It must be January again! Every year since I’ve been here, Media Markt has had a sale where they pay the taxes (Dutch: btw, short for belasting toegevoegde waarde) so you don’t have to.

BTW actie 2017

Thursday, January 26, 8am –  Sunday, January 29

Image from mediamarkt.nl – “weg ermee” means get rid of it. op = op means gone = gone (i.e. no rainchecks) 

This year’s BTW vrije dagen (tax free days) start this Thursday at 8am and last through Sunday. Well, the stores are open from 8am. If you really want to avoid the crowd, you can purchase items online from midnight onwards. And there is a crowd! It’s not quite like America’s Black Friday shopping, but it still makes me want to leave almost right away. If you plan right it can be fun, though.

Of course, not everything is valid for this sale. These items can be purchased tax-free:

• TVs
• Audio
• Photo, video & drone equipment
• Smart phones & smart watches
• Desktops, laptops, tablets & E-Readers
• Monitors & printers
• Home appliances
• Kitchen appliances
• Personal care
• E-bikes

But these items will NOT be tax free:

• Games, films & music
• All accessories (lights, batteries, phone and computer accessories, home automation, security, smoke alarms, cables, printer ink, flash drives like hard drives, USBs, solid state drives and SD cards…)
• Gaming accessories
• All Apple products
• Console hardware
• Computer software
• Toys, books and games
• Pre-pay cards, packets and subscriptions
• Power Service and insurance (on Media Markt purchases)
• Gift cards and and pre-pay credit cards

As I have mentioned in previous posts, it pays to do your research beforehand. Know what you want before you go, and know what prices by other stores are. Their price with tax might be better than Media Markt’s without tax.

Still, it’s fun to buy one or two things. For instance I will probably buy a temperature-controlled water cooker, which is better for brewing tea. A few small things like that.

Have fun – but try to go in the off hours for your sanity!