14 expert secrets to getting the best deals this Black Friday

Black Friday is coming and without the correct preparation you might not make it to Cyber Monday

Want to pick up the best bargains on Black Friday? Then you’re going to need a helping hand.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and only the hungriest hounds get the best deals, so we’ve put together these tips to help you bleed Black Friday dry.

Simply want to start shopping? Then head to our Best Black Friday 2017 Deals hub. Otherwise, read on…

1. Be prepared

Lots of sites publicise their deals in advance, so you can make a list of what you want and get in quick. There’ll usually be some that are kept back as extra surprises, so be prepared for something to pop up that you weren’t expecting to see, but if you know exactly what you want before it actually goes on sale, you’ll be in a much better position to bag it on the day.

2. Know your RRPs

Make sure you have an idea of how much a product usually goes for before buying it at the supposedly must-have bargain price. Some retailers have been known to put prices back to RRP in the days leading up to Black Friday, making the discounts look much more enticing than they actually are. Tools such as The Camelizer (pictured) can help do this.

3. Start early

The shops might open at 9am but the internet never sleeps. Some Black Friday deals will start at the stroke of midnight, so be ready for a late night if you want to make sure you don’t miss out. In fact, some sites, such as Currys, AO.com and Amazon, start discounting products more than a week in advance. Chances are they won’t be the biggest bargains, but stock levels are likely to be higher.

4. Is it cheap for a reason?

Just because something’s discounted doesn’t mean it’s worth buying. Do your research on a product before clicking ‘buy’. If you’re spending £400 on a two-star telly, chances are you’ll wish you hadn’t bothered. Use Stuff‘s reviews and Top Tens to work out if something’s really worth the dosh (the Samsung picture above, by the way, very much is).

5. Set a budget

Black Friday is a bit like gambling – if you spend more than you can afford it kind of defeats the object. Before you starting shopping, decide how much you have to spend and stick to it. It can be tempting to go crazy when everything looks like a good deal, but even bargains add up if you’re not careful.

6. Use comparison sites

Not all comparison sites will keep up with the fast-moving world of Black Friday but if you’ve got time it’s worth sticking the details of what you’re buying into a site like PriceSpy. It’ll list all the places you can buy it, so might reveal somewhere even cheaper. Be warned though, they’re not completely infallible.

7. Get your haggle on

Lots of sites have live chat boxes that pop up when you hang around for a while. Use them to your advantage by haggling or asking about discount codes. It won’t work everywhere but it takes far less courage to haggle with a text box on a screen than it does with a real, fleshy human being in a shop.

8. Use social media

That’s where shops will drop limited-time offers with little or no notice, so scroll past all the dog memes and unbearably twee food videos in your feed and look out for them. Chances are you’ll miss out if you just go straight to the website where space is limited and some offers are more hidden away.

9. Go incognito

Check deals using private browsing mode to make sure sites aren’t tracking you and serving you different deals to everybody else.

10. Know what to look for

Some product types get better discounts than others. Shops often use Black Friday as a way to offload old stock, particularly of items that change every year. TVs are a good example, and while the discounted models won’t have the most up-to-date tech, they don’t become bad products overnight. Just make sure you read some reviews first.

11. Think outside the box

It’s not just products that get discounted on Black Friday. Keep an eye out for deals on broadband, phone contracts and other less tangible bits and bobs. For example, Amazon is currently offering three months of Amazon Music Unlimited for 99p promotion.

12. Look abroad

Don’t just restrict yourself to these shores. Shopping abroad can bag you some even better deals, although you have to be wary of a big shipping costs and any import taxes that might push the price up unexpectedly and scupper your good deal.

13. Stay safe

With people desperate to get the best deal they can get lazy when it comes to online security and baddies will try to take advantage of that. If you’re in any way unsure about a site, don’t use it. If you must, pay by credit card, that way you’ve got more protection if things do go south.

14. Don’t forget Cyber Monday

Missed out on a deal on Black Friday? Take the weekend off (although keep at least one eye out for leftover deals) and come back on Cyber Monday, which takes place 48 hours later. It’s a bit of a hangover from the days when you had to actually go to the shops on Black Friday, so all the deals tend to be online only, but only amateurs shop from anywhere other than the sofa these days.

15. Stick with Stuff!

Of course the most important of all tips is to LET STUFF GUIDE YOU TO THE BEST DEALS.

Ahem.

But seriously – we’ll be sorting and sifting through the thousands and thousands of deals on offer, in order to bring you the best of them. The ones you really need, rather than just whatever old rubbish we happen to have come across.

In fact we’ve already started. Head to our Best Black Friday 2017 Deals hub now and get shopping. Good luck out there.