If you are reading this, chances are that you have a good idea of where to find the best shopping deals online (I.e. Amazon). However, many people are not aware of the world of open-box retailing, where you will find by far the best deals on almost limitless products. Finding the open-box retailers can be quite the challenge – as it turns out, many of the big-box retailers have open-box websites but often hide them to prevent the open-box merch from getting too popular or from taking away from their new inventory. As an online open-box store, we at Valley Discounts decided to make a list of all the best open-box stores online so that you can find open-box deals easier than ever.
Before we get to the list, however, we should give you a refresher on the open-box industry. Also known as liquidation, the open-box market is the result of a combination of factors: the explosion of e-commerce, the ease of shipping and returns, and the "pickiness" of the consumer. Open-box items are items that were returned to retailers and then sold by those retailers to resellers or re-sold by those retailers. The items can vary in quality – from brand-new to heavily used, so caution is important when shopping for these items. As e-commerce has grown, so has the open-box industry—the liquidation market is worth over $644 billion and growing. Things are not going to slow down as e-commerce continues to grow, and customer returns become easier than ever. One positive benefit of the open-box phenomenon is that it is generally good for the environment – items that were slated for the landfill are now re-used by consumers, thus reducing waste—so you can find a great deal and do something good for the environment too!
So without further ado, here is a list of the best places to find open-box deals online!
Everyone knows Best Buy for its new electronics, but it turns out the company has built a robust open box channel, which they call the Best Buy Outlet. Best Buy Outlet does an excellent job of categorizing the products they sell, which you can see in the table below:
This is a great option if you are more concerned about getting a warranty and being able to return products than pricing. Usually in the open-box world, the more options you get, the more expensive the product. Still, Best Buy has done a commendable job with their open-box inventory, and it is definitely worth a look.
Of course the online e-commerce king has open-box items! Called Amazon Renew, the store focuses primarily on electronics, but it also offers everything from tools to home & kitchen. According to the website, all of these products are tested to work and look like new. Buying from Amazon Renew comes with all the perks of buying on Amazon, including free returns. Further, Amazon claims to work only with qualified suppliers in this channel, so you won’t be dealing with tons of random sellers. This is great option to check out.
We have to say, we were pretty disappointed in Walmart’s open box options. The retail giant offers very few open-box items, and there is no real store-front specifically dedicated to open box inventory. There are so many local discount re-sellers selling open-box Walmart items, it probably makes more sense to shop Walmart locally than it does browsing their website.
Wayfair has built an exceptional open-box store, with over 18,000 items listed. They claim to inspect all items for quality and offer free shipping and returns on all the items. This is an excellent option if you are looking for household furniture.
Pottery Barn has clearly invested heavily in their open-box channel, as there are tons of deals on all types of home goods. Pottery Barn also offers white-glove delivery service, where they will assemble your order in the room of your choice for a flat fee.
We have to say, Sears’ open-box store is pretty disappointing. While it has tons of products, the products appear to be sourced from unheard-of vendors, and mostly they are offering small, odd, products. Maybe worth a look if you are in the market for very-random electronics, but generally we think there are better options out there when shopping open-box.
The largest lighting retailer in the country, it is not surprising that Lamps Plus offers a huge amount of Open Box products. Lamps Plus grades their products, and everything seems to be heavily discounted. This is a must-stop shop for fans and all things related to lighting
This Minneapolis-based online retailer offers quite a bit of open-box inventory, primarily lighting. Looks like there are some great deals to be had, but in reading the fine print, it looks like they do not offer returns on open-box items. Caution is imperative when shopping open-box without any option of return.
Bulk Reef Supply is an excellent choice for specialized plumbing inventory. Their open-box channel is very robust – they offer a A-D grading system on their products (A being best to D being worst quality), and a free 30-day return policy. This is a great open-box option for your plumbing needs.
Musician’s Friend is a great option if you are looking for open-box guitars. Offering free shipping and the option to buy a warranty, MF has a lot of great perks. The only downside is the pricing of the open-box items does not seems to be heavily discounted compared to their new counterparts- this is a trade-off as higher quality open-box items will be more expensive.
Electronics:
Tech for Less is an open-box superstore focused primarily on tv’s and computers. Though the website looks like it hasn’t been updated since the early 2000’s, the site gets great reviews and has been in business for a long time – they know what they are doing! A great place to find deals on electronics.
We hadn’t heard of this site before, but Safe and Sound appears to be the real deal. If you are in the market for speakers and amps, this a great place to shop. They offer warranties, and also grade their open-box products.
