As you bask in the glory that is your stash of gifts from the Christmas weekend, you may be pawing over a gift card or two. And today's after-Christmas sales might seem like an extremely tempting place to start redeeming them. But depending on what you're looking for, you might get the most value out of your card if you wait to shop.
Winter apparel will see excellent discounts today, especially if you don't mind redeeming a printable coupon in-store. But judging from the offers we saw on December 26 last year, several of those sales will be better come January. For example, Old Navy offered a coupon for $10 off $50 purchases this time last year, but then took a full 25% off sitewide with no minimum purchase required a few weeks later. Pay close attention to our price comparison statements in today's deals; if the discount has been offered recently, there's a good chance you might see something stronger next month.
January is also a good time to look into fitness equipment. A popular New Year's resolution is to get in shape, and both gyms and fitness gear manufacturers aim to lure shoppers into using their products or services to accomplish this goal. As a result, we saw several special coupons and sales online in both January and February for equipment and training DVDs. We also saw another spike in top-shelf fitness deals again over the summer, likely another time when the seasonality spurs vows to lose weight.
Many electronics, too, will see deeper discounts in the coming months. Numerous manufacturers will announce new products at CES in January, which means retailers will begin trying to move old inventory to make room for new releases. HDTVs, home theater systems, and gadgets like GPS units will thus start to see clearance price cuts that will make the most of your gift card.
Another popular category with which to use a gift card is for MP3 downloads. If you're shopping at Amazon, be sure to shop the site's monthly $5 album sale. Unlike a bargin bin at a CD store (remember those?), Amazon's sales actually discount titles you want, ranging from pop favorites like Lady Gaga to well-known indie darlings like The Arcade Fire. If you can wait until November, the store discounts such albums to as low as $1 to $3. iTunes can be a little bit more difficult to predict as far as music sales go, because they don't openly advertise markdowns.
Even though in general it pays to wait to use your gift card to shop for these categories, you might still find an excellent deal or two during the after-Christmas sales that catch your eye. We thus recommend that you pay attention to our Editors' Choice listings, and if any are marked as all-time low discounts, it's probably worth scratching off that PIN.
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Front page photo credit: Bernardo PTA
Photo credits top to bottom: Overstock.com and UPlaya Blog
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