The holiday shopping season is officially upon us, and as is customary, it started with a bang: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now that these major sales events are over, I’ve been fielding one question more than any other: Did I miss my chance to get a worthwhile deal on a new TV?
More specifically, folks want to know whether they should still buy a TV ahead of the holidays or wait for sometime in the early new year. And, although the answer is less straightforward than you might think, I've got the solution.
If you see a good deal, snag it now
There's no two ways about it: A ton of killer Black Friday deals are gone with the wind. At the height of Cyber Monday, the 65-inch version of TCL's top Mini-LED TV, the QM8K, was just $899. At the time of publishing, the 65-inch QM8K is back up to $1,499 at Best Buy.
Now, that's a big-time bummer for anyone who wants that particular TV. But that particular TV's price history shouldn't solely guide your thinking. If you need a new TV and the thought of waiting until after the holidays to upgrade fills you with disappointment, this is what I propose: Just buy a new TV.
While many of the top deals on the best TVs are gone, plenty of those very same TVs are still heavily discounted.
While many of the top deals on the best TVs are gone, plenty of those very same TVs are still heavily discounted. These are not "sale prices" in the sense that there's a specific sale going on, it's just that the TV has been sitting on shelves long enough to warrant a lower price.
If it makes more financial sense for you to buy a TV now rather than later — or if you'd just rather have a new set ahead of the holidays — you can take solace in the fact that what you'll end up paying is likely far less than what you would've shelled out earlier this year.
For your purposes, "just buy a new TV" can also come to mean, "just buy a new TV wisely." For every TV like the QM8K that's jumped back up in price by several hundred dollars, many more have only crept up a little.
At its lowest price on Black Friday weekend, the Best Buy-exclusive, 48-inch LG B5 OLED was just $549. It has since climbed back up, but only to $649. That's still about half off its original price.
These two TVs tell the story of what happens to most models in the days and weeks following Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Will TVs like the TCL QM8K and the LG B5 go on sale again? Almost certainly. But most that sale price won't be drastically different to what we're seeing right now.
Remember: 2026 TVs are coming
While the majority of TV brands' most popular models have already been discounted close to what will eventually be their lowest price, you might nevertheless want to wait until January, February or March of next year in order to wring as much value as possible out of your purchase.
Many of the biggest TV-makers — LG, Samsung, Hisense and more — debut their next generation of TVs in January, at CES. As we get close to the release of those TVs (typically in the Spring and Summer), the previous year's models begin to hit their rock-bottom price.
Remember: Depending on your susceptibility to buyer's remorse, you may find that the longer you wait to buy a 2025 TV, the more tempted you'll be to wait for newer, flashier models from 2026.
This is why I usually tell people that, while Black Friday and Cyber Monday might represent the best time to find TV deals, the best time to buy any given TV usually varies within the window between Black Friday and the following Spring.
In short, some great TV deals have come and gone, sure, but some sales will linger on into next year when we'll get one last shot to buy them before they go out of stock for good.
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