Despite being a year old, the PlayStation 5 remains extremely difficult to purchase. As such, you likely won’t find any PlayStation 5 Black Friday deals that’ll net you any savings on a console itself. In fact, you should expect to pay more if you can’t get lucky going through direct retail channels.

A combination of huge popularity and ongoing global supply chain issues has turned the simple act of buying a console into a frustrating game itself. If, however, you have managed to pick up a PS5, there are some good deals available on games and accessories right now. 

Detail of the logo on a Sony PlayStation 5 home video game console, taken on October 29, 2020. … [+] (Photo by Olly Curtis/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Future Publishing via Getty Images

Tips for buying a PlayStation 5 on Black Friday

Restocks remain sporadic and predictions of when they’ll happen continue to be speculative. Different retailers also have different rules, from first-come-first-serve to queue systems that email purchasing links to those that registered an interest. The most important thing to do is keep an eye on the following sites and sign up for alerts that will keep you in the loop. 

To give yourself the best chance of securing a console, you’ll need to employ some tactics. I spoke with some experts earlier this year about the best ways to beat the competition when it comes to buying the PS5. 

Be ready 

Make sure you use autofill in Chrome (or any other browser) so your payment details and address information is already stored. Be signe-in to retailer apps and make sure your details are correct, too. You don’t want to waste time filling that in whilst bots and faster users checkout consoles. There are also auto-refresh Google Chrome extensions you can install for a small advantage. 

Know how different sites operate

It’s worth investing some time in finding out how to quickly checkout on individual websites. Restock accounts will often share links that go directly to retailer checkout page, so you don’t waste seconds adding the console to your cart.

If you’re looking for some help, former TechRadar editor Matt Swider runs ones of the biggest restock accounts on Twitter, and he’s also doing a bigger service at TheShortcut.com. Restock communities on Reddit, Telegram and Discord also share site specific knowledge and other useful tips to stay ahead of other buyers, so be sure to seek those out and start learning the lay of the land.

Set up your own restock alerts

If you’re tech savvy enough you can set up your own alerts using a service called StreetMerchant. Web security and performance consultant Edward Spencer explained to me how StreetMerchant works. “Street Merchant opens up an ‘automated’ version of the Chrome browser which will then simulate a human going to specific, pre-defined, pages for a number of items. It will then scrape the contents of the page to see if the product is in stock or not”. This, or similar code, is what most restock accounts use so you can beat the …….

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/2021/11/23/playstation-5-black-friday-deals/