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PV Black Friday and Cyber Monday non buying guide
  • Here we will collect simple principles that any sane and logical man must use while participating in or avoiding big sales days.

    Principle 1. All big sales are made to bring profit to seller.

    This can be four ways:

    Way 1. Previous item price had big margin (both for manufacturer and seller), and during sale they agreed to cut it.
    Way 2. Sale is totally fake or near it, original price usually being inflated not long before sale (common for some countries).
    Way 3. Sale item being catch to make you buy other items, software, accessories or some service you do not need.
    Way 4. Using discount make you buy it via credit. Possible due to owners of big retail giant and bank giant being sometimes same.

    Principle 2. Most sellers rely on the impulse sales. Where people do not think if they actually need the item they get.

    Solution 1. Make the list of things you really need and add to each item the actual price before sale for few big retailers.
    Solution 2. Never buy on impulse. Always rely on logic, but also understand that our brain is very clever in finding logical reasons to buy things we don't need.
    Solution 3. If you are in offline store, do not put item in basket or plastic bags right away. Make few long circles around shop instead. As if you put it bag or such your monkey brain try to defend the items with any arguments he could find.

    To be continued today and up until Monday.

  • 7 Replies sorted by
  • I probably shouldn't have purchased that waffle maker, ,toaster oven and electric griddle from kohls, but I want to make waffles at some point in the future dammit!!

  • I probably shouldn't have purchased that waffle maker, ,toaster oven and electric griddle from kohls, but I want to make waffles at some point in the future dammit!!

    You mean that you missed new shining time machine sales at Amazon today?

  • Principle 3. Never get cheap items you actually do not need.

    Problem 1. Especially frequent it happens with lenses, acessories and cameras.
    Problem 2. Buy any lens or camera at deep discount only if they had been in your preliminary list, or you have in list their analog.
    Problem 3. Cameras and lenses rarely have too big discounts on hot sale days. Frequently it is better to wait for smaller sale or sellout.

  • Principle 4. Focus on products that update frequently or phasing out products, ignore rest.

    Tip 1. One of the best products for sales is TVs, as retailers dump last year models awaiting new ones.
    Tip 2. Another good category is compact notebooks and tablets, with each new Intel CPU line manufacturers update their lines, old ones can be dumped by retailer.
    Tip 3. Refurbished products are also very good category to watch on big sales, usually it is best for products near end of their life or right after they are out of production.

  • You just have to sand the rough edges a bit:

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    Over one-third of shoppers said 100 percent of their purchases were on sale. This is 3 time increase from year ago.

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