3 Reasons Why You Should Ignore Cyber Monday Sales

November 30, 2015 by Jerry Jackson Reads (2,049)

Most available research shows that the Black Friday “doorbuster deals” found at brick-and-mortar retail stores are becoming a thing of the past as the overwhelming majority of U.S. customers would rather make purchases online instead of dealing with crowds and chaos in the days that follow Thanksgiving.

Not only did the early sales figures for Black Friday show a dramatic decrease in the number of shoppers and total sales, but preliminary Cyber Monday sales estimates in the United States suggest that Cyber Monday will once again be one of the best revenue days for retailers during the holiday season.

Despite the massive number of credit card transactions happening today, keep in mind that big markdowns on Cyber Monday don’t always mean you’re getting a good deal. Here are three reasons buyers should beware on Cyber Monday.

The “deal” prices on Cyber Monday are often more expensive than the sale prices found during the 12 months prior to Cyber Monday.

Price comparison tools show you price histories so you can see if a deal is as good as it looks.

Yes, it’s true … observant shoppers or anyone with access to free online price comparison tools like PriceZombie or CamelCamelCamel will notice that Cyber Monday sale prices are usually no cheaper (and often more expensive) than sale prices that were available at the same retailers during the previous months. This shouldn’t be a surprise as retailers know that more customers start shopping for Christmas gifts at the end of November; it’s only logical for retailers to mark up prices as demand increases.

For example, Amazon offered the Samsumg 840 EVO 500GB SSD in a Cyber Monday Lightning Deal for $129.99 but PriceZombie’s price history tool shows the same SSD was available at a lower price in July of this year. Similarly, Walmart offered the Toshiba Satellite C55 laptop in a Cyber Monday deal for $249, but PriceZombie shows multiple retailers offered the same laptop for the same price multiple times over the previous nine months. Statistically speaking, if you want to get the lowest prices on electronics for the holidays then you should begin regularly checking sale prices between June and October.

Most of the notebooks offered in Cyber Monday deals are old stock items.

A notebook with last year’s technology might not be such a great deal after all.

You might have noticed that we mentioned one of the notebooks offered for sale on Cyber Monday has been around for 9 months. Even worse, many of the tablets, smartphones and laptops that are prominently listed in Cyber Monday deals have been around for more than 12 months. When it comes to the lifespan of PCs and other electronics, 9-12 months is often more than enough time for something to make the transition from being the must-have item on everyone’s shopping list to simply being outdated tech that is destined for a quick resale on eBay.

Multiple online retailers are offering the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 in Cyber Monday deals, but that tablet was released back in May of 2014. Likewise, you’ll find multiple Cyber Monday markdowns for laptops like the Asus F555 or the previous generation of Apple MacBooks that all arrived in stores for the first time back in 2014.

There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a low price to get your hands on older electronics … just be aware that you aren’t getting the latest and greatest technology if you buy something that has been around for 12 months or more.

Cyber Monday is simply an outdated concept.

Gone are the days when you were disconnected from the Internet because someone picked up the home phone.

Cyber Monday itself began in the early years of the Internet and online retail shopping because of one thing … limited availability of high-speed Internet access. The reason that U.S. retailers first saw spikes in their online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving was because most U.S. citizens had slow dial-up access to the Internet at home (which makes online shopping a terrible experience). Those people with dial-up modems waited until they got to work on Monday morning and used the high-speed connections at work to facilitate their Christmas shopping.

Today most U.S.-based customers not only have high-speed Internet access at home, we frequently use our smartphones to make online purchases from anywhere and at any time. Not only that, but a growing percentage of online shoppers use price comparison tools like the ones we previously mentioned or price comparison apps like RedLaser, ShopSavvy, or ShopAdvisor to get the absolute best deal possible.

Most of us don’t need to pilfer high-speed Internet access from our employers in 2015. Does anyone really believe they need to wait until a specific day of the week to find a great deal online anymore?