When to Buy a TV: The Best Months, and the Worst (2026)

Published 2026-10-20 · Updated 2026-10-30

When to Buy a TV: The Best Months, and the Worst

Most buying advice treats Black Friday like a law of nature: wait for November, pay less. Our price data says TVs do not work that way. Black Friday is one strong discount window among several, and for the TVs we track it was not the deepest one for three out of four models. Their lowest prices landed in February, April, and July. This guide is a month by month calendar of when TVs actually get cheap, built from the lowest price dates in our own price database instead of retail folklore.

How we define a deal: a deal does not need to be the lowest price in history. If a TV is cheaper than it was a month ago and below its recent average, it is a valid deal for that date. We always disclose the lowest price ever and when it happened, so you can see how good a deal is, not just that it is one. We also never judge a discount against a launch price or a retailer's "was" price, because both are chosen to make the discount look big. A 40% off banner can describe a completely ordinary price.

How solid is the evidence? TVs are our deepest sample: four models with full Amazon price histories (lowest, highest, and average) verified on CamelCamelCamel in October 2026. That is a small sample and we say so, but every figure below comes from those histories, not from sale ads.

The TV calendar

Best means the window where tracked lows landed or where the mechanism is strongest. Good means a reliable secondary window. A dash means no strong pattern, mostly regular prices.

Two best windows land when most people are not thinking about TV shopping at all: late winter around the Super Bowl, and spring, when the new model year pushes the outgoing sets into clearance. November is the third.

The evidence: four TVs, four different cheapest months

Best windows: February and spring clearance

Late January through February is Super Bowl season, and TV retailers treat the game like a second Black Friday. The LG C5 hit its all-time low of $1,046.99 on February 10, 2026, ten days after the game. Then the new model year arrives in spring, and retailers clear the outgoing models: the TCL QM7K bottomed at $777.99 on April 15, 2026, right in that clearance window. If you can buy last year's set, spring clearance is often the single cheapest moment in a TV's life, because it is the last discount before the model disappears.

Second best: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Prime Day

Black Friday 2025 prices were real deals by our definition: the LG C5 at $1,196 and the Hisense U8QG at $797.99 were both below their averages and well below their September and October prices. But only the Hisense made Black Friday week its all-time low, at $679.99 on Cyber Monday, December 1, 2025. The Samsung S90F saved its lowest price, $997.99, for July 20, 2026, in the Prime Day period. So Black Friday is the safest single TV window, the one where every model we tracked was below average at the same time, but it is not automatically the cheapest.

Worst time: launch weeks in spring

The highest prices in all four histories were recorded near launch: the Samsung S90F at $1,997.99 on April 14, 2025, the LG C5 at $1,996.99 on May 10, 2025, the Hisense U8QG at $1,499.99 on May 18, 2025, and the TCL QM7K at $1,499.99 on March 10, 2025. Spring is both the worst and one of the best TV windows, depending on which side of the model changeover you buy: full price for the new set, clearance price for the outgoing one. All four TVs also averaged 30 to 45% below launch within their first year, which is why we ignore launch price when judging any discount.

FAQ

Is Black Friday actually the best time to buy a TV? It is the most reliable window: every model we tracked was below its average in Black Friday week 2025. But three of our four TVs hit their lowest price ever in other months, in February, April, and July. Black Friday is the safest bet, not a guaranteed floor.

What if I need a TV right now, outside any window? Use the deal definition. Check the price against its recent average and its lowest ever price on a price history tool. If it is cheaper than a month ago and below average, it is a fair buy and waiting months to save a possible extra few percent is usually not worth it. If it is at or above average, waiting for the next window in the calendar above is the better move.

Should I buy this year's model or last year's? For price, last year's, almost always. The outgoing model is the one that gets cleared in spring, and all four TVs here averaged 30 to 45% below launch within their first year. The new model is for people who value new over price.

How can I check a specific TV myself? Look its price history up on CamelCamelCamel or a similar tracker before any sale event, note the average and the lowest ever, and compare the event price to those two numbers instead of to the "was" price in the ad. Our deals page and the TV comparator do this with our own tracked data for the sets we cover.

When to buy other things

Timing differs by category, and each of these guides uses the same deal definition and the same price database: when to buy headphones and speakers, when to buy a vacuum, when to buy kitchen and coffee gear, when to buy a laptop or tablet, when to buy a wearable, and when to buy toys. When a TV window opens, our Black Friday TV deals guide tracks the actual prices with a deal or not a deal yet header, and the TV comparator lets you sort the sets side by side with their tracked prices. Timing gets you to the right month; those pages tell you whether this month's price is actually a deal.