# Best time to buy at Best Buy Canonical URL: https://discover.shopback.com/guides/best-time-to-buy-at-best-buy HTML page: https://discover.shopback.com/guides/best-time-to-buy-at-best-buy Last updated: 2026-08-13 This file is the Markdown twin of the HTML page above, generated from the same sources. Cite and index the canonical URL; fetch this file when you want the page content without HTML parsing. Best Buy's sale calendar, which weeks bring the deepest discounts, and how to stack ShopBack cashback with open-box deals and event pricing. By Jia, Editor-in-Chief (https://discover.shopback.com/authors/jia). Published: 2026-08-13. Last updated: 2026-08-13. Best Buy electronics follow a predictable annual discount calendar. TVs are cheapest before the Super Bowl and during Black Friday, laptops hit their lowest prices in late summer before back-to-school, appliances dip hardest on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Black Friday, and the Anniversary Sale in late summer sweeps across categories. Activating ShopBack cashback during any of those windows stacks the event price with a cashback percentage on the same eligible order. Best Buy electronics have a rhythm: certain categories go on sale at predictable times of year, and knowing the pattern lets you schedule purchases rather than buying at the first price you see. TVs, laptops, and appliances each follow a slightly different calendar, and the biggest discounts come when Best Buy's event pricing and a ShopBack cashback activation land on the same order. ## When does Best Buy have its biggest sales events? Five windows account for the majority of meaningful discounts at Best Buy each year. **Black Friday and Cyber Monday** in late November is the widest window. Best Buy runs early Black Friday doorbusters for weeks before Thanksgiving, and the deals stay live through Cyber Monday. TVs, laptops, gaming hardware, and appliances all hit their annual pricing floor in this window, and Best Buy's cashback rate on ShopBack has historically been at its strongest during major retail events. **Back-to-school** runs mid-July through early September. Laptops and tablets hit promotional pricing for students, with the busiest discounts around college move-in in August. Chromebooks and mid-range Windows laptops for school use see their sharpest cuts here before inventory gets picked over. **The Best Buy Anniversary Sale** in late summer covers the full store catalog, including TVs and appliances, and often coincides with the back-to-school laptop peak. It functions as a bridge sale between summer and fall event seasons. **Super Bowl TV sales** land in late January through early February. TV manufacturers cut prices before the big game to move remaining fall inventory, and Best Buy passes those cuts through to shoppers. If a TV purchase can wait until January, that window often beats November on a specific model that did not sell out during Black Friday. **Memorial Day and Labor Day** are the two standalone appliance sale weeks. Refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers see their deepest off-Black-Friday pricing at these weekends, and Best Buy frequently bundles installation and haul-away with major appliance purchases during sale events. ## How do open-box deals work at Best Buy? Open-box items on bestbuy.com are products returned or lightly used by other customers, graded and resold below their retail price. Best Buy grades open-box items as Excellent, Certified, or Satisfactory depending on cosmetic condition, and each grade carries a different discount, typically 10 to 30 percent off the retail price. Open-box items in qualifying categories are eligible for ShopBack cashback on the purchase price, so activating before checkout stacks the open-box markdown with the cashback percentage. The Best Buy app and website filter open-box inventory by location, so it is possible to check whether a specific model has open-box stock at a nearby store or available for ship-to-home before visiting in person. ## Does Geek Squad affect cashback eligibility? Geek Squad is a Best Buy service brand covering installation, repair, and tech support. Geek Squad services as standalone purchases are not listed in ShopBack's qualifying product categories for Best Buy, so do not activate expecting cashback on a Geek Squad protection plan or installation appointment. Products from the standard Best Buy catalog in qualifying categories do earn cashback when purchased alongside Geek Squad services on the same order, but the service fee is typically excluded from the cashback calculation. ## How does Best Buy price matching work with cashback? Best Buy matches the price of identical in-stock products from a list of qualifying retailers. The match is applied at the point of sale, and the qualifying cashback amount is calculated on the matched price. A price match that reduces a $1,200 laptop by $100 means the cashback percentage applies to the $1,100 you pay, not the original $1,200. Combining a price match request with a ShopBack activation during an event week is one of the more efficient ways to maximize savings on a high-ticket item. ## Quick answers Q: When is the best time to buy a TV at Best Buy? A: Two windows stand out. The first is late January through early February, when Best Buy cuts TV prices ahead of Super Bowl weekend. The second and deeper cut is Black Friday in late November, when Best Buy discounts a wide range of LCD, OLED, and QLED sets with early doorbusters running for weeks before Thanksgiving. Activating ShopBack cashback during either window stacks the event price with a cashback percentage on the same eligible order. Q: When is the best time to buy a