So aside from hearing about the events at a nearby Wal-Mart, Black Friday was pretty good to me.
The short version:
12:30 AM @ Tanger Outlet, Wilson’s Leather Outlet – Leather Jacket – Under $100
5:00 AM @ Circuit City – USB HDTV Tuner $20
6:00 AM @ Ritz Camera – 3pack 4GB Compact Flash cards $FREE ($60-Mail-In-Rebate)
8:00 AM @ MicroCenter – Two 22″ wide screen LCD (No good. Returning them tomorrow!)
I got an early start this year at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park, NY. They had a Midnight Madness event so Tiffany and I headed down there. I was pleasantly surprised to find an ad showing they were giving away $10 gift cards to the first 100 people in line, so I stepped onto the end of the line as the 44th person. The wait wasn’t too horrible. Just an hour. It was cold, but I was prepared wearing my embroidered Preferred DJ’s jacket (Cheap plug!) and my hat and gloves!
I picked up a nice leather jacket, after discounts was just under $100. I didn’t plan on buying one, but I needed one, and the deal was too good to pass up.
I separated with Tiffany and headed to Circuit City. Picked up a USB HD TV Tuner. I figure, Vista comes with some cool TV/DVR-like features, and for $20 it was worth giving them a look. I slept for 30 minutes in the car before getting in line at Circuit City and after waiting an hour, I was in and out of the store in 7 minutes. Unlike last year where it took me almost an hour in-store to pay for my stuff and leave. (or Best Buy 3 years ago-almost 3 hours on line to pay!)
Ritz Camera’s ad read All Stores Open at 6, and they had an awesome deal on Compact Flash cards. My 40D takes CF and three 4GB cards for Free after a mail-in-rebate, who was I to turn this deal down! I was there at 5. The gate was down and the lights out in the store. It seemed odd that nobody was there preparing, but I figured that being a small store, they’d pop in at a quarter to. By 6:00 AM there was nobody there, so I called the closest store (in CT) and was told the actual hours varied from store to store. They thought that the shop might open at 7, so I hung around. 7:00 AM came and nobody was there. Since I got there around 5:30 I’d been looking for signs with hours. All I saw were Dec Holiday hours and promotional signage. I finally got out of my car and looked through the gate. Two feet in was the actual door, and on it a sign stating their hours from 9AM to 9PM for the day! Lesson to be learned.. Don’t be lazy-Get out of your car! So I headed to my next stop.
I got to Micro center and stepped in line. It was an hour until they opened, but I was entertained by a man who had plenty to say, but wasn’t the type to stand in your face with bad breath and never give you an “out”. He was friendly and we talked tech for the hour while we both waited patiently to get inside. Once in, we wished each other luck with our findings and headed our own ways. Tiffany met back up with me, after staying home and sleeping for a few hours on and off. We grabbed two 22 inch LCD’s with the intention of replacing my single 20″ LCD with the group of them. Unfortunately, upon un-boxing and testing one of the monitors, I noticed they were the exact same height, though the 22″ screen had a lower resolution than my current 20 inch LCD. I tried it out and decided I had more working space on my smaller monitor, so I re-boxed the new LCD and will be bringing it back tomorrow. Maybe I’ll try to buy a more expensive 20″ with matching specs to the one I have now. Or maybe I’ll look for a larger monitor, but I’ll check their floor models before buying one from an Ad!
We went to Ritz and I was the first one in the door as they opened at 9. I walked in and asked for the 3 Compact Flash (CF) cards and the clerk laughed. It wasn’t an evil laugh but more of an “I knew this was coming” laugh. The actual deal was for Compact Flash OR Secure Digital (SD) cards. They had TONS of SD cards in stock, but only 2 CF cards and the rebate is for 3 of the same card(s). They ordered the third card for me from another store, and I took the 2 they had in stock. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll get the card in tomorrow. I’ll be right around the block returning the LCD’s!
After that we hit the diner, and I headed home. Checked the monitor, Hopped online to chat and did whatever I could to avoid falling asleep too early. Crashed while watching this week’s episode of House (which I still have to finish) and woke up 15 hours later, just in time to get ready for work.
That was my Black Friday. It was relatively easy going and I managed to get everything that I really wanted. I was disappointed by the LCD’s but I don’t know what I was expecting for $150 ea (actually $120 after rebate!)… I may just spend the $300 on a nice LCD and pair it with what I have now. The thought of 2 identical LARGE LCDs was nice though. I don’t want to give DELL the business of getting another of these monitors though!