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?

Black Friday’s shopping spree sent consumers home with cart-loads of bargains — everything from flat-screen TVs to diamond-studded earrings to Zhu Zhu pets. (The battery-operated toy hamster is particularly popular).

While some Americans may have been observing the anti-consumerist event known as “Buy Nothing Day” — it’s hard to track that trend among people who stay home with families or go for a nice, vigorous postprandial hike rather than exercise their credit cards — initial indications are that all the pre-Thanksgiving hype and hoopla paid off for retailers this year.

“There were bargain-hungry shoppers out there, and retailers really did pull out all the stops for people,” National Retail Federation spokesperson Kathy Grannis told Time.

For one thing, big-box stores are opening earlier and earlier — in some cases, midnight rather than the traditional 6 a.m. Walmart stores were open on Thanksgiving, and some of the big chains were advertising online specials before that on limited numbers of attractive items as a way of enticing early shoppers.

Initial indications show the numbers up over last year, at least somewhat. The economy is a factor. Some of the shock from last year’s financial crisis may have worn off a bit. Also, with high unemployment and underemployment a persistent problem, people are especially eager to look for discounted prices on those things they think they need and can afford.

More than 5,000 people were at Macy’s Herald Square store in New York early Friday, slightly more than last year, the Associated Press reports. “Among the most popular items were Tommy Hilfiger $99 bomber jackets, marked down from $450,” according to the AP.

Still, many consumers — though they joined the predawn lines looking for good deals on netbook computers and GPS devices — are very aware of an economy that can feel personally precarious.

“I’m not stupid enough to think I couldn’t lose my job tomorrow,” Barbara Martin told the Washington Post as she waited outside a Best Buy store in Rockville, Md. “We’re going to cut back on spending this year for the holidays by about 75 percent.”

Retailers are observing this trend in the psychology of shopping too.

“The customer this year is very researched and very methodical,” James Fielding, president of Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Stores, told the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t think there’s a lot of impulse shopping going on. People are just being realistic about their personal situation and the economy.”

Meanwhile, the Internet has changed the way Americans shop too — especially since “Cyber Monday” first was declared in 2005.

“Between 2005 and 2008, Cyber Monday sales increased 74 percent, beating the 60 percent revenue increase for other days that have been online sales record-holders for the holiday season,” Mark Guarino reported in the Monitor. “As Internet retailers boost special promotions, free shipping, and outreach on Cyber Monday, the gap could close further in coming years.”

Analysts also report increased weekend activity on PayPal and eBay.

Between now and the end of the year, the National Retail Federation expects that holiday sales will have dropped for the second year in a row — about one percent compared to last year, although not as much as the 3.4 percent slide in 2008.

Black Friday 2009 is over and the next big shopping day for the people in the US is the Cyber Monday 2009 which will be on November 30. There will also be several products which will be on sale during the Cyber Monday 2009 Sales. To give a sneak peek of what deals are waiting, here are some Cyber Monday 2009 Deals on MP3 players:

cyber monday 2009 deals

* Impecca MP-1845-BL 1.8″ Digital Media Player 4GB – Blue – (Other colors available: Pink, Silver, and Black.)
$26.95
* SanDisk 8GB Sansa Fuze MP3 Player with Video & FM Tuner – Silver – (Also included: FREE MP3 Case with purchase!)
$49.99 plus Free Shipping!
* 2GB MP3 Player
$39.99 plus Free Shipping!
* Creative Labs 8GB Zen X-Fi2 MP3 Player – Touch Screen
$99.99 plus Free Shipping!
* SANDISK Sansa Clip 4GB
$24.99
* SanDisk Sansa Clip 1.0″ Black 1GB MP3 Player
$19.99 plus Free Shipping!
* Zune 80GB MP3/Multi-Media Player, Black (Factory refurbished)
$99.99
* 8GB Apple iPod Touch – (Also included: $10 Amazon Gift Card!)
$180.00 plus Free Shipping!