Amazon Prime Day Amazon Prime Day is perhaps one of the most confusing shopping holidays. It’s not even “one day” – the members-only event spans 48 hours. Amazon also promises “millions of deals,” but the discounts shown are often misleading or outright lies. Some deals actually apply to people who don’t have Prime. Add in the limited-time Lightning Deals frenzy and you have the perfect recipe for overspending.
Don’t worry! We’re here to help. The WIRED Gear team is well acquainted with common shopping pitfalls. I’ve been a deals writer for nearly a decade. What time does a sale start and end? How do you know if a sale is really a good deal? actually Looking for a bargain? We’ve pooled our collective knowledge to help you get ready for Amazon Prime Day.
June 2024 Update: This story has been updated with additional details about Prime Day coming up in July 2024.
When is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon has officially announced that Prime Day will take place in July, and judging by past sales, Prime Day 2024 will likely take place on a Tuesday and Wednesday in the middle of the month.
When do Prime Day sales start?
The event officially kicks off at 3 a.m. ET and will run for 48 hours. WIRED will highlight the best Prime Day deals from both Amazon and competing retailers. Some deals and sales will even begin before the official start time (and we’ll cover those, too).
Are Prime Day sales only for Prime members?
Officially, yes. You need to be an Amazon Prime member to shop Amazon’s Prime Day sales. New accounts get a free 30-day trial. (Prime membership comes with a ton of perks, all of which we’ve compiled here.) The trial will let you take advantage of the sales, but be sure to cancel your membership to avoid future renewal fees.
If you’re not a subscriber, you’ll get a discount (though maybe not as good a deal), but other major retailers like Best Buy and Target usually run simultaneous sales during Prime-exclusive sales events. These retailers’ prices are often close to what Amazon is offering for the same products, and in some cases, they’re even the same price. If you don’t want to support Amazon, this is a good way to participate in Prime Day sales.
Walmart will be hosting a rival Walmart+ Plus Week sales event for its members from June 17-23, 2024. Similar to Amazon Prime, Walmart+ offers free express shipping and other perks, but it only costs $98 per year. Perks include a 20-cent discount per gallon at Exxon & Mobil gas stations nationwide, so you can pay off the full cost of a Walmart+ annual membership by buying just 490 gallons of gas.
Is Prime Day worth it?
It depends. For some products, the prices during Prime-only events tend to be the lowest they’ve been all year. This is especially true for Amazon hardware like the Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV Stick, and Echo devices, but there are other factors to consider. Prices fluctuate throughout the year, and some products are frequently discounted. Even if a product has a low price, frequent sales can reduce the overall quality of the deal.
The plethora of deals Amazon promotes during sales periods like Prime Day is both a blessing and a curse. Finding truly great discounts can be difficult; there are so many items on sale that you might feel overwhelmed by the overall selection. But there’s a good chance you’ll find something you want on sale. We’ve seen some amazing Prime-exclusive deals in the past, from super cheap Kindles to hard-to-find price drops on the Nintendo Switch. The hard part is finding the gems in the rough.
WIRED highlights some really great deals throughout the year, including during our Prime Day event, and these tips will help you find great discounts for yourself.
How do you know if a deal is a good one?
ABC: Always check (i.e., the price). Finding out the price of an item is the most important aspect of judging the quality of a discount. Don’t fall prey to deceptive marketing terms and inflated MSRPs. Our tips only take a few minutes. The easiest step is to do a quick Google search of the item you’re considering to check the price at multiple stores.
One of our favorite tools is Camel Camel Camelis a feature that tracks Amazon prices over time. Paste an Amazon link or ASIN (found in the product information section of the Amazon product page) into Camelcamelcamel’s search bar and you can see the lowest price, average price, and how often the price has changed for the product. Some deals, such as Lightning Deals, are excluded from the price history, but it can be useful to see how much a product has sold for in the past. Keeperhas an extension (available on multiple browsers) that shows you the recent price history of a product directly on the Amazon page, so you don’t have to open a new tab.
