Black Friday Spotlight: Target Offers $15 Gift Card With Purchase of $100 Apple Gift Card

by

We've been tracking early Black Friday deals in our dedicated Black Friday Roundup, and in an effort to prepare our readers for the big shopping event we're highlighting sales store-by-store in the lead-up to November 26.

Target November Deals 1Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Target. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Similar to Walmart, Target has been holding quite a few pre-Black Friday sales throughout November. Thanks to the release of its Black Friday circular recently, now we have a clear picture of all the deals you'll see if you choose to shop Target on Black Friday.

Target's Black Friday Schedule

Like other stores, Target's event is more of a week of sales rather than just one day. The retailer kicks things off on Sunday, November 21, and deals will come in and out all the way through Saturday, November 27. This means that you'll be able to get a lot of shopping done ahead of the 26th, but there will be a few deals available only on that day.

  • Sunday, November 21 - Online sales begin
  • Thursday, November 25 - Stores closed, online sales continue
  • Friday, November 26 - Specific opening hours vary by location

Target Black Friday - Deals Start 11/21

There are quite a few solid deals across numerous product categories at Target this year, although many do overlap with other retailers as well. You can get the Nintendo Switch bundled with Mario Kart 8 and three months of Nintendo Online for $299.99, a free $50 Target gift card when purchasing any Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, and the usual collection of major TV set discounts.

Apple

For Apple products, you can get up to $250 off an iPhone 12 or an iPhone 13 when adding a new line, or up to $50 off when upgrading. You'll also get a $140 Target gift card when activating an iPhone SE (2nd gen) in stores.

Target November Deals 2
One of the more notable Apple-related offers at Target will net you a $15 Target gift card when you purchase $100 or more in Apple Gift Cards. Retailer-specific gift card offers like this are now the only deals available for Apple Gift Cards, so if you're a regular Target shopper this one could be the best for you.

Below you'll find Target's best deals on Apple products this Black Friday, but if you're shopping for AirPods, you'll do better heading to Walmart. That retailer will have the AirPods Pro with MagSafe for $159.00, compared to Target's price of $189.99.

TVs

Audio

Smart Home

Video Games

Like all of the other major retailers, and similar to previous holiday seasons, Target is offering the Nintendo Switch bundle with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of Nintendo Switch Online for $299.99. This essentially nets you a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for free. You can also shop for some deals on Switch games, including Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Super Mario Maker 2, and more for $39.99.

Target November Deals 3
Target will also have Ring Fit Adventure on sale for $54.99 ($25 off), Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit for $59.99 ($40 off), and you can get a free Mario plush when purchasing Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Party.

Other video game deals include $29.99 games like Deathloop, Guardians of the Galaxy, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and more. There's also games on sale for $39.99, like Far Cry 6, Death Stranding: Director's Cut, Demon's Souls, and more. In total, video game sales start as low as $14.99 on select games.

Target will also offer $20 off game subscription services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass.

We're keeping track of all this season's best deals in our Black Friday 2021 Roundup. You can also find more of our daily deals and other offers in our Deals Roundup.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
Related Forum: Community Discussion

Top Rated Comments

Bremse Avatar
Bremse
32 months ago

I just checked Target’s Black Friday ad and verified that the gift card promotion is good online as well!

Very surprised to see that- usually the whole reason they do these promotions is to get you into the store to buy other stuff
I highly recommend buying gift cards online and not in the store. There are sophisticated scams going on where a scammer removes the scratch off field on the gift card, reads the code into a database, covers the field with a look-a-like sticker, and puts the card back on the shelf (this may actually happen before the cards hit the shelf). A system checks the balance on the codes in the database continuously, and as soon as the card gets activated, the scammer spends the balance. There were many reports of this happening last year when Target had a similar promotion (but with $20 Target bonus card). It’s usually a big pain to get your money back as Target and Apple both point their fingers to each other.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
garylapointe Avatar
garylapointe
32 months ago

I am thankful for the hard work put in by Apple engineers building great products year after year. Thank you Apple for all that you do. But, I will not be purchasing any Apple products on "black friday" (sic).

Consider celebrating "Buy Nothing Day" on Friday, November 26th instead. The holiday of Thanksgiving was not meant to be about consumerism, it's about being thankful for all that you have.
So you'll buy Apple products on a different day and have it cost you more?

I'll be thankful to save the money on something that'd I'd buy anyway.

That said, I don't even want to get into what Thanksgiving celebrates compared to what was likely really happening back in the times of the first Thanksgiving and the arrival of the Europeans back in the day...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Juan007 Avatar
Juan007
32 months ago
I am thankful for the hard work put in by Apple engineers building great products year after year. Thank you Apple for all that you do. But, I will not be purchasing any Apple products on "black friday" (sic).

Consider celebrating "Buy Nothing Day" on Friday, November 26th instead. The holiday of Thanksgiving was not meant to be about consumerism, it's about being thankful for all that you have.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bommai Avatar
bommai
32 months ago

Man I miss the days when 20% off Apple/Itunes gift cards were way more common.
But these Apple gift cards can be used For physical items. The iTunes app gift cards were only for digital products.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bremse Avatar
Bremse
32 months ago

Good point, but in store I can buy as many cards as I want, at least in years past I could and online there is usually a limit - right?
Last year I was able to buy multiple cards in separate orders and received a Target GC for each order.

Btw, you can use up to 8 gift cards at once when you buy something from Apple online. You can circumvent that limit by applying additional cards to your appleid balance and then pay with that.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nquinn Avatar
nquinn
32 months ago

They had a similar deal last year, except it was a $20 Target Gift card. We were bought several $100 Apple cards (to purchase an iPhone SE at the Apple Store for my daughter) with our Target Red Card. Here's how it worked last year with the discount.

We were charged $96 for the $100 Apple Card. The logic behind this is that you don't get the 5% off of the $20 bonus Target Gift Card, so 5% of $80 is $4. So basically, we paid $96 for $120 worth of cards.

I would imagine that they would do it the same way, so the you'll probably pay $95.75 for $115 worth of cards ($100 Apple, $15 Target).

Note that Sales Tax rules vary by states. In Pennsylvania (and I'm guessing most states), Gift Cards are not taxed.
The other downside to consider is that most credit cards offer an extra year of warranty protection on products that you lose as well when going though the buy GC -> apple route. Still worth it IMO, but worth mentioning.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

Delta Feature

Delta Game Emulator Now Available From App Store on iPhone

Wednesday April 17, 2024 9:58 am PDT by
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
Read Full Article • 172 comments
iOS NES Emulator Bimmy Feature

NES Emulator for iPhone and iPad Now Available on App Store [Removed]

Tuesday April 16, 2024 11:33 am PDT by
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Read Full Article • 229 comments
iPhone 15 Pro Action Button Translate

All iPhone 16 Models to Feature Action Button, But Usefulness Debated

Tuesday April 16, 2024 6:54 am PDT by
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
Read Full Article • 104 comments
maxresdefault

Hands-On With the New App Store Delta Game Emulator

Wednesday April 17, 2024 12:19 pm PDT by
A decade ago, developer Riley Testut released the GBA4iOS emulator for iOS, and since it was against the rules at the time, Apple put a stop to downloads. Emulators have been a violation of the App Store rules for years, but that changed on April 5 when Apple suddenly reversed course and said that it was allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
Read Full Article • 218 comments
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Friday April 12, 2024 11:11 am PDT by
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
Read Full Article