Buying decision

Where and When to Buy a TV

Last verified September 14, 2026 · How we are paid

The short answer

A TV is the rare thing where waiting really does pay. November is the low of the year, the Super Bowl run-up is second, and spring clears last year's sets.

Where to buy

Costco, if there is one near you. Ninety days to return a TV and a free second year of warranty are worth more than a few points off something you keep for a decade. ^{4
5}

When to buy

November, if you can wait. Black Friday is the year's low and the Super Bowl run-up is second. If you cannot wait, March to May, when last year's models are cleared, is the most reliable saving. ^{8
9}

Codes

None. We found no TV code at Costco, LG, Samsung, TCL or Electronic Express when we checked on September 1, 2026. The money was already off the sticker. ^{1
2
3
4
7}

Cards

The Costco Anywhere Visa returns 2% on Costco purchases, no annual fee, membership required. Read Samsung's financing before you take it: Affirm is advertised at 0-36% APR, so 0% is the best case, not the offer. ^{2
6}

Where to buy it

Costco ^{4
5}
—

—

Best terms of anyone here, and they cost nothing. Costco accepts TV returns within 90 days, and extends the maker's warranty to two years free. On a $1,500 set that second year is worth more than most holiday discounts.

Membership required, and selection is narrow: you buy what is in the warehouse that week, not the model you researched. We could not read Costco's own TV listings or prices, because costco.com blocks us. The two policies above come from its help centre, which does not.
LG ¹
—

—

Buying direct from the maker. LG's 2026 Labor Day OLED deal was the only TV sale here with a printed end date, and it ran through September 13: up to 30% off a bestselling OLED, which LG said was lower than its own Fourth of July pricing, plus free installation and a free wall mount or stand on select sets. It also advertised up to $1000 off big-screen models.

The 30% was a ceiling on bestsellers, not the catalogue, and the free mount covered select TVs only. LG ran a separate appliance promotion on the same page, and that one was not a TV offer.
Samsung ²
—

—

In its 2026 Labor Day Savings, as of September 1, Samsung took up to $1,000 off the Micro RGB R95H, $700 off the OLED S95H, $600 off the Neo QLED QN80H, $400 off The Frame Pro and $200 off the Mini LED M80H. Trade in an old set for credit toward the new one.

When we checked on September 1, 2026, the offers page mixed live promotions with expired game-day ones under an Expired badge, and posted no end date for the live ones. Read the badge before the number.
TCL ³
—

—

The biggest headline percentage of anyone when we checked on September 1, 2026: an End of Summer Sale at up to 60% off. If your budget is the constraint rather than the panel, start here rather than with the premium brands.

That sale posted no end date and no code, and the words Labor Day appeared nowhere on the page, so it was summer stock clearing rather than a holiday event. Sixty percent was a ceiling across the range, not a discount you could count on.
Electronic Express ^{7
11}
2% ◆

—

A regional chain worth a quote if the big names are out of stock. It advertises that it guarantees the lowest prices, and free shipping delivered in two days or less.

Checked September 25, 2026: cashback here is 2%, through the Electronic Express store page on Tenmomo; open the store from that page first, or the order cannot be tracked to you. An older record of this chain sat on an affiliate network that has delinked us, and that one pays nothing.

◆ Cashback rates and codes without a footnote come from Tenmomo's own program data. We read it again on the date under Last verified, unless the row's own footnote gives a later date.

When to buy it

Labor Day weekend, early September: Brand-direct sales, most of them undated. In the 2026 Labor Day sales only LG printed an end date, September 13. Samsung posted Labor Day Savings with no end date, and TCL ran an End of Summer Sale that was also undated and did not mention Labor Day at all. ^{1
2
3
9}
Black Friday to Cyber Monday, November 27-30, 2026: The low of the year. Consumer Reports pricing data, cited by BGR, shows November delivering the largest TV discounts of any month. Thanksgiving falls on November 26, so Black Friday is the 27th. ^{8
9}
One to two weeks before Black Friday: Retailers open their November pricing early. If you want November money without the November stock problem, this is the window rather than the Friday itself. ⁸
The two weeks before the Super Bowl, early February: Second best of the year. Retailers pair clearance on the outgoing models with big-screen marketing, and flagship sets reach some of their lowest prices of the cycle. ⁸
March through May, after the new models ship: Makers show next year's sets at CES in January and ship them in spring. Retailers then cut last year's models to clear the floor. Those sets are still excellent and considerably cheaper, which is the single most reliable saving on this page. ⁸

The long answer

Waiting pays more on a TV than on almost anything else you buy

Most categories reward patience by a few percent. Televisions reward it by a model year. Consumer Reports pricing trends, as reported by BGR in January 2026, put November at the largest discounts of the year, with a second drop around the Super Bowl. Underneath both sits the model cycle: new sets are announced at CES in January and reach shops in spring, and the outgoing model gets cut to make room. That set is the same panel it was in December. If your current TV still works, the question is not which sale to buy in, it is whether you can hold until November. ⁸

The free second year is the largest number on this page

Costco extends the manufacturer's warranty to two years, free, on televisions, projectors, computers and major appliances, and it accepts returns on televisions within 90 days. Neither is a discount, so neither shows up when you compare prices, and both are worth real money on a purchase you keep for eight or ten years. Weigh that against a holiday percentage before you decide the percentage wins. The catch is selection: a warehouse carries what it carries. ^{4
5}

