Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days returns for round two this Oct. 7-8 and gives you a second chance at Prime Day-level deals ahead of the holiday shopping season fully kicking off. Here’s the twist, though: you don’t actually need to wait until Tuesday morning to start saving. Amazon is already beginning to roll out pre-Black Friday savings in leading categories with among the deepest discounts appearing this Sunday, Oct. 5.
See all deals at Amazon
Top 10 Prime Day deals:
LEGO City Advent calendar: $25 down from $35
LEGO R2-D2 droit set: $79 down from $99
Fire TV Stick HD: $17 down from $34
GMKtec Mini PC 512GB: $167 down from $239
Shokz OpenRun Pro: $124 down from $179
Bluerair Air Purifier: $232 down from $349
Apple Mac Mini 256GB: $499 down from $599
Anker USB-C 2-port wall charger: $19 down from $29
Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD 4TB: $239 down from $327
Luna wireless controller: $39 down from $69
Dyson V11 Origin: $399 down from $629
See all deals at Amazon
This October iteration of Prime Day has grown exponentially in popularity since Amazon first introduced it as a fall counterpart to the July edition. Timing is more crucial than folks realize. While July Prime Day falls in the middle of summer (when most shoppers aren’t shopping for big-ticket items), October positions itself perfectly in advance of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season. This gives the consumer a chance to grab gifts, upgrade their technology or refresh their home without having to fight the raw chaos of late November. Most have caught on that October Prime Day offers the same or better prices than Black Friday, especially on Amazon devices and a few big-name electronics lines.
Amazon’s Own Brands Lead the Charge
The electronics department is already facing deep discounts across the board. Apple products (which rarely get heavily discounted through authorized channels) are appearing on Amazon with massive discounts – especially the Mac Mini M4. Samsung has joined the advance savings deal bandwagon with discounts on tablets, smartphones and home appliances. Sony audio products including top-selling headphones and speakers have seen prices fall below regular retail prices. These aren’t nominal percent discounts: We are seeing actual savings that make upgrading more financially attractive than usual.
Amazon’s own brands are leading the way on the early Prime Day discounts, with some of the steepest price cuts available for those items with Amazon’s own branding. Kindle e-readers have dropped to prices this Sunday morning that put them impulse-buy zone with many models establishing their year-to-date lowest price ever. Blink cameras, Amazon’s budget security option, are becoming affordable with savings that drop them well below $50 for starter packages.
The eero mesh WiFi systems are seeing fantastic offers and cure one of the most common home annoyances: dead zones and spotty internet access. Those Prime Big Deal Day deals matter because mesh systems typically come with high prices, and Amazon’s aggressive discounting makes them accessible to mass consumers who’ve been tolerating crummy WiFi for years. All Echo devices of every size have been receiving price reductions. Fire TV streaming sticks and devices are hitting record lows, making it simple to break up with cable.
The scope of these October Prime Day Amazon discounts is not coincidental: Prime Day events are used by the company to drive hard uptake of its ecosystem aggressively and hope that once customers possess an Echo, Kindle, or Fire device, they will be more invested in Amazon’s services and more likely to be Prime members over the long haul.
See all deals at Amazon
What to Expect and How to Prepare
Early Sunday Prime Day deals begin to provide glimpses of what is to come when the full event commences on Tuesday morning.
The pleasure of shopping this Sunday rather than waiting for the grand kickoff on Tuesday is simple: less competition, more choice. There will be hordes of shoppers swamping Amazon’s servers on Tuesday morning, causing site lag, cart wars where you stock out of something while you check out and general irritation of trying to outbid limited-quantity deals out of there against a thousand other shoppers.
There is a membership fee to be qualified for these deals, which is $139 for the year or $14.99 a month. If you are not a member currently, Amazon offers a 30-day free trial that includes this Prime Day sale and gives you a full month to determine if the membership is worth it through the free shipping, Prime Video, and other perks. Just make sure to stop before the free trial runs out if you do not want to continue.
One tip in practice for Prime Day: add items to cart or wishlist in advance even if you don’t plan on purchasing them at that time. Amazon’s technology enables you to just track price drops on bookmarked items and you’ll be notified if prices drop lower after the big event. This method prevents choice paralysis while browsing hundreds of deals simultaneously.
The October timing also makes this Prime Day ideal for beating the gun on holiday shopping. Prices on all of the top gift categories, from high-tech gadgetry to kitchen appliances to toys, typically don’t dip lower even on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Tying up holiday gift purchases in advance avoids the December shipping issues, out-of-stock items, and last-minute aggravation that plague holiday shoppers year in and year out.