I am not usually a big bargain hunter, but since we’re going to be down in Georgia for Christmas this year, I’ve been keeping an eye out for good deals at American-based e-commerce stores. After all, if we’ll be in the U.S. for Christmas, it means I can buy things online, have them shipped to my parents, and enjoy the deals that can be found online (deals that quickly become anything but when having to pay international shipping rates and duties).
Here are a few “Black Friday” deals I’ve found that may interest you.
Amazon is having a Black Friday sale and is offering a few good deals. To be honest, it is a little bit disappointing, but if you root around you can find a few really good deals. Some of them are available in limited quantities so you have to be fast. There are whole sections of books and software titles that are on sale.
Monergism Books is having a Thanksgiving Day sale and is offering quite a few good deals. The complete Calvin Commentary set for $169 seems particularly good to me but there are lots of other specials worth looking at as well.
Lifeway has a few deals including The Nativity Story DVD for $10, The End of the Spear for $5 and Tony Dungy’s biography for $13.49. There are also some good CD deals to be had for about $5. Some of these deals run only for a couple of hours so check soon if you’re interested.
Family Christian is having an “After Thanksgiving” sale. Though it’s dominated by ChurchMerch and garbage, there are a few notable items, including the NIV Archaeological Study Bible, a couple of audio Bibles, and some decent albums.
Christa Taylor is offering 20% off on everything in her catalog from today until the 26th.
If you come across any other deals on items that may be of interest to Christians, feel free to post a link in the comments section. As always, shop and read with discernment! There is far more bad than good at many of these places…
Comments (6) »
1. Tim Challies
November 23, 2007
11:11 AM
I should add Christian Audio to the list since they are offering ten free titles right now…
2. Jeff
November 23, 2007
12:20 PM
Be aware you can get one free audiobook from the 10 free titles at Christian Audio. Once you’ve used the coupon code, it won’t allow you to use it for any subsequent orders. If you add several titles on the list to one order, it will only discount one of the titles.
3. JC
November 23, 2007
12:40 PM
Tim,
You’d still have to pay the Canada Border Guard duties, eh? But if you’re going to be in the States for more than 7 days, your first x-hundred dollars are non-dutiable.
jc
4. Tim Challies
November 23, 2007
1:04 PM
You’d still have to pay the Canada Border Guard duties, eh? But if you’re going to be in the States for more than 7 days, your first x-hundred dollars are non-dutiable.
There aren’t actually duties, but there are fees. Basically if UPS brings something over the border, they take 6% tax plus about $40 in processing fees (or more—it can vary a lot). Plus shipping is a lot more and many stores won’t ship to Canada. So if I can buy things online and get them shipped to the US it’s much easier and much better…
5. don gale
November 23, 2007
2:53 PM
your lifeway blurb forced me to go out on “black friday” and buy two apologetics study bibles (one to give away) and one copy of end of the spear….i sinned quite a bit seeing all of the horrible books and hearing comments like “oh, look, the new ———- CD for only 11.99!”…matters got worse in the check out line with testamints, scripture chocolates, and Christmas teddy bears all staring me in the face….i managed to escape and have spent the better part of today repenting….thanks, tim :)
6. jonathan
November 24, 2007
10:39 AM
Tim, maybe next year do a piece on Buy Nothing Day?
You could create a lot of biblical tie-ins, or just flog the concept to your faithful. It’s a worthy one.