Black Friday... So Many Deals, But 5:00 am?

Well, the annual temptation is here... Black Friday, when retailers whip out ridiculously low prices on items and have their doors open as early as 5:00 am to get shoppers in their doors.

Three problems... who wants to get up at 4:30 am to get to the stores? (or start waiting there late on Thursday night) because: problem two: long lines! I tried to get to a Black Friday opening at Best Buy a few years back, arriving half an hour before opening, only to find that the parking lot was full and there were several hundred people on line. Which leads to problem three: will they have any items left by the time you reach the sales associates? The stores have limited quantities on items and don't write rainchecks, so you may have gotten up early and waited in line only to go home empty-handed (or more to the store's wishes, home with some other items you bought to make the trip worthwhile).

You will have to make a judgment for yourself about whether saving those extra bucks are worth the time and trouble. Probably the younger you are, the more apt you are to be willing to get there super-early for a spot near the front of the line...

But with all the internet shopping options, coupons, deals and such, you can still find many of the same items for not terribly much more than the Black Friday specials.

If you are tempted to see what's available on Black Friday, one enterprising person actually compiled a list of what's special at each store, even denoting the special Doorbusters that are sure to go first. If you want to check out that list, here is a link.

If not, keep looking here for other ways to get deals.

For example, one store is offering the Mio C220 GPS for $99.99 on Black Friday. A friend of mine recently asked about a Mio GPS (I bought a Mio C310X early in the year, which has been replaced by these new models), and I was able to find a way that he could get it for about $130 net. Obviously not as great a deal as $99.99, but not much worse, plus he's guaranteed to get it and he can sleep late on Friday.

I suggested: "First, click on ebates and register to join. They will ask for some basic info, like name, address, e-mail. When you join, you get a $5 credit into your account.

Once you're registered, look in the ebates list of stores (a drop-down list in a box near the top right of their page) and click on Buy.com.

You will see a window briefly saying that an ebates tracking ticket has been opened. Then the buy.com site will open up.

In the search box on buy.com, enter Mio C220 and it should take you to that product page. Right now they are selling it for $147.95. Add it to your shopping cart.

When you buy it this way, not only do you get the lower price, but you will also get a 2% credit into your ebates account (about 2.95). So ebates will soon send you a check for $7.95, making the net cost $140.00.

You can also do one more thing: at checkout, you can select to pay by Google checkout. That's another thing you would have to register for, and give them your info as well as the credit card info. Google checkout would also give you a $10 credit for the first time you use it, meaning the final cost would drop another $10. So the final net to you could be as low as $130."

So the Black Friday conundrum remains... how hot is that deal to make you get out of bed early and wait on line hopefully...