Black Friday 2013 GPS sales — what to expect

Gazing into the crystal ball for Black Friday 2013 GPS deals

With so many Black Friday ads leaked ahead of time, these are really more of a sneak peek than they are predictions. And quite frankly, I hadn’t expected this post to go up for another week, but REI has jumped the gun again, this time with a big sale not one but two weeks ahead of Black Friday! So here’s the low-down, starting with what to expect in terms of…

Holiday deals on GPS Tracklog

As usual I’ll be covering lots of online deals here, but unlike in years past I’m not planning to highlight any merchants except Amazon, GPS City, REI and Garmin, because it doesn’t seem to matter how good a deal I post from places like EMS, Cabelas, etc.; I see few folks taking advantage of them. Feel free to mention other deals in the comments but I probably won’t be doing a post on them.

I’ll be moving the deals section up higher on the home page, and yes, you’ll be seeing quite a few deals over the next few weeks. But there will also be some new reviews (the Garmin VIRB and Monterra should both be up soon, hopefully before Black Friday) along with some other interesting content. So please forgive the commercial interruption.

Auto GPS deals

The major manufacturers appear to be holding the line on prices again this year. As of now, I know of no merchants that will have Garmin nuvis for less than $69. At that price you’ll be looking at units like the 4.3″ 40LM or 42, or the 5″ nuvi 50. I have seen at least one mention of a 4.3″ Magellan Roadmate for $59 but surprisingly I’ve seen no TomToms for less than $79.

Moving up the line  you can expect to see the Garmin nuvi 50LM discounted to $89 or so, but I would expect to see few 2013 models on sale. The good news is that we may see some great deals on 2012 nuvis, like the 2595LMT for $139. As far as TomTom goes, $99 will get you a unit with European and North American maps, or the 6″ 1605TM at some locations.

Black Friday stars

In past years we’ve seen some special models that didn’t appear other times of year. Sometimes these were stripped of Mexican and/or Canadian maps, allowing them to be sold for a lower price. So far, I’ve seen no signs of such tactics this year.

It is possible we’ll see some 2013 Garmin nuvi 2xx8LMTHD models since they have been listed on Garmin’s site  for a couple of months now, but have yet to show up in retail channels. It’s also possible that we’ll see a stealth introduction of the new TomTom GO models, which I have been told are coming to the US this fall, but we’ve yet to see them.

Handheld/sport GPS deals

I’ve only seen a few handheld and sport deals listed ahead of time. You can expect to see the Garmin GPSMAP 62s on sale for $199, a great deal by any means, but other leaked deals are few and far between. I am expecting to see a wider range of handheld and sport deals from Amazon, GPS City and Garmin; they just aren’t showing their hand yet. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Oregon 450 in the $150-170 range, but that is just speculation on my part.

Timing is everything

As usual, expect to find the best deals between now and Cyber Monday (the Monday following Thanksgiving). While there will be a few good deals after that, most will come in the next two and a half weeks.

Updating this page

Since this post is going up so early, I may update it as more info comes out. I’ll tweet it and post it to Facebook anytime I do.

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