UPDATE: Nov. 13, 2023, 11:30 a.m. EST The new Best Buy Drops tab on the Best Buy app gives you a head’s up about upcoming new product drops, limited edition releases, and major discounts on high-profile items ahead of the holidays. This post has been updated to track the products dropping in the coming week.
When it comes to shopping, a scarcity mindset is just as convincing as that one friend who always enables you to buy something you don’t need. It’s why there’s often a timer breathing down your neck from the corner of the screen during a sitewide sale. It’s why Amazon’s invite-only Prime Day deals popped off (and why they’ll likely be back for Black Friday). It’s probably why Best Buy announced Best Buy Drops right before we hit the full-blown holiday shopping season — and we’re totally falling for it.
Best Buy unveils its Black Friday plans: Early access to deals starts right before Halloween
Best Buy Drops is a new shopping hack dedicated to giving shoppers a heads-up about upcoming high-profile items and deals in categories like gaming, smartwatches, toys, and more dropping at Best Buy in the next week. As long as you have the Best Buy mobile app, you can preview what’s coming on what day so that you’re ready to click “add to cart” when the item or deal goes live.
If a drop is currently live while you’re on the app, a status bar showing the percentage of inventory that has been claimed can give an idea of how fast you need to act. Once inventory for a certain drop is gone, it’s gone.
Credit: Screenshot / Mashable
The Drops tab also keeps a list of past drops, which have included a limited-edition PlayStation 5 Marvel’s Spider-Man bundle, Pokémon Squishmallows, a super cheap 50-inch QLED TV, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Even if you missed these, you at least have an idea of what similar items could pop up in the coming weeks. To look ahead, check the upcoming tab.
For extra cushion, you can opt-in to Drop Alerts for an extra reminder right before the drop of a product you care about goes live. Joining My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total will unlock even better discounts on drops than what the general public is getting.
What’s dropping at Best Buy Nov. 15 through Nov. 17
Best Buy is only revealing the names of the upcoming products — not their actual drop prices — in the drop preview tab, so any prices listed below are the current price of the said product as it is on Best Buy’s site pre-drop. Drops go live around 11 a.m. ET on the specified day (usually a string of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in any given week), and inventory is typically fully claimed by 5 p.m. that day.
Dropping: Nov. 15
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The internet is convinced that winter will be bad this year. While science says we don’t necessarily need to have Game of Thrones-level concerns, we will be dealing with El Niño, which could create wetter, snowier conditions in a lot of areas. If you do your own shoveling, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have en electric (and cordless) snow shovel on hand. This one from Snow Joe has a cleaning path of 13 inches and comes with an ice dozer.
Currently listed for $199 at full price, we’d like to see this Snow Joe shovel near the $149 or less mark.
Dropping: Nov. 16
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Continuing the handy work theme, the next drop is kind of like four drops in one. This firetruck red brushless 20V combo kit from Skil includes a drill driver, reciprocating saw, circular saw, and LED light, all of which are cordless and rechargeable through the two included batteries and a PWR jump charger.
The kit is currently seeing a small discount to $399.99, and drop pricing should shave at least another $100 off of that.
Dropping: Nov. 17
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If getting into streaming, podcasting, or Youtubing is one of your goals for 2024, a good USB condenser microphone is a must. The Yeti Nano is a solid wired option under $100 (hopefully well under $100 when it drops) offering clear broadcast 24-bit sound quality, both cardioid and omnidirectional pickup patterns, and a no-latency headphone output. Adding it to your Mac or PC setup is as easy as plugging it in.
