During Prime Big Deal Days on Oct 6 and 7, 26 of the 144 products then in the basket cost less than on Oct 5 on at least one of those two days. By Oct 25, that number has settled to 15, suggesting some of those temporary cuts have reversed. The basket covers Barnes & Noble, Costco and Lenovo only; Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Home Depot are not included.
TechRadar notes that Lenovo Australia had already kicked off an early Black Friday sale with up to 52% off select laptops and PCs as of mid-October, and that since 2024 early deals have begun as late as October at some brands.2 That pattern is visible in the US-focused basket too, where Lenovo desktops show the most price movement of any tracked group.
Is it better to buy now or wait for Black Friday?
The tracker data alone cannot settle the buy-now-or-wait question, but the sources and the numbers together offer useful context. Of the 151 products tracked, only 15 (10%) are cheaper today than on Oct 5, and 25 actually cost more.
Mashable notes that AirPods Pro 3 are currently at $199, but dropped to $179 during October Prime Day and as low as $169 earlier this year, suggesting the current price is not the floor.4 CNET's shopping experts are tracking early discounts on TVs, laptops and headphones and say retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy are already rolling out cuts.3 For products where a sale claim is showing, all 8 such claims in the basket are the lowest price recorded since Oct 5, which is a meaningful signal, though the 8-week low benchmark used on Black Friday itself may still be lower.
TechRadar cautions that in Australia, some retailers were under investigation for unethical pricing tactics during Black Friday 2025, and advises shoppers to research prices well in advance.2 A black friday price tracker like this one, which records daily prices from Oct 5 onward, is designed to support exactly that kind of check when Nov. 24 arrives.
Which retailers cut prices earliest?
Among the three retailers in this basket, Lenovo is cutting prices earliest: 2 of its 5 tracked desktop products cost less on Oct 25 than on Oct 5, the highest share of any retailer-category group. TechRadar reports that Lenovo Australia had already launched an early Black Friday sale with up to 52% off select laptops and PCs before mid-October, and that Lenovo was one of the first brands to advertise early Black Friday deals in both 2024 and 2025.2
Outside the basket, the broader retail picture shows a wide early start. According to Mashable, Amazon, The Home Depot and Target all had Black Friday sales underway as of Oct 21.1 CNET confirms that Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy were rolling out early discounts on tech and home products as of Oct 24.3 Target confirmed to TODAY.com that its three-day Early Black Friday Sale will run Nov. 5 through 7, with a Deal of the Day program starting Nov. 1.5 Among the Lenovo black friday deals and Barnes and Noble black friday offers tracked here, the cuts so far are modest in number, but Lenovo's desktop category stands out as the earliest mover in the basket.
How do this year's early deals compare with last year?
What the sources do describe is a structural shift: TechRadar notes that since 2024, early Black Friday deals have begun as late as October, whereas before 2023 they typically started about two weeks before the official date.2 That means the current wave of early cuts, including the Lenovo black friday deals visible in the tracker, fits a pattern that is now two years old rather than a new development.
One concrete year-over-year data point comes from the Nintendo Switch 2 market. Tech Insider reports that the Mario Kart World bundle now sells for $549, but that same bundle previously sold for $499 before Nintendo's September 2026 price increase, meaning today's deal price is higher than last year's regular price.6 That example illustrates a broader caution: early Black Friday marketing can obscure price increases that happened during the year. The 8-week low test this tracker applies on Nov. 24 is intended to surface exactly that kind of difference for the Barnes & Noble, Costco and Lenovo products in the basket.