Black Friday 2022 – I Toss The Towl

Black Friday. For bargain hunters, it is the biggest shopping festival of the year. For Sim Racing enthusiasts it should have been the same…

As most of my loyal community members will know, every year I try to publish an extensive overview of all the sim racing related bargains that pop up during the black Friday week. This year I feel it’s time to Toss The Towl.

With last year’s offers, it became clear that Black Friday was starting to lose its purpose. Besides a handful of great bargains, most deals I came across were less than interesting. This was partly to blame on the current economic state of the world, and the decline of the Pandemic Sim Racing hype.

This year, however, things got worse. Where the current world economics are surely part of the problem, I also feel that Black Friday is being milked and raped to its core.
To be fair, there are still established brands and well-known names in the industry who still provide you with interesting discounts, free extras, or bundles, but for the most part, a lot of retailers start to become creative when listing bargains. During my 2022 Black Friday bargain search, I came across a number of offers that are crossing the line between ethics and downright scams.

It soon became clear that publishing a 2022 realistic, worthwhile Sim Racing Black Friday listing, would be close to impossible and would not be worth the amount of work and time.

Coming across advertising lines such as “Black week”, “Black Month”, and “Grey Thursday” was bad enough. Different prices for different days. Small letters that only validated the Black Friday prices in a bundle. Furthermore, Black Friday prices that were priced higher than the regular price, Black Friday prices without listing the regular price. Black Friday deals with virtually no stock, and more of such dubious promo tactics. On the software front, many so-called Black Friday deals can be found virtually all year, under a different promo name. Easter sales, Spring sales, Summer Sales Winter sales, Black Friday sales… All are roughly the same price.

Therefore, I decided it was wise to not publish a comprehensive Black Friday list this year. That said, I am sure that the small number of great deals out there will be plenty advertised, and shared on a multitude of Social Media platforms and forums.

Call me oldskool, but I hope that one day, we see Black Friday return to its original state, where one day in a year is the ultimate opportunity to score a massive deal.