Amazon’s Prime Day 2022 sales event is over. Let’s talk about it.
There were some decent tool deals this year, but not quite as many tool-related deals as in previous years.
Prices were lower, about the same, or higher, depending on the product.
Advertisement
Gearwrench was definitely a winner this year, with what looked to be lower-than-ever prices on certain tools and sets.
There were a couple of standout Dewalt deals this year, most notably their premium compact oscillating multi-tool kit.
There weren’t any notable Wera deals, and few Wiha deals aside from a couple of lighting deals. Other brands looked to have skipped Prime Day this year as well, such as PanaVise and Mitutoyo. That was disappointing.
It was no easy task sorting through Amazon’s deal listings. I don’t care about the no-name import brand deals, and I assume most of you feel the same way.
Save big on this must-have kewlansee tool, best gift idea for men, DIYers, pros, get-it-doners, handypersons. No thanks.
Once I was done with my initial post and the first couple of rounds of additions and layout updates, I took to the web to see how major magazines and review sites were covering the sales event.
Advertisement
At least one major media organization highlighted Amazon Prime Day deals on Ryobi and Milwaukee Tool products. But Amazon isn’t an authorized dealer for those brands!! I looked at the links, and as far as I could tell, they were simply 3rd party listings of tools seemingly purchased from Home Depot.
Where are they even getting this from?
Amazon also didn’t provide any press/media support at all, at least not about their tool deals. They used to provide details of big sales events, and although not very thorough, it was better than nothing.
One, maybe two organizations were touting that the Leatherman Micra was on sale for $55. They advertised that Amazon had a Prime Day discount of 18%, with “was” pricing of $67. Leatherman’s everyday price for the Micra mini multi-tool is $34.95.
So how is $55 for a $35 tool a good deal?
But of course, Google’s search algorithm doesn’t care about authority, expertise, or usefulness, they care about “freshness” and factors I could only guess about.
This kind of thing gives me a headache.
There was a Prime Day deal on Knipex Cobra 6″ pliers, and it’s still on sale. The price didn’t seem right to me. I looked it up, and you can buy the same exact tool but in different packaging for $5 less. So, I included both in my post.
Amazon tends to change prices for certain products dynamically, even on Prime Day (or Black Friday), and so that’s why I had to include the alternative option as well as the Prime Day SKU.
They weren’t changing prices too much, and so I later added them into my post for future reference.
I cannot believe mass media “expert” reviewers and buying guide writers keep promoting the Dewalt DCD777 cordless drill kit as being compact, light, and powerful. It has its place in the market, but there were so many far better bargains, both within and beyond Dewalt’s 20V Max cordless power tool system. But, that’s the situation every tool-buying holiday sales event.
And then, looking back on Amazon’s page to see if there’s anything new, there are influencer “live streams” where they hold up no-name stuff to the camera and promote it. Ooh, a car vac, with a power cord <— this long —> as they hold up their arms to show the length of power cord that’s wrapped up in the middle.
I did mention in the headline that this would be a report, rant, and feedback post.
I tried to follow last year’s posting model, and separated my post into different sections, each with shortcuts. I also tried to reflect updates in the title and a now-removed changelog.
Maybe next year I’ll have separate discussion posts, as I did last year.
The sections this year included “top deals,” “what are readers buying?,” “new tool deals,” “tool deals by category,” and “lighting deals.”
At one point I realized I still had Amazon Prime Day bonus credit to spend, and so I added a “good bargains under $10” section. I later changed the title to what you see here:
ToolGuyd Favorites Under $10
Dewalt Medium Tough Case – $6.98
Dewalt 14pc Drill Bit Set – $9.98
X-Acto Wall-Mounted Pencil Sharpener – $9.99
Gerber Paraframe Mini Knife – $9
It seemed like a good inclusion, but I’m not sure.
I like to think that my overall coverage format was helpful, and are eager to hear what you think.
Could my Prime Day tool deal coverage have been any better or more helpful for you?
The main reason I ask is because I reworked my Prime Day 2021 post on the fly last year, settling on a format that mostly resembled this. I built on that idea for Black Friday/Holiday 2021, and then followed the same format for Prime Day 2022.
With your help, maybe I can tweak things further when it’s time to curate and format Black Friday and Holiday 2022 tool deal coverage. If last year is any indicator, the 2022 holiday shopping season is due to kick off in just 3 months.
The easiest approach would be to create a simply filtered link. For instance:
From an affiliate link standpoint, retailers don’t care if you link to a product, home page, landing page, or elsewhere, all they care is that you referred a sale.
In other words, from a revenue perspective, 100-200 words plus a big clickable button has about the same effect as putting hours into an organized list of hand-picked deals.
So while there are site-supporting incentives tied to Prime Day coverage, there’s a rapid approach towards diminishing returns, where added effort doesn’t encourage added affiliate sales or referral commissions.
