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1. Toys

Courtesy of Matel |
As we mentioned, Toys R Us put its holiday toy book on sale back in October, so that's roughly how long toys have been a bargain. Target, though, became the toy store du jour earlier this month when a Wall Street Journal price comparison found that Wal-Mart's toy prices were significantly higher than Target's in several instances. That didn't sit well in Arkansas, where folks at Wal-Mart headquarters went on toy box damage control by slashing toy prices to within a dollar of Target's total. So who wins? You do.
With Sears and Wal-Mart originally offering Mattel's (NasdaqGS:
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2. HDTVs

Courtesy of Samsung |
The picture's been looking pretty dark for HDTV prices for much of the year, with research firm DisplaySearch predicting an 8% drop in average LCD television prices and iSuppli forecasting prices as low as $200 for a 32-inch 720p HDTV and $500 for a 42-inch 1080p model. They pretty much nailed it, as a 22-inch 720p Sharp AQOUS LCD television can be had for $180 at JR.com. On the larger end, Best Buy (NYSE:
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News) is offering a Toshiba 40-inch 1080p LCD television for $400 during its two-day "Save Early, Shop Big" store event November 12th and 13th.
3. e-readers

Courtesy of Amazon |
With Amazon and Barnes and Noble (NYSE:
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4. Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move

Courtesy of Microsoft |
Unlike the prices for console bundles, which are going to vary wildly between now and Black Friday, the prices of starter bundles for Microsoft (NasdaqGS:
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5. iPad

Courtesy of Apple |
Apple's (NasdaqGS:
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News) little tablet toy has sold more than 8 million units without the benefit of Christmas songs and doorbuster sales. Do you think Steve Jobs and company are going to start messing with the bottom line now? As a general rule, Apple doesn't do sales (though Wal-Mart's $185 price on an 8 gigabyte iPod Touch bundle seems to be an exception). In fact, Apple did you a favor by making the iPad available in such places as Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and the Verizon Wireless store. How do you repay them? By fruitlessly getting in someone's way on Black Friday just to find out that the Wi-Fi-only iPad is the same $499 it was when it was released? Save everyone some time and aggravation by just picking one up now if you're hell-bent on getting one by the holidays.
6. Kitchen and Dining

Courtesy of Hamilton Beach |
Admittedly, it's hard to beat $3 appliances, but a deep discount is still hard to pass up. Wal-Mart is offering iRobot's (NasdaqGM:
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7. Smartphones

Courtesy of HTC |
There's usually a simple answer for how much a smartphone costs: $199. Every so often, however, you get some leeway. Best Buy, for example, is offering Samsung's Fascinate Galaxy S phone for $149 -- a $50 discount from the Verizon Wireless version and similarly less expensive than the new Samsung Continuum. It's also hacked the price of HTC's Droid Incredible to $100 from $149 this week, just because they feel like it. Be careful, however, as the Research In Motion (NasdaqGS:
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