Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters

Great news, procrastinators! If you didn't get that awesome Black Friday deal, you can still score a bargain.

Sometimes, it pays to procrastinate. Millions of us still need to buy holiday gifts, and retailers want that business. So they’ve lowered prices to attract last-minute shoppers. 

“We’re seeing incredible deals right now on laptops and some good pricing on tablets and TVs,” said Mike Fridgen, CEO of Decide.com, a site that tracks millions of prices. 

They predict that 70 percent of the most popular Black Friday deals will return between now and Christmas. 

“Some of the prices are even lower than the door-buster deals on Black Friday,” Fridgen said. “So these are exceptional deals.” 

At ZingSale.com, a site that monitors prices for more than 10,000 products sold by hundreds of merchants on Amazon.com, they ran the numbers and came to the same conclusion. 

“Retailers are definitely slashing prices,” said Chris Garlotta, ZingSale’s co-founder. “We found aggressive discounts that are often significantly better than Black Friday deals.”

Their data shows that Back Friday shoppers were able to save about 33 percent off retail. Right now, the average markdown is around 43 percent. A few examples from ZingSale:

• The Xbox 360 4GB with Kinect Holiday Value Bundle / Retail: $395; Black Friday: $269; Now: $250 
• Halo 4 for the Xbox / Retail: $60; Black Friday: $57; Now: $40 
• Philips Norelco SensoTouch Electric Razor / Retail: $100; Black Friday: $74; Now: $67

Garlotta predicts some of the deepest discounts will be on toys and games (60 percent off), winter clothing (55 percent off) and printers (52 percent off).  Also look for big sales on digital cameras, Blu-ray players, tablets and E-book readers. Some TVs and video games will also be bargain-priced. 

Reduce your stress 
If you still have shopping to do, you’re not alone. A new Harris Interactive survey done for SOASTA (a cloud and mobile-testing company) finds that more than half (54 percent) of the people asked still plan to shop between now and Christmas. 

As you race to the finish line, use digital-shopping assistants to help you save time and money. Here are a few suggestions from the editors at ShopSmart magazine (published by Consumer Reports):

• CouponBlender.com shows you the best deals from dozens of coupon sites.
• TechBargains.com specializes in electronics and gift cards.
• RetailMeNot.com, one of the magazine’s favorite coupon sites, now has an app for Apple devices. Use it to snag coupon codes when you shop on your mobile device.
• The Sale Saver LT app (for Apple) and Discount Calculator app (for Android) calculate the total cost of an item, including sales tax and any discounts.

After-Christmas sales expected to start early 
Now that Black Friday begins on Thanksgiving, is it any surprise that some after-Christmas sales will start before Santa is back at the North Pole?  

“Based on what we saw last year, we’re predicting after-Christmas sales are going to start as early as Dec.r 23,” said Louis Ramirez, senior feature writer at dealnews.com.  “Because Christmas Eve falls on a Monday, we won’t be surprised to see a few after-Christmas deals, on TVs and apparel, on Friday, Dec. 21.” 

If you don’t find a great tech deal before Christmas, check again after the holiday. Dealnews says the discounts on many consumer electronics, especially HDTVs, are typically more aggressive post-Christmas.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

ColdwaterCreek.com

Coldwater Creek is offering 40 percent off orders in addition to free shipping.

In just four years, Free Shipping Day has grown from a one-off Black Friday spin-off to what one expert predicted could be a billion-dollar day for online sales.

Nearly 1,700 merchants are offering free shipping by Christmas Eve through FreeShippingDay.com and on their own sites. As the pool of competing sites expands, merchants are upping the ante with additional incentives this year. This is a boon for procrastinating holiday shoppers, although claiming the deals in some cases involves adhering to fine-print terms and conditions.

"It’s ended up becoming one of the heaviest days for the season," said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis at comScore, Inc. 

"I do expect it will be a billion dollar day... It could be well north of that."

Founder Luke Knowles estimated that about 10 percent of participating merchants are offering either expedited shipping or a discount on purchases.

“Every year we’ve done Free Shipping Day the offers have gotten better,” he said. “Last year was the first year we saw retailers offer additional discounts,” and it’s taken off this year.