This is presumably why mass media sites pour a lot of effort into Prime Day coverage, but not necessarily authoritative or particularly useful coverage.
But, I like being able to refer back. Which hose reels were on sale last year? There are no miter saws on sale this year, were there any last year? I also refer to old promo details when looking forward to potential purchases. If there’s a good chance something I want to buy will be cheaper, maybe I can wait.
The way I laid out this year’s tool deals, that works for me. But does it work for you? What might be more useful to you?
I always sink a lot of time into my tool deal coverage, partly for future reference, but because I know how hard it is to sort through everything. If I can make things easier for more people, isn’t that better than everyone having to sort through all the deals themselves, duplicating the efforts?
My post still does have a lot of deals listed, but hopefully you’ll agree it make things easier.
If you find my Prime Day coverage helpful (or unhelpful), please chime in with some feedback!
Will
I liked your coverage, but I didn’t buy any tools this year. I did get a moccamaster on a great discount, which is incredibly rare.
Craig A
Your coverage was good as always, the deals were not so great. If you didn’t have any hand tools, there were some good Gearwrench sets for a great price. I already have some Gearwrench ratcheting wrenches that I’m satisfied with. I was looking for some deals on the single ratcheting wrenches that aren’t in the set I have, but they had no single tool deals. I bought no tools on prime day other than a Noco GB50 jump pack.
Jim E
I was also looking for individual wrenches and was disappointed that they weren’t offered. I bought a set of GW pushpin pliers and a NOCO jump pack as well.
Rob H
I appreciate your coverage. I felt like the deals were pretty lackluster. I generally use camelcamelcamel.com to check and see if Amazon is up to any shenanigans with creative pricing. They were on a couple of things I looked at.
I ordered some needed electronics items and a flashlight. I wasn’t all that motivated to buy considering budget constraints of the current economy.
A bigger issue for me has been frustration with Amazon in general. I just got back from the UPS store where I had to drop off another clearly used/opened item that Amazon shipped as new. That’s 2 trips for opened/missing part items. Then the week before I had to return a part for my truck that was labeled as the correct part but inside the box was a completely different item. Someone put amazon’s inventory sticker on the wrong box, so the person scanning/shipping didn’t have a clue they were shipping lift kit spacers for a 2013 Chevy truck to a guy who ordered cradles for air bags for towing with a Toyota. Enough other companies are starting to offer expedited shipping at for free or at discount that prime membership is looking less valuable than before.
Adam
Prime video is the last thing that kept us paying for subscription, and wont renew come January. Lackluster offerings for Video now, and poorer delivery service &/or problems with the actual item.
Home Depot is essentially overnight for most items I order. Even if it wasn’t, better reliability overall.
I wish I could leave a picture of the 49″ Ultrawide monitor they left on my steps. When I say steps, they left it on the steps in an angled fashion. like a kid riding cardboard down the stairs. Not to mention there is another entrance 15ft away, that is covered from the elements it could have been under. Only a $1000 monitor, that clearly said to be delivered by 2 people on the package.
Joe
Your delivery experience is something I have also experienced! I read somewhere the issue is they can’t retain workers. They pay half decent for middle America, but even still it’s not that great and so they leave due to the unrealistic demands from Amazon. I also read somewhere that Amazon did an internal analysis of workers and applicants which found they’re burning through warehouse and delivery workers at such a pace that they’ll run out of new people who will apply to work for them by 2030 or something like that. Meaning no one to work for them.
Stuart
I’ve been less than perfectly thrilled with Amazon as well in recent months. In June, they shipped kids books with crushed crab and lobster shell fertilizer, and then lost the replacement. I also ordered a knife that was delayed and presumed lost later that week.
Amazon made things right, and so while not perfectly thrilled as I say, I’m still a happy customer.
MM
Your coverage was excellent as usual.
I didn’t purchase anything simply because there was nothing I needed. I was hoping that Gearwrench might finally have put some of the items in my wish list on sale, but nope, nothing I was looking for was marked down.
fred
I was going to buy some to the Gerber paraframe knives to put aside for stocking stuffers. But Amazon said that shipping to my primary address was not allowed. Shipping to my Florida place would be OK – but we usually don’t go down until after Christmas.
What I did buy were some LG refrigerator water filters ($10 – 20% off) for my Florida refrigerator,
So, it wasn’t a total waste looking – but nothing too exciting for me.
Lightyear
Totally appreciate your organizational wizardry to help me sort the wheat from the chaff. Sadly, I didn’t find a single deal that met my needs or desires. For all the fanfare Amazon tossed at this three ring circus, I was disappointed in the meager offerings and the so called “sales” on some items as you noted. However, your highlight of this quote, “Save big on this must-have kewlansee tool, best gift idea for men, DIYers, pros, get-it-doners, handypersons” had me chuckling and nodding in agreement as I’m certainly a get-it-doner. Thanks again, Stuart. We’ll have to wait for November and see what rolls out. Maybe Amazon will offer that combination hair dryer/drill atrocity that appeared on their banner ad.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate that!