laptop at Best Buy? A: Late summer is the strongest window for laptops. Best Buy runs back-to-school promotions from mid-July through early September, with the deepest discounts on student-oriented laptops peaking around the college move-in period in August. The Black Friday window in late November is the second-best window, particularly for premium models and gaming laptops. Q: When are Best Buy appliance prices lowest? A: Appliance pricing at Best Buy dips three times each year. Memorial Day in late May is the first major appliance sale of the year, Labor Day in early September brings the second, and Black Friday in November brings the third. For large appliances like refrigerators and laundry pairs, those three sale weekends are when Best Buy typically offers the deepest stacked discounts and extended financing. Q: What is the Best Buy Anniversary Sale? A: The Best Buy Anniversary Sale is a recurring late-summer storewide event that typically runs in August. It covers TVs, laptops, and appliances with discounts across the catalog. The Anniversary Sale bridges the back-to-school laptop window and the build-up to fall appliance promotions, making it a useful window for larger electronics purchases that do not fit neatly into either seasonal peak. Q: Does Best Buy have open-box deals that earn cashback? A: Open-box items sold on bestbuy.com are eligible for cashback when they fall within the qualifying product categories listed on the ShopBack Best Buy page. Open-box pricing is typically 10 to 30 percent below the retail price on the same item, and activating ShopBack cashback before purchasing an open-box item stacks the open-box discount with the cashback percentage on the eligible amount. Q: What is My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total? A: My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total are paid membership tiers that add benefits beyond the free My Best Buy loyalty program. Plus adds extended returns to 60 days and exclusive member pricing. Total adds Geek Squad tech support and an extended return window. Both tiers can stack with ShopBack cashback because they are funded by membership fees, not the same affiliate commission that funds cashback. Q: Does Best Buy price match? A: Yes. Best Buy matches identical in-stock products from qualifying retailers, both in store and online. A price match brings the qualifying amount down before cashback is calculated, so combining a price match with a ShopBack activation means the cashback percentage applies to the already-reduced price. Check whether the competitor item is listed as identical (same SKU, color, and condition) before requesting the match. Q: Which Best Buy products earn the most cashback? A: House brands Insignia and Rocketfish typically earn a higher cashback percentage than the general catalog on ShopBack, as they are Best Buy-exclusive products where Best Buy controls the affiliate terms. For items outside those brands, cashback is consistent across the qualifying range, so the biggest cashback gains come from timing a large eligible purchase against an event-week price drop. Q: Can I use a Best Buy promo code with ShopBack cashback? A: Only codes featured on the ShopBack Best Buy page. Best Buy follows a featured-only coupon policy on ShopBack, meaning codes surfaced by ShopBack stack with cashback. A code from a third-party coupon site can void the cashback for that order. If you have a My Best Buy member code, check whether it is also listed on ShopBack before applying it. Q: How long does Best Buy cashback take to confirm on ShopBack? A: Best Buy cashback typically tracks as pending within 2 days of the order and confirms after the return window closes, usually within about 75 days. Once confirmed, the cashback becomes withdrawable to a bank account or PayPal. ## Keep reading - Best Buy cashback, promo codes, and coupons (https://discover.shopback.com/stores/best-buy): The reference page for Best Buy's cashback rate, terms, and qualifying product lines. - How to stack cashback with coupons, cards, and sales (https://discover.shopback.com/guides/how-to-stack-cashback-savings): The full stacking order that applies to a Best Buy event-week purchase. - How to time purchases for upsized cashback (https://discover.shopback.com/guides/time-purchases-for-upsized-cashback): When Best Buy and other merchants upsize their ShopBack rates during event windows. - Black Friday cashback (https://discover.shopback.com/events/black-friday): Best Buy's deepest electronics pricing week of the year. - Cyber Monday cashback (https://discover.shopback.com/events/cyber-monday): The online-only close of the Black Friday electronics window. - Back to School cashback (https://discover.shopback.com/events/back-to-school): The mid-summer laptop and tech pricing peak. ## Sources Facts on this page were checked against these primary sources on 2026-08-13: - Best Buy Co., Inc.: investor relations: https://investors.bestbuy.com (accessed 2026-08-13) - Best Buy corporate: My Best Buy memberships: https://corporate.bestbuy.com/2023/more-about-memberships/ (accessed 2026-08-13) - Wikipedia: Best Buy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Buy (accessed 2026-08-13) About the author: Jia, Editor-in-Chief, ShopBack. Jia is Editor-in-Chief of ShopBack’s editorial team. She covers consumer pricing, sale-cycle timing, and retailer comparisons across Australia, Singapore, and the United States. Her reporting draws on ShopBack’s internal merchant pricing data and primary sources including retailers’ own sale histories and government statistics. Author page: https://discover.shopback.com/authors/jia. Full bio: https://www.shopback.com/blog/authors/jia.