Clothing brand Coldwater Creek is offering 40 percent off orders in addition to free shipping. A handful of other apparel retailers including Eddie Bauer, Levi’s and J Crew are knocking off 30 percent, as is the Sports Authority, whose free shipping also includes heavy exercise equipment.

Another tactic retailers are using is offering free one- or two-day shipping on orders. Sites including Blue Nile and Fossil are giving shoppers free overnight shipping; Ugg Australia and Boston Proper are offering two-day shipping on all orders.

Of course, “free shipping,” isn’t free for the merchants, especially when it comes to pricey overnight delivery. “You’re sacrificing margin,” Lipsman said, but at the same time, customers spend up to 40 percent more when they’re getting free shipping.

Lipsman said this is why spending thresholds pop up on a lot of Free Shipping Day deals. “That’s a great way for them to be able to offset that margin impact,” he said. Wal-Mart is offering free shipping on all orders of $45 or more, and Macy’s is offering free shipping plus an additional 15 to 20 percent off on orders above $99.

Another way retailers can lessen the hit to their bottom line is by only offering free shipping or discounts on some items. Amazon is offering free overnight shipping on around 150,000 different items. The Limited is pairing its free shipping with a 40 percent discount — but that’s off original prices. And New York & Company is advertising free shipping combined with 50 percent off, with the caveat that many marked-down items and “select new arrival” merchandise are excluded.

The bottom line is that there are some big deals out there today, but reading the fine print is still in order.

Ben Popken

Shoppers graze through the toy aisles at a Target on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

More dads are buying the toys, The New York Times reported recently, as two-income homes and households where dads stay home are on the rise. As a new father, this piqued my interest. Supposedly marketers are changing up their toys to appeal to me more as a shopper. I went off to the toy store to see if this was true and what it looked like.

At 8 weeks old, my son's favorite toy is the brightest light in the room ($1.62 for a 4-pack at Home Depot), but I need to be up on the latest trends so that by the time he does start playing with actual toys, I'm ready. Like reading ahead a chapter for class, I headed to the toy aisle at Target.

Through my dudely eyes, I gazed upon the wares filling the toy aisles. I thought about the toys my kid might like, which is really what I would like him to like coupled with what my wife might let me let him like, as he has barely started to express any kind of preference in the world besides food, sleep and carry me.

I saw boxes of "Words with Friends" board games. That is, the Internet version of Scrabble (except they don't have to pay Mattel), come full circle. There was also a "Farmville" game. How could you translate the game where you hassle your friends through your status updates to help you grow your farm into a physical game? Well, that's because it's "Hungry Hungry Herd," which is exactly like the one with hippos, just splashed with a big "Farmville" logo.

Ben Popken

Zynga's Farmville "Hungry Hungry Herd" teaches kids about cause and effect, competition, and that original ideas are not a prerequisite for success.

I saw so many different kinds of LEGOs that were blatantly set up to play war. Ninjago LEGOs, LEGO Batman and Star Wars LEGOs. Which is totally awesome! But back in my day, you got the municipal gas station super pack/Nordic social paradise that you desperately tried to turn into a space fighter -- and you liked it!

Ben Popken

This reporter would have exploded with joy if he got this when he was 5.

There were two rows of TurboTax in the video game aisle, which seemed to me to be either an epic mishelving, or a genius example of complementary product placement. You can feel better about buying your kid "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" because you're also getting ready to file your small business expenses.

Ben Popken

It's just too bad that you can't claim the energy-efficient improvements you make on your virtual house in The Sims as tax deductions.

All the active toys are located the farthest away from the central escalators, I noticed. You'll have to burn a few extra calories if you want to get a baseball, soccer ball, Frisbee, or what I found to be my favorite toy there, a $14.99 "Table Tennis To Go" set by Franklin. Just stretch the retractable netting over the table, clip on and you're ready to play ping pong, no giant table that ends up being used as an abandonment ground for junk mail and failed craft projects required.

Ben Popken

Cost-to-fun ratio, this ping-pong net that attaches to any surface under six feet wide is the best deal in the store.

