**🛍️ Black Friday is coming soon 🛍️
Black Friday is tomorrow. Many brands have started throwing out discounts: some genuinely, others have raised prices beforehand.
Today I wanted to share my approach to Black Friday, share useful services, and talk about One Love brands that make good quality items. There’s even a separate subreddit on Reddit for such things called **BuyItForLife.
Let’s start with the approach: every time I realize I need to buy something but it’s not urgent (like some gear for hiking or a new coffee portafilter), I study the price history, add it to my shopping list, set notifications, and wait. First of all, after a couple of weeks, it often turns out that I don’t really need the item anymore, and secondly, closer to Black Friday or July 4th, I can save 30%-50%. I should note that I live in the USA, so this is primarily about local shopping.
Now about useful services:
1️⃣ Additional cashback from Rakuten
Helps you get extra cashback on discounts and card cashback absolutely for free. Just register, activate cashback before shopping (easiest through the Chrome plugin), and save additionally. Usually, on Black Friday, they increase cashback, often to 10-20%. A nice referral bonus is that you and I will get $30 www.rakuten.com/r/NICK5139
2️⃣ Price tracking on Amazon and eBay - https://keepa.com**
A website/service/Chrome app that constantly tracks prices on products. This is useful in two cases:
- You’re buying something on Amazon and immediately see if the item is currently at its peak (funny, but prices really do fluctuate constantly). It’s especially convenient that it simply integrates as a graph in the product card on Amazon.
- You want to buy something, but it’s not urgent, and you’re willing to wait. Then you just set a notification, desired price, and wait. As soon as the price drops to your desired level, you’ll get an email or Telegram notification. Often, you can buy something non-urgent for 30%-50% cheaper. Here, you often need to hurry, as the price can hold for literally 30-40 minutes. You might catch a price bug this way.
3️⃣ Hidden coupons https://www.koupon.ai/**
There are coupons that can cut 90%, but most often on not very high-quality Chinese goods.
And most importantly - favorite brands:
1️⃣ Patagonia - very high-quality items for both outdoor sports and everyday life. I was impressed by their lifetime guarantee with a promise of free repairs. After intensive use of a backpack (which constantly wears out items), I took it for repair and, without questions, just got a new jacket. And of course, the brand’s nice story and philosophy. Sadly, they never have Black Friday sales, but you can buy at a discount through a reseller (like REI) and either use a discount on the first purchase + get Rakuten cashback.
2️⃣ Greats - a local brand of quality leather (inside and out) sneakers with good design. The brand is American (Brooklyn), but they make (at least part of the shoes) in Italy. Currently, there’s a 30% discount.
3️⃣ Bonobos - quality, beautiful, and relatively inexpensive classic clothing that’s nice to wear to the office. Especially great Chinos pants. Currently, up to 50% off.
4️⃣ Apple - everything is clear here.
5️⃣ REI - an incredibly cool store for sports and hiking clothing. A year ago, I became a member, worth every penny.
6️⃣ Big Agnes - the best hiking gear, especially tents. By the way, there are good discounts now.
And finally, a couple of links:
1️⃣ https://t.me/bears_blackfriday - here’s a chat where people share Black Friday finds.
2️⃣ https://t.me/blackfriday_bear - here’s a channel with the best discounts in an aggregated format without unnecessary noise.
Tell me about your One Love brands.