Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2023

[Dragon Lord]

We're coming up to that wonderful time of year once more where sale are widespread and you can find some crazy discounts on some really good stuff. Although as we all know, Black Friday is not really limited to that specific day any more, and most places start running BF sales all through November. Though the point of the topic is, what are you keeping an eye on? Anything you've been wanting to buy and are hoping to see it get a nice price drop?

I myself am keeping my eye on several things. First off is monitors. While I plan to buy a really nice OLED monitor next year (both ASUS and Alienware have announced very nice looking 32'' 4K 240hz QD-OLEDs for early 2024), I also would like to upgrade my secondary monitor to something nice as well. Currently I'm juggling around several 1440p monitors, both in 27'' and 32''. I'm leaning slightly more towards 27'' though because 1) Everyone says that's the perfect size for 1440p 2) Much cheaper and 3) I'd eventually like to have a 3-monitor set up and I feel like one 32'' with two 27'' monitors would work out a lot better than trying to run three 32'' monitors together.

The ones I'm debating between most right are are the Gigabyte M27Q Pro (27'', 1440p, 165hz IPS) for $269.99 and the LG UltraGear 27GL83A-B (27'', 1440p, 144hz, IPS) for $199.99. I keep seeing REALLY good reviews and opinions on the Gigabyte monitor, so I am starting to lean heavily towards that. Though it is a bit more expensive and buying two of them would come out to be over $500, if they are as good as everyone says, having two of them for my three monitor set up could be good.

I do like LG too though, and the LG monitor being $200 a piece is very attractive when I consider buying two of them. Refresh rate is a bit lower, but honestly I don't think I would even notice a difference between 120 hz, 144 hz and 165 hz (maybe I'd notice a slight difference between 120 and 240, but even then it's questionable). I am having a bit of a tougher time finding reviews and opinions on the LG one though, which continues to have me leaning more towards biting on that Gigabyte monitor.

I was also looking at MSI and ASUS variants as well, but I think I've cut it down to the Gigabyte and LG ones at this point.

I was also looking at getting a new laptop this year too, but I'm having trouble finding any that I like. I'd like one that can run an Android emulator decently, but that prefers a dedicated graphics card, and even a laptop with something like a 2050 in it will still run around $500, and I don't think I want to pay that much for a laptop that I wouldn't even really game on much. Maybe next year when I don't have much of anything else I want to buy to improve my PC setup.

Other than that I'm just keeping my eye on a few random items I've wanted for a bit. The DeathAddver V3 (wired) is on a bit of a discount, so I might pick it up now. Was hoping Razer would have a nice sale on their Basilisk V3 Pro bundle with the wireless dock and charging puck, but doesn't seem like they will.

Might look to see if I can find a good soundbar on sale for a decent price for my TV. Other than that though, I think I'm mainly going to focus on upgrading my monitor setup this year. As I mentioned, even though my plan is to get one of those nice QD-OLEDs next year, I would like to have better monitors for my second and possibly third, and these 1440p ones look like they'll fit the bill perfectly without breaking the bank too much.

So, what's your plan for BF/CM spending (if you have any such plans)?

[Moonface]

Not too sure what I might get during any sales yet as I haven't even looked at what sales anywhere will be doing to start considering anything.

[Dragon Lord]

Man, the Black Friday sales this year have been absolute ass for the most part. Couldn't find any super appealing deals in keyboards, mice, microphones or video games.

I did end up buying a 27'' 1440p Alienware monitor I found for a decent discount before Black Friday. Normally $500, I got it for like $320. Not one of the two monitors I was considering previously, but RTINGS had it at the same level as those two monitors and actually beating both of them in performance for gaming, so I figured why not give it a try. Biggest selling point on it was that it can swivel both clockwise and counter clockwise, so I can choose where the ports end up when I eventually use it in portrait mode.

I also did pick up the Razer DeathAdder V3 (wired) mouse. Wasn't on sale for a huge discount, only $10, but it's only a $70 mouse to begin with, so not like the discount on it was going to ever be a huge. Still, for the good things I've heard about it, it's worth a try at $60. Don't think it'll dethrone the Basilisk V3 as my favorite mouse, but it will be a more lightweight option and does have Razer's Gen 3 switches instead of the Gen 2 Switches that the BV3 has. Was hoping to pick up the Basilisk V3 Pro (Wireless, also with Gen 3 switches), but they only have it for 11% off which is only $18 off of it's normal $160 price tag, so I think I can wait to pick that up at a later time and just enjoy switching between the wired BV3 and the DAV3 for now.

Was really hoping to pick up a nice desktop mic as well for group gaming and possibly even dipping into streaming a little bit, but I could not find any good sources on what microphones are good for the money. Everyone just points to the Shure SM7B ($400 + needs an XLR device + cable, then add on the cost of an arm) or the Shure MV7 (on sale for $224, but it's a USB mic that uses Micro USB... not sure if that's a good investment in 2023 when everything is USB-C). Was looking at the Elgato Wave 3 (on sale for just a bit over $100, compared to its normal $150 price tag), and while a lot of people do praise it, I'm just overly worried if it'd be good enough. I want something that will sound nice for the people I'm talking to, and it's just difficult trying to figure out what that will be and how much of a cost sink it's going to be. I mean, Amazon does have returns, so maybe I should just get the Wave 3 and have someone game with me for a bit to see how it sounds and if it's not good I can just return it.

It's the constant back and fourth battle I had with the monitors that has prevented me from getting to sleep at decent time all week (once again here I am up at 7 PM).

Anyways, long story short: I really hope Cyber Monday is going to have some much better sales on tech stuff. If not, then the last hope is that there's some killer deals for Christmas sales.

[queenzelda]

The only two things I got that are Black Friday related are my recliner I bought for a pretty decent price and Graveyard Keeper for about $13 for the game and dlc. Nothing really stood out to me as Black Friday was just outright a$$ like DL said.

Who knows maybe cyber-Monday will be better? 🤷‍♀️

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah I'm honestly seeing a lot of the same usual sales for Black Friday live, and that's pretty much it. Picked up a few choice things that I saw that are worth getting, though.

Hoping better things for tomorrow, yeah.

[Dragon Lord]

I did find one deal that I jumped on. The Sennheiser HD650 S were on sale for $150 (normally $230), so I jumped on them. While I've been okay with the 599 SEs so far, they are a bit small and I can feel my ears touching the drivers most of the time. While not uncomfortable to the point where wearing them is unbearable, I am hoping the HD650 S will be a little deeper and feel like an overall better fit for my head. They do look bigger, so prayge.

Other than that, it doesn't look like there's too many great deals around for Cyber Monday either. In fact, some things seem to have gone up in price instead. Take for example the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro that I've been eyeing. For Black Friday it had an 11% discount, bringing the price from $160 to $140. Then on Saturday and Sunday, it has an 18% discount, bringing the price down to $131. Now, on CM, it only has a 7% discount for a price of $148.99, which makes no sense to me. It gets a better sale price on the days in between the two big sale days? Just odd. Sucks because I was about to jump on it for $130, since that's probably the lowest price I'm going to see that mouse for the foreseeable future.

I was also watching some RandomFrankP videos, since he goes through a lot of sale items on these days and points out a lot of interesting tech items on sale, and one thing he was pointing out a lot on Black Friday was that a lot of the same prices were just the normal discount price that those items have a lot of of the time. So a lot of items weren't even really on sale at all.