See, when we give a gift, what we're really doing is giving an idea. "These are my values and conception of what I think you value, expressed in physical form," is what we are saying. Which is why I'm so scared for that first selfish gift that I will give. That gift that is really more for me or the idea of who I wish my son to be. There's that crumpled look of when he'll say, "Oh great, just what I was hoping for," and we'll all die a tiny bit inside.

I didn't see any guys stuffing purple Easy Bake ovens, colored stacking doughnuts, and packs of Skylanders Giants into their carts along with steaks and frozen pizzas, but I did see men shopping in the toy aisles. I also saw women and couples. Maybe the fact that any men are shopping in the aisles at all is revolutionary. Maybe I also spied around a corner the ghost of myself, holding the hand of the boy my son will become, looking for something fun that I can give him in a few years. Naw, it was just some other tow-headed kid, looking longingly at a $179.99  rideable SRT Viper electric car.

Yeesh! No way are you getting that! Dad says no. 

 Related stories:

• Teen: Boys want an Easy-Bake Oven, too 
• The hot new advertising demographic: 'Man-sumers'
• Honda introduces car designed just for women 

Jay Groccia

James Groccia, 11, saved for two years for a LEGO train, but by then the company had stopped making it. The company was so moved by his story that they sent him the set.

 James Groccia has loved LEGO since he was about 4 years old.

But when the little boy told his parents a couple of years ago that he wanted the $100 Emerald Night Train set, which had more than 1,000 pieces, they hesitated before making the big purchase.

After all, the set was meant for 14-year-olds and they worried that James, who was 8 or 9 at the time, wouldn’t be able to put it together.

“We didn’t want to just go out and get him something that could have been too complex for him,” James’s dad, Jay Groccia, told TODAY.

The couple, who live in Boylston, Mass., also saw one of those golden parenting opportunities to teach their oldest child about responsibility.

“My wife just basically said, ‘If it’s something you really want, save up for it,” Groccia said.

James, who has a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome, did just that. It took him about two years to save up the $100.

And then, disaster struck. LEGO had stopped making the train set.

“All of a sudden there were none,” Groccia said. “The only ones we found were basically through the collector marketplace.”

The collector items were pricey – around $250 in some cases – and Groccia also worried that the used sets they could find online would have missing pieces. Still, the couple felt so bad for their little boy that they were even considering purchasing the pricey sets, or buying the hundreds of pieces individually.

James, who was by then 10, couldn’t get the Emerald Night Train set out of his head. Finally, with his mother’s help, he wrote a letter to LEGO explaining his situation.

It was the kind of letter that would break any parent’s heart, and yet also make them so proud. In it, he told the LEGO company about how much he loves their toys, and how he even uses them in a play group designed to help kids with autism build social skills.

And he told them how much the Emerald Night set meant to him.

 “I got another Lego set, thinking I could forget about the Emerald Night, but every time I see it anywhere on line I get very sad and disappointed,” he wrote. “I still want the Emerald Night so badly, but there are none to be found.”

At first, LEGO said they could not help James. But then a package showed up at the family's door. It happened to be right around James’ 11^th birthday.

Jay Groccia, James’s dad, is a professional photographer. He set up a couple of cameras, and captured the moment that his son opened up the box to find the train set he so badly wanted. (Warning: Tear-jerker alert!)

In an e-mail to TODAY, LEGO confirmed that they had sent the Emerald Night Train set to James. Michael McNally, the company’s brand relations director, said in the email that the company was humbled by the family’s decision to share the company’s gesture, which he noted is not a regular company practice.

As for James, his dad says that after he opened the box he still had to do his regular chores before dinner. He was able to work on the train that night, and he was up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning to work on it again.

For Christmas this year, James is asking for the train track to go with the Emerald Night set. His dad expects it’s far from the last LEGO set his son will ask for.

“That’s never-ending,” Groccia said.

The holidays are supposed to be about joy, Constance White, Essence Magazine's Editor-in-Chief told TODAY. All too often, though, in our urge to spread that joy, we end up loading up on credit card debt. To help ease the financial stress while keeping everyone happy, here are Constance's 7 tips for a debt-free holiday.

1. Prepare a spending plan
Decide on a total amount you're going to spend on presents. Write that number down and divide it by the number of people you're buying presents for. Voila, that's the total you can spend on each person. No guilt, no stress, everyone gets treated fairly and best of all, you stay in budget.

