Best Buy Drops is an app feature that alerts shoppers about product releases, limited edition bundles, and deals before they drop. Here’s why it’s one of the best holiday shopping hacks.

UPDATE: Nov. 1, 2023, 11:40 a.m. EDT The new Best Buy Drops tab on the Best Buy app gives you a head’s up about upcoming new product drops, limited edition releases, and major discounts on high-profile items ahead of the holidays. This post has been updated to track the products dropping in the coming week.

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 why Amazon’s invite-only Prime Day deals popped off (and why they’ll likely be back for Black Friday). It’s probably why Best Buy announced Best Buy Drops right before we hit the full-blown holiday shopping season — and we’re totally falling for it.

Best Buy Drops is a new shopping hack dedicated to giving shoppers a heads-up about upcoming high-profile items and deals in categories like gaming, smartwatches, toys, 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. This kind of preparedness is the name of the game with Drops, as some items are so popular that it’s only a matter of minutes (or seconds) before they sell out.

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.

Drops can include a huge price slash on a popular item or availability of product that wasn’t up for grabs before.
Credit: Screenshot / Mashable

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 QLED 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 Nov. 1 through Nov. 8

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, and inventory is typically fully claimed by 5 p.m. that day.

Dropped: Nov. 1

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Credit: MSI

MSI Codex R gaming desktop (Intel Core i5, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

$779.99 at Best Buy (save $220)

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At a full price of $999.99, MSI’s Codex R desktop was already on the affordable side for a prebuilt PC with components like NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, an Intel Core i5 CPU, and 1TB of storage, plus an included mouse and RGB mechanical keyboard. At $779.99 with the drop discount, it’s the definition of a bang for your buck — especially if you were originally considering opting for a gaming laptop to stay on a budget. The $220 you’re saving is enough to cover a sick keyboard or condenser microphone.

Dropping: Nov. 2

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Credit: Corsair

Corsair K70 Pro Mini wireless RGB mechanical keyboard

$168.99 at Best Buy (save $10)

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Speaking of gaming accessories, the drop following the gaming PC is a wireless mini mechanical keyboard. The Corsair K70 Pro Mini features a compact 60 percent layout, skipping buttons like a function row and arrow keys. It doesn’t skip the RGB backlight, however, and still offers a decent amount of customization options and mouse shortcuts for the conservative size.

The white K70 Pro Mini is already on sale for $11 off at Best Buy, so we expect the drop price to be well under $149.99.

Dropping: Nov. 3

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Credit: Jabra

Jabra Elite 8 Active headphones

$179.99 at Best Buy

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The pro-truly wireless earbuds but anti-AirPods crowd may consider a pair like Jabra’s noise-canceling Elite 8 Active. These rugged headphones can last up to 56 hours on a single charge through dust, sweat, and water — they actually passed nine tests in a variety of rigorous environments to meet the US Military Standard for durability. What’s less rugged is the immersive audio experience they provide through Spatial Sound powered by Dolby and Adaptive Hybrid active noise cancellation.

Best Buy has already tacked a $20 discount on the Jabra Elite 8 Active ahead of their drop, so their drop discount could push them from their current $179.99 much closer to the $100 mark.

Dropping: Nov. 8

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Credit: Pokémon

Pokémon Trading card game: 151 6-pack Scarlet and Violet Booster Bundle

$26.94 at Best Buy

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Put some respect on the names of the original 151 Pokémon with this Trading card game expansion pack. The booster bundle includes six booster packs from TCG: Scarlet and Violet, including Venusaur EX, Charizard EX, and Blastoise EX special cards, plus the possibility of Mew EW floating around.

This expansion pack is currently sold out at Best Buy but was listed for $26.94, so we expect it to be up for grabs for under $20 when its stock is revived during the drop.