Thursday is Thanksgiving. Friday, we go shopping! Black Friday is a once-a-year opportunity to save in ways you’ve never saved before. Or is it? Weren’t there any ads for Black Friday deals last week? And isn’t there a sale on Saturday? And in January?

If you’re confused, that can be a good thing, especially if it makes you slow down and think carefully about whether those bargains are bargains at all. According to Capital One Shopping, Americans are poised to spend more than $20 billion this Black Friday, including shopping online, even though the latest Consumers’ Checkbook analysis found that most of the 24 major retailers whose prices they analyzed claimed did that mislead consumers.

Because Black Friday isn’t really one day, you shouldn’t feel obligated to shop on that day, says Maurie Backman, a personal finance writer at Motley Fool Money. She says you can find similar prices during the holidays and don’t be fooled by the discount stores offering them.

“If you haven’t been following prices all season, you don’t really know what the original price was,” Backman says. “There’s nothing stopping a retailer from saying, ‘I’m going to take this item that retails for $49.99.’ , I’m going to put a price tag on it of $89.99, then I’m going to take a red marker and put a slash through it and sell it for $39.99.’”

Since there’s no law to prevent this, Backman says the best way to avoid being fooled is to track the prices of items you want or need for months before the holidays.

It’s also common for retailers to partner with tech manufacturers to have special products made just for Black Friday. Backman notes that the reason the 80-inch TV you want is suddenly $500 cheaper on Black Friday may be because the components are inferior. She urges consumers to compare the model and serial number of the sale item with that of the exact product they were looking at before Black Friday. If these do not match, it is a different product.

As for the Black Friday-only product, Backman says, “It’s not necessarily a bad buy.” But she recommends asking yourself whether you want a cheaper price point for a product that might not perform as well or last as long.

And don’t be fooled by the ‘limited edition’ trick, she warns. Backman says most “limited edition” products are simply packaged differently and will almost certainly be available after Black Friday, after Christmas and even next year, although perhaps in different packaging.

This segment aired on November 28, 2024.