The 10 Worst Things to Buy on Black Friday
It may be tempting to cross the kids' gifts off your list first, but you’ll pay lower prices if you wait. The best week to purchase toys is December 8-14, according to an analysis by DealNews.
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Christmas or not, retailers know you need parkas and snow boots this time of year, so they’re less inclined to discount. You’ll see much better prices in February.
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You’re not going to find price cuts on the new iPad Mini or iPhone 5S. But you will find deals on older-generation products from the tech giant. The Apple store itself typically only offers discounts on 5 percent to 10 percent on Black Friday, but retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart promise better prices.
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Jewelry retailers make the bulk of their sales during the winter holidays. Sure, they may advertise deals for Black Friday, but they’ll offer better ones in the slow summer months.
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Don’t expect any discounts on the new xBox One or the PlayStation 4 (or, for that matter, brand new games like Call of Duty Ghosts or Grand Theft Auto 5). But older consoles are fair game. Bundled packages, which include accessories and a few games, could be 30 percent to 40 percent off, Dealnews reports.
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In general, stay away from the cheapest of tablets, which tend to be of extremely poor quality. The Monster M7, $150, is so plagued with performance issues that Consumer Reports recently slapped it with a Don’t Buy rating.
Gift cards top holiday lists for those both giving and receiving gifts this year, but some make better gifts than others. General-purpose cards, such as those with an American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa Logo, tend to have much higher fees than store-specific cards, making them less valuable to recipients.
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If you’re among the few consumers who still uses a paper calendar or datebook, don’t buy it now. Stores slash prices on these as soon as the first of the year hits.
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More than a quarter of shoppers blew their budget last year, according to a report by online coupon site RetailMeNot. Racking up debt during the holidays can have serious financial repercussions for months or years to come. Have a plan before you hit the stores to avoid getting caught up in the Black Friday hype.
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If you haven’t already started camping out, you may be too late to nab a doorbuster deal. Retailers use these items to lure shoppers into their stores, but they tend to offer them in limited quantity and only to the earliest of shoppers.
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