Black Friday 2019: Our Tips for Finding the Best Deals

Still, the deals are worth it if you are in the market for an item and want to save some cash. Just keep in mind that price research is important, and if you miss out on a deal, don’t fret; there’s a chance it will pop up again at some point in the future.

WIRED will share all of the best deals and discounts once Black Friday has started. For now, you can check out this roundup of early Black Friday deals.

How much money can I save on Black Friday?

That depends on what you’re shopping for. There are so many deals up for grabs in so many categories that it’s impossible to list them all here. We expect to see steals on TVs, smart home gear, toys, laptops, and more.

For example, TV’s are a great purchase to make, if you can find the right one. They are at their cheapest around Black Friday and through the holidays, in general. The hottest TV doorbuster rarely budges in price from year to year, but you’ll usually get more features and better specs compared to the best TV deal from the previous year.

In the same vein, you’ll be able to save on clothes, toys, and home items, but those deals may not be as enticing when you’re talking about specific dollar amounts. They are certainly cheaper, though.

Bottom line, there are deals on just about every sort of item you can think of. If you’re diligent about scoring discounts, you’ll save a ton of money.

How do I know if a deal is good?

Always do your price research! When you’re shopping online, take a quick second to Google the item you’re considering. You’ll be able to see what it’s selling for at other stores.

One tool that we like to use is Camelcamelcamel, which tracks Amazon’s prices over time. Some deals, such as Lightning Deals, are excluded from the pricing history, but it’s still useful to see what an item has sold for in the past.

You can also check out WIRED’s deals coverage to find roundups of the best discounts available.

What’s a ‘doorbuster’ deal?

Originally, doorbusters were in-store exclusive crazy-good deals that often required shoppers to arrive early, sometimes camp out for hours or days, in order to score them. They were typically available in small quantities and designed to entice shoppers to choose one store over another.

These days, those sorts of doorbusters still exist, but more doorbusters than ever are also available online. A similar set of restrictions usually apply, though. If a deal catches your eye, and it’s marked as a doorbuster, you should be prepared to hit that refresh key at the exact time it starts to avoid it selling out.

Here at WIRED, we only cover online deals, and rarely doorbusters because they’re often quite difficult to nab on time. But when we do cover them, it’s because we think it’s worth the extra work.

How do I make sure a deal I want doesn’t sell out?

Nearly every Black Friday fanatic has experienced a deal going out of stock. If you can find out a start time for a deal, make sure that you’re actively paying attention to the store’s website around that time. Get on the page and refresh! If the deal is at a store you trust, create accounts and save credit card information before the event begins so the checkout process goes as quickly as possible. It’s also a good idea to clear your web browser cache before you start shopping for Black Friday deals.

The good news: If a deal does sell out, there’s a chance that another store will have the same deal or one that’s very similar. That is especially true for big box stores like Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Best Buy. Check other stores if a deal that you want is out of stock. You might find what you’re looking for. Sometimes deals come back in stock, as well.