John wrote in: Amazon Prime Day: Were you aware of this today? There have been a couple of decent Bosch/Skil tools so far. Not sure what else will follow, but it may be worth tracking for some deals.
Brandon wrote in: Amazon Prime Day: Surprised you haven’t mentioned anything about the Prime Day deals. I’ve seen a few really good tool deals already.
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Okay, okay, you guys twisted my arm, I’ll post about Amazon Prime Day! The reason I hadn’t is because I checked some of the available deals late last night, and none were worth mentioning. Granted I could only see 5 hours in the future, to 7am, but I thought that the lackluster tool deals would be a trend.
It looks like I was wrong, and there were some fantastic tool deals that already sold out this morning. Hopefully the great tool deals continue through the day and get even better!
This is what you need to know about Amazon Prime Day:
1) These deals are only available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Not a Prime member? Unless anyone discovers otherwise, maybe you could sign up for a free 30-day trial.
If you sign up for a trial, be sure to turn off automatic renewals!
2) You can go the Amazon Prime Day Deal Page and manually filter the available lightning deals and upcoming lightning deals sections. Sorting capability is to the upper right side of each section, and you’re looking for DIY & Tools. There are also some tool-related deals in the automotive section.
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Or go straight to the Tools & Home Improvement Deal Page, but some of the upcoming tool deals on the main page aren’t showing here yet. Weird.
3) There will only be lightning deals, which means each deal has a time limit and a fixed number of products that can be sold at the deal price. When in doubt, add an item to your cart right away. This gives you 15 minutes to decide about the deal. After 15 minutes, you’ve lost your chance to buy it, but that is often better than waiting too long and finding a deal sold out while you were thinking about it.
You could also buy right away and deal with buyer’s remorse later.
This also means that you have to check back throughout the day, as the upcoming deals section only shows a couple of hours of deals at a time.
3.5) I have taken advantage of a lot of Amazon Lightning Deals in the past. Sometimes the savings are slight, other times they’re huge. Before you check around for a lower price, average street price, or reviews, add the item to your cart to create that 15-minute window mentioned in tip no. 3.
I once missed out on a great tool deal because I was checking around to see how good of a deal it was. After that, I adopted my “cart first, Google second” policy.
If you find or take advantage of a great deal, please let us know!
Prime Day Tool Deals
Prime Day Deals
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Thanks to John and Brandon for the deal post tip/reminder!
John S
We will see if there is anything else throughout the day worth grabbing… but it looks like there may be some potential based on a few items I missed
Hang Fire
Tools? OOOooh look a Chef’s hat and an LED lantern.
Sorry but this is the most overhyped bust I’ve ever seen.
Stan
I’ve known about this day for a while, but nothing of interest showed up. Essentially, all that showed up are items that you can buy any day and there really isn’t that much of a price difference if any.
Then again, I already spent my tool budget money during Harry J Epstein Day. All that I bought was 100% USA made as well.
Steven B
Agreed, total bust…all hype, few interesting deals in tools or electronics. I saw some iphone charger cables very early this morning and thought “yeah, my wife could use another one of those,” but they were “100% claimed,” which I thought was bait and switch and Illegal in the US. The claimed deals are very conspicuous on the site, making it even sleazier.
I used to LOVE amazon.com, but I’m starting to dislike them strongly. Their prices aren’t GREAT anymore. Their website is literally the worse e-commerce site I’ve ever seen. It is so hard to find what you’re looking for and so easy to get scammed by their “3rd party sellers.” Finally, their original products are starting to suck, like their Fire HD tablets. I bought one, couldn’t install Flickr on it, nor most of my apps, and promptly returned it for the awesome Nexus 7.
Now we have this overhyped promotion and I have yet to find something interesting. I looked for electronics, camera stuff, tools, couldn’t find anything worth recommending. Even in browsing the other depts, I didn’t see anything that looked good. This was a huge practical joke.
John S
Yeah this has been a big bust in my mind so far. 🙁 Bummer
Hang Fire
Agree, Amazon has gone down hill. They used to allow any users to enter corrections in a form for a messed-up or duplicate listing. Now you need a seller’s account to do that!
The result? Zillions of duplicate listings, each with a different set of typos. In other words, everything that’s bad about eBay, but at Amazon.
aaron
DEWALT 20V MAX Lithium-Ion Hammer Drill/Driver Kit with 80-Piece Professional Drilling/Driving Set on sale for $$169
I have been looking for a drill/driver combo kit…any feedback on this one?
fred
Got me t look – but nothing I even remotely want to buy
Joseph
Congratulations Amazon, you created an online flea market. Anything worth having is gone before you can click the add button, but fortunately not much is worth buying.
Stuart
More deals that Black Friday? Looks like it. But the deals were not so good.
Prime Day was a complete bust. *grumble*
Jason
Yea, way too much hype verses substance on this one!!
Robbie Stanford
I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, but the last few months there tool deals have been almost nonexistent.
Stuart
I miss the good old days. They had Friday tools and home improvement deals that I checked at 3am, as the best often sold out in the first 30 minutes. Then they had weekend deals as well. Eventually both Friday and weekend deals were discontinued.
There are great deals during the holiday shopping season, but today’s deals were extremely lackluster.
I checked the deals on my phone a couple of times, and my wife did too, and there wasn’t a single deal worth taking advantage of.
Hopefully this post wasn’t for naught and some readers caught good deals, even if not tool-related.
firefly
Yup, major disappointment…
MT_Noob
My Amazon love is also starting to fade. It is just plain insulting the way that the “list” price for any item is so outrageous. The ridiculous list price means that you always have to second guess each item you buy since you can’t really believe what they call a sale or discount. I can’t believe the get away with those shenanigans. Good deals can be found but it is becoming fewer and farther in-between. All they really offer now is the convenience of shopping at home.
Jason
Amazon uses that crazy MSRP pricing tactic. I’m sorry Amazon it might be the MSRP of the tool or what ever else, but most other stores are selling it for a lot less. Amazon’s 70% off might in reality might be 10% off normal price, or the same as most other retailers.
Mike
That was a waste of bandwidth. Most things I saw that would interest me were only a couple bucks cheaper. If you buy a lot from Amazon you need to check out Camelcamelcamel.com Sounds weird but it’s an amazon price tracker. Some items prices fluctuate a lot!
John S
Yes, I agree with this recommendation. It is definitely the way to track prices on something you want to buy.
ktash
Amazon used to have lightening deals for tools all the time. They are very rare now. I’ve stopped checking it. I saw the prime thing today but only looked briefly and nothing worth getting. Amazon took over Woot and that has gone downhill, too.
Mike, I’ve gotten some good buys from camelcamelcamel.
ktash
Wanted to add that camel is worth doing, but you have to get it immediately if you are waiting for an item and it comes down to the price you have set. Sometimes it will change back within hours. Since you’ve researched it and the price, though, that isn’t hard to do.
ktash
Not to beat a dead horse, but I was just on amazon looking at blum 170 degree hinges. The price was $14.95 with prime shipping. But the list price was $99.99. This is just a regular hinge (pair). I can’t believe it was or ever would be almost $100. It just makes you wonder what in the heck is going on there. Plus there were other sellers offering it for even less. Rockler has them for around $20.
Screwy, nuts.
Stuart
With that, a seller might have once sold a 4 pack and changed the list price to suit.
Some of Amazon’s list pricing is egregious, other times it’s the result of bad housekeeping.
ktash
Ok, that makes a bit more sense.
Jerrick
Prime Day was a total joke.