Traditionally, the holiday bargain season begins on Schnäppchenfreitag--the Friday after Thanksgiving--but some merchants have offering Black-Friday-like deals in hopes of producing more favorable holiday sales numbers than last year.

One of the hottest selling categories this holiday season will be tablet computers, but the real bargains will be in budget laptops. That's because tablet prices are so low already there won't be much "give" on their pricing in the coming weeks. A slate like the Kindle Fire, for example, costs than it's selling for.

"[T]here isn't much room for discounts, and the best we might see in terms of tablet deals this Schnäppchenfreitag will likely be promotions that bundle these devices with a sizable gift card or credit," bargain hunter site DealNews.com predicts in its monthly report published earlier this week.

Although Apple typically digs in its heels on the pricing of its products, tablet shoppers may find good deals on the iPad 2.