Amazon Understands Sales

Upon checking in at Amazon.com to update my Wish List for the holiday gift-giving season, I came upon one of their new gimmicks to get you coming back day after day: Customers Vote. Combining Democracy with the Black Friday, Customers Vote allows you to vote for which Black Friday deals will be available next week. Ingeniously, there is a new deal each day from November 22nd to 28th (sans Sunday the 25th), and you’ve got to check in right at midnight to see A) if you’ve been selected to receive the deal in question, and B) to buy the damn thing before it’s sold out (at these ridiculous prices of 50-75% off and with only 100-1000 units available, they’ll be gone before 12:03am, guaranteed).

Deals include a Nintendo Wii ($79), a 40GB PlayStation 3 ($139), an XBOX 360 ($99), a Panasonic DSLR ($499), an HD Camcorder ($299), a RAZOR Electric Scooter ($29), a Tivo ($89) , HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players ($149), an HP Laptop ($299), an in-car GPS unit ($99), a pair of 1 carat diamond earrings ($499), and a 46″ 1080p HDTV ($719), among others.

Amazon is playing Black Friday just like Best Buy is, trying to get tons of attention and store traffic using crazy discounting. Personally, I’m glad they’re doing it. This year, after all, is without the launch of a major game console like we’ve had the past two holiday seasons with the XBOX 360 and the Wii/PS3, so these stores need something to keep the visibility up, something to keep people waiting in lines all night and getting in fights over who gets what.

Check it out at Amazon.com.