Everything seems to have gotten a lot more expensive over here in Britain due to the value of the pound tanking and the impact of severe inflation. I’m worried that, given the sudden price rises, the idea of a “Black Friday deal” is laughable.
Why? Well, it means that those savings could just bring the price down to what I’d call the actual retail price, rather than giving you a real discount. All you’ve got to do is take a look at some of the big brands and their new releases. Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro is £150 more than the iPhone 13 Pro at launch, the PS5 price has gone up, and Logitech has sneakily increased the cost of some of its accessories.
I won’t go into what’s caused this economic downturn; there isn’t enough space on Laptop Mag for me to say why, but I do want to be productive about this.
While the idea of a Black Friday sale is probably making your bank balance openly weep, if there is something specific you are looking for, there are some steps to ensure you are actually getting a deal — ot just something at the actual retail price it should’ve been before drastic inflation.
Here are some small things you can do to help you sniff out the duds and find a genuinely good Black Friday deal. Oh, and these tips also apply to our European friends, too, as I know their currency isn’t doing so great either.
Use The Camelizer
I spoke about The Camelizer before; it’s a great tool for spotting a great Amazon Prime Day deal. But with it also working in Sterling too, it’s an essential tool for looking back and seeing whether that discount is a real price cut.
Just head to the product page on Amazon and open it up. From here, you’ll see a graph of exactly how much it cost over the past few months. This pricing history information is critical in showing you if the RRP has been fiddled with and by how much.
Wayback machine
This is what helped me catch out Logitech’s price rises. While it is a longer process than Camelizer, it works across all retailers. Go over to waybackmachine.org, enter your product page URL and check previous saved snapshots of the webpage.
It doesn’t work all the time because this system doesn’t snapshot every single page on the internet, but it is capturing a handful of the biggest UK retailers on a semi-regular basis.
Do a little Google research
There are hundreds of people like me who have that sixth sense from covering deals for a few years, which helps us spot when something isn’t quite right.
Search around for the product and any of its closest competitors. If there are any price fluctuations, no doubt you’ll see some articles about it — be it a direct news story about the increase or a piece from the product’s launch with the original retail price.
Outlook
There is a chance that a lot of Black Friday deals in the UK won’t actually be worthwhile, but all is not lost. I’m confident there will still be some absolute gems. You’ve just got to look for them.
We are in a cost of living crisis for sure, so whatever you do, always start with a clear list of the things you need. Retailers are experts of the online upsell and it’s easy to fall into a pricey hole of multiple unnecessary purchases.
But rest assured, there will be some good deals, and we’ll be on hand to help you find them. If you’re looking for anything in particular, hit us up on Twitter.