Honestly, Amazon’s deals used to be better, but it’s unclear how much this year’s selection as influenced by the pandemic, shortages, and inflation.
A couple of tools and products I purchased over the past few months were on sale for Prime Day. I bought a few things to test out for ToolGuyd purposes, and impulse-bought things I hadn’t expected to buy, such as a Mechanix shop apron.
I bought a network storage device, but from a different retailer that bested Amazon by $10, and also couple of toys for my kids, including a LEGO set that’s $15 less than 2 weeks ago (that first order is already on the way back to Amazon).
I like the look of the Blink doorbell, and will research it ahead of potential holiday deals.
Dean
Lol, I tried to find that red drill just to see what it was all about. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one that said to themselves “what is that thing?”
Ben
Did you happen to have any success finding it? I’m morbidly curious now.
Jared
I bought a single tool: a diamond coated knife sharpening rod so I can touch up some of my serrated blades. I think it was ~$10.
Pretty big let-down for me this year. I wasted way too much time looking. I was shopping the amazon.ca prime day sale, so obviously it doesn’t translate, but it was really not very good.
There were “deals” on Dewalt, Bosch, Gearwrench, Craftsman, Crescent… and frankly not many more big tool brands. The Gearwrench offerings were ok – I didn’t need anything that was on sale, but I would rate them the best value of the big brand “deals”.
There was no Wiha, Wera, Kershaw, CKRT, Knipex or Lisle deals. I perused the USA list for ideas of things to check on and was surprised how many brands were missing entirely from the deals in Canada.
There were some decent Olight prices too – but Olight themselves has pretty good sales, so I don’t think these were once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
Then there was a ton of nonsense-name direct-from-China deals. Many of which were higher than if you just searched Amazon for a similar product from another nonsense-name brand.
Gotta work harder than that for my money Amazon – I was trying to spend it and couldn’t find an excuse.
A few days before Prime Day I did finally purchase the Felo Smart 13 piece reversible screwdriver set I’d been eyeballing for a long time (model number: 060 813 46). It dropped down to about $85 (when it’s usually $135+, which is already cheaper than elsewhere). Pretty happy about that!
John
Bought a single $6 contour tool. Deals weren’t appealing this year.
Robert
Stuart, your highlighting of updates is very helpful. Realize that is time intensive. Agree with most that deals were underwhelming. Seems with supply chain issues sellers don’t have a motivation to compete on price since they already have trouble fulfilling normal orders.
John
I was looking for Milwaukee M18.
Seems like Milwaukee passed, so I did too.
Stuart
Amazon is not an authorized Milwaukee Tool dealer. There was a Milwaukee deal, and I posted about it here: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/best-prime-day-tool-deals-beyond-amazon-2022/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
dstblj 52
The acme deals were actually better than the amazon deals, at least in that they had stuff I wanted to buy, those broad category deals are much more flexible
JR Ramos
I found a few Milwaukee deals on there but of course nothing substantial and no actual tools. This impact boot was (still is) on sale for pretty cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HQZ7XX6
Yadda
Nothing I needed.
Francois Caen
Your coverage was excellent. You allowed me to quickly determine there was almost nothing I really needed or wanted to buy. And you reminded that I needed some sound cancelling ear muffs – which I was able to buy at 2021 prices, which is kinda sad for a deal.
So, thank you, please keep this up, it’s useful.
Leo B.
I find the itemized coverage very helpful. Thanks for your hard work on it!
Al
Your coverage was trying to find needles in haystacks. You did the best you could. I think after the rise in prices over the last 2 years, most ‘deals’ were barely normal prices.
The Wiha insulated screwdrivers were not much of a deal. I have that set already at a lower cost. So I looked at the Wera. Good price. But…I scrolled down and saw it ‘Used-Very Good’ for 28 bucks. Even better.
Pulled the trigger on that. I’ve had pretty good luck with not-new items from Amazon. Usually they are missing the original box and have light rub marks from shipping or trial use. If it’s a tool, I don’t care. I’ll bang it up and splatter it with paint anyway.
Jared
My results are very mixed. Some excellent deals, some terrible ones.
I bought a set of SK extensions once – turned out someone “returned” some no-name branded ones in their place and Amazon resold them as “used, like new”.
Another time I bought a kerosene heater. It looked brand new too – but someone had removed the rotor from the fan. That seemed weird – I wonder if they stole parts for another machine or something. 🤷♂️
If you’re buying used from Amazon, just be sure to open the package and try out your purchase well before the return window closes.
