what's the big deal about Amazon Prime Day?

[FLA]

I've never heard of this, apparently it's on the 12th. So far it looks like specials on electronics and Prime members can see certain videos for 99c. Is there more I should know, does anyone know?

[disneysteve]

It's an excuse to spend a bunch of money on stuff you didn't know you needed or wanted.

What part don't you understand?

[FLA]

I should've known! Glad I don't want anything

[parasush]

What's An Amazon Prime Day?

On this day, new deals will roll out throughout the day as frequently as possible. The Prime day is celebrated as company's biggest sales day to celebrate it's birthday. All the U.S shoppers from 9 countries can participate and take advantage of the sale.

[bjl584]

It's just marketing. Like Black Friday.

[FLA]

it came and went and I didn't even look

[LivingAlmostLarge]

bought nothing. I found it amazing people were shopping like it was going out of style.

[ThinkingCapital]

It's hyped up like crazy but, as far as I know, there aren't really any "deals" to be found. Just discounts on stuff that many people wouldn't have bought normally.

[frugal saver]

I realize that Prime Day is an effort to get people to sign up for Prime and keep that yearly subscription money rolling in....

But has anyone noticed that certain items at Amazon say "Prime Members Only"? And you can't even buy the item, even for a higher price?

I've seen it before on the grocery items, but this was a regular item I was looking at.

[disneysteve]

But has anyone noticed that certain items at Amazon say "Prime Members Only"?

I haven't noticed that. What type of item was it? Pretty much anything on Amazon is available from multiple sellers so I'm sure you could still buy it even if it wasn't direct from Amazon. Was the Prime price a lot better than the other offers?

[frugal saver]

I looked at my browser history but didn't see it. I have a tendency to look up everything at Amazon to see what it costs or what is available so my browser history is huge and I delete everything regularly.

I think it was something to do with a pedicure--but now I'll be looking at everything there to see if that's true for other things or I just miss-saw it.

Edit: Found it. It said "this item is reserved for Prime members."

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Scholls-Pedicure-Essentials-Exfoliating/dp/B01BODY3EU/ref=sr_1_35_s_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1469912885&sr=1-35&keywords=pumice+stone

[edg126]

I saved enough to recoup my $100 in prime membership costs on prime day, and will likely save even more next year, as it took me about half the day to figure out how to work it to get the deals you wanted. And that $100 is off real savings from the 'normal' sale price, and not the list price.

The biggest discounts were on gift cards, I bought 2 jiffy lube $50 gift cards for $40 (one under my account, one under my wife's). I also purchased a a few bday / christmas presents that I had been monitoring prices on for a number of months, along with a bunch of smaller items that rarely go on sale (like $10 items that were prime deals for $7.50).

The only downside, is the amount of time it took to get those deals. I have ~200 items that I 'watch' in my cart and amazon alerts me when you log in if the price increased or decreased. On prime day, I thought I'd be able to log in, see the 5 items that decreased by a large amount, click buy, and be done for the day.

First, the sale prices are 'hidden' until you checkout -- it'll say, "extra 20% calculated on checkout". Then the prices are only good for certain time periods, and the good deals disappear in minutes. For example, a lego brick set that was normally $80 was on sale for $35, and over the course of one minute the amount of available items flew to full.

So you have to log in the morning go through all of the deals, watch the items you want, then log back in throughout the day to purchase. Is it worth it for basically wasting away a day in front of the computer for a $100? Plus I felt bad on the waste of buying 10 items individually and arriving throughout the week 1 item at a time through the mail.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It's a good deal if it's things that you would have bought anyway. Otherwise you are just buying to buy.