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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tech Savvy Secrets to Getting the Best Black Friday Deals

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The day after Thanksiving, aka "Black Friday," is a great time to score deals, as hundreds of real-world and online stores choose that day to lay on the discounts.

Sadly, while we'd like to believe retailers are slashing prices on November 28 out of the generosity of their executives' pinstriped little hearts, it ain't necessarily so. Given the nature of capitalism, you can count on businesses offering plenty of wacky rip-offs mixed in with the real deals. So you've got to tread carefully in your search for the best deals.

Thankfully, in addition to winning Obama the presidency, the powers of the internet and of mobile gadgetry can help you survive this consumer brouhaha without walking out of Best Buy feeling like a chump.

Here's a list of tech-savvy shopping tips for finding the best deals and getting the most from your hard-earned dollars.

Korg 1. Use your phone's mojo
Have an iPhone? Now's the time to put it to good use. Download SnapTell [iTunes], a free app that can automatically identify a CD, DVD, book or video game and look up pricing and ratings online simply by snapping a photo. No, it doesn't scan the bar code; it just recognizes the image of the product and shoots you the information. So before throwing that $15 copy of Iron Man into your shopping cart, stop and think for a second about whether or not that's really a good deal. Better yet, snap a photo of it just to make sure.

Don't have an iPhone? Most smartphones, such as the Android-powered G1, have barcode-reading software that can look up even more products on the web.

Don't have a smartphone? Chances are your handset at least has a crappy internet browser that can look up PriceGrabber to see how cheap the product runs for online. Or you can use Google SMS to look up product prices by sending a text message. Just send a text message to 466453 (GOOGLE on your phone's keypad) and put the word "price" plus a product name in the message. For example: price ipod 40gb. Google will reply with one or two text messages containing pricing info it's found on the web.

2. Check the web before standing in line
This seems like a plainly obvious piece of advice, but you'd be surprised at how easily the hype of Black Friday mesmerizes shoppers into sleeping on lawn chairs outside stores, waiting for a gadget they could buy for the same price online. Really, just check the internet before committing to lining up for that $300 laptop that you could get for the same price -- and much less hassle -- on Amazon. Here's a collection of Black Friday and discount sites (some provided by Datamation) to cross compare with that Best Buy catalog that arrived in the mail:

3. Use coupon codes
If you find an awesome deal online, you can get an even deeper discount by punching in a coupon code. Chances are you can find one on web sites such as Currentcodes and RetailMeNot, which are regularly churning out coupon codes from major retail stores.

4. Stay up late
Some stores offer exclusive web sales as early as Thanksgiving eve, allowing you to order products online that you can pick up at the store. Major retailers tend to offer these sales, so troll around Best Buy or Walmart around midnight on November 27-28 while digesting that turkey dinner.

5. Sign up for alerts
Most of us busy bees don't have enough time to scour the internet for a hot deal, and setting up alerts will automate that process. Sign up for the store listing alert on BlackFridayAds to receive notification whenever a store posts its Black Friday ad. That way, if you're looking to buy a shiny new MacBook, for instance, you can wait for that sale ad to come to you rather than look for it yourself. And if you're looking for a specific product, you can sign up for an Alerts account and use the Price Watch feature, which sends an alert whenever the price of your desired gadget drops.

Posted by Chismillionaire at 10:35 AM  

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