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Didn’t get all the things you were hoping to buy on Black Friday? Fear not, Cyber Monday offers plenty of more deals. And you don’t have to leave your desk to score the best ones.
Here are seven tips to help you navigate this Cyber Monday.
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Get the real deals on Cyber Monday
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Always check price history
The ability to check historical pricing data is easily one of the abilities of Cyber Monday that makes it a little easier to navigate than Black Friday and non-online deals. In fact, it’s a good rule when buying anything online.
To check price history, use a service like camelcamelcamel and its browser plugin, The Camelizer. This tool displays historical pricing data from Amazon to reveal whether you’re truly getting a good deal.
If you’re partaking in a Cyber Monday deal from a non-Amazon site and unsure how good a deal is, it’s still a good idea to look up the product on Amazon and check the pricing history. If nothing else, this can help you establish a good price comparison.
Look for discounted gift cards
Something you tend to see pretty often on days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday is discounted gift cards. If you can find a $25 gift card for $20, it’s basically free money.
Best of all, you don’t have to be the cop-out who just gives a bunch of gift cards for the holidays. Instead, use the discounted gift cards to then buy presents with, effectively passing along your savings to something you’d rather save money on. Worst case scenario, you’ll have a few extra gifts on hand, just in case.
The 44 best holiday shopping deals right now
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Ignore the myths
Several myths have emerged over the 12 years Cyber Monday has been around. CNET’s own Rick Broida dispelled the worst of the Cyber Monday myths, such as the belief that Cyber Monday is online-only. While that may have been true in the past, Cyber Monday has now gained the respect and attention of brick and mortar retailers all around, and many deals can also be found in-store.
Scout for leaked Cyber Monday ads
Just because you have the comfort of shopping from your phone or computer doesn’t mean you have the luxury of taking your time to find deals. While there are no physical lines of people to fight through, the very best deals will disappear very quickly and you’ll need to be quick on the draw to score big.
One way to do that is to search for leaked Cyber Monday deals and ads. Some retailers, like Amazon and Walmart, willingly release deals ahead of Cyber Monday. But you’ll have to keep an eye out for leaked ads and deals from other retailers.
Many Black Friday deals will carry over
If you missed a slashed price on an item you were hoping buy on Black Friday, you’re not entirely out of luck. Many of Amazon’s Black Friday deals are carrying over into next week — especially its own products, like the Fire TV Sticks ($23 at Amazon) and Alexa speakers.
You can find Amazon’s official Cyber Monday deals here, and currently available deals are indicated by italics. The same goes for Walmart’s Cyber Monday deals.
Scour deals websites
When Monday comes around, you could spend hours searching for the best deals. But not leave it to the people whose job it is to find the best deals around the web every day?
For starters, keep checking back at cnet.com/deals for a continually updated list of the best deals and promotions of the day. Slickdeals has everything from Black Friday ad scans to discounts on groceries. Cyber Monday will be more of the same with hundreds — likely thousands — of deals to pick through. Wirecutter has 65 staff on hand, working around the clock through Cyber Monday, looking for the best deals for vetted products.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Deal sites all over the web will be on high alert for the very best scores on Monday. See CNET’s continuously updated gallery of Cyber Monday deals here.
Follow companies on social media
One of the best places to get information on the best deals of Cyber Monday is social media. Like all your favorite retailers on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
On Twitter, you can create a group of those retailers so you can see nothing but Cyber Monday deals at will.
Cyber Monday deals: See every Cyber Monday 2017 deal we’ve found so far.
Holiday Gift Guide: CNET’s full gift guide, including dozens of products priced under $25, $50 and $100.