2. Search online for coupons and free shipping
Before you buy anything online or off, search first to see if there's coupons for it. The coupon app SnipSnap is also great for finding and loading coupons into your mobile phone. You can even scan them and use right in the store from your device.

3. Get social
Find some deal mavens with Twitter feeds, blogs, or Facebook pages, like Bargain Shopper Mom, you can follow to learn about the latest bargains. They do all the hard work while you sit back, perhaps with a glass of vino in one hand, and scoop up their findings. Retailers are also releasing certain shopping deals exclusively through their online channels, so it can be worth checking out their pages on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.

4. Use your rewards
Don't forget all those reward points you've been racking up on your credit card. Now is the time to use them, and your membership powers. For instance, American Express cardholders heading to grandma's house by airplane instead of sleigh can earn double points for booking when booking through membershiprewards.com.

5. Start early
The best sale items are usually put out early in the morning, so you'll need an early start to snag them. By getting going first thing, you'll also beat the rush while other shoppers are still in their jammies finishing their waffles.

6. Use cash
Withdraw all the money you're going to use on in-store holiday shopping, put in an envelope, and only pay for your items in cash. Once the envelope is empty, you have to stop shopping. Leave the plastic at home so you're not tempted to goose your spending with a little extra.

7. Shrink stress
Unwind after a full day of shopping with a little home spa time. Light some candles, draw a bath, and treat yourself to some rejuvenation. Ahhh, holidays. Now recharge and get ready for the next wave!

Big-box retailers are promising huge door-buster deals on big-screen TVs this holiday weekend. And, sure enough, the Black Friday TV bargains are out there.

But if you want a good deal on a big-brand television set, you may be better off waiting a month.

"The week before the Super Bowl is a great time for TV shopping," advised The ConsumerMan Herb Weisbaum.

Weisbaum joined  hundreds of anxious shoppers on our TODAY Live Chat on Wednesday to talk about Black Friday.

A few other ConsumerMan tips included in the chat:

• You can avoid the crowds by shopping online. More and more retailers are offering their door-buster deals to on the Internet.
• Store credit cards are usually not a good deal. Just say no to the sales pitch.
• Gift cards make a decent gift. Cash is better.
• Extended warranties are usually a waste of money
• Debit card vs. credit card? Don't use the debit card.
• Most of all, don't get caught up in the frenzy. It truly is the thought that counts!

You can read the full chat here.

Wal-Mart worker protests and walk-offs planned for Thursday night and Black Friday had the retailer taking them seriously enough to send a top executive to the TODAY show this morning to downplay the story. 

Widespread picketing was not expected, Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising and marketing officer, told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie. "We'll have 4,000 stores ready to go," said Naughton, staffed by "one million associates serving our customer." 

The group behind the protest actions, OUR Walmart, told TODAY they are striking to protest what they say is manager retaliation against any employees who complain about working conditions. 

"We have a  really open culture of listening to our associates, it's based on integrity, respect for the individual," Mac Naughton told TODAY. 

An OUR Walmart organizer, William Fletcher, 23, disputed this, telling TODAY that Walmart's "open door policy" where any associate can speak to a manager to bring up issues was instead used to "find out who's complaining so they can silence them with indirect threats. "They're very good at doing that while still staying within the law." 

Wal-Mart said they were "really confident" that Black Friday will go off without a hitch. "What you're seeing in the media and in the news is a small group of Wal-Mart associates in a select number of stores," said Mac Naughton, "complimented by a number of of non-Wal-Mart associates that are paid by the union." 

Still, the matter is large enough for Wal-Mart to have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), arguing that the protests were an unlawful attempt to disrupt its business. The complaint alleged that the group running the protests, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), was backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), and was more about building union membership than fighting for worker rights. 

The UCFW filed its own complaint that day, alleging that Walmart had directed store managers to make workers fearful for their jobs if they participated in the actions. 

The legal maneuvers may be too late to prevent the strikes from disrupting one of the biggest shopping days of the year for Wal-Mart. In a statement released Tuesday, the NLRB said that it was unlikely to come to a decision before Friday. 

