If It's Not Black Friday, It's Cyber Monday

There was a time when Black Friday was a name reserved for the shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Traditionally it kicked off the holiday season and gave stores a chance to "put themselves in the black."

Today Black Friday is more of a season than a day. It's already in full swing, and not to be outdone, the online shopping association Shop.org has declared Monday to be Cyber Monday, a day of online sales. Just add these two to a glamorous list of shopping holidays: Presidents Day, Veterans Day, and more.

I asked Daniel de Grandpre, publisher of Dealnews, a web site devoted to tracking deals, if it was just my imagination or were sales starting early this year. "Incredibly early," said de Grandpre. "The first to publicly release its Black Friday deals was Meijer, a Midwestern department store chain. That was over a week ago. The next day, it was F.Y.E., and then of course the big one: Last Thursday CompUSA released its entire Black Friday ad."

I asked if there was there any difference between sales online versus physical stores.

De Grandpre: I'd argue that there are even more Black Friday deals online than in stores. That's because all of the "big box" stores have almost all of their Black Friday sales online, plus you get online exclusives, like AppleStore.com's annual Black Friday sale. Other big online-only sales this Black Friday are coming from Amazon, Buy.com, and many more smaller retailers. Online, you can expect extremely aggressive prices, enormous selection, free shipping, and sometimes no sales tax. Without lines!

Here are some deals on some most coveted products:

For LCD TV buyers: Use these sweet spots as a guide this coming week.

For off-brand 40- to 42-inch 720p LCD TVs, expect to pay between $650 and $750. For name-brand 46- to 47-inch 1080p LCD TVs, expect to pay $1,500 to $1,800. If you don't nab deals like these on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, then wait; dealnews.com has listed similar prices to these already, and they'll be back again. TV prices rarely go up.

Consumers shouldn't forget about plasma TVs, which usually get a larger size for the same money. Only a week ago, Sears.com had a Samsung 50-inch widescreen plasma HDTV for $985. That's an incredible price for a high-end brand…in fact, it's better than some of the doorbusters that are expected on Black Friday.

There are two types of deals on the Sony PlayStation 3. One is: Buy it at list price, and they'll toss in a few freebies. Circuit City, Best Buy, and most others have those kinds of deals this Black Friday. Rare, but possible, is getting it below list price. That's only happened four times this year that dealnews.com has tracked. However, two of those times are in the last week.

But is Black Friday really the lowest price you'll find between now and the holiday?

De Grandpre: Absolutely not. Prices have been plummeting for the last three weeks, and they're not likely to stop. Consumer spending is tight this year, and retailers will be very aggressive before Christmas Day comes. Don't feel guilty about passing on Black Friday.

I can deal with Black Friday, but do you really have to be on top of the deal starting on Turkey Thursday?

De Grandpre: Consumers everywhere should be preparing to start their Black Friday shopping a day early. On Thanksgiving Day, most big box retailers will have some or nearly all of their Black Friday specials available at their online stores. We're talking Staples.com, CircuitCity.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com, OfficeMax.com, OfficeDepot.com, and others. Many stores also have aggressive Thanksgiving Day-only sales coming.

De Grandpre says that consumers should pre-shop Black Friday on Thursday. If you see online deals, buy them. Then, only go to stores on Friday if you didn't get what you want. Last year, some Black Friday items sold out online on Thursday, so shoppers weren't able to get them in stores.

In addition to Dealnews, other sites that post Black Friday ads include: Bfads.net, BlackFridayAds.com, and BlackFriday.info. See Dory Devlin's post for more tips.

Just do me a favor, would you? Make sure you take some time out to smell the turkey and give a little thanks. Some things are even more important than "the deal."