What better time to find the best binocular deals than on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Black Friday, which this year falls on November 24th 2023, is widely considered as the start of the holiday shopping season. Millions of consumers shop online and in stores for significant discounts on a wide range of merchandise.
Cyber Monday, the Monday after Black Friday, is the busiest day of online shopping each year. Retailers offer big discounts to lure shoppers, so it's a great time to find deals. We expect to see good binoculars deals, but also discounts on telescopes, the best cameras and camera drones, too.
Due to the rising cost of living, many people have been forced to make cuts or spend more carefully, often meaning cutting back on gear for interests and hobbies. Sales events are highlighted in the calendar for many people for this reason, especially tech lovers (as this tends to be where a lot of the big savings can be made). This includes astronomers and skywatchers, birdwatchers and wildlife enthusiasts who will likely wait until such an event to upgrade their gear, including Binoculars.
Retailers know this, so all battle it out to offer the most attractive deals to get you to part with their cash at their store. Space.com covered the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in 2022 (just like we have for many years before that), and we're confident there are big savings to be had across the board this year from telescopes, rangefinders and binoculars to cameras, lenses, power banks, camera drones and star projectors.
We will discuss the pros and cons of spending during these high-profile sale events, demonstrate some of the best deals we found last Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and we'll showcase some pre-Black Friday deals, some of which are already active.
Best Pre-Black Friday deals
Why buy binoculars on Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
With so many discounts and big sales events throughout the year, timing is important to ensure you find the best, genuine deals on binoculars, including night vision binoculars and rangefinders. It's also a good time to purchase other useful accessories such as tripods and power banks. Black Friday/Cyber Monday are undoubtedly the biggest sales events of the year, with other events like Amazon Prime Day and Amazon Prime Big Deals days dotted throughout the year.
We keep all our guides like the best binoculars and best telescopes for kids updated and check stock levels at various retailers monthly. We've reviewed many of our favorite models to give you the best idea of what you're purchasing before you make the leap — this is especially handy if you're shopping online. We're thankful so many deals can be found online; there is no more queuing outside shop doors, battling to grab the product you want before someone else does, or watching out for pickpockets in crowds. You can make huge savings from your sofa or office desk during your lunch break.
It's worth highlighting that as well as shipping costs, the costs of raw materials found in binoculars, such as magnesium, aluminum and stainless steel have all risen — having a knock-on effect on the price you'll pay as the end consumer. This is even more reason to buy during these sales events — though the discounts on binoculars might not be as big as you hope.
Why Black Friday and not Amazon Prime Day?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are sales events adopted by most major and independent retailers across many countries in the West. Amazon Prime Day is, as the name suggests, Amazon-centric, although competing retailers increasingly hop on the bandwagon to try and get you to spend your hard-earned cash with them. Discounts on Amazon Prime Day (and other similarly named sales) are only for Amazon Prime members, so you won't benefit unless you're a monthly subscriber.
It can be tempting to want to hold out for a better discount, but these particular sales events are pretty far apart; the next Prime Day (unless they add another one in, which they could do at any point) will likely be in July 2024.
You might get lucky during the January sales as retailers look to clear out excess stock after the Thanksgiving and Christmas peak trading times. The savings are less likely to be as abundant in January as it depends on individual retailers' stock — if they've had a bumper holiday period, they'll unlikely have too much excess stock to shift. Binoculars are small, so easy to store (unlike telescopes) so there's also not such a rush for retailers to 'make space'. Similarly, binoculars are more of a 'year-round' product, whereas telescopes are more in demand during the darker months, and retailers know this, so they don't 'have to' offer discounts at specific times to move stock.
Should I wait for Black Friday?
If you've made it this far through the year without buying the binoculars of your dreams, it could really pay to wait; Black Friday/Cyber Monday are now less than a month away. We can't guarantee that the pair you want will be discounted, but there's a good chance they will be, so hold on just that bit longer.
Some retailers begin their sales the week or weeks before Black Friday and extend them throughout the holiday season to entice consumers to spend more. We urge you to regularly check the price of the product you want in the run-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday — if it drops to a price you're comfortable with, then go for it, especially if you can resist checking back post-purchase. No one likes to buy something only to see it cheaper later on.
How to find the best deals
Check back here! We continually seek out the best telescope deals and share the best deals with our Space.com readers, even more so during sales events, including the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where we will have a whole dedicated team of tech experts and bargain hunters working around the clock to discover and share the best, genuine deals from several online retailers including Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, Walmart, Newegg and more.
There are already several enticing deals around; retailers know that consumers will already be doing their homework, researching products and making their Black Friday/Cyber Monday wishlists ahead of time; we certainly are! Check out our binocular deals page for the best deals live right now.
What to expect this Black Friday
Here are some binocular deals from the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday sales in 2022 so you know what kind of deals you can expect to see this year.
• Celestron Outland X 8x42: Was $99.95 and the 2022 sale price was $69.94. Its current listing price on Amazon is $99.95
• Celestron SkyMaster 18-40x80: Was $219.95 and the 2022 sale price was $169.96. Its current listing price on Amazon is $227.24
• Nikon ProStaff 3S: Was $129.95 and the 2022 sale price was $99.99. Its current listing price on Amazon is $119.95
• Celestron SkyMaster 15x70: Was $119.95 and the 2022 sale price was $74.99. Its current listing price on Amazon is $105.99
Though we can expect to see some genuinely good deals, you need to remember not to get caught up in the sales hype and spend unnecessarily. We'd recommend taking time before the event to research and plan exactly what you want. We have plenty of guides to help, especially our round-up of the best binoculars guides to help you make an informed decision. Once you've decided what you want, stick to that on the day.
It is very easy to get distracted by the discounts and big 'flash offer' banners. It's not a good buy if you didn't want it in the first place. There is no use really wanting Nikon binoculars and ending up with another brand just because the deal looked good, only to regret it later.
Take note of the price of the binoculars (or a selection of binoculars you'd be happy with) now, ahead of the event. It's no secret that retailers bump their pre-sales prices or mark up the 'before' price so the discount looks more enticing on the day. Don't feel hurried into buying something if the deal is disingenuous, even with the big clock counting away the seconds at the top of the page.
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