When you’re into buying DVDs, CDs, and video games (not to mention tech gear, cameras, and anything else you might be into), it’s a given that you want to be informed about the best deals in a timely manner. There’s a simple ritual all bargain hunting fans should work into their weeks, and if often goes neglected: the Sunday ads.
For many, the Sunday ads are a given. They know what they are and to check them out religiously each week. For the rest, here’s the skinny:
All the big retailers, from Best Buy to Target to Circuit City and beyond, have special deals and sales all the time. These deals typically change from week to week, and the new deals tend to begin on Sunday. Why Sunday? That’s the day that the big edition of the newspaper traditionally circulates, and the most people sit down to read through. That makes a perfect opportunity for these stores to get advertising in front of their customers’ eyes, by way of circulars inserted into the newspaper. And what better way to lure people into the stores than by tossing great deals their way with those ads?
The Sunday ads have made their way into the modern world via Weekly Ad links on most big stores’ websites. Every week, usually very early on Sunday morning (or late on Saturday night), the websites will update with digital versions of the Sunday ads, detailing all the new releases and deals for the upcoming week. Very often the ads will include first-week discounts and special deals on new release games, DVDs, and CDs, as well as notices of price drops or limited time sales. These sales can be fantastic and have allowed me to pick up quite a few TV seasons on DVD for a fraction of the standard retail prices.
You should work checking the Sunday ads into your weekly schedule, especially on weeks when you know something new is coming out that you’re planning to purchase. You just might find out that a particular store is having a special promotion (like Best Buy offering a special crystal skull replica with the Indiana Jones 4 DVD this week) that you otherwise would miss out on.
Can’t wait till Sunday? There are a number of places online where you can find the Sunday ads early, as people “in the know” leak them out. I’m not posting links to such places here, as some stores frown on this with lawyer-shaped frowns, but it’s not too hard to find if you hit up the search engines. Nabbing the Sunday ads is a great practice, as it lets you plan your shopping ahead of time so that you’ll know exactly where to go to get the best deals.
Not too hard to find if you hit up the search engines? Heh, that’s funny, I found this blog post and a bunch of black friday ads, scans of the part of the ads for CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, but not much else.