Evan
And honestly even when you’re buying new…
PW
Like others, I appreciated your thorough coverage. Unfortunately none of the deals appealed much to me this year.
There were definitely some decent deals if you lacked a complete set of basic hand tools and are happy with what Apex tool group provides. I just didn’t have interest in the offerings.
I’m also feeling pretty down on Amazon lately. Literally this week I received a completely incorrect item from Amazon. Just straight up the wrong item in the box. I go to return it and… I can’t! There’s a “no returns” policy, despite this item being SHIPPED AND FULFILLED by Amazon (incorrectly!!)
I probably missed some fine print at checkout, but after probably a thousand lifetime Amazon orders it never occurred to me I wouldn’t be able to return something they fulfilled.
I’ve been mulling cancelling Prime for a while now, but I always get sucked back in by the convenience for obscure/hard to find items. This might do it though.
Sean
I took a chance on a set of SATA 120 position ratchet aka Gearwrench 120XP. I bought this set for my dispatch tool kit. Set comes with 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 for $50 taxes included or about $16 per ratchet. At this price, it’s cheaper than buying a set of Pittsburgh Pro ratchets albeit with a less robust warranty. Time will tell if I made the right choice.
Stuart
No-returns products can be a headache, but reasonable return requests can usually be resolved via chat or call, especially if they sent you the completely wrong item.
With customer service at Amazon or elsewhere, I find it’s best to tell them the problem and then exactly how you want it fixed, with alternatives if possible.
If they sent you the completely wrong item, that’s not a return situation, it’s a “I never got my order” type of complaint, and then clarify. If I recall correctly, there’s a “wrong item sent” option, and if not, chat or phone call will clear it up.
Eric
I think your coverage was good. It was nice to have curated list to look through. The most useful thing for amazon shopping though is the Keepa browser plugin. It’s invaluable to be able to see the pricing history of any product right there on the page. It really helps me easily see what is actually a good price and what is actually a normal price.
Blocky
How do affiliate links work if I click through from more than one site? Some of my shopping was home goods through wirecutter.
Your format is basically solid. It gave a good overview, and it got me to my points of interest very quickly. Saved me time and grief but also got me to a couple purchases I wouldn’t have made.
Stuart
It depends on the retailer or the affiliate services they use. Some give credit when an item is added to a shopping cart, others have a “last click” model where credit is given to the last referral/affiliate prior to a purchase.
Looking back, my 2021 and 2022 formats were definitely better than previous years. Here was 2020: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/amazon-prime-day-2020-tool-deals/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Last year and in prior years, I had additional posts, which can help with focused discussions, such as on Dewalt-specific deals. I didn’t do that this year, and cannot help but feel it was missing, but didn’t want to direct people to multiple posts for essentially the same information. Maybe that’s something I can improve for next year,
John S
Personally I thought prime day has been lame the last 2-3 years. I did however get some good deal on knipex at Amazon.de with the week euro!
Steven B
A thing to remember about Amazon is that they used to sell at a slight loss. Investors were constantly complaining about them. AWS was keeping the company afloat while they were investing in infrastructure and pricing goods just slightly too low while providing unusually great service. They wanted you to become addicted. If you noticed that sometime between 2015 and 2018, when Jeff Bezos was crowned the richest man in the world, all their prices went up, the service went down…it’s been a long time since you actually get 2 day shipping on Prime.
You’re addicted. You check on Prime Day hoping for the great deals they’ve had in the past. I remember a lot of great ones and in the last few years they’ve sucked pretty bad.
My wife only shops at Amazon. She doesn’t even consider Target, even though Target usually has lower prices and the same shipping. WalMart is also cheaper usually. She’s addicted, exactly as Jeff Bezos had hoped.
So about 7 years ago, you’d be an idiot not to buy something from them. I remember buying routers there that were $70 cheaper than Home Depot. Now the major retailers have caught up and Amazon has raised their prices, so it really rarely makes sense to buy from them if someone else offers the same product.
I certainly don’t want to support their business practices unless they really do give me a better price.
Noah
Competitors rocked Amazon’s socks over the past 2 weeks, and I spent 700 elsewhere on the Milwaukee Pole Saw & Blower & 8AH kit (~320) a refurb Ego chainsaw & 5AH ($220) and a Milwaukee hedge trimmer & 5AH kit ($160). Amazon was like alibaba or banggood and hurt to scroll. Thanks for finding the picks you did.
Joellikestools
I appreciated the coverage. It is hard to sift through Amazon’s tool deals. I b p ught the fluke non contact voltage tester I have been eying for awhile. Not much else 8nterested me. I own mostly TTI power tools so that cuts out a p ot of what Amazon’s has to offer.
Joellikestools
Also, Ecolflow had some really good deals if anyone was looking for a camping power bank. I snagged one.
