Refurbished Black Friday Discount: The Honest Check
5 min read
By late November the same red number is everywhere: minus 40, minus 55, minus 70 percent. A refurbished Black Friday discount looks as tempting as one on a new device. Except the percentage says nothing about what the device cost two weeks earlier.
Why "minus 55 percent" deserves a second look
A joint investigation by the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities screened 314 online traders in November and December 2025. The result, published 26 March 2026: thirty percent showed incorrect discounts. Not fly-by-night shops, but ordinary retailers, 23 EU countries.
Black Friday isn't exempt either, as the Wettbewerbszentrale proved in 2025. One retailer argued its Black Week prices weren't comparable, lost, and accepted the injunction.
48 percent of Germans suspect inflated comparison prices behind discount markdowns, a representative Civey survey for eBay Advertising of 2,500 people found, published 17 November 2025.
How big real discounts actually get
A Geizhals.at analysis from 20 November 2025 ran the numbers on Black Week 2024: 10,000 products, measured against their price one month earlier. Notebooks came out at 12.5 percent, TVs at 12.2, monitors at 10.5, smartwatches at 9.0, smartphones at 8.2. The data is Austrian, though it matches the German market.
Eight to thirteen percent. Not seventy.
That number doesn't exist yet for refurbished stock.
What this means for Refurbed, Back Market and rebuy
Nothing special. Refurbed, Back Market and rebuy sit under the same reference-price obligation as every EU trader, how they differ otherwise is covered in our comparison of Refurbed, Back Market and rebuy. Solid, dated figures on how deep any of them discounts don't exist, so nobody here claims any.
One documented case does exist. In 2022 the German consumer body vzbv warned three refurbished-electronics marketplaces over "fictitious price advantages": a smartphone at €275, advertised as 69 percent off a struck-through €909, the device's 2019 launch price. The vzbv never named the platforms.
What a device costs without a refurbished Black Friday discount
The check needs a baseline, grab one now: three examples from asgoodasnew, all "sehr gut" condition, as of 17.09.2026, more models in the price comparison for refurbished electronics.
iPhone 15 Pro with 128GB
€579 in blue titanium. Note that number, not the percentage that sits beside it during the refurbished Black Friday discount in November.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro 128GB Titan blau
View at asgoodasnewAffiliate link. Buying through it earns us a commission; the price stays the same for you.
MacBook Air 2019
€463, 13-inch, Core i5, 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM.
Apple MacBook Air 2019 13" Intel Core i5 1,60 GHz 512 GB SSD 16 GB space grau
Apple MacBook Air 2019 13" Intel Core i5 1,60 GHz 512 GB SSD 16 GB space grau
View at asgoodasnewAffiliate link. Buying through it earns us a commission; the price stays the same for you.
Samsung Galaxy S24+ with 256GB
€459 in amber yellow. Android flagships lose value faster yearly than Apple devices.
Samsung Galaxy S24+ 256GB amber yellow
View at asgoodasnewAffiliate link. Buying through it earns us a commission; the price stays the same for you.
A two-minute check on the refurbished Black Friday discount
Four things, in this order.
First, the reference price. Under § 11 PAngV, every discount ad must state the lowest total price of the previous 30 days. Miss that, and the percentage already fails.
Then the price history on idealo or Geizhals, for this model and storage size, independent of the shop's own "was" price.
Third: warranty length and return window. On used devices, more value hangs on that than on five percent off.
And finally the condition grade. "Like new" means something different at every retailer; only its own condition page is binding, see what condition grades actually mean.
Check these four and you either buy a genuine refurbished Black Friday discount on 27 November, or don't buy at all. Which retailer leads year-round is in the full retailer comparison; market news lives in our refurbished market news.
All products from this post
The ones we named above are marked; the rest are alternatives in the same category.
Affiliate notice: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Product prices and availability are subject to change.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Black Friday 2026 at refurbished retailers?
Black Friday falls on 27 November 2026, Cyber Monday on 30 November. Many retailers start during the Black Week beforehand. The reference price worth noting is therefore the one from October.
Are Black Friday discounts on refurbished devices real price cuts?
Some yes, some no, and the reference price is the only way to tell. Legally, the lowest total price of the previous 30 days is the comparison basis; an RRP there instead makes the percentage decoration.
Which refurbished retailer is cheapest?
That changes by model, condition grade and day, there's no permanently valid answer. Only the narrow question works: who has the lowest price today for this exact model in this condition grade?
What should I check on Black Friday besides the price?
Warranty length, return window, and the retailer's condition definition. On used electronics, a longer warranty can be worth more than a few percent off. For batteries, retailers state only a minimum capacity.
