The online holiday shopping season officially kicks off today with online retailers offering Cyber Monday deals ranging from from free shipping and free gift cards to limited-time discounts.

But not all the deals offered are real steals and better prices can sometimes be found elsewhere. Here are some suggestions on how to figure out if a sales price is, in fact, the best offer available.

One tactic is to compare the price available at a retailer like Amazon.com or Walmart.com, which carry multiple brands, with the price for the product at a given brand’s site. The Consumerist blog, for instance, in its post today “Watch Out For Cyber Monday Non-Deals,” noted that Amazon.com is selling the Apple “Magic Mouse” device for $129, but it’s available for less at the Apple Store.

Another method suggested by the blogs Gizmodo and Lifehacker is to visit the site LogicBuy and see if anything better than the price listed on a retailer’s site is offered elsewhere online. On LogicBuy, for example, you can compare the prices for various Cyber Monday deals available on Amazon.com with offerings on sites like PriceGrabber.com. (Many of the Amazon.com deals do appear to be good.)

A similar method, covered in the Bucks blog last week in the post “How to Compare Prices in Retail Price Wars,” is to go directly to other comparison shopping sites like PriceGrabber.com, bizrate and Shopping.com and compare prices.

What kinds of deals are you finding online today? What strategies are you using to find the best Cyber Monday deals?