Though the site appears relatively outdated, this may not be a bad option if you are in the market for medical supplies such as hospital beds, lift chairs, wheelchairs, and more. The site is specifically devoted to open-box medical supplies, so they know what they are doing. All of the products come with pictures of the actual product, so you can get a sense of what you are ordering before you buy. This is a very specific site, so many people will not need it, but for those who are in the business of buying open-box medical products, this is a great option.
Vari:
This is a great option if you’re in the market for office furniture. Major downside is that the products are sold as-is with a “no-return” policy. Shop at your peril!
The lighting giant has a great selection of open-box inventory, with free shipping. Once again, they don’t offer returns on open-box items, so you must inspect these items carefully prior to purchasing.
Best Deals USA is an aggregator of open box products, which makes it an interest place to find totally random products. Probably easier to simply go to the retailers themselves and find their open-box pages, but if you are looking for a random collection of open-box products, this site may be for you.
We hadn’t seen open-box shoes before, so this is very cool. While the shoes look great, it is unclear if these are used—not sure about you, but we thinking buying used shoes is slightly sketchy!
Though Fissler offers very few open-box items, they do have great deals on expensive frying pans. Worth a quick check!
If you are a wrangler enthusiast, this is an excellent place to find open-box parts and accessories.
Looking for open-box machining tools? This is your place! Looks like they have tons of really heavy discounts on products. While the products are final sale, they do come with a 6-month warranty, which is very nice.
The home-goods giant has a great open-box website, with deals added weekly. Everyone loves Williams Sonoma, and their open-box website makes it hard not to buy these highly discounted products.
Thera Body: (massage devices)
Theraguns are all the rage for a reason: they really work. The only downside is that they are super expensive, so we were thrilled to see that they have opened their open-box website with tons of guns for sale. Get these before they change their minds!
Another open-box automotive site, this is an independent website which seems to offer primarily headlights, tail lights, and towing mirrors. If you are in the market for any of these products, it is worth a stop.
Revzilla: (motorcycles)
For you mot-heads out there, check out this store. We don’t recommend buying an open-box helmet, but if you’re crazy enough to ride a motorcycle, this may appeal to you!
If you are a coffee afficionado looking for cheap, high quality, roaster equipment—this is for you!
This is a great option for those parents looking to buy affordable baby products. It should be noted, this is more of a consignment model than it is open-box. The website is highly regarded for quality, inspected, baby gear.
Who really wants to buy a brand-new printer these days? The printing giant has a great selection of open-box printers—you are sure to find one that works for you. The printers look to be graded based on quality and inspected by Canon – this is great option for your printing needs.
Woodwind Brasswind: (musical instruments)
Looking for specialized woodwind instruments? This is it! Woodwind Brasswind has put a lot of effort and resources in to their open-box options, and they even included items like headphones and speakers. This is another great, off-the-beaten-path website to find interesting open-box music-related products.
Newegg has been around for a long time, so it is no surprise it made it onto this list. Newegg has a huge collection of electronics, probably the most exhaustive list we have seen. This is a must-visit if you are in the market for anything from laptops to keyboards.
Another automotive open-box site, we recommend American Trucks if you are a DIY truck enthusiast. The site has quite a large inventory of open-box truck parts – from brakes to exhaust, you will be covered!
This furniture store has a great open-box storefront with a large amount of inventory. Looking for fancy lights or designer chairs? This is another wonderful option to explore.
Lorex offers a robust storefront for open-box items. Discounts look to be in the 30-40% range, and all items are tested by Lorex’s in-house technicians. If you are looking for 4k video recorders or wired NVR systems, Lorex is a great option.
You guessed it! Headphones.com sells…headphones! If you are looking for fancy headphones, we highly recommend their open-box storefront…tons of really cool headphones at decent price reductions.
Audio46 specializes in all things auditory, with headphones, amps, earbuds, music players, and more. The open box store they have built is quite impressive. Worth a peek!
Looking for gaming amps? This is a must visit.
West Elm has an excellent assortment of open-box and clearance items, so you can get your fancy couch for a fraction of the cost you can find in retail. While they have quite a bit of inventory, reading West Elm’s fine print is important as they do not offer refunds on their clearance items- tread carefully.
No list at Valley discounts would be complete without at least a mention of generators. Check out Goal Zero for open-box generators. Solar-powered generators at a good price? Check!
For all you HVAC afficionados, check out Sylvan’s open-box products! Excellent deals on many brands from Danby, LG, Hessaire, Honeywell + more! Sylvane’s open-box HVAC units are heavily discounted and offer free delivery to certain areas!