The Sale before the big sale on Black Friday

I remember distinctly there is usually a pretty big sale(online as well) some time before Black Friday? Is it three weeks or two weeks before Black Friday that there is a HUGE discount? Can anyone verfiy this?

 

It's usually the week before Thanksgiving when pre-black friday sales are unleashed.

 

Kewl. I can't wait.

 

Does this include websites like Dell and HP CTO?

 

Oh..If they do that will be great and worth waiting for

 

Does the big sale referred on this thread includes Thinkpads or ASUS?

 

Depends on each company/store's marketing strategy to kick off the season shopping. Most B&M stores start the season the day after Halloween (that's when they reset their displays), but deals don't really kick in until the day after Thanksgiving. Some are trying to get an earlier start and a lead on the competition by having pre-Black Friday sales.

Generally you will only find dirt cheap pre-built low-end laptops in B&M stores, since the goal of Black-Friday (and all loss-leader or close-to-loss-leader deals) is to entice the customer to get in the store and buy that plus other things. Since CTO purchases are usually one purchase sales, there's no benefit for manufacturers to release loss-leader laptop deals.

 

Correct me if i got your message wrong but the build quality on those types of sale is low? What is B&M?

 

Sorry, "B&M" is short for Brick and Mortar (meaning a physical retail store like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc...). "Loss-leader" is retail slang for a deal that cost them money, but it's helpful in the end because it draws people into the store to shop.

Almost always, Best Buy offers extremely cheap, low-end Toshiba notebooks. Low-end Toshibas are known for their for poor build quality, so yes- generally Black Friday laptops have poor build quality. Not the best notebook, but for the price, any new notebook is worth it. Last year it was a $249 Toshiba L35. If you were lucky enough to be the first one in the store and asked for that laptop, chances are they would show it to you and then try to recommend a higher end notebook and/or add-on sales like accessories and such. And of course you would be bombarded with a Best Buy protection plan pitch.

That's not to say you won't find good deals on good laptops. It's just the major deals are designed to draw in people that that want a laptop for a couple hundred bucks, so that they have a chance to look at the higher-end, more pricey models.

Google for "black friday deals", and you should get a bunch of sites that post leaked Black Friday ads. Gottadeal and SlickDeals are good places to browse. Unfortunately, a lot of stores are threatening these sites with legal action since they post leaked ads. Wal-mart is the one this year (but that's ok, i just won't shop there).

 

pfft who buys stuff at walmart on black friday anyways lol...

I think most people who check out leaked BF ad websites are mostly shopping for electronics, and I for one would never be caught dead buying computer stuff / electronics from Walmart.

 

I got a Toshiba HDDVD player for $99 at a Walmart Pre Black Friday sale.
Normally sells for $200+.

 

do you think Lenovo/IBM gonna participate in this sale?

 

Not sure. I think Black Friday applies more to the BM stores. There is usually some bargin the following Monday on the internet but I am not sure how big is the saving online.

 

Hello all, I'm looking through the thread and waiting for the deal before or after Black Friday. I'm going to buy a laptop these days and already made wide search. But I still decide to wait for the 4th week this month Could you give me some suggestion about when is the better time to buy one near thanksgiving? Or is there better deal near christmas? Thanks a lot!