The early emphasis seems to be on toys this year as we just finished typing up almost 1,000 items between the Toys R Us Big Toy Book and the Walmart Toy Catalog advertisements. Both of their advertisements are available on our adscans page here: http://bfads.net/Adscans
Combined with the Kmart Toy Catalog we posted earlier last week, retailers are pushing their pre-Black Friday toy sales hard this year. The Toys R Us Big Toy Book and Kmart Toy Catalog sales start on October 31, with Walmart's Toy Catalog going live a week later on November 7.
While there are a couple good deals to be found, the majority of the items are on sale for their normal retail price; some are even "on sale" for more than their current price. There are a couple deals where you receive a free accessory with a qualifying purchase (e.g. a Free Toy Story 3 Popcorn Tin with any Toy Story purchase of $30 or more), which aren't inherently great, but if you were going to buy $30 worth of Toy Story merchandise, it's a nice bonus. The most popular thing in the Toys R Us book will probably be the coupon for a free $10 Gift Card with a qualifying $75 purchase.
A representative from Harbor Freight contacted us today and has confirmed our thoughts: the advertisement that we found on the Harbor Freight website (which was, conveniently, the lower priced ad) is incorrect. The correct and accurate advertisement was the one we originally posted on Monday, which you can see on the Harbor Freight Black Friday advertisement page.
Original post is below:
Well, it wouldn't be a Black Friday without one conflicting ad. Might as well get it out of the way early. Four days ago we posted the Harbor Freight Black Friday advertisement; today we get word that Harbor Freight has a lower priced Black Friday ad on their website. We've highlighted the differences between the two advertisements in the images below:
Despite the two above images looking like a Highlight's magazine "Hidden Pictures" page, there are thirteen price discrepancies between the ads and one completely new/missing item (a racing jack). This is one of the few times where we have a physical copy of the Harbor Freight ad and can confirm that our version (found in Southern California) matches the one posted on Monday.
Our scanned advertisement was obtained by a customer in a Harbor Freight store (they're giving them out at the register), so if anyone else has a Harbor Freight ad, we'd love to hear which version of the ad you have! You can contact us here.
Most of the price differences are minimal ($5-$10 difference) and we're assuming that the images on Harbor Freight's site represent earlier versions of the ad. You can still see both page one and page two on the Harbor Freight website, but we are guessing they will soon be removed and replaced with the current ad being given away in stores.
We'll be sure to keep you updated as we learn more! Thanks to avalon from SD for the tip!
As with Harbor Freight, we expect to see some regional pricing variations between True Value stores. We will keep you posted if alternate versions of the advertisement become available.
Over 35,000 votes were cast for the 2010 BFAds t-shirt design and it was a run-away victory from the start. The winning design, with almost 40% of the total vote is the Full Shopping Cart design.
With the winner announced, it's time for the golden question: how do I get one?
There are two ways to get a BFAds 2010 t-shirt:
Enter our November Give-Away Contest, as we will be giving away shirts every day for the month of November along with other great prizes. (Prize schedule yet to be finalized)
We had tremendous success selling BFAds shirts last year, so we're bringing back the option again this year!
We are selling the shirts near cost and all profits made from the sale of the shirts will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness. For the first 1000 shirts sold, we will donate an additional $1 to Breast Cancer Awareness.
Last year we were able to raise over $7500 combined between Breast Cancer Awareness and the American Diabetes Association!
There will be plenty of other options to win shirts throughout October and November; we just haven't finalized all the details yet. If have any good contest ideas, we'd love to hear them in the comments!
The Kmart Toys Catalog begins on October 31 and lasts all the way through November 24. It is a main rival to the Toys-R-Us Big Toy Book released every year and features deals on over 300 popular children's toys including action figures, board games, dolls, kid's jewelry, sporting goods and more!
Sears is going to have a sale next Friday and Saturday (October 29-30) that they are conveniently calling "Black Friday Now." You can view 158-item advertisement listing here and download the 16-page advertisement scan here. Much thanks again to 90K5 from SD for providing the ad.
We have gone over the advertisement and it is nothing more than a standard weekly advertisement. In fact, some of the "hot deal, 50% off" items on the front page arenât discounted from their current prices.
This is going to be a problem throughout November as retailers will be attempting to attach the words "Black Friday" to as many sales promotions as possible (I like to call them "bait ads"). This isn't to say there will not be any great deals before Black Friday, but rather a reminder to be wary of sales attempting to associate with the Black Friday name.
Last year, for example, Walmart had a one-day Saturday sale three weeks before Black Friday. This sale featured six items at, what would turn out to be, Black Friday prices. Amazon countered by having a one-day Saturday sale of their own which matched many of Walmartâs prices. Even Best Buy joined the fray by offering a $329 laptop to rival Walmartâs $300 laptop.
Additionally, Sears has their annual Friends & Family VIP sale in the middle of November which is always competitive with Black Friday prices.
