The Best Times of Year to Buy Electronics, Appliances and More
When prices on TVs, laptops, phones and appliances usually fall, the 2026 sale dates worth knowing, and why the calendar matters less than the price history.
There is a best time to buy most big-ticket things, and it is less mysterious than the ads suggest. Prices tend to fall when a new model is about to replace the old one, and during a few big sale events, above all the days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. But a sale date is a hint, not a guarantee: the product's own price history decides whether today is the day.
Timing a purchase in five steps
- Decide what you need first Pick the model and a price you'd be happy to pay before any sale starts, so the sale can't pick for you.
- Start tracking early Set a price alert weeks ahead. You'll know the normal price and spot a real drop when it comes.
- Know the product's cycle New TVs, phones and laptops arrive at predictable times. The outgoing model is often the better buy.
- Use the big events, don't trust them Late November brings the deepest average online discounts, but many items hit the same price at other times.
- Check returns on sale items Some stores extend return windows over the holidays, others make sale items final. Read the terms before you pay.
Late November is still the deepest sale of the year
Adobe measures US online prices across a large sample of retailers, and its data for the 2025 holiday season is the clearest picture available. From November 1 to December 31, shoppers spent $257.8 billion online, and discounts peaked at these levels off listed prices:
- electronics: 30.9%
- toys: 29.6%
- apparel: 25.1%
- televisions: 24.3%
- computers: 23.4%
- sporting goods: 20.3%
- appliances: 20.2%
- furniture: 18.8%
Those are peaks, not averages, and they apply to online prices. Most of the heavy discounting happened during Cyber Week, the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, which alone brought in $44.2 billion online. Adobe noted that after Cyber Week "discounts will come down from their peaks".
In 2026, Thanksgiving falls on November 26, which puts Black Friday on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30.
Which day within that week? Before the 2025 season, Adobe predicted that Black Friday would bring the deepest discounts on TVs, toys and appliances, and Cyber Monday on electronics, apparel and computers. That was a forecast, and the ranking shifts from year to year, so we'd use it as a rough guide at most.
But most "Black Friday" prices come back
The big event is also where the most inflated deals are. Which?, the UK consumer group, tracked 175 home, tech and health products at eight retailers for a year around Black Friday 2024, and found that 83% were the same price or cheaper on at least one occasion outside the Black Friday sales period. The study covers UK stores, and we haven't found a US study of the same kind, but the lesson travels: a Black Friday price is only special if the price history says so.
That is also why shoppers start early. In the National Retail Federation's 2025 holiday survey, 42% planned to begin before November, mostly to spread out their budget, while 63% planned to do most of their shopping over Thanksgiving weekend. Both approaches work if you track prices; neither works if you don't.
TVs: buy the outgoing model
TVs follow the most predictable cycle of any electronics category. Manufacturers show new lines in January and ship them in spring. LG, for example, opened US pre-orders for its 2026 OLED TVs with retail availability beginning in March 2026, starting at $1,399 for the C6 and $2,499 for the G6.
Two windows follow from that cycle. The deepest discounts come in late November, when Adobe measured TV discounts peaking at 24.3% in 2025. The second comes before the Super Bowl, when stores clear space for new models: in an older Consumer Reports analysis of two years of TV prices, published before the 2017 game, Super Bowl sales pushed prices down by an average of 22%. The figure is dated, but the logic behind it still holds.
The outgoing model is often the smarter buy. The picture differences between one year's TV and the next are usually small, and the price gap is not.
Phones and laptops: follow the launch calendar
Apple announces new iPhones each September. This year, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max went on sale on September 18, 2026, starting at $1,199 and $1,299. When a new generation arrives, check whether the previous one is still on sale and at what price, both at Apple and at carriers and retailers, which set their own promotions. Apple's announcement doesn't say anything about older models, so we won't promise a cut.
Laptops and tablets see heavy promotion over the summer, because back-to-school is one of the biggest spending seasons of the year. For 2026, the NRF expected families with children in grades K-12 to spend an average of $293.11 on electronics, and 62% of back-to-school shoppers had already started by early July. If you are buying a laptop in the summer, compare the July price with the same model's Black Friday price last year: computers reached a 23.4% peak discount in Adobe's 2025 holiday data.