Munklepunk
I went a bit crazy on electrical connectors. Lots off decent deals on products I was going to buy anyway. I got the irwin wire stripper set to upgrade from my no name brand I got a decade ago. And since there were quite a few prime bucks deals I spent even less. I did like the addition of the shop prime deals button. I also double checked the prices and passed on more than a few deals.
Jerry
Thanks for the work you put in. I wound up getting a couple things you linked but there didn’t seem to be as many deals as I hoped. Ironically, I checked prices on a few things on ebay, and found better prices there for some things like consumables. Tool deals were hit and miss, sometimes better there, sometimes better on Amazon. I guess it pays to price shop.
Frank D
Very good coverage, Stuart, that more than offsets the mess that are the Amazon Prime Day pages with lackluster filtering, brand options, etc …
I looked at a few things, probably should have bitten the bullet on that Japanese saw, … but sat around mulling about three Bosch tools, for the discount. Then looked at the auto cleaning vacs and time was up.
Aaron SD
Great coverage as usual! I like how lists were grouped and links to the sales. Nothing much of interest for me this year. I think I’d only get hex wrenches but none really on sale that interested me. Maybe Black Friday.
Since there wasn’t a lot of brand specific things it makes sense for all to be in one post. If there were a ton of good dewalt deals, then a separate post could be warranted. As it was I liked how it was organized.
Get some rest as I’m already looking forward to the Black Friday coverage…
Aaron SD
I just saw the two Wera Hex+ is up $20 from $74 to $93. This is one for SAE and one for metric. I wasn’t convinced $74 was a great price for both. Definitely not planning on spending $93. I’ve waited this long I can wait longer.
Kevin Dor
I saw deals where they would have a crazy list price and claim it was a deal. The “discounted prices” were very similar to every day prices at other stores.
N. Berg
I’m not in the market for any of the more exciting power tool deals, but I did need some more clamps, so I picked up 2 sets of Jorgenson one-handed clamps.
I’ve also been interested in trying out some aluminum right angle corner clamps, and I noticed there were tons of no name ones on sale, so I looked around and found a pair for $16 with a Prime Day discount on top of a clickable coupon, which is about half the normal price I’ve seen for this kind of thing. I’m guessing that 50% off means there’s also a 50% chance I will need to return them because they’re not even close to square.
I don’t remember previous sales we enough to o know if this was always the case, but I noticed that after lightning deals ended the discount seemed to stay the same. The Jorgenson clamps I got were lightning deals for 20% off, and I happened to go back to the pages later in the day when the lightning deals were over and the price was the same as I had paid. Is that normal? I definitely assumed the price would go up at least somewhat, even if it wasn’t back to full price yet.
Davethetool
Lots of previous comments mirror my opinion including them always horrible categorizing that Amazon has had forever. I am sure Amazon does this on purpose in the hopes of impulse buys. Considering how big they are you would think they would have category filtering as being top notch but it is the opposite. Too much time wasted trying to find good tool deals which is why it was so nice of Stuart to do that for us and really appreciated. I did purchase a couple of Gearwrench tools and sets including the hose pincher that I really didn’t need but couldn’t pass up on the price!
Other issues I experienced was the fact I put many items in my cart the week or so before Prime Day for easier checking on sale prices if they occurred during the sale but not one of my saved tools was marked down for Prime Days! I did delay purchasing a midrange OBD2 detector only to see the Company raised the pricing 2 days before Prime Sale and after Prime Sale Discount was actually MORE expensive than before Prime Days!!!
Lastly I am getting very tired of Amazon Constantly pushing China Made, no-name stuff for the first few pages in search results, not just during Prime Days but every day. It’s gotten bad enough that you have to use a specific Name Brand in the search or you may have to do rummage through a few pages to find. I have upped my search skills by typing the wanted tool (by name) in browser search bar which then can provide a direct link to Amazon showing the tool!
Mr. C
I’m happy for the coverage, so thank you on that.
Historical price tracking is a thing of mine. Camel Camel Camel, past BF advert sites w/ PDF circulars still available, historical searched on Slickdeals, etc. It’s a great way to judge if something is worth a price by comparing it to past sales.
I, too, was underwhelmed with the deals, especially with tools. What I appreciated more was the reciprocal deals. Retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, and B&H Photo had the same items on sale, at the same time. I believe I bought more from HD than I did from Amazon.
Simply put, I don’t trust Amazon to sell a genuine product. I have been burned by them with an electronic textbook, even when paying a higher price for “Sold by Amazon” product. They made it right (after arguing with them over chat), but I bought a legit copy from a trusted seller (Adafruit Industries) for a few dollars more. B&H and Home Depot have equally untarnished reputations too, thankfully.
And with HD & Walmart — if something goes sideways, I like having a retail store to return the product to. They don’t ban users who return “too much”, like a friend of mine was banned by returning just FOUR items over the span of 2 months. [or maybe those stores do ban customers, but only when it comes to ill-legit excessive returns]
Stuart
B&H had an issue a few years back where they inadvertently sold counterfeit Nikon batteries. These things can happen at any retailer.
