Step 2: Your Amazon search should automatically select the appropriate department, but if you prefer, you can also go to the top of the left rail and click on the appropriate department.
Step 3: Once the page refreshes, scroll to the bottom of the left rail and select “Amazon.com” as the seller.
Step 4: This will only show “Pixel 8A” products sold directly by Amazon.com.
If you still don’t see “Amazon.com” listed as the seller, “See more” buttonThis will open an alphabetical page of sellers that is dense but easy to read. If Amazon is one of the sellers, it will be listed there. You can use CTRL+F (Command+F on a Mac) to search for the word “Amazon.com.” You might also see “Amazon Warehouse,” which sells only used and refurbished items.
Avoid fake discounts
When people see a product they love on sale, a wave of excitement hits them. Instead of thinking about how much they’re spending, they start thinking about how much they’re saving. Coupons and discounts exist to create a sense of urgency and encourage many people to buy things they wouldn’t normally buy. Some sellers abuse their pricing power. Amazon has so many products on “sale” endlessly that it’s hard to tell if you’re getting a good deal or not.
Luckily, there’s an easy way to check: just copy and paste the URL. Camel Camel CamelYou’ll be taken to a page of graphs showing all price fluctuations over the past year. Many products are subject to this type of fraudulent pricing to one degree or another, so knowing the actual market price for your product will help you make your own judgment.
or, Keepa Extension for Chrome adds a similar box to Amazon.com pages, encouraging you to sign up for free, which can slow down your browsing speed.
Photo: Lauryn Strumpf
Tools like Keepa and CamelCamelCamel can also help you determine the best time to buy an item. For example, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is constantly fluctuating from its usual price of $60 to its current price of $40. And this all-time low includes special sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so you (probably) don’t have to wait to get a good deal. These tools can also help you spot similar trends with other products, like TVs, which tend to get significantly cheaper as Christmas approaches.
Don’t believe all the reviews
Amazon’s five-star review system is supposed to make product selection easy, but it’s easy to manipulate. If you’re considering a pricey product from a company you’ve never heard of, or one that has hundreds or thousands of very positive reviews, do a little research. Many sellers try to manipulate reviews to list their products more prominently on Amazon.
Fakespot is a great tool to help you spot fake reviews. Just enter an Amazon URL and it will give you a report. It’s not a perfect tool, but it will give you hints as to whether many reviews are fake or suspicious, and spit out an AI-generated summary to help you parse the information further. You can find more advice on spotting fake Amazon reviews here.
