CLEVELAND - Despite February being only 29 days long, it doesn't mean there's a shortage of deals. Dealnews just released its list of sales, coupons and individual products from years past.
If you're curious about gifts for Valentine's Day, or prices on electronics, outerwear and more, keep reading.
Valentine's Day deals are predictably not great
Since this is the time of year in which jewelry, flowers and perfume are in their highest in demand, it shouldn't surprise anyone that you probably won't get the best price possible on these items. Perfumes, for example, generally see better discounts in late February, after Valentine's Day, and March. That's because there's less incentive for retailers to offer truly great deals on these items when they're selling so well due to circumstance. Try buying your sweetheart a less routine Valentine's Day gift in a category that's more likely to see a fair discount.
Presidents Day sales
The best part about a holiday weekend isn't necessarily the day off, but rather the inevitable sales that result. You can expect quite a few Presidents Day sales during the three day weekend that take as much as 80 percent off on, typically, a plethora of apparel as well as tools, bedding and furniture. Some retailers will offer deeper discounts on existing sales, while others will offer a modest coupon (likely 20 to 30 percent off) that is applicable site wide. Look to clothing and department stores for a big Presidents Day sale push.
Tablet time
Rumors continue to swirl about the release date of the iPad 3, and many people believe that it will be announced at the end of February. If that is indeed the case, then we'll likely see immediate markdowns on the iPad 2 from resellers as well as substantial cuts on refurbished iPad 2 units from Apple directly.
Electronics clearance sales
As new electronics unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) begin to hit shelves, retailers make room for them by offering discounts on old stock. This effort continues in February, and includes markdowns on electronics like GPS units and audio equipment — the latter of which we've already started to see excellent deals on.
Digital cameras
Common logic dictates that we'd similarly see the best deals of the year on digital cameras during the month of February, as retailers clear camera inventory post-CES. However, our deal archives paint a different picture. Although we've seen some excellent bargains during the month of February, these discounts and promotions have paled in comparison to November and December in terms of Editors' Choice-caliber offers. In the past two years, both of these later months have each seen roughly four times as many top deals than February.
Outerwear
Winter apparel will see the beginning of its greatest discounts of the season, and these sales will continue through February, though the selection may be less robust. In particular, look for winter coats. The mild winter has reportedly left retailers with massive amounts of unsold inventory, therefore making this perhaps one of the best years to get a deal on a late-in-the-season coat. If you've been putting off replacing your tried-and-true wool or down coat, February and March will be excellent months to snag a deal.
Vacations to places for skiing
Since snow has been hard to come by this winter, the number of travelers booking trips to ski resort towns has been unusually low. Although numerous locations recently received a fresh dusting of powder, the ski season has been damaged due to mild weather. We've already seen an influx of special discounts offered on vacations and hotels in ski towns like Keystone, Colorado; Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, and more, as they try to salvage an extremely weak tourist season.
Wait until March to catch up on movies
Throughout the year, we tend to see daily deal sites discount bulk movie tickets, and cinema chains often offer promotions for ticket sales as well. But strangely enough, these types of deal have largely been missing in February for the past two years; in February 2011, we didn't see a single deal for discounted movie vouchers. Perhaps theaters believe the upcoming Academy Awards is enough of an impetus for consumers to get into their seats. That said, in 2010, we did see a deal from AMC to watch all 10 Oscar-nominated films for $40, but that was the lone offer.
Go big on HDTVs
Unfortunately, the head-turning deals we saw on 42" LCD HDTVs in November and December came to a quicker-than-expected end in January as prices on name-brand and third-tier 42" sets jumped back to their pre-September averages. Likewise, 3D 55" LCDs slowly made the transition from $999 back to $1,337. But that doesn't mean TVs should be off your radar just yet.
Big-screen TVs — those in the 55" and 60" category — are still coming in at aggressive price points. Deals on 55" name-brand LCDs, for instance, hit $800 in December (an all-time low) and repeated that number in January, meaning we could
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