Back 15 years ago or so, when I was in college, a friend and I went by Best Buy and Circuit City to get really cheap spindles of CDs. The CDs were junky, but th

Back 15 years ago or so, when I was in college, a friend and I went by Best Buy and Circuit City to get really cheap spindles of CDs. The CDs were junky, but they didn't need to be great. Right after college, I worked Black Friday at Best Buy and we had some really junky DVD players for $35 or so. Hell, we got two full trucks the night before Thanksgiving at our small store and we had them stacked so high in the warehouse that the stacks eventually collapsed and we were just throwing them onto huge piles. They're packed pretty well, but I can't guarantee that we didn't break any of those junky players any worse than they already were. However, a few years ago (2009), my wife and I went out late Thanksgiving night for a midnight Toys R Us opening… then Old Navy… then Walmart… then Kmart. It was certainly crazy, but we saved around $300. We got video games, Lego sets and toys. All of it was stuff we wanted, and none of it was junk. Would I do it again? With the perspective of how it interrupts Thanksgiving for all those employees, I think probably not. I'd be part of the problem. But it definitely paid off at the time. Sort of aside— you don't have to drop your turkey leg and rush out the door on Thanksgiving to get in line to get good deals. Ignore the doorbusters and drop by the stores anytime later in the day. There's lots of other good stuff that's legitimately on sale that's still there all day. Costco doesn't even open early on Black Friday, and their sales go through the weekend.