One of the biggest shopping days of the summer, is coming on July 15 and 16. The Amazon Prime Day deals event will be massive, and though the two-day event takes give you plenty of time to shop, you really should prepare for it if you really want to maximize your savings. There are so many people on Amazon at any given time that even people who aren’t planning to shop may find themselves picking through sales and, potentially, buying that game/console/tech/thing you really wanted.
It doesn’t take a lot of work to optimize your shopping experience and make sure you get the best deal on Prime Day. And it’ll give you an edge to know what you need to get the best deals, as some are limited time offers or limited stock items, which will sell out super fast. Here are our top tips for saving cash and getting the stuff you need on Prime Day.
1. Load your Cart now to check for savings
If you're going to spend a lot at an event like Prime Day, you want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck. Amazon generally puts the sale price and the standard retail price right next to each other so you can how much you’re saving. You always want to make sure to check those prices to see if you’re getting a good deal.
Here’s the thing, though. Amazon puts products on sale all the time, and does not show the difference between its everyday sales and Prime Day prices, so checking how much you’re actually saving during Prime Day takes a little extra legwork. The best way we’ve found is to select the items you know you’re interested in picking up, and put them in your cart before Prime Day. (If you’re looking for a good pick, check out our list of the best gaming TVs, as they often see big drops on Prime Day). When the prices change, Amazon will notify you that the prices on items in your cart have gone down. In the end, a sale is a sale and if you like the deal you’re getting, just go with it, but this will help you judge the urgency the true saving you’re getting on your Prime Day gaming grails.
2. Check in early
Everybody knows that the early (Flappy) bird gets the worm. If you know you want to buy a specific game or piece of gear on Prime Day, you should show up early to buy it. How early? Well, Prime Day starts at midnight, Pacific Time on July 15 (midnight UK on the 15th too). If you know you want an Xbox One X deal, maybe it’s worth staying up to make sure you get one. If the deal is really great, it might be gone by the time you finish your morning coffee...
Showing up early helps, but it also helps to keep an eye on things throughout the day. In addition to the discounts that run throughout Prime Day, Amazon also runs lightning sales, where specific items get steep discounts for an hour or so. In the past, Amazon has dropped prices on recent video games, and Switch consoles, through lightning sales so, while it can feel like a longshot that your top item might show up, you never know when the best deal on Prime Day might pop up. Typically, Amazon announces its Lightning sales a few hours before they begin, so you will get some advance notice. You still need to check frequently, but at least there’s a little wiggle room.
3. Know your Prime Day history
All of the tips above have one thing in common, they all make way more sense if you know want kind of stuff you want to buy. While the heart wants what it wants, and you may have some ideas of some dream items you’d like to see go on sale, you can also create a shopping plan ahead of time based on what kinds of items have gone on sale during previous Prime Day sales and, specifically in the gaming, understanding what kinds of gear are ripe for a price drop.
Let’s start general: hardware accessories and peripherals almost always go on sale. Prime Day will be a great time to buy an Xbox One external hard drive, one of the best gaming keyboards, or a new PS4 headset. Controllers are less consistent, but we could always get lucky and find that the price of a SCUF Vantage or a Switch Pro Controller gets shaved slightly.
In the past, pre-paid subscriptions to services like Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass have done well, and PlayStation Plus deals have also seen big discounts, so it’s a great time to top off your plan.
Next, let’s talk about brands. Some companies are more eager to participate in Prime Day than others, and knowing that may help you steer towards bigger and better discounts. Obviously, the biggest fan of Amazon Prime Day is… Amazon. The site always leads the way with big discounts on its devices, like Kindles and Fire TV sticks. If you’re focused specifically on gaming gear, Logitech, Razer, and Western Digital have all bet big on Prime Day in the past, and we have no reason to believe they wouldn’t do so again.
Lastly, with Microsoft’s Xbox Project Scarlett expected to launch in 2020 and Sony likely targeting a similar release window for the PS5, we expect to see some serious price drops on game consoles, especially among the PS4 and Xbox One families. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to 4K consoles, Prime Day might help you take the leap on the cheap.
So what are you thinking about buying on Prime Day 2019? Tell us what you’re excited about in the comments below! And check out our feature on the best PC parts to buy on Prime Day.