Question about purchasing Canon lenses

[tbar23]

Some of you may have seen my thread regarding the potential purchase of a 100-500mm lens for an upcoming safari. I had been thinking of renting that lens until I was sitting on the sideline of my son’s lacrosse game and thought it would be nice to have a fast lens with some reach. I am now considering the purchase of that lens.
Still being new to this hobby, I’m curious about lens purchases.
With most of my hobbies, patience rewards buyers of expensive items - most manufacturers have at least one or two times per year where a discount can be had.
For Canon lenses, it is not clear to me that this is true.
Do lenses ever go on sale? If so, is it predictable or quite rare and unpredictable?
I have looked for used options, but there are very few out there.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Do lenses ever go on sale? Yes. Would I expect RF lenses to go on sale any time soon? Given the demand and supply chain issues I wouldn't expect to see sales on RF glass in the next year or two, particularly on the L series stuff. Heck, we've already seen price increases on some of it.

When things were normal you generally got a sale towards the holidays at the end of the year giving you about 10% off. After a while you might start seeing refurbished lenses popping up on the Canon site that could save you a few bucks, but that might be all you'll see for a while.

 

[Turb0rabbit]

I like to buy Refurb from Canon if I'm not in a rush to spend $$$. Or If I am in a rush to spend $$ 2nd hand. I got my eye on that RF100-500L