If you are on the market for a new TV, you might want to know when is the best time to buy one – are the post-Christmas sales offering the best deals or are the pre-Super Bowl deals better? Of course, if you are buying a second or third, small and rather cheap TV, then there is no need to hunt down for the best bargain, but if you are after a large LCD or plasma or a $3 000 3D TV, then buying at the right time could result in significant savings.

Christmas sales – this is the time, when many retailers compete for your dollar and these are the sales, when you might find some great deals. Many retailers slash their prices in order to attract customers and between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they are normally trying to sell as many high-priced items as possible. The post-Christmas sales, on the other hand, might or might not be a good time to buy a TV, depending on how well the merchants did during the holiday times – if they manage to sell most of their items during the Christmas sales, then there is no treason for them to offer bargains afterwards. However, the opposite is also valid and if the sales a poor during the holiday season, some retailers offer good deals right after Christmas or after New Years’ day.

Another way to pay less and obtain a decent TV is to purchase an older model – as soon as the merchants receive new inventory, they would try their best to unload the older models. If you are not interested in ultra-thin, Internet-enabled TV, then buying a year or two older model will still give you a top quality picture and sound and all the functions that you need. Often, these are the models, which you can find on sale in the beginning of the year or in the August-September period, when many of the merchants receive new inventory. If you happen to like the features of a TV, which had just been released, then waiting a few months is likely to get you the same TV at a lower price. According to many specialists, we are not likely to see any major improvements in the TV technology in the next year or two and buying an older model right now makes perfect sense.

The week before the Super Bowl has been always considered a good time to buy a TV since many retailers slash their prices by 20% and even 30%. However, if you wait just a bit longer, you might get the TV that you are after at even lower price – since the economy has not really picked up yet many of the retailers are expected to have leftovers that they are likely to mark down.

When it comes to buying a 3D TV, waiting a few more years might be the wiser approach, unless you have a few thousand dollars that you do not need. The interest in 3D home theatre setups seemed to have picked up after the release of Avatar, but the problem is that there is little 3D content and the 3D-ready television sets are excessively expensive. Most of them still require the use of special glasses for each user and these glasses alone cost $200 or more per pair. The technology is still in its infancy and the 3D Blu-ray disks titles are just a handful; some broadcasters have announced plans for releasing 3D TV programming, but at the time of this writing, there are only two 3D channels in the US, available to DirectTV subscribers.

Of course, waiting forever for newer, better, or cheaper models is pointless and the best time to buy a TV is when you need one. However, with some good planning and a bit of careful research, you can easily land a great deal, buy a decent TV, and get to keep some of your hard-earned money!