The 2014 Holiday Shopping Guide (Sticky)

Welcome to the Hobby Haven, everyone! I'm your hostess and small-time-blogger extraordinaire, Miss Scarlett! And this is an extra-special bulletin: my first-ever Holiday Shopping Guide! (I'm still working my way through figuring out the best way to do this, so be gentle with me!) I will be doing my best to provide a one-stop guide listing sales, deals, and coupons to make holiday shopping a little easier! I'm going to keep this "stickied" at the top of the blog until the holidays are over. I will also be updating this whenever I find information, so check back frequently!

I should probably clarify that the majority of the information I'm posting will be related to hobby items. I'll be posting information on big box retailers like Amazon and Target, but also focusing on electronics, toys, etc. Also, I'll be posting generic Black-Friday-related posts, like this one from Kinja on how to prepare for BF shopping.

All the info is after the jump.

11/5: Published this to get it on the main page! Just two entries for now, but I will continue to add more!

General Merchandise

Oh, Amazon. You make my heart sing. They are offering "Coutdown to Black Friday" sales, with different deals available each day. From what I understand after reading their sales blurb, this is basically a "deals of the day" promotion leading up to Black Friday. So no, these sales will not be in effect *on* Black Friday. There will be different sales offered the week of Thanksgiving, or as Amazon puts it, "Black Friday Week." (*rolls eyes*). They will also be offering deals for Cyber Monday, and will be offering those the entire week after Thanksgiving. If you are interested in getting e-mails (probably a LOT of e-mails) summarizing each day's specials sales and offers, you can stop by Amazon's website and sign up. I...may have partaken last night. (In my defense, they were offering huge markdowns on BBC DVD boxsets, and I had a whole bunch of shows on a wishlist consigned to oblivion because BBC charges quite a bit for their shows.) Oh, and in case I didn't make it clear, these specials and deals apply to pretty much all categories of items on their store. I haven't seen any deals on Amazon-branded electronics like the Kindle, but those could possibly be offered for Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Toys

I'm kicking this section off with information from one of the biggest toy retailers in the country: Toys R Us. They just published their "Great Big Christmas Book," which you may or may not have received already with your Sunday newspaper. This lists most of the toys that they have in stock (it's not exhaustive, since that would make a truly "great big" book) for the holiday season. The prices are good from the second of November (that's today) until the 22nd of November (the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I think it is safe to say that there will be a different pricing scheme in place for Black Friday, and possible for December.

The great things about this is not only does it help you get an idea of what toys are available, but you also get coupons in the back of the book. The coupons are mostly for specific toys, but there are also "brand" coupons: Crayola, Disney's Frozen, Barbie, Ever After High, and Monster High. The catch is that the brand coupons are redeemable for regular-priced merchandise. That is to say, nothing that is on sale or listed for a "special" price.

You can pick up a catalog in any Toys R Us store, go to their website to request that a catalog be sent to your house, or look through an online version of the catalog. Note that the coupons seem to be both in the catalog and printable from the Toys R Us website.

Electronics

I better post this now before it's too late! Best Buy will be offering a pre-Black Friday event at "select stores" on November 8th (that's this Saturday, folks!). There will be various deals, as well as some door prizes. You may want to check it out if a store near you is participating.

I've post this elsewhere, but Target is running a pre-Black Friday sale on video games and fashion dolls. Buy two video games, get one free, and buy two Monster High/Ever After High/Barbie dolls, get one free. Good at Target retail locations and online.

I realized that this section could be endlessly filled with all of the electronics deals being offered this Black Friday. So I will turn it over to one of my favorite deal-hunting sites, the Cheapass Gamer forums. They have Black Friday threads for video games/consoles, movies/TV shows, and other electronics. They've done a beautiful job at summing up the various deals to be had, so please check them out! (Note that you don't need to be a registered member of the forum to see the posts.)

Games

I'm sorry that I didn't post this earlier, but GOG.com is running their annual Fall DRM-Free Sale, with hundreds of games offered at a discount. They have daily specials, flash specials, and discounts galore.

Crafts

A.C. Moore has gotten a head start on some of their competitors and has already released their Black Friday ad! They've included two time-sensitive coupons (one for Black Friday morning for 40% off a total purchase of regular-priced items, and one for the afternoon with 60% a regular-priced item), I am surprised at how many toys they carry--there is a fair amount of Frozen merchandise listed, plus lots of kid's craft kits and art supplies listed on sale. Most of the sales on craft items seem to be about the same as the usual sales they run. Although if you're into jewelry making, there is a nice sale on bead strands you'll want to look at. Also, 50% off all Christmas decorations. Not the best Black Friday sale, given that they usually run deeply discounted sales like this, but if you're a crafter (or know somebody who is), it may be worth your time to look.