Buying

Prices, returns, warranties, and the rules shops write for themselves.

updated
Oct 17, 2026

The rules shops write for themselves: price matching, returns, open-box, warranties and deal timing. Each article reads the retailer's own policy pages, so you know what you can claim before you pay.

October 20265 articles

Opened earbuds: what each store’s return policy says, read 14 October 2026. Apple, 14 days: no earbud exclusion; engraved AirPods can be returned for a refund but not exchanged in store. Samsung, 15 days: 5% restocking fee on Buds unless damaged or defective. Best Buy, 15 days: bars opened items that “interact with bodily fluids”. Target, 30 days: opened items “may be denied”; Apple and Beats 14 days. Walmart, 30 days: no earbud exclusion named. B&H, 30 days: if not new, boxed and complete, a minimum 15% fee. Sony, 30 days: may charge 15% on any product. Bose, 30 days: no earbud exclusion named. Costco, window not stated: headphones are not on its 90-day electronics list.
Buying · Explainer

Opened Earbuds Go Back at Most Stores. Best Buy Is Unclear

Best Buy bars opened items that “interact with bodily fluids” without saying if earbuds count. Samsung keeps 5% of a Buds refund.

Restocking fees on electronics returns, from each store’s own return policy read 9 October 2026. Best Buy: 15% on opened cameras, drones, projectors and some other categories, and 45 dollars on opened activatable devices. Newegg: 15% on opened hard drives, motherboards, graphics cards, projectors and TVs. Target: up to 35 dollars on opened phones. B&H: a minimum 15% if return conditions are not met. None listed: Walmart, Costco, Apple and Micro Center, on their own sales. Footnote: Best Buy, Target and Newegg charge no fee on unopened returns.
Buying · Explainer

Best Buy, Target, B&H and Newegg Can Charge Restocking Fees

Walmart, Costco, Apple and Micro Center list no fee on their own sales. Best Buy, Target and Newegg waive theirs if the box is unopened.

Best Buy open-box against new: the three grades and what changes, from Best Buy’s pages read 9 October 2026. Excellent looks brand new, with all parts or a suitable replacement, sold in stores and online. Good has minor to moderate wear, and parts and box may be missing, sold in store or for Store Pickup. Fair has bigger scratches, dents or chips, with accessories commonly missing, sold in store or for Store Pickup. Return window: same as new. Price Match Guarantee: excluded. Manufacturer warranty: “in many cases”; check by model number.
Buying · Explainer

Open-Box at Best Buy Keeps Returns, Loses Price Match

Good and Fair grades are sold in store or for Store Pickup. Best Buy says the maker’s warranty comes “in many cases”.

Who matches a Prime-only price? From each retailer’s own price-match policy, read 5 October 2026. Best Buy: no; Amazon is on its list, but prices only members get are excluded. Walmart: no; its stores match Walmart.com only, and Walmart.com matches no one. Target: no; it matches Target’s own prices only, within 14 days of purchase. Footnote: Best Buy still matches its own price drops during your return period, on request.
Buying · Explainer

Best Buy’s Price Match Excludes Prime-Only Deals

Amazon is on Best Buy’s competitor list, but member-only prices are not. Walmart and Target do not match Amazon at all.

Before and now, from the makers' own pages: US list prices, read 4 October 2026. Galaxy S26, 256GB: $899.99 to $999.99. iPhone 17: $799 to $899. iPhone Air: $999 to $1,099. Raspberry Pi 5, 2GB: $65 to $77.50. Shield TV Pro: $199.99 at launch to $299. A $100 discount on a Galaxy S26 or iPhone 17 gets back to the old price.
Buying · Explainer

Samsung and Apple Raised Phones $100 Before Black Friday

A $100 Black Friday cut on a Galaxy S26 only gets back to its summer price. Raspberry Pi and Nvidia put their rises down to memory.

September 202612 articles

A table headed Who pays you back when the price drops, from each store's written policy read 19 September 2026. Best Buy: your return window, not limited-quantity offers. Target: 14 days, not with a promo gift card. Apple: 14 days, Black Friday excluded. Costco: 30 days, ask within the sale dates. Home Depot: 30 days, Black Friday excluded. Walmart.com: none, says it will not adjust. A footnote gives Best Buy's return window as 15 days for most products and 60 for Plus and Total members.
Buying · Guide

Five Stores Pay Back a Price Drop. Walmart.com Does Not

The windows run from 14 to 30 days, or your whole return period at Best Buy. Apple and Home Depot write Black Friday out of theirs.

A November 2026 calendar from Sunday the 15th to Saturday the 5th of December. The twelve days from Thursday 19 November to Monday 30 November are filled black, marking the period when Best Buy excludes a competitor's price from its Price Match Guarantee. Thanksgiving is the 26th, Black Friday the 27th and Cyber Monday the 30th.
Buying · Explainer

Best Buy's Price Match Is Off for Twelve Days

The exclusion starts the Thursday before Thanksgiving, not on Black Friday. Target has stopped matching competitors altogether.

