It's that time of year again, American consumers are flocking to e-tail websites and brick-and-mortar retailers to take advantage of mind boggling Black Friday deals.
This veritable homage to consumerism is slowly spreading beyond US borders, but the rest of the world is simply not there yet - the best deals are still to be had in the Land of the Free.
So let's check out what Newegg has in store and what sorts of discounts are available to shoopers, including those hooked in bitcoin - we'll explain why.
GPUs, consoles and TVs
How about a GPU upgrade? The XFX Double Dissipation R9 290 with 4GB GDDR? The card's list price is $339, but Newegg is selling it for $229. In case you make a bitcoin (BTC) payment, you get another $30 off. The Sapphire R9 280X usually goes for $269, but today it costs $199 with the Black Friday discount, or $179 if you pay in BTC.
If you're more of a console guy (or girl), the Xbox One with the Assassin's Creed: Unity bundle is going for $329, down from $399. BTC adds another $30 discount for a grand total of $299. Alternatively you can play Assassin's Creed: Unity on your PC, in which case you'll need about three of those XFX cards to get 30fps.
A new TV perhaps? A 49-inch LG with and LED 1080p panel is $389, down from $699. With bitcoin, the price is $319. A 49-inch 4K/UHD set from Changhong usually sells for $1,099, but with all the Black Friday discounts it's just $429. Never mind the brand, this is truly staggering value.
Notebooks, storage and tablets
Possibly one of the best deals today is the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB USB 3.0 drive. At just 12.5mm, it is the thinnest 2.5-inch TB external drive and the list price is $199. Today it is available for $79 or $54 for bitcoin. A 2TB internal 3.5-inch Seagate Barracuda drive is available for $74, or $49 in bitcoin.
The HP 350 GI, powered by a Core i5 4210U with 4GB of RAM, usually goes for $699, but today you can get it for $349 with BTC savings. Lenovo's sleek Miix 2 11, with Core i5 silicon and a 128GB SSD, is available at $549, with a $280 discount. Bitcoin adds another $100 in savings, so the best possible price is $449. MSI's GS60 gaming laptop is priced at $1349, down from $1599. Bitcoin users will get another $250 off for a total of $1099.
Finally, there's LG's G Pad 8.3 tablet. Based on a powerful Qualcomm processor, this tablet is available at $209 for greenbacks or $149 for bitcoin.
Newegg is one of few tech retailers to accept bitcoin (along with Dell and several smaller players) and like most merchants it offers bitcoin-related discounts. Processing bitcoin payments is cheaper than dealing with standard credit card transactions, so some of the savings are passed on to the consumer - it's a bit like offering cash discounts. However, most of the bitcoin savings are promotional, so in this case you save even more than you would usually.
