Amazon Prime Day 2023 Tips: Invite-Only Deals and More
Tech
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime Day is different. This year. Amazon is making Prime members take some extra steps if they want certain hot products. So listen up. I'm here to give you a quick rundown of tips and advice for the annual shopping Bonanza, which now goes beyond just Amazon Prime Day 2023 is July 11th and 12th. Like always. It is 48 hours of deals for prime subscribers. You can think of it as a mini Black Friday, but in the summer now the new Twist is something called Invite [00:00:30] only. For some of the biggest sale items, you have to click a big yellow request invite button ahead of Prime Day to even get the chance to buy it at the sale price on Prime Day. So let's say that you want this Amazon Fire tv. It's a 43 inch omni series now it's normally $400, but it will be discounted to $100 if you request the invite to buy it at the prime sale price.
Speaker 1: Now, it does not mean you're getting the deal. If you're selected, Amazon will send you an email with a unique code [00:01:00] to buy it at the discounted price. That's a lot of extra planning, but it also means that there isn't a mad rush of everyone refreshing their pages right at 3:00 AM and having it sell out in seconds. So perhaps you have a better chance to score the item and shop like a normal person. The downside is that you just may find yourself waiting around for the sale link and it never comes. The Amazon Prime Day page highlights a few other products that are invite only, such as these JBL Live noise canceling headphones. They're discounted to [00:01:30] $90. There's a Soda Stream machine. It's also knocked down to $90. There are some things on sale I didn't even know were actual things like a high-tech face washing brush called the Forio Luna three.
Speaker 1: It's normally $200, but now it's closer to $100. There's also an Acer Swift X laptop that's gonna go for $630, and that means it's about 30% off, but not everything on this invite only discount is super pricey to begin with. There are echo.star Wars themed stands. [00:02:00] You can get 10 bucks knocked off the price tag. It sells for $30. Now, I'll be curious to see if this invite stuff continues or expands to more products as time goes on. The actual Prime days will have even more stuff on sale. Amazon devices have some of the biggest markdowns up to 55% off, so it is a good time to buy Kindles or Echo speakers or Fire TVs or Arrow wifi routers or Ring security gadgets. All of that is owned by Amazon. [00:02:30] But also consider just stocking up on everyday items you need to buy anyway. With Amazon Basics and bulk orders.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the boring stuff, like a 100 pack of batteries for 25 bucks or cheap H D I cables, or even things like hand soap. But don't get too giddy about buying things. Just because you see them marked with a red price discount, an item on sale doesn't mean the sale is really a sale. Is it confusing? Yes, but sometimes the product always appears to be on sale. You can track the price [00:03:00] history of a product to find out one website that tracks Amazon prices has a weird name. You won't forget Camel. Camel camel.com. Let's track a popular gadget gift. The Ren Fo I massager. The listing marks the normal price at around $130, but you can see from the history that it never actually sells for that price. It's marked as a discount around $70, but that looks like the normal price it sells at.
Speaker 1: Now, there are times the price goes lower below $60, and that is how you know if a sale [00:03:30] is really a sale. Here are some more advice. I'm going to rapid fire through five other things to know this year. Number one, if you live near an Amazon Fresh grocery store, do your groceries this week with Amazon Fresh. Now through July 10th, your order is 20% off when you are Prime member. But most of you won't care about this one because there are very few Amazon Fresh stores in the United States. Two, you can get $15 of free amazon.com shopping credit now until midnight Pacific time on July 7th. You have to [00:04:00] download the Amazon Photos app and upload your first photo to get the 15 bucks. There's not much time left for that deal, but hopefully some of you can catch it in Time. Three. If you spend $50 on an Amazon e-gift card, you can get $5 of credit in your account.
Speaker 1: There are some rules you gotta read. You have to buy the e-gift card on Amazon by July 10th, and then you have until August 25th to spend the $5 of credit. Four a warning about subscriptions. Amazon does a lot of subscription promotions for free trial [00:04:30] periods, but don't just go subscription crazy and lose track of what you need to cancel. Subscription Renewal Surprise can get you. On Prime Day, you're gonna see promotions for streaming services like half off Paramount Plus for two months, or Amazon Music Unlimited for 99 cents a month for three months, but then the price goes back to normal after that short period. Amazon is offering Kindle Unlimited free for three months. Now, prime itself has a one month free trial if you wanna get in on this Prime Day Sales Madness for [00:05:00] the first time. But after that trial, it's gonna be 15 bucks a month or about $140 a year.
Speaker 1: The US Federal Trade Commission just took action against Amazon filing a complaint that for years, Amazon had a complicated process for consumers to cancel their subscriptions to Prime. The FTC sued Amazon in federal court on the same day. Amazon announced Prime Day this year. Yeah, ESH to be continued there, but you don't want it to get caught off guard from an autorenew [00:05:30] you weren't prepared for. Number five, if you're getting a lot of Amazon packages right after Prime Day, consider having your items shipped to a nearby Amazon locker, so you are not a target for thieves. A lot of people buy electronics on Prime Day, so you should be extra careful about your packages if you can't be home for delivery. And if you are home, sign up to get notifications and text messages when your shipment arrives so you don't miss it. Oh, and one more bonus tip, you don't have to shop on Amazon.
Speaker 1: [00:06:00] Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Practically every store has a sale during prime days. Best Buy, Walmart, target. Some stores have their sales a week early. Amazon made up Prime Day eight years ago. It was to get people to sign up for Prime, but now tons of stores are doing their own deals at the same time to compete, and a few stores are also pushing their memberships with extra deals. You can find a lot of sales without doing any special membership programs. Let me know in the comments if you have any other tips and share your Prime Day experiences. I'm curious what you [00:06:30] think of this new invite only system. Thanks for watching. Catch you next time.