With stores opening at 8 p.m. on Thursday and walk-offs planned throughout the shopping event, consumer chaos is a threat, depending on how many workers end up participating. 

"Workers will be walking off the job left and right over Thanksgiving," UCFW Janna Pea spokesperson told TODAY.  

Pea couldn't give an estimate of how many walkoffs there would be, but said that there would be protest actions at over 1,000 Wal-Mart stores, ranging from employees not showing up for work, to workers walking off in the middle of their shift, to community allies passing out brochures outside the stores.

Toys are fun, but they can also be dangerous. Two reports released on Tuesday remind us that we need to remain vigilant when we go toy shopping. 

For its annual "Trouble in Toyland" report, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) examined more than 200 toys and found about a dozen that it believes could be dangerous to children. 

These include a Dora guitar made by Fisher Price that was too loud, a dragster car with small rubber traction bands on the wheels that could be a choking hazard and a novelty desktop toy with powerful magnets small enough to be swallowed. 

More: 'Naughty and Nice' stores named by Consumer Reports

“We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. However, until that’s the case, parents need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for toys,” said Nasima Hossain, public health advocate for U.S. PIRG, in a statement. 

PIRG tested the toys for lead and other toxins. Only one toy violated the new federal standard for lead. No toys or jewelry exceeded voluntary industry standards for cadmium. And none of the plastic toys had levels of phthalates – a potentially harmful chemical used to soften plastic – above federal standards. 

“We are not aware of the testing procedures used by PIRG, but at Mattel, we are extremely careful in establishing appropriate volume levels in all of our toys," Fisher Price told TODAY. "Our Dora Tunes Guitar fully complies with U.S. and international toy standards regarding sound levels in toys. We have also worked closely with established audiologists to confirm that these standards are safe and appropriate for children based on sound science." 

The 10 worst toys 
The advocacy group W.A.T.C.H warned parents that toys “with the potential to seriously harm or kill children continue to be found on store shelves, in catalogues, and on e-retailers’ websites.” 

More: How to save money by shopping ‘like a man’ 

It’s annual “10 Worst Toys” list, includes products from well-known manufacturers and sold at big-name retail stores. The potential hazards include strangulation, choking, eye injuries, impact injuries and puncture wounds. A few specific examples:

• Vtech’s “Explore and Learn Helicopter,” a pull toy recommended for children 12 to 36 months, made the W.A.T.C.H. list because of its approximately 24-inch cord. That’s long enough to create the potential for strangulation.
• Bandai’s "Super Samurai Shogun Helmet" has an attachable crown with pointed tips made from rigid plastic. The package warns not to hit or poke anyone with the toy. W.A.T.C.H. says the 9” tips have the potential for “penetrating impact and puncture wound” injuries.
• A water balloon launcher made by Water Sports, LLC and sold on Amazon.com claims to have the capability to shoot balloons at speeds up to 75 mph. The manufacturer’s warning reads: “Can cause severe injury or facial damage…”

Water Sports told TODAY it meets all federal regulations and warning requirements. “We take safety very seriously and would not wish to intentionally or unintentionally cause harm to anyone as we are in the business of  family fun,” said Kerrie Boss, a vice president at Water Sports, the maker of the balloon launcher.

For this 40^th annual “10 Worst Toys”list, W.A.T.C.H. focused on items sold via the Internet. Buying toys this way creates its own challenges because you can’t see or touch the toy before purchase and look for obvious hazards.  

More: Where's work? Find jobs for any age, area

W.A.T.C.H. found that many toys available online have retailer warnings and age recommendations that “are inconsistent with those supplied by manufacturers.” In some cases, the warnings are not there at all. 

“Such omissions and inconsistencies regarding important safety information can lead to misinformed, and potentially dangerous, consumer purchases,” W.A.T.C.H. stated in its news release. 

More Info:

• CPSC: Think Toy Safety
• U.S. PIRG: Toy Safety
• Consumer Reports: Toy Buying Guide 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

More on TODAY.com: 
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The most dangerous toys of 2011 named

Is Black Friday the best day to shop for bargains? It is for some items, but not everything. If you do your homework, you can save a bundle. 

