CriterionCast

Ryan’s Black Friday Weekend Deals To Keep Your Eyes On

If you’ve been following our Twitter feed (or my own) over the past few days, you’ll be well aware of all of the incredible Black Friday deals that the Blu-ray fiends of the world have been taking advantage of. Most of the links that I’ve been tweeting out have been thanks to the folks over at BlackFriday.info, which has been an invaluable source for deals. I’d also highly recommend checking out Blu-ray.com‘s page on deals, as they are incredible at tracking when is the right time to jump on a cheap Blu-ray.

Since Monday, I’ve bought the three Lord of the Rings Blu-rays for $7.99 a piece, bought the Criterion edition of Dazed and Confused for $9.99, the first three seasons of Mad Men on Blu-ray for $9.99 each, and ordered a handful of other Blu-rays that were under $10. I have to say that right now Amazon is killing it with the Blu-ray deals overall. I’ve been checking out a handful of other ads for this morning’s deals, and haven’t really found anything exciting. Apparently Target is selling some really cheap 1080p HDTVs (like $298 cheap), and WalMart is supposedly matching anyone elses advertised prices.

With all of these great deals, however, it’s been really quiet on the Criterion deal front. Aside from that Dazed and Confused deal, everything else on Amazon is around 30%-45% off, with a couple of exceptions. Deep Discount is having an additional 25% off discount sale right now, which is making them fairly competitive with Amazon’s pricing, but not by much. I’ve been checking to see if DVDPlanet is going to lower their Criterion prices, but it doesn’t look like they’re budging yet. Barnes and Noble has some cheap DVDs and Blu-rays, but again, now that their Criterion 50% off sale is finished, those prices have gone back up to their usual range.

One of the better deals this weekend is being promoted by our friends at the Warner Archive (we’re no longer sponsored by them, so we can plug away without any conflicts of interest), you can get 5 Single Disc Titles, For $50. This doesn’t count any of the multi-disc animated series, but there are so many incredible releases on the site, I’m sure you could find 5 in a heartbeat. At $10 a pop, they won’t get much cheaper anytime soon.

So I guess if you are looking for Criterion deals this weekend, your best bet is to keep checking back over on Amazon’s page for the Collection. There are a handful of Blu-rays hovering around $22, and several DVDs under $20. If you’ve been searching for a good deal on the America Lost And Found box set, then Deep Discount is your cheapest as of the writing of this entry, at $74.97 (versus Amazon’s $87.49).

I’m writing this just after Midnight, and I’ll most likely be heading out to a few stores in the morning to see what I can find. I’ll probably be heading to Target and Best Buy, once the first wave of madness has bought up the doorbuster prizes, so I can see what’s left over.

Since we’re planning on recording our episode on Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon The Brain at 4pm Pacific, I’ll probably hop on Ustream a little early, to see if anyone is around to chat about their favorite deals of the day. Feel free to join me if you’re interested.

I’m going to be posting my “Ten Criterion Blu-rays To Have On Your Holiday Wishlist” if you’re still unsure of what to ask for this season.

Are you planning on heading out to do some shopping this Black Friday? What have been the greatest deals you’ve come across so far? Are you taking part in Buy Nothing Day instead? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Ryan Gallagher

Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].