Great deals abound in today's paper

By Mark Sweetwood

If you were like me, you took today's Vindicator and began to devour the many, many sales fliers right off of the back.

And you snarled at anyone who tried to touch your neatly crafted piles.

To be fair, I had not had my coffee yet when I snarled. The womanfolk began to get the feast organized. I set up my three fantasy league teams (three games today) and now am ready to tackle the Black Friday chore.

Some early observations...

There are many interesting offers in electronics. The emphasis seems to be on flat-screen, HD TVs, MP3 music/video players such as iPods, digital camera bundles with photo printers and GPS devices.

Many of the ads are touting the fact that 3.5-inch screen, lower-end GPS devices have broken the $100 barrier. This is pretty interesting news, especially for the gadget guru in your life. Some tips:

• Avoid the off brands at the low end. TomTom, Garmin and Magellan are pretty sure bets. And since nearly every store has a similar deal for a $99 TomTom, consider the path less chosen. Pep Boys Auto is opening at 5 a.m. Friday and they have refurbished Magellans and TomToms for $69.98 after a $30 or $40 mail-in rebate. I love refurbished electronics by the way (the only kind of iPods I buy). Someone else has tested them, found any problems and the company has corrected them. And the TomTom One V3 at Pep Boys has decent reviews at CNET.com (certainly better reviews than the "Nextar" offered at other stores).

And there is nothing better than getting a rebate check in the mail in January after the holiday hullabaloo is over.

Speaking of iPods, the flyers are full of deals. An 8 GB Nano will set you back about $150, while a 16 GB goes for $200. These prices are set by Apple and the profit margin is razor thin so careful shoppers will note that stores often  augment the deal with a bonus:

• Buy an 8GB iPod Nano at Best Buy for $149.99 and get a $20 Best Buy gift card.
• Buy an 8GB iPod Nano at Circuit City for $149.99 and get a free $15 iTunes gift card.
• Buy an 8GB iPod Nano at Target for $145 and get a free $15 iTunes gift card.
• Buy an 8GB iPod Nano at Radio Shack for $149.99 and get a free $49.99 valued iHome alarm clock/dock.

Now all of those deals have merits. You pretty much have to give an iTunes gift card when you give someone an iPod. That makes Target a good deal. But there is some merit to the external speakers route and that makes Radio Shack kind of interesting (although if you took the Best Buy gift card they gave you, you could turn right around and grab a Innova clock radio/dock for $9.99 after the $20 savings).

Consider the paths less chosen, once again. If you choose the iTunes card route, you can land a cheap clock/radio dock at Rite Aid for $9.99. And consider the killer blockbuster deal at Toys R Us for the 16GB Nano; $199 BUT you get a $50 Toys R Us gift card!

That Toys R Us deal is enticing, frankly, and worthy of your 5 a.m. attention if you have kids. The older kid gets a cool iPod and you've got an instant $50 credit line for the younger tyke. If you are looking for a lower-end game system, Toys R Us also has a six-game Playstation 2 deal worth  $285 for $129.99. Minus a $50 gift card, and that's $80 for a great value. Yes, Playstation2 is on the way out, but plenty of cool games abound and the six free ones will keep any 8-year-old entertained for a couple of hours.

Say you don't want to go the more expensive iPod route, but the kids are still yammering for some kind of digital music system. Wal-Mart has the RCA 8GB Opal MP3 Video Player for $49. That's a great price for a lot of music/video capacity.

One more gadget thought: Digital cameras are getting cheaper as are memory cards. Nearly every flyer seems to offer a digital camera deal and many offer a "free" printer with a rebate. Beware of "free" 1GB memory cards (these are nearly worthless and worth only a couple of bucks).

Continuing down the path of less-chosen routes, the two best digital camera deals I have come across thus far:

• Best for less: Staples has the Kodak EasyShare C913 three-times zoom, 9 megapixels digital camera plus a free Canon Pixma iP3600 Photo Printer for $79.99

• Better for a little more: OfficeMax has the Nikon Coolpix P60 five-times zoom, 8 megapixel digital camera plus the Epson WorkForce 30 Inkjet Color Printer for $119.99.

The Kodak camera is great for the price (I'm a big fan of Kodak digital cameras for their ease of use), but the Canon is slightly better and the Epson printer is more versatile.

Speaking of those memory cards, two good deals:

• 2GB card for $3.99 at InkStop which is having a well-timed grand opening on Mahoning Avenue in Austintown.
• 4GB card for $10 at Wal-Mart.

Last night I mentioned hoodies and here are two deals worth adding into your gift-giving plans:

• Big Lots has an early bird deal at 6 a.m. featuring two adult fleece hoodies for $5, limit four. Four hoodies for $10? Wow!
•  J.C. Penney has NCAA-themed fleece hoodies for $17.88 (down from $50). Great bargain for the Buckeye fan in your life.

Looking at the ads, there seems to be three main starting times for tomorrow: 4 a.m., 5 a.m.  and 6 a.m. So, as you start completing those gift lists, start organizing your day based on who opens first.

Stores I like at 4 a.m.:
• J.C. Penney (full disclosure, my wife is a holiday employee there).

Stores I like at 5 a.m.:
• Best Buy
• Circuit City
• Dicks Sporting Goods
• Macy's
• Pep Boys Auto
• Sears
• Toys R Us
• Wal-Mart

Stores I like at 6 a.m.:
• Bed, Bath and Beyond
• Big Lots
• Kmart
• Radio Shack
• Target
• Staples

In addition:
• KB Toys is open at midnight tonight.
• Kmart continues a holiday tradition today with Thanksgiving deals that can rival "early bird" or "blockbuster" deals on Black Friday. A large selection of Hasbro games are BOGO (buy one, get one free) today.

OK, later today I will introduce you to my fictional family, the Cheapertons. I am going to map out a moment-by-moment Black Friday shopping spree keeping this family of four within a $466 budget, delighting all and getting them pretty much done by this weekend.

Mark M. Sweetwood is managing editor of The Vindicator.