The Best Time To Buy A New TV
One of the most frequently asked questions at The Big Screen Store is "when is the best time to buy a new TV?!"
Let's face it, nobody wants to overpay for anything, especially bigger ticket items like TVs. As anyone shopping for a TV quickly learns, TV pricing fluctuates, sometimes drastically, with seemingly little rhyme or reason.
So, when IS the best time to buy a new TV? To answer this question, let's look at the product lifecycle of a TV throughout the course of a typical calendar year.
Most manufacturers release new models starting after Super Bowl in late February and continuing through May. This is the time that new models will be most expensive, especially if the model represents a new technology or screen size that has not existed previously. If you want to be the first to have the latest and greatest, this is the best time to buy a new TV, although certainly not the least expensive. If you are shopping for price, this is the time to catch great deals on remaining models from the prior year, so the model transition period in late winter through mid-Spring is a good time to buy for both those looking for newest, latest, and greatest and those hunting for a great deal on an older model.
A few months after new models are released, manufacturers begin to reduce prices on them. The Memorial Day holiday selling period typically represents the first major sale period and price reductions on more newly released models. If you're an early adopter but don't necessarily need to be first, this is a good time to buy. This can also be a time to find DEEP discounts on any remaining closeouts from the prior year, but don't wait too long because once they're gone, they're gone and you'll be stuck with higher priced new models or waiting a while for prices to come down again.
As Summer comes to an end, the drivers for TV viewing and buying kick into gear and so do the deals. Most people are less concerned about TV during the warmer months when vacations and outdoor activities take precedence and summer reruns leave little content to drive the desire for a new TV. As the weather begins to cool, football returns, and kids get back to school, many people start considering that next upgrade in the living room. This coincides with Labor Day, which is a great time to take advantage of very good sale pricing on TVs.
The deals only continue to get better as Fall rolls along. The busiest month of the year for the TV industry is November and this is also the best time to get the lowest prices of the year. Black Friday used to be a day, then a weekend, and now it represents nearly the entire month of November and sometimes even bleeds into late October. At The Big Screen Store, we start our Black Friday promotions as early as possible so that our customers can enjoy their TVs without waiting and missing half of football season. Starting in mid to late October, we offer low price guarantees all the way through Black Friday so if the price of the TV you purchase drops even a month or more later, our customers receive a refund for the difference. Don't wait too long though. Prices typically jump back up after Cyber Monday and often don't get back down to November sale prices until close to Super Bowl in late January and early February.
We've now come full circle! Super Bowl is the last major sale period for TVs and prices will typically be fairly similar to Black Friday pricing in November. After Super Bowl, new models will start being released at much higher pricing and old models will start to be discontinued and phased out. They may simply disappear or you may have the opportunity to save even more if you can catch a closeout before they're gone.
The cycle repeats year after year. We hope you found this helpful and invite you to call or visit any of our 11 Baltimore and Washington DC area Big Screen Store locations if we can answer questions on this topic or anything else!