That Black Friday discount you’re excited about might not be as good a deal as it seems.

Black Friday falls on November 27 this year, but retailers like Amazon and Best Buy will have sales running well before then. Some of these sales may be well worth taking advantage of, while others may seem like bargains until you compare prices. Then there are outright scams, including fake storefronts and phishing emails posing as retailer promotions.

For example, a 2025 study by UK consumer organization Which? tracked 175 products across eight retailers (including Amazon) from May 2024 to May 2025. The results showed that 83 percent of these items were available for the same price or less at least once outside the four-week Black Friday sales period. That doesn't prove retailers intentionally raised prices, but it's a reminder that a discounted price tells you little on its own. Similarly, Bitdefender found that scams accounted for 53 percent of the Black Friday-related spam it analyzed between October 1 and November 10, 2025. These included fake Amazon coupons and messages impersonating familiar retailers.

If you're buying from Amazon, the best way to check whether a discount is actually worth it is to copy the product URL from Amazon and paste it into an Amazon price tracker like CamelCamelCamel or Keepa . Similarly, Amazon's Alexa for Shopping assistant (previously called Rufus) can display up to 365 days of price history for eligible items without requiring a Prime membership. Google Shopping compares prices from retailers and, for US shoppers, can indicate whether the current price is high, low or typical for the product.

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