How To Tell If A Prime Day Deal Is Actually Good

Even though it may seem like Amazon Prime Day just finished, the retailer is already kicking off its fall equivalent soon: Prime Big Deal Days. With the wave of flashy markdowns and price cuts just around the corner, I'll teach you how to tell if a Prime Day deal is actually good.

Not only has my team spent years covering Amazon's big sales event, but all of us also have pretty high standards when it comes to the products and brands we share in the first place. You can trust that the deals we share in our Prime Day coverage are solid discounts on a life upgrade you'll love. As Deals Editor, I'm especially picky about what makes the cut — which is why I'm qualified to show you the tools you need to be a deal expert of your own.

Keep reading to learn the hacks, tips, and tricks for vetting deals on anything that catches your eye. To better prep for Prime Big Deal Days, make sure you have your membership in order, or sign up for the free trial now.

Lightning Deals and coupons

Amazon offers Lightning Deals and coupons throughout the year, but for Prime Day, the limited-time offers are much more frequent.

• Lightning Deals: Short-lived offers displayed on product listings, bringing items to incredible low prices. These are typically limited to a specific time and quantity before they expire.
• Coupons: Opt-in discounts available by selecting a checkbox on the product page or, more rarely, entering a coupon code at checkout. These can be pretty great deals, but they're not always all-time lows.

As a rule of thumb, Lightning Deals are always excellent deals. At worst, they'll match the previous all-time low, if not beat it by a landslide.

Coupons, on the other hand, aren't necessarily as good. Rather than assuming the best of them, it's best to keep an eye out for them on every product you buy. Typically, they're not the most obvious and can sometimes amount to only a few cents off, making them forgettable. However, it's worth keeping an eye out for the occasional gold mine that knocks an extra $50 off your purchase.

• See today's Lightning deals

Price tracking

Price history is valuable when evaluating a deal's "goodness." Short of watching prices regularly throughout the year and taking notes on rises and falls (like I do), it can be difficult to acquire this knowledge. Luckily, there are some tools you can use to bolster your confidence when adding to the cart.

• Camelcamelcamel: Perhaps the simplest to use, this website gives you a full price history graph when you enter a product page URL. It's pretty accurate, but fluctuations from third-party sellers, coupons, and Lightning Deals can introduce some confusion.

• Keepa: A plug-in for frequent deal hunters, this can be installed on most major browsers to generate price history graphs on every Amazon product page you visit. It's generally less fine-tuned than Camelcamelcamel, lacking the same amount of detail, but it's good for an overall pricing view.

These tools can offer priceless knowledge that can help steer you in the right direction. They're both free, too, so there's no reason to skip out on them for your biggest purchases.

List price vs. typical price

More often than not, deals on Amazon come with a vibrant red "Limited time deal" tag, complete with a crossed-out "List Price" to show you just how much you're saving. While this may, at first, pique your interest for potential savings, it doesn't take long to realize that "List Price" is often far from a product's typical price.

When I say "typical price," I'm referring to the price an item is available at for most of the year. The price-tracking tools I mentioned above help inform this number, along with cross-referencing other stores (like Walmart or DTC brand sites) and the overall knowledge I've gained from keeping tabs on these items for so long.

For example, the AirPods Pro 3 may look enticing at only $199. However, many Apple aficionados can tell you that the brand's products are almost always on sale. A quick glance at price history shows the earbuds are almost always available at $199, making that price more of a baseline than a can't-miss deal worth jumping on. In this case, I'd say the Pro 3's typical deal price is $199, and you should avoid ever paying any more than that.

• See today's deals at Amazon

See more: Our latest Prime Day coverage | How to get a Prime free trial | How to find Lightning Deals | Amazon Prime benefits

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