The whole idea of Black Friday was quite mystical to me before I tried it myself. Mostly it was brought up to me by Eugene B., since which time I have really gotten into it, not because saving all that money could change my life in any way, but because it was just simply cool to save up so much.
Last year, I got plenty of good stuff for cheap. Real cheap. This year I was definitely getting prepared reading every update from sites such as bfads.net. But my plans changed on Thanksgiving Day, when I was headed to 7eleven to buy beer. I happened to be passing by BEST BUY and noticed that people already lined up in line with camping chairs and various other outdoor gear to keep them warm through the night. I decided that it was not worth it anymore for me at that point, not because I was lazy to wake up but merely because I could make more money by sitting at home on Friday writing few lines of PHP or JS code and buying all those items at a regular price.
Nevertheless, I couldn't just sit still on Friday. I went for a ride but managed to get to Radio Shack only. That was my first Black Friday purchase. I bought my GPS navigator replacement — MIO NAVI 300 for $130. My other GPS — some older MIO model — I sold on ebay for $60. The maps were outdated and manufacturer's website wanted $60 to upgrade them. So that was a perfect reason to get rid of it to buy new one on Black Friday. Thus, after RadioShack, I drove around with my friends and realised I didn't want my car vandalized or banged by a shopping cart. I returned home.
Shopping wasn't over for me. I simply moved to online shopping for the day. I decided to use what my friend Jay suggested — Microsoft/Live Cashback. Something that appeared unbelievable, actually worked. It's a 30% cashback within 60 days on selected `Buy Now` ebay packages. And by selected I mean most common with exception of expensive things like cars, etc. In addition to that, I added an additional 10% off by using paypal redemption code "CHOLIDAYNOV2008". This was definitely turning out to be even better than classic Black Friday deal.
Thus, with this Microsoft and Paypal deal totalling 40% off I got the following:
- COBB AccessPort v2, under $400 .
- iPhone 3G, about $400.
- Male to male phono cable for my Jabra headphones, under $2.
- Carbon fibre shift knob, under $20.
I am thinking what else I can buy, but I can't really come up with any excuses to buy any more stuff, I just don't need anything else at this point. I may use Microsoft cashback to get some cloth shopping gift cards. For instance, you can buy $100 Macy's gift card for $75. Then get 30% off and you got $100 card for $52.50.
I don't know how much cheaper things can get! I love America!
p.s. Today I filled my tank with 93 octane paying $1.90 per gallon. That is pretty unbelievably cheap too. For reference, this summer, just about four month ago, I was paying $5+ per gallon. But I have mixed feeling about fuel costs as this is a whole other issue unrelated to Black Friday.