At this point, Black Friday shopping is every bit as much of a Thanksgiving tradition as turkey dinner and pumpkin pie.
However, certain discounts you see online may not be as good of a deal as advertised. In fact, new data from WalletHub shows that 36% of items on sale on Black Friday have no discount compared to pricing from October 27th to November 17th.
“There’s some kind of trickery going on,” said consumer savings expert Andrea Wolloch. “Retailers are constantly changing prices, so they might repack something and say it’s on Black Friday sale when in fact it was the same discount a few weeks ago.”
But that doesn’t mean you can’t save legitimately. According to WalletHub data, the average price drop for items on sale is about 24%. You’ll need to do a little research to make sure you’re making the most of the discounts you see.
“Consumers need to be proactive,” says Chip Lupo, writer and analyst at WalletHub. “Because retailers are relying more or less on people coming in last minute and taking advantage of anything that looks like a sale.”
Track price history
Ideally, you should start researching the products you’re considering buying well in advance of the anticipated sale, keeping an eye on price, says Woroch.
But if you find an attractive discount while shopping for Black Friday sales, “it’s never too late” to find out if you’re really getting a deal, says Wolloch.
A good place to start is to use online price tracking tools, says Wolloch. She recommends CamelCamelCamel, which compares the current price of an item on Amazon with the historical high, low, and average price.
“If you’re trying to find out prices at different retailers, that’s a good benchmark,” says Walloch.
Woroch also likes Honey’s Droplist browser extension. This extension lets you create a list of items you want to buy and alerts you to price drops at over 800 retailers.
Some products are made specifically for Black Friday sales, making them more difficult to track, Wolloch said. For example, a bargain price on a TV might mean buying a basic version of a more well-known model that doesn’t include some of the bells and whistles you’re looking for, she says.
“Don’t assume that the model is the same one you’ve seen all year, waiting for the price to come down,” Wolloch says. “Look at the model number, find out when it went on sale, and read reviews to make sure it has everything you need.”
Beware of other Black Friday pitfalls
Black Friday is often touted as the time of the year for the biggest discounts, but experts say don’t fall into the trap of buying something that might be on sale at another time of the year.
For example, winter clothing tends to go on sale after Christmas, Wolloch said. And the biggest furniture sales usually happen on President’s Day, she says.
“You might find some great deals on mattresses,” Lupo says. “However, traditional furniture such as sofa sets and coffee tables are unlikely to be heavily discounted on Black Friday.”
And no matter what you buy, be wary of sales that encourage you to spend more money than you normally would in order to unlock what Wollock calls “thrifts.” That might mean buying “bundles” of more expensive items to get a discount, or meeting certain spending criteria to get free shipping.
“Probably buy two sweaters and get one free. If you only need one sweater, don’t buy the second one to get one free,” Wolloch says. You could end up leaving Black Friday spending extra money on things you don’t really need, she says. And if you’re on a tight budget, “you can run into a lot of problems because of that.”
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