While many sites announce their Black Friday sales in advance, some don’t, and sales change during the day. I’ll be updating this post throughout the day, but you may find some placeholder information or sales that have expired. A note about prices listed – if it’s $49 at one store, $49.99 at the next, and $50 at a third, I may have listed all of them as $49 or $50. This is generally the case in three-digit prices where you should probably make the decision based on other factors besides that 99 cents anyway. I hope you can forgive this for the sake of brevity.
I’ll be back with a new post for Cyber Monday, but the good news in 2019 is that most of the deals in this post can be had today online, and you don’t have to go out in the madness if you don’t want to. Good luck, shoppers!
First of all, be sure to shop with whatever cashback/points program you prefer (or that gets you the best deal on that transaction!) I’ve found Rakuten to be the best over time. I’ve been using it as often as I can remember to do so for the last three years and have gotten almost $500 cashback, which they mail to me in checks. (Full disclosure, that’s my referral link, and we both get bonus cash if you use it.) I less frequently use Swagbucks, although I know a lot of folks are fans. I find the Rakuten rewards to generally be higher, and they’re cash instead of points you exchange. Finally, if you have access to it through your job, Perks at Work can score you some pretty good deals. I used a triple points offer there once to buy something I needed anyway and was able to buy the laptop I’m typing on right now with the rewards!
Supplies and accessories:
As usual, this is one of the best times of the year to buy Amazon devices. Whatever you want, whether it’s an Echo device, a Kindle, or a TV, it’s probably on the best sale of the year right now.
The offer you’ll see most is a 1 TB PS4 Slim with God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and The Last of Us Remastered for $200. You can get it at Walmart, Best Buy, or GameStop.
DualShock 4 controllers are $39-40 at all the usual suspects: Walmart (gold or red), Kohl’s, Best Buy, GameStop, BJ’s, and Target.
As for games, here are the best deals, including many under $25 at Best Buy:
Side note – Pre-owned PlayStation 3 games are BOGO at GameStop
You may have heard that the Black Friday deals on the Switch aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Here’s the deal. The Switch is $300. You could have gone to any store all year long and bought it for that price. The bundle you’re seeing in Black Friday ads is for $300 as well, but with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe included. The trick is that these are the older model Switch with about half the battery life of a newer one. If you want the longer battery life, make sure you’re buying a Switch with the model number HAC-001(-01). (The product serial number begins with “XKW). If that’s not important to you, and you really want Mario Kart, then go ahead and pick up a Black Friday bundle. But if you’re good with that, you can pick it up at Target,
Bad news for anyone hoping for deals on Pokemon Sword and Shield – they’re still $60 everywhere. But here are some of the rest of the best deals on games, including many under $25 at Best Buy:
I don’t know how many years I’ve been shocked at how cheap TVs have gotten, but it continues to be true. And you don’t have to stand in line at 4 am for them either. I’ve actually been seeing a ton of deals on TVs all year long, so if you don’t see a score you like on Black Friday, don’t stress about it. If you do want to try for a BF-level score, try for one of these (in decreasing size order):
$200 Target gift card with purchase of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone Xs, or iPhone Xs Max after a qualified activation on either AT&T or Verizon
If you’re interested in a DSLR, I recommend buying a camera body and then lens separately, but there are also plenty of good bundle deals to be had.
This post was last modified on November 29, 2019 8:25 am
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