Best Buy Open Box Deals: What 5,105 Live Listings Show (2026)
Most Best Buy open-box advice is general: check the condition grade, inspect the box, open box is “up to” some percent off. None of it tells you what a normal open-box discount looks like for a laptop versus a pair of headphones, or when the open-box price is likely to get cheaper.
We track Best Buy’s open-box catalog continuously: every open-box SKU, every condition grade, and what the same item costs new on the same day. On September 30, 2026 that was 5,105 live open-box listings. This post is what that data says.
How much is Best Buy open box actually discounted?
We compare the cheapest open-box grade you can buy against what Best Buy charges for the same item new that day, not the original MSRP. That is the comparison that matters at checkout.
Across all 5,105 listings, the median open-box discount is 26.7%. The median dollar saving is $23, which is small because the catalog is full of cheap accessories.
| Discount vs new | Share of listings |
|---|---|
| Under 10% | 8.6% |
| 10-20% | 24.0% |
| 20-30% | 22.4% |
| 30-50% | 28.4% |
| 50% or more | 16.5% |
The 50%-plus bucket sounds exciting, but it is mostly phone cases, cables, and car installation parts. The big-ticket categories live in the 10-30% band.
Open box discount by category
This is where the averages start to be useful. Median and 90th percentile discount, plus the median dollars saved, by product type:
| Category | Listings | Median discount | Top 10% get | Median $ saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MacBooks | 54 | 12.5% | 19.8%+ | $277 |
| Smartwatches | 129 | 13.0% | 48.0%+ | $45 |
| Tablets | 151 | 17.7% | 41.2%+ | $132 |
| Windows & gaming laptops | 295 | 23.4% | 49.6%+ | $187 |
| Speakers & audio | 780 | 23.3% | 50.7%+ | $75 |
| Cameras & drones | 229 | 26.3% | 41.7%+ | $42 |
| Gaming | 312 | 26.3% | 49.8%+ | $20 |
| Headphones | 306 | 28.6% | 57.4%+ | $43 |
| Monitors | 158 | 30.0% | 44.1%+ | $28 |
| Appliances & vacuums | 90 | 31.3% | 75.2%+ | $87 |
| Cases, cables & install parts | 1,568 | 35.0% | 65.0%+ | $11 |
Flat-screen TVs sit in the middle: 91 listings with a median discount of 20.7%.
Three things stand out:
- Apple holds its value in open box too. A MacBook’s median discount is 12.5%, and even the best 10% of MacBook listings barely clear 20%. You still save the most dollars there ($277 median) because the price is high, but do not expect a 30%-off MacBook.
- Windows laptops are the sweet spot for dollars. Nearly double the MacBook percentage, a $187 median saving, and one listing in ten is close to half off.
- Small appliances and vacuums have the widest range. The median is 31%, and the top tenth is 75% off or more. That spread is where checking often pays.
A few real listings from September 30, to make the numbers concrete:
- LG 48” C6 OLED (2026): open box $783.99 to $861.99 depending on grade, $1,199.99 new.
- Apple MacBook Air 15” M5: open box $1,213.99 to $1,303.99, $1,499 new.
- Sony Alpha 6100 two-lens kit: open box $798.99 to $911.99, $1,199.99 new.
Prices move, so treat those as examples of the shape, not current quotes.
The open-box price follows the new price
This is the most useful thing in the data, and we have not seen it written anywhere else.
Between September 22 and 30 we logged every price change on Best Buy’s open-box SKUs. When the new price of an item dropped, the open-box price dropped in the same scan 482 times out of 492 (98%). When the new price went up, the open-box price went up too, 446 times out of 452 (99%).
In other words, Best Buy prices open box relative to the current new price. When the new item goes on sale, open box gets cheaper with it. When the sale ends, open box goes back up.
What to do with this: the best time to buy open box is when the new item is on sale. Waiting for a sale on the new item and then picking up open box stacks both discounts: the sale lowers the base, and the open-box discount comes off the lower base. Buying open box at full new price means you only get one of them.
There is a second kind of open-box drop that has nothing to do with the new price. In the same window we logged 719 open-box price cuts where the new price did not move at all. Because the listing price is the cheapest grade you can buy, that happens when a cheaper condition grade comes into stock or Best Buy reprices a grade. Those are the drops a price alert catches and a weekly glance misses.
Condition grades: how much does Excellent cost over Fair?
Best Buy sells open box in condition grades (Excellent, Good, and Fair), each at its own price. 85% of live listings (4,332 of 5,105) had more than one grade available at once.
The median gap between the cheapest and the most expensive grade on the same item is 9.3%. On items that cost more than $500 new, that is about $57.
So the grade matters less than people think. Going from Excellent to Fair usually saves you under 10%, while the new-price-sale effect above can move the whole ladder by more than that. Pick the grade by how much cosmetic wear you will tolerate, and pick the timing by the new price. (Refurbished grades on Back Market behave differently: there the lower grade is sometimes not cheaper at all. See Back Market grades.)
Open box pricing is national, availability is not
We tested whether open-box prices differ by store: 60 SKUs checked from California, Texas, and New York, plus 5 SKUs across 7 stores including Anchorage and Hawaii. Every price was identical. There is no cheaper open-box price at another store to hunt for.
What does vary is whether you can get it. Each listing is either buyable online, available in stores only, or sold out, and that status differed by location for 3 of the 60 SKUs (5%). On September 30, 3,371 of our live listings were buyable online, 168 were in-store only, and 72 were sold out.
What to do with this: do not drive to a second store for a better price. Do check other stores when a listing says in-store only near you and you want it shipped or picked up elsewhere.
Open box is not a one-time deal
At the SKU level, open box keeps coming back. Of the 2,656 SKUs we first saw with open-box stock 30 to 60 days ago, 2,279 (86%) still had open-box stock this week. Individual units sell, but returns keep refilling the listing.
That changes the math on waiting. For most items, passing on today’s open box does not mean losing the chance. It means waiting for the next unit, ideally during a sale on the new model.
A workflow that fits the data
- Know the category norm. 12% off a MacBook is normal. 12% off headphones is a bad deal.
- Watch the new price, not only the open-box price. When the new item goes on sale, open box follows within the same day.
- Pick the grade by condition, not price. The grade gap is usually under 10%.
- Do not shop around between stores for price. It is the same everywhere. Shop around for availability.
- Set an alert instead of checking daily. The drops that matter most, a cheaper grade appearing, happen without any sale to warn you.
We run this tracking automatically. The live Best Buy feed, sorted by biggest discount, is at Best Buy deals, and any Best Buy product’s price history is on the Best Buy price tracker. For how Best Buy’s regular (not open-box) markdowns behave over time, see Best Buy price history.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much cheaper is open box at Best Buy?
The median open-box listing is 26.7% below what the same item costs new that day. It varies a lot by category: about 12.5% for MacBooks, 23% for Windows laptops and speakers, 29% for headphones, and 35% for accessories.
Is Best Buy open box cheaper at some stores?
No. We checked open-box prices across states and stores, including Alaska and Hawaii, and every price was identical. Availability differs by store, but the price does not.
When is the best time to buy open box at Best Buy?
When the new version of the item is on sale. Open-box prices moved with the new price 98% of the time in our data, so a sale on the new item makes open box cheaper too.
What is the difference between Excellent, Good and Fair open box?
They are condition grades, each priced separately. The median price gap between the cheapest and the most expensive grade on the same item is about 9%, or around $57 on items over $500 new.
How often does Best Buy get new open-box stock?
Often. 86% of the SKUs we first saw with open-box stock one to two months ago still had open-box units available this week, because returns keep refilling the listing.