Thanksgiving is a few days away for those of us who celebrate it. Sometimes we wouldn’t even know it’s Thanksgiving thanks to all the stores, media, and Internet skipping over the acknowledgment of Thanksgiving and going straight to the other holiday…Christmas.

With the economy still in bad shape a lot of retail and online stores are getting pretty desperate to capture our attention and wallets. Before the stores would wait until the actual Black Friday to bring out their best deals to offer. Nowadays, this year in particular, the deals are being rolled out earlier. A lot of places have called their deals, “Pre-Black Friday sales,” “Countdown to Black Friday,” or any other variation of that. A number of places like Amazon and Newegg.com have already started their sales since the start of November.

I’ve been keeping an eye out for the best deals out there to get a jump start on my holiday shopping for friends and loved ones. Only, I actually failed to really shop for friends and loved ones. What ended up happening was I see video game, DVD, or clothing sales advertised, against my own better judgment I browse through what was on sale, find something I like, and I buy for me.

It’s horrible. Considering I’m also on a budget, what goes from a well-intentioned shopping/browsing trip ends up becoming the all about me shopping trip and seeing my own desires for the stuff on my own personal wish list quenched.

Amazon has been the worst when it comes to their recent video games sale for Pre-Black Friday. I’m not one to buy a game as soon as it comes out. I tend to wait it out until it becomes on sale or someone gives me the game I want as a present. The temptation to buy is hard to resist. A lot of the sales I have encountered have been very good. I probably wouldn’t have whipped out the credit card if it wasn’t.

These early sales have been good because I end up buying what I want for less than what I would have paid for it had I bought it at regular retail value. The downside is I get no shopping done for anybody else. It has been quite a dilemma this year.

Pre-Black Friday and Black Friday sales tend to be good for electronics and DVDs. These tend to be the most expensive and popular items to buy. You just can’t pass up a good deal when you see one. The one sale I would have liked to see more of would be manga. I suppose places like Amazon can’t bring down the prices of the books more than they already have. I find Amazon to be one of the cheaper places to buy manga compared to a lot of local bookstores. Then again, a huge markdown on select manga volumes would be ideal for the manga lover. If they did an all anime/manga sale I’m sure it would be a hit. We fans get to buy the merchandise for cheap and the stores make a huge profit. This is something Amazon or any store should consider.

Has anyone else had the problem of buying for themselves instead of for others around the holiday season? Did you come into a store thinking you were going to buy for this particular person only to leave the store with a jacket, book, game, or DVD for yourself? It’s definitely happening to me more this year than all the previous ones. Must have better self-control.