I once blogged about my Black Friday experience in Brooklyn.  I used to go every year for the past few years to the local Staples, freeze my butt off, usually to get cheap hard drives for my download consumption fix. This year I wasn’t feeling what I saw on bfads.net. $99 GPSes already come a dime a dozen on online e-tail sites, $200 for Blu Ray players is still out of my budget and conscious range.

So what did I do this year? I jumped on an early deal by Dell on a 42″ Sharp 1080p HDTV. I researched dell couspons on slickdeals and fatwallet. I figured out how to get 6% off from AAA membersip, 7% off from my wifes university discount, and 10% off from her work discount. But the problem was I couldn’t get more than one coupon to work. And the 10% coupon did not apply (it was only for computers and notebooks). So I decided to call dell up. The TV was on sale for $799 and tax was like 40 bucks. I told him all the discounts I could possibly use. So he says he’ll give me $50 off (I was getting $55 off with 7% coupon), so to sweeten the deal he throws in a $75 gift card if I sign up for a preferred account which also gives me 0% financing on the TV over 12 months. Win, win win situation I payed $811 total after taxes (free shipping). When I told Belal Khan about the TV he ruined it for me by telling me that there is no visible difference between 720 and 1080p on screens smaller than 50″. Even then its still a decent deal. It was available all the way till the end of Cyber Monday for that price.

In typical Azeem Khan tradition, I needed to cop a hard drive. I really wanted a 1 TB hard drive, but thought $99 is still not low enough for me. Then I saw tigerdirect had a 1.5 TB Seagate SATA with a 5 year warranty for $120 and jumped on it. Other than that I got a HDMI cable from newegg for $2 after rebate.

I ordered 2 Digital Cameras for my cousins upcoming weddings from bestbuy.com for pretty good prices with 2 GB memmory cards included. My cousins wanted to get laptops and had great options to choose from on Dell.com (with a crapload of coupons to stack on) and one of them found his best deal on the HP website. We’re talking core duo, 4 GB RAM, 350 GB HD, finger print scanner crap, and all that for under $700.

Going to stand on lines on Black Friday is just stupid. I won’t ever do it again. There wasn’t one in store deal that I couldn’t find a better deal for online. Most people who go to Black Friday do not even know what they need or want or even whats on sale. So they end up buying crap and taking space. Its the Global Recession Marketing Strategy stupid, theres nothing highly “exclusive” about these deals, they are designed to maximize profits and are stocked in craploads. So be selective.

NYTimes has a deep article on societal problems we should reflect on stemming from the trampling and killing of a Walmat employee in Valley Stream (Green Acres Mall). Are $20 Wii games, $200 Blu Ray Players, and bootleg $600 HDTVs worth someone’s life? Standing on these black friday lines, pushing people to get in, pushing cops, pushing security guards and workers reminds me of trying to get into the cafeteria in High School. When you have 200 - 300 people on line and as soon as doors open 100 more try to bum rush the door. The outcome is never pretty.

If you are looking for a TV check out American Express’s http://mywishlist.amexnetwork.com/ site throughout tommorrow to purcahse a 42″ Sharp Aquous for $700, but you need an Amex card to participate.

Filed under: Ranting and Raving