 minutes in line in Circuit City last year).  Then I went to Wal-Mart and they had plenty of everything I wanted (I got a couple of those Namco 2-packs ).  Again, no lines to speak of.  Next I hit Target.  Same deal and this time there were about 10 checkers standing at the ends of their registers saying, "If you're ready, I can help you here sir."

It was bizarre.  Not like Black Friday at all.

[SirPoonga]

No, rainchecks do not apply.

I have never had problems with rebates.  I have received all the ones I send for. 

[DrewKaree]

Then I went to Wal-Mart and they had plenty of everything I wanted (I got a couple of those Namco 2-packs ).  Again, no lines to speak of. 

I worked today, but I work EARLY, and I stopped by a Wal-Mart by my jobsite at 6:30.  They opened at 6:00.  They had absolutely NONE of the Namco 2 packs left.  I was so pissed.  They had them (naturally) separate, but those were selling for $15...I grabbed the two and went to the front counter, asked the checker if she'd give 'em to me for the flyer price, she got the manager, who offered 'em to me for $25.  I already have the Pac Man, so asked him if he'd give me just the Ms Pac for half the flyer price....no dice. 

I walked because there just should have been no way those things sold out in half an hour....the friggen store wasn't even BUSY! 

(and the only reason I was haggling is because I was buying a few other things and figured he might take that into consideration  )

I refuse to go into a Staples ever again for similar crappy reasons

[Crazy Cooter]

Microcenter had some good stuff.  But only if you were one of the first 25 people in the store.  They handed out "coupons".  Pretty stupid.  I went to Walmart and Office Depot too.  Came home empty handed.

[crashwg]

No, rainchecks do not apply.

I got a raincheck at Target for The Simpsons season 4 on DVD which was $17 vs the usual $40!

[DrewKaree]

Target is one of the FEW places who do that, but they've also become regular receipt hounds there...I don't blame 'em, but MAN it's frustrating when you've lost the receipt to a piece of crap you just want money back on!

Target - the poor man's Bloomingdale's 

[shmokes]

Last year I got a couple of DVDs for christmas that I already owned.  They were still shrinkwrapped and each had a big Target sticker on the outside of the shrinkwrap.  They wouldn't let me exchange them.  I told her that I didn't want my money back and, in fact, wanted to exchange them for more expensive DVDs so I would actually be spending more money.  No dice.  They wouldn't do it.  So I peeled the Target stickers off and exchanged them at Wal-Mart.  No hassle.

God, I hate Wal-Mart, but when it comes to a return policy...

[pointdablame]

God, I hate Wal-Mart, but when it comes to a return policy...

.... or lack thereof

[crashwg]

Wal*mart's return policy is a changin' though...  I returned something a little while back withough a reciept and they told me that you're only allowed like 3 reciept-less returns per year!  Oh and don't bother trying to take a console back to a place you didn't buy it from.  They call the manufacturer with the SN and verify where it was sold.

[Sephroth57]

lol, i bought a PS2, put my broken PS2 back in the box and sealed it all up (i didnt break the special little seal i just peeled it carefully and glued it back on), and returned the broken one for full cash refund. now thats walmart for ya =)

[drunkatuw]

I think it's worth waiting in line.  Last year I showed up at best buy at 5am and the line wrapped all the way around the store and I had to wait in line until 11pm to check out.

This year I decided to show up with my fiance at 3:30am and there were about 60-70 people in front of us.  We ended up buying two emachine computers for $199 each, two kodak digital cameras, two 256MB SD memory cards, and a 160GB HD. 

Total was around $1700, but we have about $1000 in rebates, I think our final price will be $770+tax and stamps to mail rebates.

[Sephroth57]

yeah see im not really into that kinda stuff, emachines are good for some people i prefer building my own stuff, and its not like they have a great sale on GeForce 6800s that you cant get a better deal online

[Yander]

lol, i bought a PS2, put my broken PS2 back in the box and sealed it all up (i didnt break the special little seal i just peeled it carefully and glued it back on), and returned the broken one for full cash refund. now thats walmart for ya =)

Some kid saved up his money and bought that PS2 on his birthday. Brought it home and it didn't work