Top Ten Best Black Friday Deals

It takes some pretty spectacular deals to pry Americans out of their recliners late every Turkey Day and send them out into blistering cold parking lots to camp for hours, but retailers have it figured it out with Black Friday. And if you’re looking to score a big-screen TV for half of what it normally runs for, get a printer bundled with your camera for free, or pick up an MP3 player for the cost of a cup of coffee, you’ll be out there too. With the economy forcing consumers to pinch their pennies even more this year, and retailers trying even harder to open those cautiously held wallets, the deals are ripe for the picking.

Taking advantage of these once-a-year bargains takes some prep work, but with a little extra information, anybody can triumphantly drag home that 46-inch plasma on Dec. 1. For starters, be sure to check out our hand-picked top ten Black Friday deals below, which we’ve updated with even better deals as additional ads have leaked over the past week. If you’re still not seeing your dream item, browse some of our favorite Black Friday sites, like BFads.net and BlackFriday.info, which will let your browse nearly every ad out there before the big day. And finally, be sure to listen to our podcasts (parts 1, and 2 ) with BlackFriday.info owner John Vincent, who shares some of his own tips and tricks for the big day, from what to wear, to when to get in line.

HP Deskjet F2210 All-in-One Printer, $29.99 @ Wal-Mart

It’s a name-brand printer, scanner and copier for the price of what a single printer cartridge usually goes for. How can you really go wrong? Sure, HP wants to milk you on the long-term ink costs with this thing, but grab yourself an inkjet refill kit and you’re in business for a long, long time. For printing out MapQuest directions and school reports, or scanning signed paperwork here and there, you can’t get away much cheaper.

Tom Tom One Third Edition Nav System, $69.99 @ Pep Boys

Just like last year, Pep Boys remains the place to go if you’re looking for the absolute cheapest GPS system out there on Black Friday. Though the price drop from last year isn’t earth-shattering, the good news is that you’re actually ending up with a respectable name brand unit this year. TomTom’s One v.3 may be a no-frills system, but it’s compact, it’s in color, and it works.

HP Pavilion G50-112NR Notebook, $349.99 @ Office Depot

Though some people will be disappointed that the price on budget notebooks hasn’t seemed to budge much further south this year, the hardware you get for the price has taken a huge leap forward. For the first time ever, $350 will buy you a notebook that not only has a dual-core Intel processor, but 3GB of RAM as well, which should be more than adequate for most peoples’ needs. And though it’s an obscure sale model, it carries the HP name as well.

Panasonic 42-inch 1080p VIERA Plasma HDTV, $899.99 @ Circuit City

Skip all the ultra-budgets sets with names you’ve never heard of, and bag this model (which is bound to be a lot less disappointing in two months) instead. At $400 off MSRP, you’re still getting a huge discount, but with a much better quality TV. Panasonic’s plasma TVs are renowned for their black levels, and this particular set has received great reviews.

Nikon Coolpix P60 + Epson Workforce 30 Inkjet Printer, $119.99 @ OfficeMax

A respectable camera and respectable printer for less than what one alone should cost? Sold. If you know someone who loves taking photos but hasn’t gone digital yet because they want them all printed out, this is your chance to give them the whole package on the cheap.

Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-Ray Player, $128 @ Wal-Mart

Nearly a year after HD-DVD bit the bullet, Blu-Ray players are finally falling out of the hands of the home theater elite and into commodity territory. For $128, pretty much anyone with the change for a 1080p television should be able to pick one of these up. It might not be quite as sleek or feature-laden as players twice and three times as expensive, but unless you bust out test patterns and start pulling side-by-side characteristics, most users will never be able to tell the difference.

Mio Moov 500 GPS, $149.99 @ RadioShack

For those who would like more features than the rock-bottom TomTom GPS offered at Pep Boys, this Mio offers a significant step up. It has a much larger 4.7-inch screen, text-to-speech capability for spoken street names, and 3.5 million points of interest. Mio systems consistently offer a great blend of function and affordability – and even more so when you can snag one for $100 off retail price.

HP AMD Phenom X4 Quad-Core System, $599.96 @ Best Buy

Notebook computers seem to sop up the majority of attention on Black Friday, but this happens to be one powerful and well-accessorized desktop for the money. Under the hood, you’ll find a AMD Phenom X4 Quad-Core processor clocked at 2.2GHz, 6GB of DDR2 memory, and a 640GB hard drive. Add to that a 21.6-inch display and Canon inkjet printer, and you have $1089.96 worth of PC for almost half the price.

Guitar Hero World Tour Guitar Bundle for Wii, $69.99 @ Target

Hot game, hot price. You won’t see the same game any cheaper this holiday season, or likely for a long time to come. If you’ve been holding out on the whole Guitar Hero phenomenon, here’s your chance to get in for far less than everybody else paid.

Acer 22-inch LCD Monitor, $129.99 at Office Depot [Model #AL2216Wbd]

Whether you’re still clinging to that old CRT and waiting for LCDs to come down in price, or just need to upgrade from the 17-incher that came with your PC, the price is right for 22 inches of glorious desktop space. This one has solid stats, including 1680 x 1050 resolution and 5ms response times, and has received generally positive reviews, too. Already own a huge monitor? How about dual display? Triple? C’mon…