LIVE CHAT: Get Black Friday tips from a pro! Chat with Herb Weisbaum today at 12:30 p.m. ET

“Some of the deals are shockingly good,” said Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, who’s been analyzing Black Friday deals since 2004. 

A few examples of some unbeatable Black Friday savings: 

• A Vizio 60” LED Smart TV on sale at Wal-Mart for $688, about $300 less than you can buy it anywhere else.
• The top-rated Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone is less than a dollar ($0.96) at Sam’s Club, $200 off the regular price. 
• A 13-piece hard anodized cookware set at JC Penney for $100, that’s half price. 

But Dworsky cautions that only a few of the items advertised in the Black Friday circulars are what would be considered true door busters. And in many cases, those are limited to just a few per store. 

“Sears, for example, now has hundreds of door busters. Believe me, they’re not all great deals,” Dworsky told me. “But if you’re careful and you compare prices ahead of time, you’ll be able to recognize which are the bona fide door busters where you’re saving 50 percent.” 

Who has the best deals? Jon Vincent at BlackFriday.com picks Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and Best Buy. He calls the Black Friday ads for Target a disappointment. Dworsky agrees. 

“In the past, Target has been very good,” he said. “This year Target is not so good, except for an Xbox 360 with Kinect for $199.” 

How to snag the deals you want 
You need a plan to be a successful Black Friday shopper. Consumer World put together a list of tips to bag a bargain on Black Friday.

Here’s how to start:

• Read the ads. You can preview the Black Friday sales circulars at sites such as bfads.net, blackfriday.com and blackfridaygottadeal.com. While online, visit store websites for unannounced bargains and look for deals and coupons on their Facebook pages. 
• Evaluate the deals. Use price comparison websites such as PriceGrabber, PriceSpider, Shopping.com  to see if the advertised price really is a bargain. Use BizRate and ResellerRatings to check the reputation of an online merchant. 
• Check the reviews. For customer reviews, head to Epinions.com or read the user comments posted with products on Amazon.com. For professional ratings, visit sites like Consumer Reports, Steve’s Digicams (for cameras), PCMagazine or PCWorld (for computers), CNET (for all sorts of electronics) and the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio.  
• Save more with price-match guarantees. Many chain stores now offer some sort of price protection guarantee. You may be entitled to a refund if the price goes down at the store or a competitor offers the exact item at a lower price before Christmas. Sites such as FreePrice Alerts, CamelCamelCamel, PriceDropAlert and DealAlerter and will let you know if the item you’re tracking drops in price. Consumer World recently published a list of price-matching policies at major retailers.

What about something you want that’s not on sale Black Friday? 

“We recommend waiting until Cyber Monday because sometimes there will be a coupon you can use online,” said Vincent at BlackFriday.com. “If not, just check the weekly circulars and see if the item is put on sale before Christmas.”

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

Courtesy Melissa Rush

Melissa Rush, 24, far right, with her family outside an Old Navy on Black Friday in 2010 at 2 am.

You think you're going to get a deal this Black Friday? You'll have to get through the diehards first.

“Are you kidding?” Amanda Willis, 21, shouted into her phone, after secretly making it ring. “Yankee Candle is giving away those big candles for free for the next 10 minutes?!” Most of the hour-long line in front of her fled the J.Crew store at Jersey Shore Premium Outlets to dash over to the candle store. Willis checked out in 15 minutes. “I'm on a schedule,” the college senior and frugal fashion blogger told TODAY with a laugh mixed with both guilt and glee, recalling last year's ruse.

Related: 10 things not to buy on Black Friday

After waiting for 30 minutes for parking on Black Friday, a guy cut off Tyger Danger, 24, and stole her spot. “I threatened to key his car,” said the Orlando, Fla., public relations executive who flies home annually to shop Black Friday with her family. Since she was girl, her mother has bought her a new Christmas dress each year. “I find the day very stressful,” Danger told TODAY. “As I’ve grown older, I find myself staying away from large crowds, but my mother loves it. She loves the hustle and bustle. She loves the decorations, the energy and excitement."

