Open box
Someone bought it, opened the box and brought it back. Best Buy checks it over and sells it again for less, often a lot less. This is the only big chain that publishes that stock openly, so it is the only one you can check from the sofa.
What are you after?
The lookup is not switched on yet
It runs on Best Buy’s Developer API, and the key for that is not in place. Rather than fill the page with example products, here is exactly what appears the moment it is:
- Every open-box offer Best Buy is actually holding for that item, by condition.
- What each one costs, next to what the same thing costs new.
- The difference in dollars and in percent.
- A link straight to the Buying Options tab, which is where you buy it.
Nothing on this page will ever be a sample listing. An invented price on a page about real stock is worse than an empty page.
What open box actually meansAnd why it is not the same as clearance or refurbished
- It came back from a customer. Clearance is brand new end-of-stock and refurbished has been repaired. Best Buy treats all three as separate things and so should you, because they carry different risks and different prices.
- In store it is graded Excellent, Good or Fair. Three grades, no more. If you have read about a fourth somewhere, that guide is wrong.
- The feed uses its own two words. Offers come back as excellent, meaning it looks brand new with every part and accessory in the box, or certified, meaning it went through Geek Squad Certification.
- It ships from the nearest store holding one. Open box is a single physical unit somewhere, not warehouse stock, which is why an offer can vanish between one refresh and the next. Best Buy re-checks availability every five minutes.
- Forget price matching it. Best Buy’s guarantee excludes open box, clearance and refurbished by name. The number on the listing is the number.
Best Buy on its open-box grades · the Buying Options documentation