Yankee candles are the most loved candles in the world, and some of the most expensive costing £21.99 for a large jar (the price recently rose from £19.99). But fans swear that the smell is stronger than ones double the price, have an equal amount of fragrance running all the way through the candle, the burn time is long and the candles tend to well/dip only a small amount compared to cheaper brands.
So as much as buying them is ‘worth it’, the reality is you can usually get a discount (and even make money on them), especially if you are up for trying out different scents and buying off season.
Here’s my ultimate guide, with tricks, tips and hacks to buy and sell Yankee Candles cheaply.
How to get them cheap
Get them from Amazon, eBay or House of Fraser
Sure, Yankee does offers and deals, but if you’re not checking out Amazon, eBay and House of Fraser, you’re missing on on year long reductions.
I’d say Amazon is the best place to find legitimate Yankees, actually sold by Yankee. You’ll pay about £16 for a large jar.
With eBay, you can buy new (from Yankeedirect) for about £15 for a large jar delivered, and of course second hand and vintage ones.
House of Fraser seems to always have a discount on Yankees, as well as a massive range.
Ask for seconds
Ask your store if they have any “seconds” in its clearance section, or hidden in the stock room. Seconds are candles that are marked 75%+ off because they don’t meet Yankee Candle’s high quality requirements. They can be discoloured, chipped, have the wick off centre or have the label missing.
Get the supermarket range
‘Simply Home’ candles, are basically Yankee’s more budget friendly range (large jars are £13). They tend not to be so bright and jazzy in colour, and are made to fit within a ‘simply decorated’ home, and not stand out too much.
Although cheaper, a lot of fans think the scent is stronger, so preferable to the more expensive version. Many of the scents are exactly the same but with different names, i.e Simply Home Vanilla Frosting is exactly the same as Vanilla Cupcake – just £9 cheaper. You can spot this range in supermarkets and B&Q, and has candles and jars of all sizes including wax tarts.
Visit Poundland
Poundland has started selling genuine Yankee Candle accessories such as the “love love love” votive holder. I’ve not spotted actual candles (chance would be a fine thing!), but these accessories usually go for £3-£5 online, so bagging one for a quid is a bit of a bargain.
Visit an outlet
Sure, everyone goes on about the semi-annual sales, but they don’t last forever right? Well go where they do! Yankee Candle has loads of outlet stores nationwide (I LOVE visiting McArthurGlen in Bridgend whenever i’m visiting my family in Swansea), and you can bag yourself a proper bargain.
Last week votives were 50p, and buy two get one free – thats three Yankee Candles for a £1! It’s safe to say I stocked up.
Follow Yankee on Facebook/Twitter
The Yankee Candle Facebook page and Twitter account is a great place to find out about competitions, coupons, deals and special events.
How to make money on Yankee Candles
Yankee fans with spend some serious cash on candles, especially if they are rare. If you are dedicated, there are ways to make money by sourcing these and selling them online. I was told on Facebook by a collector that she doesn’t make money as such, but as the resale value is so good, it’s a bit like saving. So if she’s short of cash, she will sell her surplus.
Buy them before they are discontinued
If Yankee announce they are discontinuing a certain candle fragrance, the rush begins for fans to buy them up, hold onto them for a while, and then sell on for lots of money. A brilliant place to keep an eye on this is the site, Waxaddicts which lists everything that is being discontinued.
Some that will be retiring in 2016 include: All room sprays, Salted Caramel (my favourite!), A Child’s Wish, Orchard Rain, White Chocolate Bunnies and Wild Sea Grass (which I spotted for 75% off in McArthurGlen recently). If you are popping to a store with Yankees in them, it’s definitely worth keeping a list on you to spot potential bargains.
Buy on offer and sell for full price
If you’re savvy enough, you can always find an offer on Yankee Candles. For example, Boots currently has them on offer for 3for2, which makes a large jar £14.66 (which just by itself is a brilliant price), if you then sell on Amazon or eBay at close to full price, you’ll bag yourself a small profit.
Keep an eye out for vintage ones worth £400+
Vintage Yankee Candles can sell for hundreds of pounds on eBay. You’d strike gold if you found the one, ‘Rainbow’s end’ which goes for over £300+ or Silver White Winters that sells for over £400 on eBay and Facebook selling groups.
Make money on accessories
There is real money to made from accessories, especially as the really nice ones are so hard to find in the UK.
When are they on sale?
After holidays
After major holidays such as Halloween, Easter and Christmas. Yankee introduces candles and accessories for holidays, such as the ‘Witches Brew’ candle. After the holiday, they get reduced to 50%-75%, so if you’re up for smelling pumpkin all year around or keep them hanging around for a year, that’s the best time to buy them.
Just before a new season
Like its holiday scents, there are fragrances that are released to coincide with the seasons. Look for Spring scents just before summer for example, to find cheaper prices.
When a fragrance or style is being discontinued
Keep an eye out on the Yankee Candle website to find out when scents or product lines are being discontinued. When this happens, stores will usually put these items on sale to clear out their inventories.
Black Friday
Yankee Candle generally has a great sale (60% off) on Black Friday.
Yankee Hacks
Invest in a tart burner
Yankee Candle tarts are the cheapest Yankee items you can buy, often getting them for 99p. Invest in a tart burner, with the biggest bowl possible. Because the larger the wax pool, the more scent is released.
