Best Buy's "Shop Early Sale": How good are the deals, really?

Although the words "Black Friday" are conspicuously absent from its ads—unlike those of its competition—Best Buy is having its own pre-Thanksgiving sale this weekend, a two-day "Shop Early Sale" in-store sales event on November 5 and 6.

The ad we saw promises some pretty big savings if you shop early, but a little bit of digging reveals that often the amount of claimed savings is based on the suggested retail price of an item, not the amount the store is currently charging. So in some cases, you'd only save $10 by coming into the store during the sale, compared with shopping online from the comfort of your home today.

The store doesn't list the specific models that will be on sale this weekend. But by matching the store SKU (stock-keeping unit) numbers, which were included in the ads, we were able to determine which models were being advertised.

For example, among the featured items is a 32-inch Dynex 720p LCD TV, which will be priced at $260, a claimed savings of $40. But we matched the SKU number to the Dynex DX-32L150A11, which is currently on sale for $280, or only $20 more than the weekend sale price.

Likewise, a Wi-Fi-ready Samsung Blu-ray player will be priced at $120 this weekend, for a claimed savings of $60. But its SKU number reveals it to be Samsung's BDC5500 model, which sells for $130 online, making the true savings only $10, not $60.

But there are some deals that live up to their claims. For example, those looking for an HD camcorder might be interested in the advertised Insignia-brand model that will be on sale for $175, a whopping $125 claimed discount. That model, the NS-DV111080F, is selling for $300 right now, so you will save exactly what Best Buy is promising. The store also touts $120 in savings on an AMD-powered eMachines laptop computer, which will be sale-priced at $280 this weekend. That model, the eME442-V133, is selling for $400 online, so the weekend sale lives up to its $120-off billing.

While in this instance we picked on Best Buy, the situation isn't exclusive to that retailer. The takeaway from this story is that you can't take promised savings at face value, since sometimes a retailer will base its claimed savings on the suggested retail value of a product rather than on its actual selling price. But if you do a bit of digging, just like we did, you may be able to ferret out the great deals from the so-so ones and make that trip to the store worth your while.

We'll continue to look through the Black Friday promotions to see where the best deals are, and we encourage you to share the best deals you come across this holiday shopping season in Comments.

—James K. Willcox