Top tips for finding the best deals
In case you’ve been living under a rock these past few days: Black Friday is looming. The day of the year when retailers fight to offer the best deals, when frenzied customers fight (sometimes literally) to grab up discounted stock before it’s all gone, will be upon us in just a few days on Friday 29 November.
As any smart shopper knows, the safest place to engage in some Black Friday bargain hunting is from the comfort of your own home – and you don’t even have to wait until the day itself! These days, many stores put out deals all week in the build-up to the main event, and none have embraced Black Friday season quite like Amazon. It’s a great place to grab a bargain ahead of the holidays, and you can check out every current deal using the links below.
Amazon’s offerings change daily and differ by region, so your best bet for early deals is to get online and do some browsing yourself. In particular, look out for blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Lightning deals which offer incredible discounts for limited periods of time each day.
Don’t get sucked in
However, as much as we like to promote a bargain when we see one, remember not to buy something just because its highlighted as a deal online! There are two questions to ask yourself before making a purchase: “do I really want this,” and “is this really as good a deal as it seems?” We can’t help you with the first; it’s too subjective. But luckily you can use hard evidence to assist with the latter.
CamelCamelCamel is an independent website dedicated to price-tracking Amazon products, and you can use it to see a price history on anything you’re tempted to buy. Often, Black Friday really does offer the best prices of the entire year – but not always. Sometimes a “deal” price is barely lower than its usual cost, while other products are typically cheaper at different times of year. If a deal looks good on paper, but the facts show that its price has dipped even lower in the past few months, maybe it’s better to hold off and wait for a better bargain.
Example: the MacBook Air frequently dips to $900 on Amazon
If you sign up to CamelCamelCamel, you can set price watches for products you actually need, so you can buy them as soon as they go on sale – regardless of the time of year. The website is also a great place to see the top price drops of the week, filtering through the promoted products on Amazon’s homepage.
Even if you’re not a fan of shopping with Amazon (or you find a great deal elsewhere) this is still a useful technique to compare the price you’ve found to the general trends of the past. Good luck bargain hunting, and we’ll be back on Black Friday proper with the best deals we can find from around the web!