The dealnews 2009 Black Friday Predictions

Has it already been a year? With just over 100 days left until Christmas, we're kicking off the holidays at dealnews with our Black Friday deal predictions, compiled by myself with the help of our expert staff.

It's our second season predicting Black Friday's best deals, and we should tell you whether our predictions from last year were worth the electrons they were printed on. Adjusting for missing deals — we predicted free shipping at OfficeMax, for example, but OfficeMax skipped Black Friday entirely — we're happy to report that our 2008 accuracy rate was 82%. (See last year's piece.) Pardon me for bragging ... that's much better than my grades in college.

Three quick clarifications before we start prognosticating. First, these are predictions of the best deals for the Black Friday season. They're the lowest of the lows, not averages. Second, some of these deals will involve mail-in rebates. However, the good news is that most won't. Best Buy, OfficeMax, and Walmart have each given up on mail-in rebates after numerous customer complaints. Third, we're predicting that these deals occur during "Black Friday Season," a dealnews euphemism for mid-November to Cyber Monday. On to the predictions.