Four tests a crossed-out price must pass under 16 CFR 233.1: it must have been the actual bona fide price offered to the public, openly and actively offered in good faith, on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period, and in the recent regular course of business. A price that quietly rose and then stayed risen can pass all four; the rule polices invented reference prices, not drifting ones.
Buying · Explainer

What a Crossed-Out Price Has to Have Been

Federal guides want a real price offered openly and recently. Target and Walmart publish 90-day medians; California sets three months.

Five checks before buying an extended warranty: what it costs in total including deductibles and fees, how long it runs and what that is per year, what it excludes, who administers it and whether they will still exist, and how a claim is actually filed.
Buying · Explainer

The Extended Warranty Offered at Checkout

The FTC's test is one sentence: it is not a good value if it does not cover more than the warranty already included.

Apple Certified Refurbished against a refurbished marketplace: both give a one-year warranty, but Apple is liable while on a marketplace the seller is; Apple fits a new battery and outer shell on iOS devices and includes all accessories, while a marketplace guarantees neither.
Buying · Guide

Refurbished: Read Who Backs the Warranty

Apple and a refurb marketplace both promise twelve months. Only one of them is the company you would be complaining to.

A laptop and a red gift box on a dark surface, shot from above.
Buying · Deal

Prime Big Deal Days: The Numbers to Beat

Prime Big Deal Days runs on 6 and 7 October. Here is what our top pick in each category lists at today, so you have a baseline.

Return windows measured from Black Friday 2026: Apple 14 days shuts 11 December, Best Buy cellular device 14 days shuts 11 December, Best Buy most products 15 days shuts 12 December, Amazon 30 days shuts 27 December, Best Buy Plus or Total 60 days shuts 26 January. Christmas Day is 28 days after Black Friday.
Buying · Guide

The Return Window Is the Spec Nobody Checks

A Black Friday gift is 28 days old on Christmas morning. Apple's window shuts on 11 December, Best Buy's on the 12th.

Scatter of price against averaged review score for 41 products from fifteen shortlists on a logarithmic price axis running $50 to $5,000, a 108.9-fold range. The dashed trend line slopes gently downward, falling 0.16 points per tenfold price rise, with a correlation of −0.13. The $54.95 JBL Go 5, the $129.99 Sony WF-C710N and the $2,499.99 Samsung S90F OLED all score 9.7; the $179 Sonos Roam 2 scores 7.7 and the $1,199.99 Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai is lowest at 7.0.
Buying · Explainer

Does Paying More Get You a Better Product?

Across the 41 products we hold with both a current price and three outlet scores, the correlation between them is −0.13.

Price change from a product to its successor: Amazfit Active 2 to Active 3 Premium up 72 percent, Mac mini M4 to M6 up 50 percent, ROG Xbox Ally X to X20 up 30 percent, Galaxy Watch 8 to 9 up 9 percent, LG C5 to C6 no change, iPad Air M3 to M4 no change.
Buying · Explainer

When a Newer Model Is Not the Better Buy

We checked every pick on this site against its successor. Four of the six we could price cost more. Two of five scored higher.

A one-off best-case discount of $155 on a $500 device, against two-year running costs: $240 for Xbox online play, $264 to remove Netflix ads, and $40 for Nintendo Switch Online.
Buying · Deal

How to Tell a Real Tech Deal From a Fake One

We do not publish deal lists. We publish the number a deal has to beat, and four checks that catch most of the fakes.

Budget pick against flagship pick in nine shortlists: tablets 8.3 to 8.0, mini PCs 8.7 to 8.4 and laptops 9.0 to 8.8 with the budget ahead; portable speakers 9.7, smartwatches 9.0, soundbars 9.3 and wireless earbuds 9.7 all level; ereaders 8.0 to 8.3 and robot vacuums 7.7 to 8.5 favouring the flagship. Seven of nine; the widest gap is robot vacuums, 0.8 points, less than one half-star. 71 picks across sixteen shortlists; seven are excluded. Counted 12 October 2026.
Buying · Explainer

The Cheap One Wins Three Times Out of Four

Across our own shortlists the budget pick matches or beats the flagship in seven of nine. The exceptions say more than the rule.

Average distance from consensus per outlet, on a ten-point scale: Digital Trends −0.50 from 6 scores, IGN −0.45 from 7, PCMag −0.42 from 26, CNET −0.32 from 7, Tom's Hardware −0.26 from 10, Tom's Guide −0.09 from 59, PCWorld −0.01 from 6, Trusted Reviews +0.25 from 21, TechRadar +0.35 from 55, What Hi-Fi? +0.44 from 19. 248 scores across 71 products, counted 12 October 2026.
Buying · Explainer

Where the Reviewers Disagree, and by How Much

We hold 248 outlet scores across 71 products. Twenty-two of them span two points or more, and the scale itself explains most of that.

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October 2026

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