American Thanksgiving’s Black Friday sales, the week of 20th November, is the best times for modelers to save on 10% and upwards discounts.
There are usually three sales a year for modelers that most vendors participate…Spring/Summer, Black Friday, and Christmas. But some vendors only have one sale a year and that is Black Friday (week or weekend) because there is no obligation for a Spring/Summer sale (some vendors copy one another and have the Spring/Summer sale) and many vendors take Christmas and New Year off so there might be an online Christmas sale, but no one in store to ship your item(s) until 2024 (And sometimes the Christmas stock is low or Sold Out because of November’s Black Friday’s sale). Thus, November’s Black Friday week(end) is the best time to save on kits, paints, tools, etc.
Check your vendors’ Facebook page for sale announcements and discount rate…or email them. You waited all this year for a sale, but do not wait for the Christmas sale.
NOTE: Some online vendors DO NOT have any sales because they believe that their prices are low enough already, so they never have any holiday sales. Best to email and ask if you’re wondering instead of waiting.
Thanks @Trisaw but unfortunately for those of us in the antipodes a good sale from a US supplier still only goes a small way to negating the cost of post and transport. I’ve now had to really factor in to my purchase desires whether shipping is free (such as offered on some Dragon products by Cyberhobby) or can be reduced by bundling purchases as opposed to just finding what I want and getting it ‘cause I really need another Mk IV’.
The Black Friday sales also extend to many shops and vendors in Europe and some online hobby shops in Asia. One has to look for these sales unless one gets an email newsletter.
Again, most times the posts are made on the online stores Facebook pages or home page of the websites. One can save 10-20% or more. Vendors have been doing year-end sales for years and many of the popular paint, resin, and online hobby shops around the world abide by two sales, American Thanksgiving and around Christmas. However, many shops take Christmas vacation so it’s Black Friday, or the week of Thanksgiving, that has the best sale and shipping times. By the time Christmas rolls around, stocks are depleted and many vendors take vacation so they won’t ship any bought kits until the New Year.
Yep we have some ‘Black Friday’ sales here in Oz but mainly focused on clothing and entertainment stores as well as cashing into online overseas sales. It really only kicked off here in 2010 but it is still limited.
There were some initial issues with the name owing to it previously referring to bushfires that killed about 70 people and burned out nearly 5 million acres in 1938/1939 (similar issue too with the name I think in the US although I believe that was referring to a major financial collapse in the late 1800s but I may be wrong). I think the discounts on offer for the in-store sales are also less than those available in the US.
USA Gundam Store 20% off Black Friday and 15% off first week of December.
AK-Interactive 20% off all products
MIG Ammo 20-30% off
Green Stuff World 20% off
When buying, PLEASE be aware of shipping costs and conditions such as minimum expenditure amount and if you need to enter in a coupon code upon checkout. Nonetheless, Black Friday deals are the best time to save!
