Best Buy Drops tells you about high-profile products going on sale, limited edition releases, and more before they drop

UPDATE: Dec. 21, 2023, 11:30 a.m. EST This post has been updated to track the latest product drops, including the Apple Watch Series 9.

When it comes to shopping, a scarcity mindset is just as convincing as that one friend who always enables you to buy something you don’t need. It’s why there’s often a timer breathing down your neck from the corner of the screen during a sitewide sale. It’s exactly why Amazon’s invite-only Prime Day deals and Black Friday deals popped off, and why Walmart lets Walmart+ members get their hands on new groups of big shopping event deals hours before the general public can.

And it’s probably why Best Buy conveniently announced Best Buy Drops just ahead of full-blown holiday shopping season. And after two-ish months of Drops of seeing what Drops has to offer, we can confirm it’s a seriously cool tool.

Best Buy Drops is a shopping hack dedicated to giving shoppers a heads-up about upcoming high-profile items and deals in categories like gaming, cheap TVs, popular toys, high-profile hair tools, and more dropping at Best Buy in the next week. As long as you have the Best Buy mobile app, you can preview what’s coming on what day so that you’re ready to click “add to cart” when the item or deal goes live.

If a Drop is currently live while you’re on the app, a status bar showing the percentage of inventory that has been claimed can give an idea of how fast you need to act. Once inventory for a certain Drop is gone, it’s gone.

The Drops tab also keeps a list of past Drops, which have included a limited-edition PlayStation 5 Marvel’s Spider-Man bundle, Pokémon Squishmallows, a super cheap 50-inch TV, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Even if you missed these, you at least have an idea of what similar items could pop up in the coming weeks. To look ahead, check the upcoming tab.

For extra cushion, you can opt-in to Drop Alerts for an extra reminder right before the drop of a product you care about goes live. Joining My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total will unlock even better discounts on Drops than what the general public is getting.

What’s dropping at Best Buy Dec. 19 through Dec. 27

Best Buy is only revealing the names of the upcoming products — not their actual Drop prices — in the Drop preview tab, so any prices listed below are the current price of the said product as it is on Best Buy’s site pre-Drop. Drops go live around 11 a.m. ET on the specified day (usually a string of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in any given week), and inventory is typically fully claimed by 5 p.m. that day.

Dropped: Dec. 19

Best Buy Drops hasn’t been shying away from dropping high-profile items to prices lower than we’ve seen from any other retailer this year. Considering the Xbox Series X sells out in minutes almost every time it goes on sale, we’d say it could probably be categorized as “high-profile.”

The interesting thing about Xbox deals this year has been that they aren’t as tied to shopping holidays (like Black Friday or Cyber Monday) as you’d think. It was randomly in the first week of December that we saw the 1TB Series X drop to $349.99 at both Amazon and Walmart — a $150 discount that put the Series X up for grabs for the same price as the black 1TB Series S and the Nintendo Switch OLED. Naturally, Best Buy set a new record with a Drop price of $339.99, and, naturally, there have already been false “sold out” notices and queues to wait in. If you see inventory left, just grab it.

Dropped: Dec. 20

Retire that old wired gaming headset that’s been driving you nuts for months and level up with the 360-degree bass-rich spatial audio of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7. The battery life of this wireless pair can last anywhere from 33 to 38 hours, taking you from virtual work meetings to PC play several days in a row without pausing to charge.

The red and black FaZe Clan version of the Arctis Nova 7 is a limited edition, which could mean the Drop price goes just a little bit harder as a last hurrah. Considering they’re already almost $40 off at Best Buy, we’d love to see them more than double that discount to take them below $100.

Dropped: Dec. 21

We’re giving the heart-eyes emoji to this particular Drop, and it’s not just because it unlocked an unprecedented discount on the newest flagship Apple Watch. Dec. 21 also happens to be the last day you’ll be able to buy the Apple Watch Series 9 at any Apple Store due to an ITC ban following a SpO2 sensor patent dispute. It’s not like Apple’s website ever has direct sales, anyway, but Best Buy cementing itself as a go-to Apple spot with the timing of this Drop is still tea.

Snagging the Apple Watch Series 9 over the older Series secures the fan-favorite double tap feature: a quick finger gesture (think pinching) that can complete actions like stopping a timer or answering a call with one hand. The Series 9 is also 30 percent faster than the previous model and carbon neutral. This 45mm GPS-only model is down to a new all-time low price of $329, but will likely sell out quickly. Act fast if you want to snag this major discount.

Dropping: Dec. 22

Having an outdoor pizza oven at home has become the “it” thing for foodies over the past few years. Ooni is one major player in the game, and the larger version of its Koda pizza oven is one to heavily consider if you’re aiming for larger than a 12-inch pizza every time. The Koda is gas-powered and cooks with an innovative L-shaped flame that reaches 950 degrees Fahrenheit, blazing your pie to perfection in as little as 60 seconds.

According to Amazon price tracker camelcamelcamel, the cheapest the Koda 16 has ever been on sale is $479.99. Best Buy has been known to top record-low pricing with its Drops, though, so we’re holding out hope for the 16-inch Koda to drop to the same $399.99 as the 12-inch Koda.

Dropping: Dec. 26

Head into 2024 with WiFi that doesn’t ruin your day by snagging this dual-band TP-Link router on sale. The TP-Link Archer AX20 AX1800 is a solid choice for more stable gaming, streaming, or working from home, clocking speeds up to 1.8 GPBS. If spotty coverage is your issue, the Archer AX20’s four antennas and beamforming technology could be the solution, which create a more precise directional WiFi signal to reach far away devices.

Amazon price tracker camelcamelcamel says that the Archer AX20 hasn’t dropped below $74.99 before, which is just $5 away from the sale price Best Buy already has listed. This well-reviewed router could go as low as $49.99 for its Drop.

Dropping: Dec. 27

Mac users who didn’t splurge on storage the first time should consider grabbing this 2TB external SSD by Crucial. Whether you frequently move large files around for work or merely want a backup in case your MacBook ever craps out, the X9 Pro is a reliable sidekick with read and write speeds up to 1,050MB per second — more than enough for the average workflow. Drop-proof durability up to 7.5 feet, an IP55 water and dust resistance rating, and a weight of less than 1.5 ounces make the X9 Pro way more portable than your typical clunky HHD.

Already $70 off at Best Buy, we wouldn’t be surprised if the X9 Pro drops to a full $100 off at $79.99 on its Drop day.