Is there really a best time to buy?

[GreyingJay]

My new house closes in early 2016. Now seems to be the logical time to be shopping for new appliances - Black Friday is almost here and Christmas, Boxing Week, etc. are coming shortly afterward.

These shopping times are hyped, but are they really the best time to buy? Most of the time you sit down and negotiate a package deal anyway, so is it not possible to arrive at the same sorts of savings at any other time of year?

I don't want to feel like I need to rush to make my appliance purchases NOW to take advantage of Black Friday savings IF I know that I could just as easily sit down in January or February and negotiate something similar.

Thoughts?

[good2know]

One aspect to negotiate if buying early is to ensure the warranty starts on delivery, not on the purchase date.

[GreyingJay]

To follow up, here's what I did.

There were some good deals being advertised for Black Friday, and I noticed all the stores were advertising essentially the same prices on the same models. I ordered a set of Whirlpool appliances and got the Black Friday pricing, with free delivery, only a small deposit down to hold the order, and after confirming that warranty begins on delivery.

A week before Boxing Week, Lowe's advertised a "pre-Boxing Week" sale with all of the same prices I saw during Black Friday, except with an additional "save the HST" offer in play. I had this offer price-matched, saving me a few hundred more dollars.

I noticed that the Boxing Week deals, other than that, were identical in pricing to what I saw at Black Friday. Had there been lower prices, I was prepared to go price match again.

[suezuki650]

How far ahead are you purchasing? Who did you buy with?

[GreyingJay]

Delivery is in mid January, and I bought on Black Friday weekend, so there was about 6-7 weeks. I did not see the benefit in buying much earlier than that.

I ended up going with Corbeil. I tried the Sears store on Pinecrest but left there unimpressed. First, I was completely ignored. While waiting to be acknowledged I decided to scope out the Whirlpool appliances that I was interested in. Remember this was a manufacturer's sale so everybody had the exact same prices - Corbeil, Canadian Appliance Source (maybe with a few bucks off tossed in), Dufresne, Lowes, Leon's -- everyone. But Sears? Their tags showed the full list prices with no evidence of a sale. I guess I was supposed to bargain my way down? No thanks.

[WellThatsLovely]

6-7 weeks is reasonable but people who purchase a year or more in advance are just locking themselves in at today's (full) prices for what will then be last year's (discontinued) models (I fell for this)... Throughout the year we came across lots and lots of good prices, comparable if not better than what we paid. It is semi-true that prices will go up from year to year but what you get for the same dollar also increases so people shouldn't feel rushed to buy too early.

[dheeraj.arcot]

Originally Posted by WellThatsLovely

(discontinued) models (I fell for this)... .

That's so true in my case as well. I have even begun with demolition of our house and we ended ourselves locked with TASCO. my wife wanted Wolf, so we got Wolf rangetop/oven/wave, subzero fridge and Miele dishwasher... I felt like SUCKER for life

However, they gave us an option to change whichever model except for Miele