Appliances: November, and when you're not in a hurry
Appliances are the category where timing matters most and where you often have the least choice: a broken refrigerator can't wait for Black Friday. If you can plan, November is the month to watch. Adobe measured online appliance discounts peaking at 20.2% during the 2025 holidays, and a Consumer Reports study from 2018 found refrigerator prices falling by nearly $250 from their May peak to their November low.
Two things matter as much as the discount on big appliances: delivery and installation charges, which can wipe out a small saving, and whether the store hauls away the old unit. Add them to the price before comparing.
Amazon's two member events
Amazon runs two sales of its own. Prime Day 2026 ran from June 23 to June 26, earlier than the July dates of past years, and Prime Big Deal Days is set for October 6-7, 2026. Both are exclusive to Prime members. Amazon's own devices are usually the headline items. For everything else, treat the events like any other sale: compare the price with the item's history and with other stores, several of which schedule their own promotions for the same days.
| When | What happens | Worth watching |
|---|---|---|
| Late January to early February | TV sales before the Super Bowl; new TV models are on the way | TVs, especially large screens |
| March to spring | New TV lines reach stores (LG's 2026 OLEDs: March) | Last year's TV models |
| June 23-26, 2026 | Amazon Prime Day (Prime members only) | Amazon devices, electronics |
| July to August | Back-to-school shopping | Laptops, tablets, accessories |
| September | New iPhones (iPhone 18 Pro on sale Sep 18, 2026) | The previous generation, if still sold |
| October 6-7, 2026 | Amazon Prime Big Deal Days (Prime members only) | Early holiday prices |
| November 26-30, 2026 | Thanksgiving, Black Friday (Nov 27) and Cyber Monday (Nov 30) | Electronics, TVs, computers, appliances, toys |
Dates are the organizers' own announcements and the federal holiday calendar. What gets discounted, and by how much, changes every year. Source: Amazon, Apple Newsroom, LG USA, US Office of Personnel Management, Consumer Reports; read Sep 28, 2026
A plan for the rest of 2026
If you are reading this in the fall, three dates are close together, and you can use them as a sequence rather than as three separate bets.
- Before October 6. Choose the items you actually need, note today's price for each exact model, and set price alerts. This gives you a baseline that isn't inflated by any event.
- October 6-7, Prime Big Deal Days. If you're a Prime member, check your list against Amazon's prices and against other stores, which often run competing promotions. Buy only what reaches your target price; for everything else, you now know what "on sale" looks like in October.
- November 26-30, Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. This is when Adobe measured the deepest online discounts of 2025, especially on electronics, TVs and computers. Compare with the October price you noted. If the November price isn't lower, the October one was the deal.
After Cyber Monday, Adobe expects discounts to come down from their peaks, but that doesn't mean every price goes back up. If you missed an item, keep the alert running: the same model may drop again in the new year, when stores make room for the next generation.
The calendar is a starting point
Here is how we'd use all of this. Pick the item and the price you'd be happy to pay. Set an alert several weeks before the next event on the calendar. If the price reaches your number, buy, whatever the date. If a sale comes and the price barely moves, the discount you were waiting for probably isn't coming this year.
Questions shoppers ask
Is Black Friday or Cyber Monday better for electronics?
In Adobe's forecast for the 2025 season, Cyber Monday was expected to be the best day for electronics and computers, and Black Friday for TVs and appliances. Those were predictions, and the order changes from year to year. Track the specific model instead of betting on one day.
Should I wait for Black Friday if I need something now?
Usually not. Which?, a UK consumer group, found that 83% of the Black Friday deals it tracked were the same price or cheaper at least once during the rest of the year. If the current price is at or near the item's recent low, buying now costs you little.
Do I need Prime to get Prime Day prices?
Yes. Amazon describes both Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days as events exclusive to Prime members. Other stores often run their own sales on the same days, open to everyone.
When do new appliances go on sale?
We couldn't find a reliable, current source for a fixed appliance model cycle, so we won't give you one. What the data does show is that appliance discounts were deep in November: Adobe measured online appliance discounts peaking at 20.2% off listed prices during the 2025 holidays.