But as for matching deals, I wanted to buy a NAS, and B&H had a matching deal that saved me an extra $10. By the time I was able to shop for myself, Amazon either didn’t have a deal on the hard drive I wanted, or it sold out, so bought a pair from Newegg, with the only complaint being it won’t arrive for another 6 days.
Mr. C
I wasn’t aware about the counterfeit Nikon batteries from B&H.
But in comparison, that was a singular item, once. Which more than likely prompted an entire process to verify their inventory and supply chain.
On the other hand, Amazon openly commingles inventory from third party sellers. They have a reputation for hard drives & SD cards being the wrong sizes, books being very obviously counterfeited, etc. It’s not the exception for them.
And their culture is one of “We do such a tremendous volume of business. It’s more expensive to do the right thing, so instead we’ll ignore the issue until we need to fix it. We’ll put the onus on the customer to nag us to make a bad situation right. Maybe they won’t notice and we profit from their ignorance. We’ll get paid either way. And if we lose a customer, no big loss — we’re doing well as it is. There’ll be another to fill their void.”
Regarding my book: I had to show Amazon the author’s website showing examples of what counterfeit copies of his book typically look like, with pictures of my copy in comparison — they wouldn’t take my word for it. Try doing that with camera that doesn’t have macro focusing.
I feel bad for those who got a counterfeit book, but wasn’t aware of the author’s website. Or for those buying a book that doesn’t have an author posting that info openly. And for all my trouble, I had my time wasted.
Also, be careful of Newegg. They’ve started going down the rabbit hole of crummy business practices.
Stuart
The way I see it, Amazon’s problem is that they gave up a lot of control. A few years ago, back when anyone at Amazon corporate cared to talk with me, I complained about how their “new tools” section was always misleading. How is a product that launched a few years ago a new tool?
At that time, they basically told me all of that is controlled by 3rd party sellers’ activities. The same goes with deal listings. Why are the deal listings so hard to sort through? Because all of the no-name tool brands and sellers pay for the exposure and promotion.
I tend to avoid Amazon for memory cards and other highly counterfeit-type products these days, unless brands have special arrangements with Amazon to avoid 3rd party listings.
Thanks for the comment about Newegg. I haven’t ordered from them in maybe 6-7 years, and was surprised at how bad their website looked now. I skipped buying a RAM card from them, as they only had 3rd party listings, and spent a little more going with Amazon direct. The HDDs are sold direct from Newegg, who *usually* does a good job packaging things. If it doesn’t work out, I’ve had good experiences with Amazon and B&H and will wait for their next sales.
MM
Speaking of things being difficult to search though, I am not a fan at all of Amazon’s search tool. Oh what I would give for it being changed to a strict old-school boolean search that doesn’t try to correct my spelling.
It’s frustrating to search for something very specific with a brand and a part number only to find that product buried in a pile of totally unrelated items. If I’m searching for “Knipex Pliers 12345” then why on earth is it showing me Crescent brand adjustable wrenches part number ABCD? It’s gotten to where I nearly always use the Google site: command instead.
Jared
Replying to MM:
That’s my complaint too! I can type the exact name or even model number for the product I’m looking for and sometimes not find it until I scroll to the next page.
My suspicion is that Amazon likes to at least put a few related but incorrect items ahead of my intended search result to keep me scrolling through products, but perhaps it’s a “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”- type situation.
Another complaint is that I can sometimes be looking for a product with a name that sounds like I must be looking for something in another category – Amazon will “correct” me to the other category even when I select the one I want to search in. There are times when I can’t figure out how to get the search done in the right one.
I can’t think of a good example off the top of my head, but it would be akin to looking for a spark plug “cap” and being redirected to baseball caps – without being able to correct the redirection.
MM
@Jared
I know exactly what you mean by your “cap” example. That is very frustrating too. Google can be bad about that as well.
Jared
I wish you could use search operators. Like how you can put a “-” in front of words to exclude them from a google search or use quotations to require an exact match.
Mr. C
@MM @Jared
I’ve noted the same thing. Amazon’s autocorrect is annoying at best, and maliciously ineffective at worst.
I’ve found a better approach – for a specific item that Amazon plays that game, I instead search on google.
Generic search: Amazon productName modelNumber
That gives better results than directly on Amazon at times. And as an added benefit, you see who else is selling it — Home Depot, Lowes, BestBuy, Newegg, Digikey, etc. Great for finding a better deal or for price comparisons.
Scotty.
Appreciate the coverage. Only bought a few odds and ends, mostly consumables.
Makes me smile when people comment “not as many deals as hoped for”
Is there EVER enough deals? 😁
Stuart
I think it’s not so much about fewer deals, but fewer deals convincing us to part with our money.
