Thanksgiving / Black Friday Sales and Plan!

[Orion's Islands]

Ok...so....
For the first time, my fellow citizens of the Orion's Islands and I don't have the Skylanders game, or for that matter, pretty much any of the figures by November. (There was an international crisis, a screwup at the Grand Cayman Islands bank and national debt involved...I won't bore you with the details.)
Suffice to say, with new financial laws in place (not to mention some overtime), we are looking to take advantage of some of the Thanksgiving Day/ Black Friday deals to correct this egregious error: Time to get Imaginators!!!
I'll list off the Black Friday deals we find in the hopes it will help some non-islanders. Additionally, out of sheer narcicism, I will assume you all are interested in our plans to take advantage of them and let you know our plan.

[Orion's Islands]

First things first: Store Hours for the Black Friday Sales

Best Buy: 5pm Opening, 11/24 (Thanksgiving)
Toys-R-Us: 5pm Opening, 11/24 (Thanksgiving)
Target: 6pm Opening, 11/24 (Thanksgiving)

Gamestop: 5am Opening, 11/25 (Black Friday)

Walmart: ummmm....no idea.
Ok, just found out.
Sales start at 6pm 11/24 (Thanksgiving)
Online Sales start at 11pm on 11/23, wed.

Special note: Best Buy deals will be available Online. I indicated 3pm on 11/23 but I have seen that exact time pulled from their advertising space. I have seen another report showing it now ro be 12 midnight on 11/24 (very late on 11/23). If I can lock it down, I will.

[Plaag]

I hope to do all the shopping online as most sites allow that except for any door buster items iirc.

ShaneG.

[Orion's Islands]

To sum up the beginnings of the ONLINE SALES (FYI: I checked these all myself at each companies respective websites)
Target goes online at 6pm on Thanksgiving Day(same as store opening) That would be Solar Aurora.
Walmart goes online at @11pm on 11/23 (wed.)
Best Buy"s time is a bit muddled with conflicting reports: I have seen as early as 3pm on 11/23 but it may have switched to midnight instead.
Toys-R-Us goes online at 9pm on 11/23 (Wed.).


It occurs to me that in the absence of CyberPolice, companies could start earlier, or even later, than these times. It couldn't hurt to check early, just be sure.
I have no idea what any CyberMonday sales might be!!!

[Orion's Islands]

[Orion's Islands]

Now...I've crunched the numbers a bit and our purchasing plan is solidifying.
The deals are as follows (as best as I can tell):

Everybody seems to be offerring the Senseis at a reduced cost of $10. ($5 off)

Basic Starter packs are going for @$40. (Best Buy and Target at $39.99, TRU has a doorbuster special in-store for $37.49, Walmart at $39, Gamestop at $44.99)

Best Buy is offerring dual packs for $20 ($5 off). They are scheduled to have the Wolfgang and Mysticat dual packs.

TRU is offerring 3 creation crystals for $20. Im not sure if this applies to the individually packed crystals or for the prepackaged crystal 3packs.

Walmart also seems to be offerring the Portal Owners Pack for $25. Not confirmed but I thought that includes the game itself and a fire crystal only.

Now, just as significantly, I have seen NO DEALS on the Dark Starter Pack at Gamestop or the Griffin Observatory Adventure Packs everywhere.

[Orion's Islands]

The biggest revelation I have had planning our capitalistic tour-de-force:
We will NOT be getting the Dark Edition Starter Pack.
As Gamestop has not deemed to discount it in any way, there is no imperative to buy it during the Black Friday Sales.
The logic is simple. $100 would usually give me 6 Senseis (@$90 +tax). But right now, that same $100 will get me 9 Senseis (@$90 +tax). A month from now the Dark Starter Pack will still cost the same but the Senseis will be back up to their regular price.
$10 each is a pretty good deal. By comparison, the B1GO 40% off deal usually offerred by TRU totals out to be $24 for two ($15 +$9). This deal is $20 for two ($10 +$10)!
So I'll save money by putting our available cash towards discounted Senseis instead of the Dark Starter.

[Orion's Islands]

Now a BIG game changer for us is that we have the Best Buy Gamers Club discount. (Short story: $30 gives you a two year membership where all games are 20% off-Skylanders included. We picked up our membership last year before Superchargers so we have until Sept. 2017).
So crunching the numbers, for example:
Sensei starts at $15. Black Friday Sale knocks it down to $10. Then the 20% applies, so the final total is $8.
So for that same $100 I mentioned in the earlier post about the Dark Starter Pack now buys 12 Senseis. For $96 +tax.
The Basic Starter Pack discounted to $40 for Black Friday becomes $32.
So for the starter pack and senseis, Best Buy is our choice.

[Orion's Islands]

So...lets go crazy....
Hypothetical spending spree:
The basic starter, Dual Pack Wolfgang, 11 Senseis, the Griffon Adventure Pack and Solar Flare Aurora would come to $310 at the standard prices. ($75, $25,$165, $30,$15)
Applying the Black Friday and Best Buy Club discounts brings it down to $170. ($32,$16,$88,$24,$10)
That is 45% off sticker price. Wow. I don't think we have $170 to spend at this time but I will put as much as we can spare as this will be about as good as it will get.

[Orion's Islands]

Now the creation crystals are $8 with the Best Buy discount. The TRU 3 for $20 puts each crystal just under $7 each. They would be the winner there. If that sale applies to any 3 of the single pack crystals (as it seems to be in the advert)...Great. If its only on the pre-packaged 3 packs, then it will not work for us and the option to mix and match at Best Buy will win the choice.
A final wrinkle would be selection. Best Buy doesnt have the greatest record for a deep stock and varied selection. If we can't find a few we are looking for at Best Buy, we will default to TRU. Luckily for us they are about 1 mile away from each other here.