If you find any votives on offer (down to the same price as a tart), and then cut the in half, and use them as a tart. That’s two for the price of one, and gives off more scent that burning as a candle.
Cut the votives in half
Both the votives and tart are a cheap way to try out lots of different scents without investing in large candles. But here’s the big different, the votive is 1.75 (49g) and the tart is 0.8oz (22g) – and similar price. Both of these products have a similar level of fragrance, but half of a Yankee Candle votive weighs approximately the same as one Yankee Candle tart. So get cutting in half!
Freeze them to clean jars/burners
Wax tarts can be a nuisance to remove from the burners but I have found that if you allow it to cool and hardnen completely before popping it into the freezer for 20 minutes it makes removal so much easier. To remove (once the wax is frozen), just take a blunt knife and wedge it under the frozen wax – it then simply pops out in a solid disk that can be reused should you wish.
Where to get legitimate Yankee Candles
It’s easy to be conned and ripped off by fake Yankee and cheap imitations of Yankee candles. Lets face it, they really aren’t cheap, so you want to make sure what you are buying is legit, has a good burn time, good smell and is safe.
Here’s a big list of authorised online sellers (found thanks to Team Yankee – Yankee Candle Global Fan Appreciation Group – it’s a great group. If you like Yankee, they have lots of info):
- QVCUK
- YankeeCandle.co.uk
- Yankee.co.uk
- YankeeDirect.com
- YankeeScents4u.com
- YankeeAromaDirect.co.uk
- YankeeDoodle.co.uk
- Bigwicks.co.uk
- Boots.co.uk
- Houseoffraser.co.uk
- Clintons.co.uk
- Yankee-Candles.co.uk
- Unogifts.com
- Lovearoma.co.uk
- Casacandles.co.uk
- Temptationgifts.com
- Candlecity.co.uk
- Treasuresgifts.co.uk
List of in-store shops:
- Stevens shop, Wellfield Road, Cardiff
- Pink Zebra, Llantrisant
- McArthur Glen – Swindon M4 J16 / Bridgend / Ellesmere Port / Ashford, Kent / York / Cheshire Oaks
- Rhys Candles, Swansea
- Boundary Mills, Colne, Rotherham, Walsall
- Trentham Gardens outlet
- Yankee Candle Store, Eastgate Street, Chester, England
- Candle Corner, Maesteg, Bridgend
- Planters Garden Centre, Tamworth and Warwickshire
- Wyevale garden centres
- Dobbies garden centres
Have I missed out any tips and tricks? Let me know!
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Oh wow, I had no idea that some of the rarer ones fetch so much…and I thought spending £21.99 on a candle was insane! I love the wax tarts, I think they give off a much stronger smell for a fraction of the cost.
Macclesfield have a Yankee candle store… but never have any offers on apart from 70% off on the Christmas ones now
QD sells these for £2, all year round.
How did you get started buying and selling the candles
Could you keep me up to date with new info please thanking you
Sarah
I melt votives down and make wax melts out of it, out of 1 votive you’ll get about 8-10 melts. If you’ve got a Peter Jones store near you try there for Yankees there do good offers on them, you also get a loyalty card every £10 spent you get a stamp, fill the first half get £10 to spend in store fill the card you get £35 to spend
Also found a mix bag of 10 yankee votives and 14 yankee melts all mixed for £15.00 at Ena Mill Yankee Outlet
Just found today 3 small Yankee jars for £10.00 lots of fragrances plus lots of other Yankee deals at Ena Mill Yankee Outlet, Atherton near Bolton. Not sure if you knew about this place.
Just found today 3 small Yankee jars for £10.00 lots of fragrances plus lots of other Yankee deals at Ena Mill Yankee Outlet, Atherton near Bolton. Not sure if you knew about this place.
Ah no I didn’t! Thanks so much for the heads up. What scents did you get?
I bought vanilla bourbon, summer peach, cranberry twist, so many to choose from
The simply home ones are ,at home bargains for £2- £3 discountined.
What’s that mean,thay will become rare.
Always check the labels on the bottoms if it says south Deerfield,buy and double or triple you money.
As some will only collect USA labels..not Yankee EU
brilliant blog,very useful,thank you.
i get most of my Yankee Candles from BOUNDARY MILL STORES..They always have a great selection & i pick up some great bargains in the sales 🙂
Tkmaxx also have them. They have some nice ones online to order but also some different in store only.
I wonder if anyone can help I picked up a retired yankee large shade the other day and I would love to know what range its from and what its called ?
Wonderful information on this page – thank you!
I’d love to also know if there’s a way to spot a FAKE Yankee Candle? I purchased one from B&M that was a bargain price, and upon getting home and comparing it to another one I had it looked very suspicious, and possibly even dangerous. Does anyone have a guide to spot fakes??
This very helpful information for get Yankee Candles and it include their ability to fill a room with fragrance, to provide a relaxing and soothing atmosphere, and to improve the ambiance of a room. Yankee Candles are also popular because they are affordable and last a long time.
I am in love with these fragrance candles, their ability to lift up your mood with the fragrance they hold also am loving the colours they come in can become a decent decoration piece for your room.