As the best bargain shopping day of the year approaches (November 23), shoppers are being encouraged to start doing their homework now to snag the hottest deals then.

“Black Friday is the real McCoy of sale days, but to bag the best bargains, savvy shoppers have to research and plan their product and store choices,” says Edgar Dworsky, founder of Consumer World [ http://www.consumerworld.org ], a leading non-commercial consumer resource guide on the Internet.

Consumer World offers these holiday shopping tips:

1. Read the Ads: Check local newspapers on Thanksgiving Day. They will be chock-full of circulars, ads, and coupons. Friday’s papers will include additional sales. To preview some of the items now that will be on sale on “Black Friday”, visit bfads.net or blackfriday.gottadeal.com, websites with advance copies of store ads. Best Buy and Circuit City may post “secret” sale items on their websites for store purchase.

2. Evaluate the Deals: Not all advertised items are great deals. Use several Internet shopping robots, such as the Price Checker in Consumer World, or the ones at Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, Shopzilla.com, or NexTag.com (with price histories) to compare what a variety of online stores charge for the same item. If shopping online, find out the total price including shipping and tax (if any), and what the reputation of the seller is (use Shopzilla.com or ResellerRatings.com).

3. Research the Right Product: A low price on a lousy product is no bargain. Check websites where professionals evaluate products, such as Consumer Reports, Steves-Digicams.com (for cameras), Ecoustics.com (TV and hi-fi equipment), PCMagazine.com (computers), best/worst toy lists, etc. Also, nothing beats reading customer reviews by real owners of the products you are thinking of buying. Check Epinions.com, and read the user comments posted after most product descriptions at Amazon.com.

4. Save with "Triple Plays": To save the most, combine the primary ways to save: buy items at a good sale price, use percent-off/dollars-off coupons offered by some stores to lower that price even more, and look for items that also have a cash back rebate.

5. Be an Early Bird: Look for “doorbuster” deals at rockbottom prices as early as 5am. Best Buy is giving out numbers for hot items starting at 3am. Plot your route from store to store based on store opening times, and because quantities are limited, arrive before the doors open. Send family members to different stores if opening times conflict.

Some blockbuster deals this year include: a Mio GPS navigator (Office Max & Circuit City $99; PepBoys $79 a/r [after rebate]); a Sharp Aquos 46” LCD HDTV for $999 (Sears); $10 off a $25 purchase before 1pm (Macy’s coupon); a $299 basic Compaq laptop (Circuit City); a 500 gig external hard drive for $79 a/r (Circuit City, Staples); a Vtech 5.8 ghz cordless phone set and answerer for $9.99 a/r (Circuit City); and a Samsung color laser printer for $99 a/r (Staples).

6. Beat the Early Birds: Some “Black Friday” deals may also be orderable online for pick-up at the store, or for home delivery. Check their websites in the wee hours of Black Friday to see if you can beat the crowd. Some stores may open just after midnight. Other retailers and etailers will be open on Thanksgiving day itself with deep discount specials, including some Kmarts, BestBuy.com, and CircuitCity.com .

7. Check the Return Policy: Before buying, find out the store’s return policy. While many stores have extended their return deadlines into January, others are clamping down by imposing restocking fees on certain categories of items, or by using a blacklisting database or returns tracking system to deny refunds to returns abusers.

8. Get a Gift Receipt: Make returns easier for gift recipients by asking the store for a gift receipt and include it in the gift box. Without a receipt, a refund may be denied outright, or may be limited to only an equal exchange, or to a merchandise credit for the lowest price the item has sold for in the recent past.

9. Use the Right Credit Card: Certain credit cards offer valuable free benefits. For example, don’t be pressured into buying a service contract when you can get up to an extra year of warranty coverage free just by using most gold or platinum credit cards. Ask your credit card issuer if it will double the manufacturer’s warranty up to an additional year for warranties whose original duration is one year or less (most MasterCards), three years or less (Visa), five years or less (American Express). Some credit cards also offer a return protection guarantee (they will refund the purchase price within 90 days if the store will not), or a sale price guarantee (they will give you back the difference if an item goes on sale within 60 days of purchase.

10. Save More with Price Guarantees: The bargain shopping process does not end with a product purchase. Keep checking the prices of the items you bought. Since many stores offer a price protection guarantee, you may be entitled to get back some additional money if the seller or a competitor offers a lower price before Christmas.

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Consumer World®, launched in 1995, is a public service, non-commercial consumer resource guide with over 2000 links to everything "consumer" on the Internet. Edgar Dworsky, an avid bargain hunter, is the founder of Consumer World, editor of MousePrint.org – an educational site devoted to exposing the fine print loopholes in advertising, and a former Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

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