by Joe Wallace

Here’s a trick some freelancers use maximum advantage–especially those brave or foolhardy enough to venture out to the shops on Black Friday. Stocking up on your home office supplies after turkey day could save you a great deal, especially if you need to upgrade from your old laptop. Office Max, for example, offers $100 off select laptops as part of a holiday promotion–but I think you could do MUCH better than that.

One caveat when shopping around for those holiday deals–be an informed shopper. The best example I know of ignorance costing you those hard earned freelance dollars? Apple products. At the time of this writing, Best Buy offers up to $200 off select Macbooks, which sounds like a KILLER deal.

Usually I go direct to Apple for Macs because Apple is known for its consistent pricing–there are no real “sales” to be had on these products from Apple–when I wrote for a musical instrument reseller, I couldn’t even get much of a discount as an employee of a wholesale purchaser. You could say Apple is a bit stingy.

So when I found 17-inch Macbook Pro laptops on sale for $200 off at Best Buy I was a bit surprised and am still looking for some kind of fine print that neutralizes those savings somehow. But at first glance, it looks legit. $200 bucks off an Macbook is a rare find in many cases, unless there’s been a $200 markup.

So much for my assumptions about Apple products!

Bottom line, ’tis the season to stock up for cheap on everything from printers and printer paper to laptops and wi-fi gear. Especially THIS year when the economy wants to bounce back in the worst way and retailers are willing to chop prices down to size in order to get back into profits.

Me personally, I’m headed back to look at those 17-inch Macbooks again.