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Topics: Jewelry & Watches, Buying New Cars, TV & Home Theater, Cell Phones & PDAs, Computers Etc., Cameras & Camcorders, Real Estate, Furniture, Appliances |
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| Tips on When to Buy Appliances, Computers, Cars & Other Products |
Submitted by:
Barry31 09/16/2008 12:34 PM
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I just came across a list on shopsmartmag.org that shows the best times to buy various products. Here’s a summary:
- Appliances: December and January are good months to shop. December because of the holidays being a distraction and people not thinking about appliance shopping, and January because that’s when a lot of stores offer sales. They say that May and June are good times to buy refrigerators because that’s about the time when the new models arrive so the appliance stores have to get rid of the old ones.
- Cell Phone Service: They suggest waiting until your current service plan is about to end before shopping around. This makes sense, as you have a lot more leverage at that point, since you can walk away if your current provider doesn’t offer you a good deal. From my experience, all of these companies really want your business so you should be able to get a good deal if you threaten to walk away.
- Computers: The best time to buy because of likely sales is in July before the back-to-school rush or in December. I just bought a computer through Dell (a refurbished machine) and got a really good deal. With refurbished models, I don’t think the timing matters as much, but I could be wrong. Anyone else know if it matters what time of year you buy refurbished?
- Digital Cameras: They say to shop in February and April (anyone know why??).
- Furniture: Apparently a lot of furniture sellers get new inventory in the spring, so February is a good time to shop.
- Houses and Condos: Given the way the housing market is today, I’m not sure what the best suggestions are, but they suggest February before the spring home-buying season begins.
- Jewelry: Supposed to look for bargains all of the time, as jewelry is often marked up a lot, though stay away from jewelry purchases around the December holidays and right before Valentine’s Day.
- New Cars: I think I’ve seen similar tips on TipHero.com. They suggest buying at the end of the year around November and December (guess you get the end of the year push by the sales people and the cold weather months probably keep a lot of people away). They also suggest buying at the end of the month, as sales people are looking to hit their month-end quotas. And end-of-summer is a good time as the new models are coming in so they want to get rid of the old ones/last year’s models.
- TVs: They suggest shopping after the December holidays (early January) when there are big sales, or after the Super Bowl when there aren’t as many people hunting for a TV. I’ve found good deals after the holidays but had never thought about buying after the Super Bowl. I’m surprised at how many people shop/buy a TV right before the game.
Here’s a link to the article: shopsmartmag.org pdf – When to Shop (note that it’s a pdf file). |
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