If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
That feeling of deja vu isn’t just you. Prime Day already happened, yet somehow, it’s upon us again. That’s because Amazon now hosts multiple Prime Day-like events each year. This one is officially titled Big Deal Days, although most people just call it October Prime Day.
Amazon is a vast e-commerce landscape, and truthfully, a lot of what you find online isn’t worth your time. Between deals that are too good to be true and discounts that seem more substantial than they are, it’s all too easy to get duped into paying more for something you don’t need. That’s why we wrote this guide to shop smarter and actually save money during Prime Day.
When Is October Prime Day?
Amazon’s Big Deal Days run from Oct. 7-8, starting at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on Oct. 7. That said, many of the best deals start early. It’s a particularly popular time for scouring early deals on Holiday decor and gifts.
Get a Free Membership
If you don’t have an Amazon membership, you can get a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime to take advantage of the deals, and cancel if you decide it’s not for you. While many deals during Prime Day require a Prime membership, not all of them do.
Compare Retailers
Amazon doesn’t always have the best prices, and if you prefer to shop elsewhere, you can often get Prime Day-level deals from other retailers on the same products. And while Amazon Prime is handy for a lot of things, other retailers have better selections of categories, like clothes. Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Target are all running deal events that overlap with Prime Day.
Check the Seller
It’s easy to assume that everything you buy on Amazon comes from Amazon, but the retailer hosts thousands of third-party sellers. You can check a seller’s rating by clicking on their name under the “add to cart” button to make sure you’re buying from a trusted vendor. Many of the best Prime Day deals are shipped and sold directly by Amazon.
Track Prices
It’s also a good idea to use a price history tracker. Amazon will sometimes artificially inflate a product’s list price to make a deal seem better than it is. Tools like Keepa, available as a browser extension, can track the historical prices of products on Amazon.
CamelCamelCamel also offers an extension called The Camelizer, which can tell you the historical price of an item that you’re looking at. If you’re shopping for a specific item, and want alerts when it goes on sale, you can set up an alert using CamelCamelCamel’s price-drop tool, which will email you when your tracked item goes on sale.
CamelCamelCamel and Keepa are handy, but they’re only for Amazon (and in the case of Keepa, eBay). If you want to track prices on other retailers during the sale’s event, you can use Google Chrome’s price tracking tool, which automatically alerts you to discounts simply by bookmarking the product.
And if you simply want our professional opinion on what to buy, we’ve rounded up a handful of discounts below, or you can check out our guide to the best Prime Day deals.
Amazon Echo Pop
The latest Echo Pop is already on sale.
Apple AirPods 4
The non-ANC version of AirPods are just $90.
MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop
The MacBook Air got a rare deal ahead of Prime Day. You can save $200 on the 2025 model.