There will be very many good sales in the next five weeks leading up to Black Friday, but there will also be an equal amount of mediocre sales masquerading behind the Black Friday name.
Voting has Ended! Winner will be announced shortly!
BFAds visitors, we need your help choosing the design for our Black Friday 2010 t-shirt. We have selected our six favorite designs and need your help to choose the final design.
Voting will end this Wednesday, October 20 at 11:59pm CST. The winner will be announced Thursday morning along with information on how to win or purchase a shirt.
To vote, simply select your favorite design and hit the Submit Vote button. You can view a larger version of the design by clicking on the image.
Anyone hoping that this would be the year weâd see Walmart's Black Friday ad early? You can stop holding your breath. For the third straight year, Walmart's lawyers have sent us the equivalent of a preliminary cease-and-desist letter, stating that the Walmart Black Friday ad may not be posted until Sunday, November 21.
We learned last year that this date isn't necessarily set in stone, as the Walmart ad leaked almost a week before Walmart wanted us to post it. We couldn't post the ad (or else we'd feel the wrath of Walmart), but the ad was already circulating through the internet and Walmart had no chance of stopping its distribution. One day later, Walmart caved to the pressure and gave us permission to post their advertisement early.
The same could happen this year, but at the latest, the Walmart Black Friday sale will be posted on our site by November 21.
Guess the Release Date of the First Black Friday Ad
Contest Over!
The first Black Friday advertisement released in 2010 was Harbor Freight on October 18 at 7:46pm CDT. All winners (on the site and Facebook) have been notified as of October 20. Thank you everyone for participating and congratulations to the winners!
The guess closest to the release date and time will win a $150 gift card to the store of their choice, all consolation prizes and rules are outlined on the contest page.
Keen observers of the page will notice that one of the consolation prizes is a BFAds 2010 t-shirt. Yes, we will be doing a BFAds t-shirt for the 2010 Black Friday season; we're finalizing the design as we speak and we will have full design and order details by next Monday, October 18. In the mean time, happy guessing!
Weâre about halfway through October and that means itâs time to open up shop for the upcoming Black Friday and holiday season. While no Black Friday 2010 advertisements have been leaked (we expect the ads to start appearing by late October), we will soon be announcing details regarding our 2010 BFAds t-shirts and our month-long November holiday give-away contest.
Stay tuned for more updates and surprises as we get closer to November.
Black Friday has come and gone and we hope that everyone had a successful Black Friday experience and a happy Thanksgiving Holiday. I'd like to personally thank every one of our mailing list subscribers for, once again, helping us be the largest and most popular Black Friday website.
We also would like to thank everyone who emailed us with a suggestion or comment, those who submitted advertisements, members of the media who featured our site, retailers who submitted their advertisements or released their ads early and retailers who did not bother us when their advertisement was leaked.
A special thanks to everyone who purchased and wore a BFAds' t-shirt this year. Through your support, we raised $5518 in net proceeds to be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Adding our additional $1 per shirt donation for the first 500 shirts sold, total donation amount increases to $6018.
Due to the overwhelming demand for the shirts, we sweetened our offer by donating $1 per shirt sold (for the first 750 shirts) in the month of November to the American Diabetes Association. Because we greatly surpassed this amount, we're doubling our donation to $1500 for a total donation of over $7500 between the two charities.
We received a lot of feedback and suggestions that we will be implementing in our 2010 site. Additionally, we will be covering weekly sales and hot daily deals throughout December for the Christmas shopping season. Coverage will begin starting Wednesday, December 2nd.
It's truly been a pleasure to get to talk to the many thousands of you the past two months; we hope everyone enjoyed the site and we look forward to seeing all of you again in 2010!
Now that most retailer's Black Friday weekend sales have passed, they have started to push their Cyber Monday sales live! Cyber Monday marks the last "official" sale day of the Thanksgiving Weekend and all items are while supplies last, so the hot items will certainly go fast.
In addition to the Cyber Monday sales, we'll also be covering the upcoming weekly sales leading up to the Winter Holidays along with posting hot daily deals that rival or beat typical Black Friday pricing!
It's now officially Black Friday morning and if you chose to shop online this year, you've got roughly 50 online Black Friday sales to choose from! All available online Black Friday sales are listed below (be sure to scroll down because it's a LONG list):
ALL BLACK FRIDAY ONLINE SALES HAVE STARTED!
The stores offering Thanksgiving Day sales (Kohls and Walmart) will have their online Black Friday sales available sometime late Thanksgiving night or early Friday morning! We'll be actively updating this post and the Black Friday Sales Timeline post through the weekend!
Below we have compiled a list of all Pre-Black Friday, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday online sales and their respective sale hours. This list will be constantly updated to reflect which sales are going on now and updated sale times. Be sure to check back often!
Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Sears, Target and Many More Black Friday Sales Available Online Right Now!
