Should you buy a TV now or wait until Black Friday? After covering TVs for over 10 years, here’s what I recommend
[post_content]
Disclaimer: This article has been automatically aggregated from
When summer wanes and the leaves begin to turn, that’s around the time I start getting questions about Black Friday. People who know that I cover the TV business for a living begin to ask: Is it worth waiting until Black Friday to buy a new TV?
In the months leading up to November, some folks feel as though they’re in an awkward, pre-sale-season limbo, and with so much hype around holiday sales events, it’s easy to see why.
Before you commit to holding off on a new purchase or go all-in on that new big-screen this weekend, here’s what you ought to consider.
Latest Videos FromTom’s Guide
The benefits of buying a TV around Black Friday are twofold. The first is obvious: Stores competitively cut prices during their Black Friday sales events in order to entice shoppers ahead of the holidays.
The second benefit isn’t quite as obvious, but it’s nevertheless relevant: Since these sales arrive at the end of the calendar year, many newly released TVs have already seen several rounds of price cuts by the time the sale starts.
This creates a perfect storm of savings opportunities. Stores slash the prices of already-discounted sets, and this double-dipping takes some TVs down to their lowest price on record.
As a result, most new TVs are “on sale” during Black Friday sales events, either because they’ve already seen discounts throughout the year, and/or because a retailer is cutting their price as part of the sale.
The key question, then, is how much savings one is leaving on the table by shopping ahead of Black Friday.
How much money do you save by buying a TV on Black Friday?
I’ll tell you what I tell everyone else: probably a few hundred bucks.
After over ten years of testing, reviewing and tracking the sales of TVs, I’ve developed a not-so-scientific, vibes-based answer to this very question: a few hundred bucks.
How much is a few hundred? Well, sometimes it’s $200 and sometimes it’s $500. Some TVs crash by over $1,000, and others, weirdly, climb in price.
“But Michael,” you might be saying, “doesn’t that make the word ‘few’ inaccurate? Don’t words have meaning? Are we not trying to have a society here?”
Consider this: Some TVs are released exclusively on Black Friday and debut on sale. That doesn’t stop retailers from slapping a big ol’ “$800 off!” label on the listing, referring to an original price that technically never really existed.
In other words, we don’t exist in a realm that makes much sense. Besides, sale prices are impossible to predict. Brands are constantly affected by forces great and small that contribute to when products go on sale (and for how much).
So, if you ask me how much extra money you’re spending by buying a TV now instead of waiting until Black Friday, I’ll tell you what I tell everyone else: probably a few hundred bucks. And that brings me to my final point.
If you want a new TV right now, you shouldn’t wait until Black Friday
I know, I know: This piece of advice seems like a bit of a cop-out.
“Buy a TV if you want a TV” may seem like an obvious statement to make (and it is), but the truth of the matter is that no one but yourself can decide if — ahem — a few hundred bucks is more valuable than having a new TV between now and Black Friday. Nor can anyone tell you which models are most likely to get the biggest discounts when these sales events start churning out deals.
I can tell you two things with certainty: Most new TVs will be on sale during Black Friday, but most of these models are already relatively close to what will eventually be their lowest price.
Your particular circumstances and preferences matter more than anything else in this scenario. Maybe the risk of spending more on a TV now than you will in a couple of months is worth having a new screen to look at during football season. Perhaps you’re really itching to do that marathon of “The Lord of the Rings” sooner rather than later.
Just for fun, let’s take a look at one of the most popular TVs among our readers during Black Friday last year: the LG C5 OLED.
According to my records, in late September of 2025, the 65-inch C5 was $1,699 at Best Buy. When Black Friday rolled around a couple of months later, the same model had fallen to $1,399.
The LG C6 OLED — the C5’s successor — appears to be following a similar trajectory. At the time of publishing, the 65-inch LG C6 is $1,599.
While there’s no way to know for sure, my hunch is that this model will settle between $1,299 and $1,399 at major retailers during Black Friday sales events. If I’m correct, the cost of skipping the wait will be about $200 to $300.
In other words, a few hundred bucks.
Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
More from Tom’s Guide
for informational purposes only. We do not claim ownership, accuracy, or liability for the content provided. All rights belong to the original publisher.