Shopping for the holidays is slowly gaining momentum. Granted, it has not officially started but numerous retailers are already gearing up for "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" deals. Some sites are also starting to come out with comparisons of upcoming deals and giving advice on where to get the most for your buck. And one surprising tip that has surfaced is for consumers to go to Best Buy, Walmart, Newegg and other retailers for Apple products.

The trend for the past few years is for "Black Friday" deals to start even before Thanksgiving and various retailers are continuing this trend, with big discounts being offered during the last two months of the year.

Retail giant Walmart has started its holiday deals on November 1, and one of the sweetest deals it's offering is the 16GB Apple iPad Mini2 for only $199. That's half the price of the latest iPad Mini and will net the consumer savings of about $70. 

According to "BestBlackFriday.com," Walmart's offer is better than anything the Apple Store will offer. The site, which shares ads from the country's biggest retailers, points out that the Apple Store does not really give discounts on their products during Black Friday in the US.

"BestBlackFriday" co-founder Phil Dengler explains that all Apple products are still sold at its full price, with gift cards just being added on different items. Dengler says that while gift cards are good, most consumers prefer to get a direct Black Friday discount rather than getting a discount on purchases they might make in the future. What makes Apple's gift card strategy even sadder is the fact that many third party stores give bigger discounts than what the cards offer.

"BestBlackFriday" even went as far as breaking down the difference for consumers. In their example, the site pointed out that last year, consumers who purchased an iPad Mini 3 at the full price of $399.99 got a gift card valued at $50. Best Buy offered the same product for only $324.99, underlining the difference between the $50 savings on future purchases Apple's gift card offers to the clean $75 that remained in the pockets of consumers who went to the third party retailer.

There are numerous deals that retailers are working on, so it's a good idea to check and compare what other price rollbacks companies are offering come "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday."