Boxing Day Deals: Boxing Day and January Sales: how to pick up a bargain this year!

[sincity]

Boxing Day Sales

The Black Friday bruises have barely begun to fade and Amazon's already bringing out the bunting for its Boxing Day Deals

And in typical Amazon style, it's going for a whole week of Boxing Day deals instead of a single day.

Yep, no longer confined to highstreet stores, this year's Boxing Day sales promise to be the most exciting ever, as online retailers slash prices across the board in an attempt to clear stock.

So what should you be looking out for this Boxing Day? What deals can you expect to find? And how can you find them?

You guessed it... TechRadar will be on hand once again to help you get the best deals on everything from games consoles, to phones, tablets, TVs and more!

Here's everything you need to know about Boxing Day and January sales until the big day arrives...

Where do retailers put their Boxing Day deals?

Retail websites always have dedicated pages for things like this, and you can find some of them here:

• Amazon Boxing Day deals
• Very Christmas deals
• Currys Christmas deals
• PC World Christmas deals
• Tesco Christmas deals
• John Lewis Christmas deals

  Zavvi Christmas deals

  GAME Christmas deals

• Carphone Warehouse Christmas deals
• More to come!

Why Boxing Day and January sales became a big deal

The tradition of post-Christmas sales came about for a very simple reason: after Christmas, shops were stuffed with things that took up valuable space and that nobody wanted to buy. While setting fire to it and pretending that villains were responsible sounded tempting, retailers realised that insurers would see right through such tomfoolery. So they put away their matches and came up with the idea of sales instead - and it turned out that sales were brilliant.

They really were. Sales helped shift unwanted stock to make room for spring/summer ranges. Sales got people to go shopping when they wouldn't normally bother. And sales often resulted in people coming in for the bargains and then paying for other, profitable, items and accessories.

"It's like a post-Christmas Christmas!" retailers thought. "Let's do it every year!"

So they did.

Why Boxing Day sales seem to start in September now

We're exaggerating, but only a little bit. Faced with the question of how their sales could stand out when everybody else was doing it, retailers decided there was only one solution: start before everybody else. In 2013, some retailers kicked off their Boxing Day and January sales the week before Christmas. This year they might have already started.

Boxing Day and January sales: online versus the High Street

Some retailers start their sales early, but only online - so you can expect to see some websites unveil deals on Christmas Eve that you won't be able to get in-store for another few days. And of course, online-only retailers from gadget emporiums to Steam are keen to get a slice of that sweet sales-frenzy pie, so they'll be running their own offers too.

Should I queue overnight for Boxing Day sales?

We wouldn't. So-called "doorbuster" deals tend to be very, very limited, and chances are you'll be way behind the organised eBay Tout Massive who know exactly what they want, what Buy It Now price they'll put on it and how to kill you with a single blow if it looks like you'll get to it before they do.

We'd recommend staying in bed until a reasonable hour, having a nice breakfast and then relying on a trusted technology website - hello! - to tell you where the best deals are online.

Have Boxing Day sales been overshadowed by Black Friday?

Tesco certainly thinks so: it's reported that it expects its Black Friday sales to be higher than its Boxing Day ones, although given Tesco's recent track record in reporting important numbers - something that's seen heads roll and the financial cops called - then we should maybe take that with a pinch of salt. We're sure Boxing Day 2014 and the January sales 2015 will be just as frenzied as they've always been - maybe more so, given the current climate of austerity.

Can you really get a great bargain on Boxing Day or in the January Sales?

Yes, sort of, maybe, if you know what you're doing and watch out for the tricks of the trade. And there are quite a few tricks to watch out for.

The most common trick is what the Consumers' Association calls "pseudo-sales"; that is, sales that look like sales and quack like sales but that aren't really sales. They exist because of retailers sticking to the letter of the law rather than the spirit.

Here's how it works. UK law says that retailers can claim to have discounted goods provided they've been at full price for 28 consecutive days in the last six months, so some firms simply double their prices to ridiculous levels for a month, drop them back to normal again and stick a SUPER HUGE MEGA DISCOUNT sticker on them. That, amazingly, is perfectly legal, and it's why every single Christmas tree in the world appears to be half price in December: they were twice the price throughout August, when nobody buys Christmas trees (if you did, you were robbed. Sorry. Why are you buying Christmas trees in summer anyway?).

TechRadar will only be promoting genuine deals on the day so if you're unsure, check back with this page!

Boxing Day Sales: what's TechRadar doing?

We'll be on hand on Boxing Day to unearth all of the best Boxing Day sales deals on the web, and we'll be listing them right here for you on this page. If you came to us on Black Friday, it's the same deal - we'll be regularly updating as more deals hit the web!

We'll be continuing this throughout the January sales with deals of the day so if you stick with us it'll be almost impossible to not find a bargain or two!