I've never bought a single thing as part of Black Friday. I always look, but the things I want to buy are never reduced to less than they were a few weeks/months before and which are reduced back again a few weeks later. Last year I was watching the latest XBOX to buy for my son. The prices went up and down during October and early November (All main retailers were charging the same so were just copying eachother). Then went up last week of November, then came down to same price as month before for allegedly Black Friday sales, then went up again the week after, then back down a couple of weeks before Christmas. So for that item, Black Friday was a complete con job. People could buy at the same price a couple of weeks before and a couple of weeks after. I've noticed the same with other things I've wanted to buy.
So basically, if you have a particular make/model of a relatively new/popular item, Black Friday won't work for you. My experience is that it's just a clear out of old stock or unpopular slow sellers. Basically just how the Boxing Day/New Years Day sales used to be - one or two headline grabbing bargains, but the vast majority was just clearing out the stuff that wasn't selling anyway. A bit like Marks & Spencer stores still do these days - go into their stores before the sale day and it looks "normal", just like it always does. Go in on the sale day, and there are racks of "sale" items that weren't even there before, just brought in from the factory to clear out, usually unpopular ranges in unpopular sizes - I remember going with my wife once and she liked the look of an entire rack of pyjamas - unfortunately, they were all size 20! The decent stuff, is pushed into corners without reductions to allow the "jumble sale" of the surplus factory stock to take centre stage.
What I don't understand is why people fall for it.