I’m old enough to remember Amazon’s weekend tool deals that kicked off every Friday at 3am ET, and their fantastic misc. tool deals. I bought a Leatherman multi-tool and for free binoculars. I bought some everyday tools, and got a free Black & Decker cordless screwdriver.
Then there was the time I got a Beta rolling tool cabinet for $0. I was $20 out of pocket on that because I tipped the delivery guys for bringing it up 3 flights of stairs to my apartment.
Before it arrived, I asked Amazon if I would have to pay an unspecified amount after it shipped, they assured me I wouldn’t, and $0 was really the final price. I also got a set of Torx wrenches.
Jared
I realize your comment is in jest, but my complaints about “not enough deals” are comparative. On sale dates I often check things I’ve been wanting to purchase – but I understand not everything is on sale and my product might still be regular priced.
However, I can think back a few years ago to when I participated in “Prime Day” sales and ended up buying more things than I expected because the prices were so good.
This year I spent too much time looking (especially in the context of how much I bought) because it just seemed strange that there wouldn’t be anything I wanted. I literally spent $10 this year, which, for me, is unprecedented.
Wayne R.
I’ve been an Amazon customer for a long time, and still get various things regularly. Almost always the first place I look.
I’ve never gotten anything via Prime Day.
MM
While Amazon is not my first choice for most things I’ve been shopping there for a long time as well, and now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a single item on “Prime Day” either.
Phil
I think I share the same sentiments with most of the others here – I woke on Prime day anxious for some better pricing on a handful of things I’ve been eyeing and/or some deals that I couldn’t pass up. It really never happened. A good percentage of the items I had in my saved list actually increased in price slightly.
I bought only a few low cost, non-tool items. I ran into several issues with disappearing coupons, prices that changed in cart, “This item cannot be shipped to the specified address” and/or pricing that differed from advertised sale prices. I bailed on several additional purchases out of frustration.
Pretty underwhelming considering the barrage of Prime Day hype for weeks before the event.
Jared
I’m convinced may brands raise prices in advance of Prime Day just so that when they are included in the sale the percentage discount looks bigger and they get that tag that says “lowest price in 30 days”.
DC
Didn’t participate for the last 3 years including this year. Nothing I wanted was on sale. Just hype for the non-Prime members to join.
Charles_A
Good article – I grabbed some Gearwrench hand tools, my first time with the brand, and they’re aces.
JoeM
Oh, don’t get me started on Prime Day!! I’m so mad at myself!
About a week before, the Amazon App started ramping up the “Get Ready!” push notifications… and I Fell For It… Amazon Echo Dot, 4th Generation, Black (Charcoal, whatever they want to call the black one.) for $29.99 CAD. I would’ve been absolutely Chuffed if the deal was just on the Dot… but Noooooo…. It included a Free RGB enabled Bluetooth Mesh Smart-Bulb… Didn’t particularly need it RGB, a Daylight On/Off version would have done me fine… but the second you try to remove the bulb? Echo Dot goes up to $120. Budgets being what they are, I gave in! Dear Sacred Teapot In Orbit… I Gave In… Kick in the Teeth? Same-Day Delivery was included… Just… Knock at the door… “Here you go!” Everything connected like a dream, we now have TWO Echo Dots, one is a Radio/Alarm Clock in my Mother’s room, the other sits behind a large-print clock I got her for the living room… her eyes aren’t great anymore, it should help…
Why am I angry at all this? Not only is she Anthropomorphising the technology like it’s all Human, they’re All Female …Even the Tech in the house is sporting an Estrogen Drip! I’m surrounded!
Why am I angry at Prime Day? The deal ended up an Impulse Buy… when time came to actually have Prime Day? I was broke! And there were some awesome deals! Just… Ever so slightly out of reach… I could’ve cried, I swear… And the Push Notifications, even to the Echo Dots! “This Item on your Wishlist is on sale, 80% off for Prime Day! Would you like me to purchase one for you? If so, just say ‘Move to my Cart'” …This must’ve happened a dozen, or more, times over the actual 2-day event!
Ugh! Prime Day!
MM
This only confirms my theory that most “apps” are like websites, except they do a better job spying on you and constantly push unwanted notifications on you. No thank you.
I miss the days when we called them “programs”, they came with detailed documentation, and they weren’t constantly phoning home with my personal information.
JoeM
Oh, they’re still programs. And to kick the teeth harder? They’re properly called Applications.
When the Mobile age started, and teeny-tiny programs could be made into Applications for mobile platforms, they Micro-Sized the word too… App… It still means Application, AKA the final product of a Program (the product in code-form would be the closest I could describe what they now mean by Program.) and we’re now all too lazy to say the name in full. Thanks Text Speak!
