UPDATE: Dec. 23, 2024, 5:15 p.m. EST The first four Drops of the day, the Sony LinkBuds S, $100 Uber gift card, Steel Series gaming keyboard, and Samsung Galaxy Watch6, are no longer available. The last one, a $50 Nintendo eShop gift card for $40, dropped at 5 p.m. ET.
Best Buy is not letting up on last-minute holiday sales just because Christmas Eve is basically here. In fact, one could argue it’s going even harder than some other stores: On top of a 48-hour Flash Sale, Dec. 23 is packed with a handful of Best Buy Drops of the day when the norm is a measly one Drop per day. Two are digital gift cards (Uber and Nintendo) if you’re in a gifting situation where you can’t simply tell the recipient that their gift will be late.
If you haven’t taken advantage of Best Buy Drops savings yet, you’ll definitely want to get familiar with this shopping hack for the new year. The “Drops” tab at the top right corner of the Best Buy mobile app is home to a running list of items that Best Buy is dropping that week. “Dropping” often means dropping in price to record-low sale prices that compete with (or beat) Amazon price history, though Drops could also be exclusive releases of items that weren’t previously out. Drops are known for featuring high-profile items that garner search interest throughout the year, from Samsung TVs to Roombas to Apple products to the Shark FlexStyle.
As the title insinuates, Drops are timed. The tab shows a preview of which items are coming on which day that week so that shoppers can be ready to hit “add to cart” when each item goes live, typically at 11 a.m. ET on its assigned day. Once a Drop goes live, the app continuously updates a status bar with the percentage of inventory that has been claimed. Once inventory for a certain Drop is gone, it’s gone.
The Drop schedule for special multi-Drop days is a little less set, though. Dec. 23 saw one Drop before 11 a.m. (which sold out already), one right at 11, with several slated at unspecified times after 11 a.m. (A countdown pops up next to each item when the Drop time is coming up within the half hour.) We’ll update this list throughout the day on Dec. 23 as we learn pricing on the items up for grabs.
Dropped: 11 a.m. ET on Dec. 23 (update: sold out)
There’s really nothing like the feeling of opening your Uber app to remember that you have a free ride. Gift that feeling several times over with a $100 Uber gift card, on sale at Best Buy for $85. (This matches Best Buy’s Black Friday deal on $100 gift cards.) The Drop features the digital version only, which is ideal as a last-minute gift, anyway — just enter your recipient’s email address during checkout and the code will pop up for them to add to their Uber app.
Dropped: 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 23 (update: sold out)
Looking to overhaul your PC gaming rig in 2025? A super customizable mechanical keyboard is a smart first step. The SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL V2 features OmniPoint 2.0 adjustable actuation switches that allow you to tweak the actuation point for each key, offering what SteelSeries says is 11 times faster response and 10 times faster actuation than the traditional mechanical keyboard. The vibrant OLED backlight is customizable, too, changing colors to differentiate actions if you’ve assigned two to the same key.
Mashable Deals
Dropped: 3 p.m. ET on Dec. 23 (update: sold out)
If you’d prefer your smartwatch look a little more, well, watch-like than an Apple Watch or Pixel Watch, the stainless steel version of the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 is pretty damn undetectable. But underneath that chic metal chassis lies a wealth of smarts that make the Galaxy Watch6 one of the absolute best Android smartwatches one can wear — now for nearly 50% off. Enjoy intricate fitness and sleep tracking, blood pressure and EKG features (if you have a Samsung phone), more than a day of battery life on one charge, and Samsung’s iconic rotating bezel.
Dropped: 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 23
A Nintendo gift card is a genius gift for someone who you know has a Switch, but past that, you’d have no idea what game to buy them. $50 to the Nintendo eShop could fully cover many Switch games or leave only $10 left over for the $59.99 ones. A code will be emailed to the recipient, which they can then redeem when logged into their Nintendo Account.