Read the badge before you read the discount

Samsung's TV offers page, when we checked on September 1, 2026, carried live Labor Day savings and expired game-day promotions in the same scroll. The extra 10% off Micro RGB, a $700 OLED card and a $200 Mini LED card all sat under an Expired badge, while the Labor Day Savings block below listed its numbers without one. A summary of that page, human or machine, will happily report the expired offer as available. A promotions page works like a carousel, and every number on this entry was checked against the page bytes for that reason. ²

In the 2026 Labor Day sales, only one seller printed an end date

LG printed September 13. Samsung and TCL printed nothing, and Costco was not running a dated TV event at all. That asymmetry matters more than it looks: an undated sale cannot create urgency honestly, and it also cannot be relied on to still be there next weekend. ^{1
2
3}

Zero percent is the top of a range, not the offer

Samsung advertises financing through Affirm at 0-36% APR. That is not a typo and it is not unusual: the headline rate is what the best-qualified applicant sees, and the spread above it is where most people land. Separately, watch for anything worded as no interest if paid in full, which is deferred interest rather than a rate. The CFPB is blunt about how that ends: "you would owe all of the interest back to the original date of the charge." On a $2,000 television, financing chosen carelessly costs more than every discount on this page combined. ^{2
10}

Questions people ask

When is the best time to buy a TV?

November. Consumer Reports pricing data, reported by BGR, puts the largest discounts of the year in that month, and Black Friday 2026 falls on November 27. The two weeks before the Super Bowl come second. ^{8
9}

When do TVs go on sale?

Four times a year that matter: November, the Super Bowl run-up in early February, spring clearance from March to May as new models ship, and holiday weekends. The spring window is the quiet one and it is often the best value. ⁸

Where is the best place to buy a TV?

Costco for the terms, if the model you want is in the warehouse: 90-day returns and a free second year of warranty. TCL if the budget is what is binding. ^{3
4
5}

Is there a promo code for a TV?

We found none. Not at Costco, LG, Samsung, TCL or Electronic Express. TV discounts are applied to the price rather than typed at checkout, so a site offering you a code is selling you a click. ^{1
2
3
4
7}

Should I buy last year's model?

Usually yes. New sets are shown at CES in January and ship in spring, and retailers cut the outgoing model to clear space. It is the same panel at a considerably lower price, which is why March to May is a real window. ⁸

Does Costco really extend the warranty?

Yes, in writing, and televisions are named. Costco extends the manufacturer's warranty up to two years from purchase, or from delivery if you bought online, on televisions, projectors, computers and major appliances. ⁵

How we are paid

One seller on this page pays us: Electronic Express, whose commission is where the 2% cashback in its row comes from. With Costco and TCL we have no commercial relationship at all. With LG and Samsung we have none for a US TV: our LG programmes are all non-US stores (Singapore, Thailand, Chile and Peru), and our only Samsung one is its business-display arm. Sony is a programme we joined on an affiliate network that has since delinked us, so we earn nothing there and cannot pay cashback. Sony is also absent from the table for a second reason: its own US electronics site blocks us, so we could not verify a single fact about its TVs and would rather list nothing than list something we had not read. The order of this table is what you keep rather than what is advertised, which is why Costco leads even without a TV sale running: ninety days of returns and a free second year outlast a holiday percentage.

What we don't cover

Best Buy. Every attempt to read it failed, by two different clients. For the question "best place to buy a TV" that is the single biggest hole in this page, and it is a gap in our access rather than a judgement about the retailer.
Amazon, Walmart, Crutchfield, Abt and B&H. All five blocked us too. Walmart served a bot check rather than a page.
Sony. Its US electronics site returned 403, so nothing about its TVs is on this page.
Open-box and refurbished grading. Best Buy runs the largest open-box programme in the category and we could not read a word of it, so we say nothing about what the grades mean or what they save.
Actual prices. Every figure here is a discount claim from a seller, not a price we watched over time. We do not track TV prices and cannot tell you whether today is genuinely low for a specific model.
What other cashback sites pay on TVs. We do not track their rates and cannot tell you whether one beats zero, which is what we are offering here.
Card rewards beyond the Costco Anywhere Visa. We have no card database, so retailer store cards and their financing offers are outside what we can check.
Delivery, wall mounting and haul-away costs. LG bundles installation into some offers; nobody else on this page states a price, and it can run into the hundreds.
Whether these windows repeat. Our timing sources describe the industry cycle and last year's data. That is evidence, not a promise about 2027.
Picture quality. We do not test televisions. Every line here is about price, timing and terms.

The short answer

Where to buy it

Costco 4 5

LG 1

Samsung 2

TCL 3

Electronic Express 7 11

When to buy it

The long answer

Waiting pays more on a TV than on almost anything else you buy

The free second year is the largest number on this page

Read the badge before you read the discount

In the 2026 Labor Day sales, only one seller printed an end date

Zero percent is the top of a range, not the offer

Questions people ask

When is the best time to buy a TV?

When do TVs go on sale?

Where is the best place to buy a TV?

Is there a promo code for a TV?

Should I buy last year's model?

Does Costco really extend the warranty?

How we are paid

What we don't cover

Sources

Related on Tenmomo

Costco ^{4
5}

LG ¹

Samsung ²

TCL ³

Electronic Express ^{7
11}