Stuart
The Dot or Dot + bulb were both $20 USD here.
If my kids aren’t around, I curse out the Echo devices every time they try to make shopping suggestion notifications. I only received one notification, Tuesday night.
JoeM
…Okay… You and I both know I’m pretty crazy/loony/a few bolts short of a complete shelving unit… but please don’t get mad at what I’m about to say…
I curse and swear, and really verbally abuse, my Mother’s Echo Dot With Clock (3rd Gen, the Hockey Puck Sized one.) because I want it to de-program the polite, warm-fuzzy reactions my Mother has been using with it. She says please and thank you, she greets it, she says hello to it… And that Alexa AI has developed an ATTITUDE after the past couple years of owning it.
There’s a smart plug I bought for it, and I renamed it “Light” so it could work by turning on and off the bedside light for my Mother. The initial command was “Alexa. Light.” And it would turn it on if it was off, or off if it was on. Since Mom has been so… Friendly… With the little Hockey Puck from hell… The Commands no longer work… It’s no longer “Alexa. Light.” The damned thing Adapted… It expects “Alexa, Turn On The Light, Please?” and “Alexa, Turn Off The Light, Please?” or The bloody thing will just bloop an error sound! Same goes for Mom listening to her favourite radio station when she sleeps, and even the light that shows you have notifications! None of the stock commands work anymore, it expects a Human Speech Pattern!
So… Whenever I walk by the room, I say things like “Alexa, I Hate You, You Little (Bleep)” and it bloops back and says “I Can’t Help You With That…” to which I respond “Alexa, you’re useless and I’m going to use you as a Hockey Puck before having you returned for insubbordination!” And she just Bloops again… It gets Mouthy with me! Gives me Lip!
I regularly yell profanities at it, I have assertive arguments with it, I act like I’m its drill sargeant, and it’s about to flunk out of boot camp… Why? I want to break the Warm-Fuzzy AI. I want to undo what my Mother adapted it to do. There have been times I’ve just walked by and Sighed Loudly, or Grumbled… and I swear, it blooped an error at me… So I think my tactics are working!
At least the new Dot is not as easily swayed by people talking nice to it. It’s a more advanced model, and would adapt faster if it was treated well.
And Stuart? $20 USD and $29.99 CAD are the same price. We just didn’t have the Dot-Only sale come up. Just the RGB Singlet Bulb Combo. I’m just afraid my Mother is going to Nice this one into malfunctioning on us. I Really want my Tech to obey me, not try to be my friend. They’re Tools, not People.
Stuart
Your specific device AI isn’t learning, and doesn’t have its own identity.
JoeM
I know. What’s technically happening are the voice patterns being stored on the cloud are pushing the adapted phrases instead of the default ones. Even if I reset to factory defaults, the Alexa Cloud at Amazon has the voice prints.
It’s not on the device, I know that. But luckily, the 4th gen is still adapted only to the default, despite having our voice profiles stored at Amazon. It still obeys the simple, mechanical, commands.
I genuinely don’t like warm-and-fuzzy AI devices. I prefer the cold, logical ones, like Google Assistant. My Mother, on the other hand, wants every piece of tech to revert to the 1800’s, where it’s a person she can emotionally manipulate into doing her will without asking. So she’s super nice to the AI… and she pushes buttons on remotes, phones, and other such devices, saying “I pushed the button!” when she has to be reminded “No, you pushed the button below it, and three others around it.. but not the button you wanted…” her only response is “It should know what I want, not what I do! It’s Broken! Fix It!”
Hence… I don’t like Warm-and-Fuzzy AI. It’s too People-Oriented, and easily strays from the default device commands. Resulting in significant time wastage talking to these devices like they’re people, when they’re pieces of electronics, and supposedly tools that are supposed to make life easier… not force us to treat them like people…
Gary
I am tired of searching for something on Amazon and getting a list of results from companies that got their names by tossing an alphabet Into a blender. Who buys this no-name junk with descriptions that read like they went through three translators before they got to English? The deals this year were lackluster and I bought nothing.
Blythe
I’ve been needing a jigsaw and got the Bosch top handle for $60, seemed like a pretty decent price
928'er
I bit on the Bosch spend $200 get $50 off “Lightning Deal.”
Bought 2 18v 8Ah “Core” batteries and added a 12v 3Ah battery to get me over the $200 mark.
Regular pricing would have been about $350. With the “Lightning Deal” pricing and the $50 promo discount, the total was $182 – so, almost half price
JR Ramos
Three cheers from me as well, Stuart! Thanks for taking the time to put together all of these links. I didn’t really find anything appealing this year and the half dozen things I would have bought did not have any sale pricing, but I did come across two non-prime-day deals.
Joseph
Few hundred in knipex, and another couple bills in 3m abrasives. Mostly went through saved cart to look for deals. Didn’t see much that made me add to cart.