When are board games on sale you ask? The answer is very simple and it surrounds the massive retail elephant in the room. The time to buy board games is most certainly on Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and The holiday “Amazon Holiday Deals” Toy Day. There are many different online board game sellers, but none of them have the leverage of Amazon in terms of a mass sale. What you do get from some of the other shops are specialized deals from publishers or bigger group orders that might ultimately save you via some shipping synergy (though good luck getting it the next day.
The smaller online shops can try but no one can mess with the behemoth that is Amazon. The war for where you are buying your games has become online versus the FLGS (friendly local game shop), the symbolic war that seems to be happening in everything. As always, Ebay remains the king of resell, especially since board games are easy to ship.
THE BOARD GAME SELLERS
ONLINE
- Amazon
- Ebay
- Miniature Market
- Cool Stuff Inc
- Game Nerdz
- Cardhaus
- Macronova Games
- Time Well Spent Games
- Board Game Co
BRICK AND MORTAR
THE TREND
Clearly trends very much affect the question of when are board games on sale. Like clockwork, traffic and interest on board games acts the exact same every year and it very much correlates to human behavior. Board Games are fairly stable and then from the end of November through the end of the year, there is a giant spike that corresponds to the holidays (including the most popular shopping holiday).
The rest of the year changes are fairly indistinguishable next to this change, but you also see a dip at the beginning of the year when people are forced to go back to their real lives, and additional interest in the summer when kids and adults and have more on their hands.
Trend of “Board Games” | Source: Google Trends
One interesting and scary thing that you can see in the above chart is the effect the Covid-19 virus has had on board games. This spike is very timely to 2020 and is a direct result of so many people staying home and needing the perfect activities to either play solo or with the people they are trapped with. It is a scary time and unbelievable to see such a massive large scale jump because of all this.
The Coronavirus has taken its toll on board game nights, but luckily some amazing online platforms and creative zoom conference calling has continued to make things possible. Unfortunately, this is not a time when board games are on sale, but many of the aforementioned online platforms are doing deals to help people get started.
THE TIMES – WHEN ARE BOARD GAMES ON SALE?
Prime Day (mid-July)
Worldwide Amazon Holiday that is about giving unreal deals on everything. Only on their site.
Black Friday (late Nov)
An American shopping holiday following Thanksgiving. Everywhere, absolutely everywhere.
Cyber Monday (late Nov)
A creation due to a need for the sequel to Black Friday, coming four days later. Like it’s prequel, everywhere, absolutely everywhere.
Holiday Deals Toy Day (mid-Dec)
Amazon Cashing In on Peak of Gift Buying. Only on their site. It is toy specific so there is usually the widest array of choices if you want to when are board games on sale out of these options.
*Amazon almost always matches or wins online, but Walmart.com has been known to go toe to toe with them around the holiday time.
IN CLOSING – WHEN SHOULD YOU BUY BOARD GAMES
Keeping all this in mind, the definitive answer to when are board games on sale and when should you buy board games is to wait for these key days. There may be a one off deal here and there, but it is absolutely worth the wait. Then you do what we do, buy 20 or so games.
The deals are insane, they could be as much as 60 – 80% off and it is always on a wide range of titles, not just the stuff people want to unload. Board Games go on sale mostly at the end of the year, so it might be hard to wait, but thank goodness for Prime Day.
As an aside, during these times when we see the Covid-19 virus effecting board games and every aspect of social life, remember to stay positive and use all this wonderful technology we cram in our faces nonstop to stay in touch with important people in your life, whoever they are. Now is in fact a great time to buy board games.
SEE CURRENT DEALS ON AMAZON
If you want, you can also get free board games if you check out our board game giveaways database with all the best contests from around the web.
