Black Friday's worth: The items you should and shouldn't buy

After years of analyzing Black Friday flyers, ConsumerSearch editors know what to and what not to buy on the day that retailers embrace with gusto. Honestly, there isn't much; most items will see bigger price drops the second week of December according to past price analysis. Here's what we have learned from the ghosts of Black Fridays past.

Not worthy of your Black Friday time:

• Off-brand electronics -- the prices and deals look good, but performance is a disappointment.
• Sub-$100 tablets -- bad performance and quality, so cheap prices aren't worth the purchase.
• Treadmills and elliptical trainers -- you can usually find those deals prior to the big day and throughout the holiday season.
• Digital cameras and electric shavers -- the ones on sale are usually poor quality, however retailers stepped it up last year and offered sales on a few good models.

Worthy of a Black Friday adventure (To really see what worth buying on Black Friday, join us at Productopia's Black Friday section to see the best and worst deals of the Thanksgiving weekend.):

• TVs
• Sewing machines
• E-book readers
• Digital media players
• Smartphones
• Cookware
• Tools

While we are questioning whether Black Friday is worth the hassle and our money, keep this in mind: There will be other sales during the holiday season. ConsumerSearch typically sees the best prices for items happen two weeks before Christmas. A good example of this is toys, which may see deeper discounts closer to Christmas (about two weeks prior) even though you already saw the Toy Books for Toys R Us, WalMart and Target in your mailboxes last week.

Finally, Black Friday's worth to you may all depend on what is on your shopping list. Only you can decide whether the lifetime quality of a product is worth paying full-price or the sale-price.  That's when the ConsumerSearch editors like to employ the the cost per use equation for value. Simply:

divide the price of an object by the amount it will be used

This equation will help you figure out whether the price of an item is worth it or not and the end result can go down during a sale. But then it is important to decide if product quality is worth it or if an item at regular price would be better because the quality and the durability is better.