Black Friday has finally come and gone. Mounds of sales flyers are piled up in the recycling bin and the tent cities constructed outside big box stores have been torn down as people’s thoughts turn to holiday decorations and office parties.

But it ain’t over until it’s over, as Yogi Berra once said. With that in mind, I took a few hours this past Saturday to walk through nearby Best Buy, Circuit City, and Tweeter stores, armed with pad and pen, to see if any of the pre-Black Friday markdowns on HDTVs and related products remained in effect, and if manufacturers had continued their deep discounts - many of which seemed (and still do) driven by panic.

I wasn’t disappointed. Circuit City had a one-day special on Hitachi’s 42HDS69 42-inch plasma (1024×1080) of $1199, an astounding 50% off the normal retail price. Around the corner, Panasonic’s TH-42PX60U 42-inch plasma (1024×768) was offered at $1199, $400 less than their 37-inch model. And there were plenty of Blu-ray DVDs to be seen, but no players.

Over at Best Buy, you could walk away with your choice of 1080p DLP or LCOS sets for less than $2K, led by Sony’s KDS50A2000 (50″) at $1899, after $600 instant savings. Across the aisle, Samsung’s 56-inch HLS-5687WX and Mitsubishi’s 57-inch WD-57731 DLP sets had identical price tags of $2,199, as did Samsung’s 61-inch HLS-6187W and JVC’s HD61FN87 ($2,599 after instant savings).

Even the largest RP HDTVs had aggressive discounts, with Samsung’s 71-inch HLS-7178 1080p DLP set offered at $4,799 and Mitsubishi’s 73-inch WD-73732 1080p DLP trimmed by $500 to $4,999.  

The deeply discounted Panasonic TH-50PX60U 50-inch plasma HDTVs - offered at $1,999 on Black Friday - were nowhere to be seen, but you could grab a Hewlett Packard PL5060N plasma HDTV for all of $2,299, while Samsung’s same-size HPS5053X was just $200 more.  Need a bigger screen?  Sharp’s 52-inch LC52D62U LCD HDTV was tagged at $3,999, while LG’s 60-inch 60PC1D plasma was yours for just $4,299.

In a sign that the bloom was off the rose, Best Buy was closing out Toshiba’s HD-A1 HD DVD player for $399 (I couldn’t find any in stock).  Across Route 309 at the Montgomeryville (PA) Mall, Tweeter was hawking Toshiba’s higher-end HD-XA1 for $649, a $250 price chop, while Samsung’s oft-maligned BD-P1000 Blu-ray player was available for $799 - a discount of $200.

Amazingly, Tweeter had the new Pioneer BD-PHD1 Blu-ray player on sale for $1,249, even though none had arrived in stock yet and only a demo unit was in operation - one that they couldn’t sell me.  On the shelf below it, Panasonic’s DMP-BD10K Blu-ray player was also a bargain at $1,049 - but they weren’t in stock, either.

Now, Tweeter isn’t exactly the place I’d expect to find bargains on HDTVs, but some of their deals undercut Best Buy big time.  How about a $1400 discount on Sony’s KDSR60XBR2 1080p SXRD set, to $3,099? Or a $1000 reduction on Pioneer’s Elite PRO-940HD 43-inch plasma ($2,999)?

Tweeter not only matched Best Buy’s deal on the TH-50PX60U 50-inch plasma at $1,999, but also hacked $1,500 off Panasonic’s TH-50PX600U ($2,499). Toshiba’s 50HP66 50-inch PDP was trimmed to $2,298, and Pioneer’s Elite PRO1140HD fell $1500 to $3,999.

Perhaps the most amazing price cut was seen on Pioneer’s flagship 50-inch PRO-FHD1, the first 1920×1080 plasma to make it to market and a true CEDIA product, if I ever saw one.  Full SRP was $9,995, yet Tweeter was offering a steep $3500 discount to $6,499.  In fact, the PRO-FHD1 was the only HDTV set in any screen size that I found selling for more than $5,000.

Aside from the 50%-off, one-day sale on the Hitachi plasma, none of the other deals had strings attached - no one-day sales, no special coupons, no “be the first at 5 AM to get one” limitations (as was the case with Best Buy’s $479 Black Friday blow-out on 50-inch Toshiba plasma HDTVs).

Despite all these steep price cuts, there didn’t seem to be much HDTV sales activity in any of the three stores. Could it be that price-savvy customers are sitting on their (credit) cards, waiting for further steep discounts as Christmas gets close and closer? Will we see another round of panic-driven price slashing before the middle of December?

Bet on it.