You still may be blurry-eyed from the holidays, but expert shoppers know January is the time for deals found no other time of the year. Brent Shelton, the online shopping guru for FatWallet.com, says if you don't mind last year's model, January is the best time to save on technology, including 4K televisions, smart watches, fitness trackers, wireless accessories and video game bundles.
"What happens is we come out of a very busy holiday season and there's still a lot of inventory left on retailers' shelves," he says. "This also collides with the fact that consumer electronics shows happen in January and we also have smart phone shows and video game shows. All the new tech is getting released, or at least talked about, in January."
Not only are retailers looking at clearing out 2016 merchandise, Shelton says they're also looking forward. They know it's no longer in bad taste to give tech on Valentine's Day - which is right around the corner - so he says consumers can expect the biggest discounts toward the end of the month.
Two other categories of goods to grab during January are linens and tax software, he says.
"Traditionally, January white sales bring big discounts up to 50 percent off quality sheets, towels, even window treatments and other textiles for the home," he says. "And then another item, you want to look for tax software deals mid- to late-January when the tax software companies like H&R Block and TurboTax will really have some excellent deals on their latest version of software."
Shelton says the best deals for linen and software sales are traditionally found online.
However, tech deals will depend on what's left on the shelves, so he advises buying in-store. Plus, he says, if the tech is new to you, in-store allows you to try before you buy.
So, you may wonder whether you wasted money buying tech on Cyber Monday. Not at all, Shelton says. The tech deals offered during January are different.
"Some items are just getting replaced with new technology, so those prices are going to come down or at least remain at those holiday levels, such as video game bundles for the new Xbox One S and PS4 Slim," Shelton says. "There's new video game consoles coming out this year, so that's going to keep those prices nice and low throughout the month of January."
