Don't make my mistake. If you find a good Black Friday deal, buy it now or you'll be sorry

News
By Lance Ulanoff
published

While supplies last

Black Friday Shopping
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Remember pre-internet Black Friday sales, when anxious shoppers would all but trample each other to get their hands on the last Furbee or Nintendo Wii? I think they were onto something. "While supplies last" isn't just a cliche; it's a fact of the online Black Friday Deals marketplace, and you'd do well to heed it and take action while the deals are hot.

Don't believe me? Please learn from my mistake.

Without giving too much away, I've been perusing a bunch of early Black Friday deals for possible gifts for my wife. There are a lot of options across, clothes, jewelry, and, of course, technology. 

TechRadar, in particular, has done an excellent job of scouring the Internet for the best deals from top retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and across the pond, Curry's and John Lewis. In most of our posts on these deals, we remind consumers to act now because, one, prices are unlikely to drop lower (the official  Black Friday, Nov. 24, is basically hours away), and supplies may be limited.

To be honest, I read some of that with a wry grin on my face, thinking, "Oh, sure, supplies of something Samsung, Apple, Google, Amazon, or another tech giant produces in the millions will be limited. Right."

It's for that reason that when I found the perfect tech gift for my wife, I only placed it in my Amazon basket and did not buy it. Maybe it was because it wasn't quite perfect. I also wondered if I'd see one more price drop. In my hubris, I assumed I had all the time in the world to make up my mind.

Except I didn't.

When I returned to my Amazon cart a day or so later, I noticed it was empty. "That's odd," I thought, "since when does Amazon empty a cart?"

Amazon did so because, as it posted in red on my defunct cart selection, "This item is no longer available from the seller you selected."

Sold out on Amazon

(Image credit: Future)

In other words, the deal was gone because it sold out. Of course, it sold out. This was a great deal, and other, smarter shoppers did not hesitate and let the gift languish in their shopping cart. Me? I did the equivalent of picking up ripe bananas at the local food store, dropping them in my cart, and then returning to the store and cart a week later, wondering why the clerk had thrown out the rotten bananas I had never bought.

Not every gear or gadget will be in short supply. Streaming service Black Friday deals, for example, won't run out, but most of the deals are for a very limited time.

Also, when we tell you that this is the lowest price a product has ever been, that should mean something to you. Rock bottom means rock bottom. Don't sit around waiting for one more price drop that will never come.

If you're looking at Black Friday as some sort of trick, where retailers and companies are not offering the best deals, and they will give you another chance with a better price in mid-December, you're wrong.

They all want to sell as much as they can right now, and their goal is to empty shelves and sell out inventory. That's why the prices are so good.

My advice to you is simple. Don't be like me. If you see a good deal, put it in your cart and head right to checkout. You're welcome.

Follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings, and hot Black Friday deals!

Psst! Some of the best Black Friday Deals we've found so far are below. You know what to do.

More US Black Friday deals

More UK Black Friday deals 

Lance Ulanoff
Lance Ulanoff
Editor At Large

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Ryan, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.