Amazon Prime Day came and went in July, but Amazon’s not done with its membership-only sales events for 2023. The company just announced that it will hold “Prime Big Deal Days,” another Prime Day of sorts, on October 10 and 11, mirroring what it did during the same month last year. Engadget will be surfacing all of the best tech deals we can find during the event – both on Amazon and elsewhere – but there are some important things to know ahead of time so you can get exactly what you want out of October Prime Day.
When is Prime Big Deal Days?
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days will take place starting on Tuesday, October 10 and will run through the end of the day on Wednesday, October 11.
Just like classic Prime Day, you’ll have to be a Prime subscriber to take advantage of most of the savings you’ll find on Amazon during the sale period. The company still offers a 30-day free trial to new Prime subscribers, so you can start your free trial ahead of the event to participate.
If you don’t pay for Prime and have no intention of doing so, you should still check out Amazon on October Prime Day for sales that are available to all shoppers. Plus, other retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Target will likely have their own competing Prime Day sales during that time frame, too.
October Prime Day deals
“Prime Day” is actually two days long, and that’s the pattern Amazon has followed for the past few years with all of its Prime-exclusive sale events. However, the company also usually pushes out early Prime Day deals ahead of the event itself. We expect to see early access Prime Day deals this October, too.
Be they early Prime Day deals or day-of sales, Amazon gadgets are almost guaranteed to be discounted during Prime Big Deal Days. You can safely bet on things like Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers and Fire TV devices to be on sale for Prime Day. And with this event being in October, it’s very likely that Amazon will use this Prime Day almost as an early Black Friday deal event for Prime subscribers: paying for Prime may get you Black Friday pricing on Amazon devices (and other gear) one month in advance.
Make no mistake, Amazon gadgets will not be the only items discounted on Prime Day. You’ll find clothes, shoes, household items, appliances, accessories and more on sale, but here at Engadget, we’ll naturally be focusing on electronics. We expect this October Prime Day to be like July’s, in that it will bring big discounts on headphones, earbuds, laptops, gaming accessories, SSDs and microSD cards, robot vacuums and more.
It’s also worth mentioning the types of deals we expect to see during October Prime Day. Some deals will be live for the entire 48 hours of the event, while others will be day one- or day two-only sales. Those are the hardest to predict, since Amazon usually does not give any indication how long a given sale will last. Our recommendation is to buy the things you’re most keen on as soon as you see them drop in price – that will ensure you get it while the discount is available, and while the item is still in stock.
You can also expect to see some “Lightning deals” happen during Prime Day. Thankfully, these are usually clearly labeled with the amount of time remaining to grab the sale price noted on the product page. In our experience, only a handful of these flash deals are actually worth your money — but if you see something that’s been on your wishlist drop in price for the next few hours, it’s in your best interest to grab it immediately.
How to prep for October Prime Day
We’ve alluded to this already, but it’s best to go into Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days as prepared as possible. That means knowing exactly what you want to look for so you stay focused and avoid distractions. This is especially important for October Prime Day — Amazon used this event last year as an unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season, so if you want to get some of your gift buying done early, you’ll want to stay focused. The whole of Amazon.com will be overwhelming on Prime Day, so the less time you spend aimlessly browsing, the more your wallet will thank you later.
Two simple things you can do ahead of Prime Day are make a list and bookmark a price tracker. For the former, take note of the most important items you want to pick up on Prime Day. You can either do this the old-fashioned way on a sticky note, or you can use Amazon’s wish list feature. For the latter, add the items you want to buy on Prime Day to your wish list (or, even better, make a dedicated wishlist with only your Prime Day or holiday gifting desirables) and return to that list during the event. Not only will you have everything you want all in one place, but you’ll also be able to see which of those items are cheaper on Prime Day than they were when you originally added them.
As for the price tracker, sites like CamelCamelCamel let you monitor the price of specific items on Amazon. You can check out price history charts and you can make your own price-drop alerts, receiving emails when something you want gets a discount. CamelCamelCamel also has some browser extensions you can download so you don’t have to navigate away from an Amazon product page to check its price history.
We know that not everyone – not even every Prime member – will be flocking to Amazon during Prime Big Deal Days. Whether you find such blatant displays of consumerism off putting or you simply don’t want to give Amazon more of your money, there are plenty of reasons why you might be skipping this all together. But that doesn’t mean you have to skip all of the sales that will be happening during that same time. Especially with it being so close to the holidays, retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others will most likely have competing Prime Day sales and we expect many of them will match the discounted prices you’ll find on Amazon. We recommend checking them out if you want to cross some items off your holiday shopping list for less, without spending money on Amazon.
Engadget will be covering October Prime Day in full, so if you have a lot of tech on your to-buy list, be sure to check back here on Prime Day for the best tech sales we could find. We’ll be sure to include gadgets from across the board – from headphones to robot vacuums to gaming gear – plus the best “anti-Prime Day” deals you can find from other retailers. You can also follow the @EngadgetDeals Twitter account and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter to stay up to date on the latest discounts. The volume of deals will be daunting, but we sift through them all and pick out the best ones to make Prime Day a bit easier for you.
