I'm looking to get my hands on some good camping gear ready for 2013. When is the best time of year for the greatest camping gear deals? Would it be in the autumn, winter or early season next year? Is there an optimum time for good discounts?
One of my friends on UKCS owns a camping gear shop, and he always has a sale during the August Bank Holiday weekend, as it is what he considers as the end of the season.
DK
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Traditionally the sales of summer gear tend to start as DK168 has said, at the end of August, however in recent years they've been starting eralier and earlier. We got a cracking bargain on a Vango family shelter from Penrose Outdoors in Truro last year: half price in July! Also, in Mr F's experience in the retail industry it largely comes down to the weather. Keep an eye on what Argos are putting out on offer for instance. They keep a beady eye on the long range weather forecast and if it looks bad they'll punt out summer stuff on the cheap well ahead of the season. And where the big players like Argos go the rest are sure to follow as they can't compete on pricing.
Similarly we were in a long established independent camping shop in Cornwall in early June during the storms and overheard the proprietor say that if things didn't pick up soon he'd be closed in four weeks. Consequently he had offers on pretty much everything.
Widen your search zone too. We got our Hypercamp Palamos 6 from Obelink in the Netherlands at half price in June! Ordered Thursday evening, delivered Monday morning.
Loads of good deals on now as retailers want to off load unwanted stock
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You will find this year the deals have started early due to the amount of rain we had this year which means extra stock is around on some tents. some of the bigger brand shops ( multiples ) are sailing close to the wind and need to get the cash back in to pay some bills as well. Some big brand tents are selling at a loss for these retailers when you take into account price matching as well. Normally you get better deals the further you get into the winter but the down side is you don't get to see the tents on display and you start to get less choice. When the spring comes and people are buying again prices go back up but you then get a better choice and you can see nice big displays.
Gary