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So it’s Cyber Monday, but have you noticed any specials? If you haven’t you might want to check out the following cyber deals that was first compiled by Gizmodo.com. If you also haven’t noticed, Buy.com is running a promotion where any gifts $10 or under are completely free as long as you sign up for a free Google account. Shipping is also free.

Gizmodo.com:

“Xbox 360 Premium Bundle
Location: Walmart.com
Price: $399
Includes: It’s the Xbox 360 Premium with Forza and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but you get an extra wireless controller and your choice of games from a pool of some decent titles, including Mass Effect and Bioshock, along with an Xbox 360 messenger bag. Read about all of Wal-Mart’s deals HERE.

iPods Galore
Location: Bestbuy.com
Price: 16GB touch – $379, 160GB classic – $332, 8GB nano – $189
Info: Starts today and goes through next Sunday. Best deal on an iPod w/o student discount or refurb.

10% Off At Circuit City
Location: CircuitCity.com, In-store pickup only
Price: Save 10% on any order of $249 or more.

20% Cash Back At Paypal Retailers
Location: 15 Retailers including New Egg, Barnes & Noble, HP, eToys.com, Overstock and Sharper Image.
Info: Get 20% cash back up to $50.

1TB Western Digital myBook external HD
Location: ZipZoomFly.com
Price: $219
Info: That’s a lot of porn, my friends.

Viewsonic 26″ LCD HDTV
Location: Staples.com
Price: $399
Info: That’s over $100 savings compared with standard online prices.

HP Photosmart C6280 All in One Printer
Location: Staples.com
Price: $100
Info: Also about $100 off standard online prices.

Plantronics 330 Bluetooth headset
Location: BestBuy.com
Price: $25
Info: Save over $25, get your Bluetooth on.

ClubIT Deals
Location: ClubIT.com
Info: We don’t know what they’ll have for sale yet, but deals should hit Monday morning at 12:30 a.m. PST.”

Shopping in your underwear? In 2005 Shop.org created Cyber Monday when they noticed that their was a large number of people shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving. From then on retailers have been taking advantage of Cyber Monday by offering special online deals and promotions to get consumers sick of waiting in long lines and traffic, to shop online instead.

Deal and Promotions
According to my local newspaper, 72.2% of consumers are planning special promotions for Cyber Monday. In fact, many retailers will be offering free shipping on anything purchased. Online purchases now account for 10% of purchases made, a rising trend as more people than ever are turning towards the Internet as a way to do their Holiday shopping.

Safety?
One of the biggest concerns of shopping online is the threat of having your information stolen. Make sure to buy from a company that you know. Instead of buying from XYO Bookstore, consider Amazon.com. Secure Internet websites will have an address starting with https or shttp. After you order, make sure to print out your order and confirm it with your credit card statement.

Where are the best deals on Cyber Monday?
Check out comparison-shopping tools: Sites such as Coolsavings.com, Google Product Search, Shopzilla.com, and Streetprices.com, plus Dealnews.com’s companion sites, offer tools to compare prices. Use these to sort through all the deals being offered on Monday. Stores such as CircuitCity.com and Sears.com are offering free shipping.

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How many out there actually woke up at 5:30 am to go shopping and try to catch Black Friday Sales or how many actually stood outside all night long to get a deal? I can account for one of those people who woke up before the sun came out to go shopping. What did I get for my efforts? Just a sweater from Old Navy. All the best tech deals were sold out before I could get through the doors.

Did I Need to get up so early?
Maybe it’s just a tradition to get up that early. But, instead of waking up at 5 am. I could have just ordered my products online. That $80, 500Gb Hard Drive I wanted? You can order it with free shipping on Staple’s Website. Even Bestbuy offers most of its early bird specials online. Instead of creating traffic and getting a headache, why not shop online this year?

Do We Buy Things Just because it is on sale?
Before I go rush out and buy those early bird “sales” take a second thought. They might seem like excellent deals, but how much of that stuff do you actually need? I would challenge you to make a list and let you determine how many of the things you buy now will actually still be using in five months?

As I look around the house I live in, I see plenty of “wasted” gifts that go unused for long periods of time. This year, instead of running right out and buying the latest deals, I’ve decided to be more conservative, think hard about what I actually need. Maybe that money used for that big screen you don’t need could be better served helping someone in need?

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Finding the price before the Internet used to mean, in my case anyways, looking through the Sunday newspaper ads. To find the best price on items for the holiday season, I use the Internet to compare prices from almost anywhere and everywhere to make sure that I have found the best price.

Pricewatch.com
Pricewatch looks like its monitoring the stockmarket, but rather it watches the prices of gifts. When prices on something have gone up it makes a red arrow and the same is when prices have fallen. It will indicate a green arrow to let you know the price has dropped for a certain item. Pricewatch searches through a large range of stores and displays the best price, which includes cost to ship.

PriceGrabber.com
As the name says, it grabs the best prices on the net. What’s nice about PriceGrabber is that it compares prices on just about everything you can think of. This includes magazines, furniture, books, computers and everything else in between. I’m never sure whether I’m getting a deal or not until I have checked out PriceGrabber’s price comparison.

PocketDeal.com
PocketDeal’s price comparison includes local USA stores like circuit city, best buy and target. Some of these stores will ship internationally, but not all. This is a great tool to use if you don’t like having things shipped. They include all the weekly ads for most stores, so even if you don’t subscribe to a newspaper you can still look at the weekly ads.

Is it worth finding the best price?
Usually I would say it is too much of a hassle and not worth your time and money, but if you think about it, if you save money on every item you buy, the price savings can add up. Doing a simple price at least between two stores will show you either 1. The price is the same or 2. There is a difference and the price and potential savings. You’d be surprised that the price difference between the exact item at more than one store can be even higher than $10.