Black Friday isn't what it used to be. There are cops now, organized lines, and claim tickets passed out for the door busters. They're necessary elements after a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death in 2008 by uncontrolled crowds. Retailers have gotten better at crafting and marketing stingier deals, too. The day doesn't even start on Friday anymore, with many stores this year opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

Much of the action and excitement is moving online as well. IBISWorld forecasts that 2012 Black Friday spending will be $12.2 billion, an increase of only .1 percent over last year. Meanwhile, Cyber Monday spending will jump 21.4 percent to $1.5 billion. For these true believers, however, Black Friday is as much for the savings as the thrill of snagging them.

Donning snow pants, a sweatshirt, coat, gloves and hat, Chace Cannon, 26, waited from 11:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. one year in front of a Salt Lake City, Utah, Target store. The temperature: 6 degrees. The prize: a-40 inch Westinghouse HDTV, half off, for $299. Once inside, he and friends loaded their carts up with eight TVs, the investment adviser told TODAY. Latecomers tried to pry the boxes out of their carts, so the gang retreated to a corner and circled the shopping carts until friends and family arrived.

Louise Sattler, 53, admits to being strategically nice to others. After that people are much more willing to help you, the Los Angeles educational entrepreneur told TODAY, like holding your place if you need to go to the bathroom or letting your kid jump in the line with you. Her family, fluent in sign language, uses it to coordinate with each other inside loud stores. It's faster than texting.

If she can't find what she's looking for, she'll look them up on the Internet afterward or during Cyber Monday. “A lot of the same deals are online,” said Sattler, a bit ruefully.

Tips: How to not bust your budget over the holidays

However, clicking buttons at home doesn't have the same visceral thrill of snatching a prize in the shopping scrum.

There's this “adrenaline high of getting all these great sales,” Melissa Rush, 24, told TODAY. She went to her first Black Friday on a lark a few years ago. Then she found a pair of ballet-slipper style Crocs for $24. After that, the Seminole, Fla., 2nd grade teacher was “hooked.”

This year, her family is limiting everyone to bringing one dish for Thanksgiving. It'll give them more time for shopping.

Rush's goal is to buy a present for each of her 30 different family members. Using a spreadsheet on her phone synced with her computer, delegating tasks in-store to her shopping crew of 10 friends and family, and using a combination of coupons, price matching, and manufacturer's rebates, she aims to spend no more than $300 total, about $10 per person. She says it's key to compare the circulars from the week before with the Black Friday announcements to make sure the deals with the big red circles around them are actual savings. She also checks prices and reviews on Amazon.com before putting an item on the hit list.

Rush does what anyone else can do. She's just very dedicated about how she does it. Research ahead of time. Know what you want. Stick to your plan. Execute. Oh, and always make sure one person in your group gets into the checkout line right away when you enter the store while the others hunt for the goodies.

“At first people thought I was crazy,” when they heard how early she was getting up and how hardcore she took the whole process, she said. “Then they saw the receipt.”

When the economic crisis hit in late 2008, to stay in budget, Rush's large family had to change the holiday gift-giving tradition to White Elephant or Secret Santa parties, which make a game out of giving a limited number of presents. Now that she does Black Friday, she and her posse come home with SUV-loads full of presents, and everyone gets one. “Our smiles are as big as Christmas,” she said.

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From Los Angeles to Tampa, shoppers are already camping out in front of big-box retailers, determined to be among the first in line for door-buster deals. 

In Los Angeles, some hardcore consumers have been in line since last Monday, even taking vacation from work in order to save big money. 

An estimated 147 million Americans will take advantage of Black Friday sales, 4 percent more than last year. 

"This year's the earliest I've seen people line up,” said Jeff Cox, the Best Buy manager at a Best Buy store in Los Angeles. “I’m astonished. I've never seen that in my history in retail." 

Why would a person spend 10 days camping out in front of a store? Are the deals really that good? 

"People are like, why come, make a line. You're not saving that much. But we actually are," said Miriam Santamaria, who is proudly first in line at the Best Buy. 

By Friday morning, managers at the L.A. Beat Buy are expecting up to 5,000 people. That explains why Miriam says the worst part about Black Friday is getting out of the parking lot. 

In Tampa, shoppers starting waiting in line over the weekend at a Best Buy, hoping to get their hands on heavily discounted flat-screen TVs and computers. 

Good things come to those who wait. But this may be taking it too far.