Cyber Monday Shoppers See Mixed Bag of Electronics Deals
Cyber Monday presented an interesting collection of electronics steal deals, inventory blowouts, bundles and free shipping, Consumer Electronics Daily found as we perused websites Monday for advertised specials. Going after aggressive shoppers, Target scraped 99 cents off an already-slashed Hewlett-Packard all-in-one printer, bringing it to $29 even. In video, Target used pricing on little-known brands to lure e-shoppers. Sale items included a Sceptre 19-inch LED LCD TV marked down $69, to $149, with free shipping. An Aiptek HD camcorder with 47.5 MB storage and 5x optical zoom went into carts at $119, down from $179. Target broke the $300 barrier on a 32-inch TV with a Vizio 720p 60Hz-model discounted $58, to $299. Savvy shoppers would have done their homework and shopped elsewhere for a Samsung 26-inch LN26C350 that Target pitched at $429. Wal-Mart offered it for $386 and J&R for $299, both with free shipping.
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Mitsubishi’s WD-60638 60-inch DLP was no impulse buy at Sears, but the price was cut nearly in half, bringing big-screen 1080p 3D-ready TV to purchasers for $699, with free delivery.
It was easy to find digital cameras from top-tier brands for less than $100 on Cyber Monday. Sears sold a 14-megapixel Kodak Easyshare camera with 5x optical zoom for $79, a $20 savings, and Abe’s of Maine took 25 percent off the price of a Nikon Coolpix L22 12-megapixel camera bringing it to $89. Walmart took the bundle approach to digital cameras, packaging a Kodak Easyshare C143 12-megapixel camera with a pair of rechargeable batteries, wall charger and case for $69, $10 above what Kodak showed on its site for the camera alone. Wal-Mart sold out of the $109 and $99 Flip U1120 standard-def camcorders and the DXG QuickShots 720p mini camcorder at $69 by midday.
Not everything took a margin hit. The price for Barnes & Noble’s new Nookcolor held at $249 at Best Buy and Barnes & Noble. Customers of Barnes & Noble were told to expect shipping Friday. New York Best Buy customers could buy a Nook Color online and pick it up at any of six Manhattan locations on Cyber Monday. Amazon showed the Nookcolor in a bundle for more than the retail price at $314, including a 1GB SD card, from supplier BlueProton.
Barnes & Noble’s e-ink Nook e-reader, bargain-priced at $99 for a few hours Black Friday at Best Buy stores, was back at $149 on Cyber Monday, leaving a lot of second-tier e-readers in its wake. Best Buy featured the Sharper Image Literati at $99 on Cyber Monday, $50 off its list price, and J&R Music World showed the Ectaco JetBook Lite for $99 and Augen’s The Book reader for $129, down from $149. Sears took $30 off the Pandigital Novel color e-reader, bringing it to $149, a neat $100 under the Nookcolor. Amazon held Kindle pricing at $139 for the 6-inch Wi-Fi version, $189 for the Wi-Fi and 3G version and $379 for the 9.7-inch model.
It was a big day for outdoor inflatable movie screens at Target, an interesting choice heading into winter. The company showed screens from three manufacturers: an Airblown blow-up screen with storage bag was marked down $40 to $129, a Mickey Mouse-branded version from Airblown sold for $169, nine- 12- and 16-foot screens from OpenAir were slashed to $359-$799 from $499-$1,149 and a Eurolive B210 inflatable home theater system -- including speakers, MP3 player, DVD player and projector -- was “discounted” $249 to $3,000.