A little known secret about holiday shopping is that prices go up just prior to December 25 and then rapidly collapse. Many retailers dubbed the phenomenon as the "Christmas Hangover". After shoppers decimated stores, the remaining older stock of inventory must liquidate. Sometimes during the hangover season sales show up with steeper discounts than the loss leaders during the holiday season. From now and throughout much of January, you can get excellent deals.

Tablet and Mobile Users

For tablet users, we've dug up a Nexus 7, a ridiculously good offer on XtremeGuard screen protectors and an Ultrabook.

90% off XtremeGuard Protectors

xtremeguard
  • Price: 90% off everything with code '90off2'; compare to $9.99 for the average skin from Amazon
  • Retailer: XtremeGuard

For those of you seeking to output your Christmas-gifted tablets or smartphones, XtremeGuard offers some of the best protectors on the market. Their skins tend to run a bit thicker than competitors (they're similar to Zagg's offerings), but this helps protect against impacts. You can now get a remarkable 90% off with coupon code: '90off2'. Just make sure to use the best screen-application methods -- XtremeGuard recommends the wet-apply method.

16GB Asus Google Nexus 7, 2013 Model

Nexus 7 FHD
  • Price: $199.99; compare to $226 from eBay
  • Retailer: Office Depot

The 2013 Nexus 7 offers excellent hardware for the price. It includes the latest version of Android, 4.4.2 and an underclocked Snapdragon 600 CPU (rebadged as the older Snapdragon S4 Pro). While this deal was eclipsed last week, it remains the current best deal on a tablet of any kind.

HP Spectre 13T-3000 Ultrabook

spectre
  • Price: $856
  • Retailer: Hewlett-Packard

The reviews on the HP Spectre 13T-3000 have been very good. It offers an aluminum body, touchscreen, 9-hour battery life and a razor-thin form factor.

To get this deal you must follow these steps:

  • Click on this link;
  • Click on the "Customize & buy" in the right pane;
  • Then under the "Display" section choose the " Diagonal Vivid QHD Infinity LED-backlit Display"
  • Then check out. Remember to use the coupon code 'PC92229';
  • Final price $856 with free shipping

If you don't choose the better display, the price come out to $799.99, with free shipping, so your mileage on this deal may vary.

System Builders

For system builders we've found a deal on 8 GB of desktop RAM and an SSD.

8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3 Team Vulcan 2133 MHz Desktop Memory

team vulcan RAM
  • Price: $59.99; originally to $74.98 (slightly different RAM)
  • Retailer: Newegg

Due to a cooling off in RAM production, prices skyrocketed over the past year. In 2012, this would have been considered an average deal – at the tail end of 2013, this is among the best around for CAS 10, 2133 MHz RAM.

As far as RAM goes, this is a good deal for the timings and speed. Additionally, it's a great combination with any APU-powered PC (what's an APU?) as APUs love high-speed RAM.

Samsung 840 EVO 750GB SSD

samsung evo
  • Price: $389.99; compare to $$399.99 + shipping from Newegg
  • Retailer: Amazon

The Samsung 840 EVO series provides top-tier performance at excellent per-gigabyte pricing. Just remember to optimize the drive using a toolkit. And here’s some tips on keeping your SSD in tip-top shape.

Bonus Deals

Two additional deals include a duplexing laser printer and an unlocked Intel Core i7 CPU.

Samsung Monochrome Duplexing Laser Printer [Broken URL Removed]

samsung laser printer
  • Price: $59.99 compare to $137.95 at Walmart
  • Retailer: Rakuten or Amazon

The Samsung SL-M2625D/XAC laser printer provides duplexing (double-sided) printing and a low total cost of ownership. Rakuten offers "points" on every purchase, meaning you can get a slightly lower price on a future purchase by expending "Rakuten Points". However, if you have Amazon Prime, you may want to consider purchasing it there.

Intel Core i7-3770K CPU

i7-3770k cpu
  • Price: $222; compare to $309.99 at Amazon.
  • Retailer: Frys

This is an excellent deal for an Ivy Bridge Core i7, although it's only available from Fry's brick-and-mortar stores. Although the unfortunate thermal paste scandal may reduce Ivy Bridge CPUs' life expectancies, most system builders upgrade frequently enough that this isn't a problem.