What makes Something a Prime Day deal? Once upon a time, the answer was easy: Prime Day deals were steeply discounted products sold through Amazon on one sunny summer day, usually in July. Things were simpler then. You may have forgotten why it started—back in 2015, the first Prime Day was a way to celebrate Amazon's 20-year anniversary with loyal Prime subscribers.
Now, the flagship Amazon Prime Day event spans two days and is really more of a deals season, with early deals that start dropping in June. Is a Prime Day deal really a Prime Day deal if it's offered a month before the event? Is it a Prime Day deal if it's from a rival retailer that spends little energy on branding its own shopping event? These questions are best left to the philosophers. What we can say, definitively, is that Prime Day has been so successful that it has plenty of imitators. Even Amazon can't stop diluting its major event with yet another Prime Day deals event this fall.
On October 10 and 11, Amazon will launch a shopping event called Prime Big Deal Days. Many of these deals will require a Prime Day membership, but Amazon Prime has a free 30-day trial. You can register before the event and cancel right when the trial ends, and as an Amazon Prime member, you'll also be able to take advantage of access to Amazon Prime Video and the Thursday NFL games.
We'll be updating this page in the run-up to the October Prime Big Deals Days event when we start seeing early discounts that are worth your time and money, and we'll have more coverage of the best deals during the event as well. Below, we've got more details about what you can expect.
When Is Amazon Prime Big Deals Days?
Amazon has announced that the event will be on Tuesday, October 10, and Wednesday, October 11, 2023. Early deals should start coming in the next few weeks, so check back here to read up on the latest.
What Happened to the Prime Early Access Sale?
Last year, Amazon held a Prime Early Access Sale as a follow-up to the event in the summer, and it was the first-ever fall Prime Day sale. The new Prime Big Deals Days is really just a renamed version of that second Prime Day. Our best guess is that many people will simply call it Prime Day II: The Primening. Hopefully, Amazon will relent and just call it October Prime Day. But not this year.
How Many Big Deals Days Are There?
It will be a two-day event, just like the main Prime Day event. The event will begin at 3 am Eastern (12:01 am Pacific) on Tuesday, October 10. WIRED's Gear team will be here, caffeinated and posting.
Will You Need a Prime Membership?
Yes, this event is for Amazon Prime members. If you want to take the ride you need to buy the ticket. In this case, the ticket is $15 a month, and you get free two-day shipping plus the chance to stream the Giants-Niners game without paying San Francisco or New York rent. There are a whole bunch of other Prime Day perks you can take advantage of as well.
That said, there are usually a lot of discounted products available to folks who are not Prime subscribers. Retailers like Target, Best Buy, and Walmart may even price-match some items or throw their own competing sales.
What Types of Deals Can You Expect?
The best deals you'll find on Big Deals Days or any other Prime Day spinoff are on Amazon's own products, including Kindles, Alexa-enabled Echo speakers and smart displays, Fire TV sticks, and Fire Tablets. However, you can also expect steep price cuts on a range of items ranging from headphones, robot vacuums, toys, smartphones, tablets, and more, from brands such as Lego, iRobot, Sony, and more. Apple usually has a handful of decent bargains on AirPods and other gadgets, probably on the current generation that is about to be outdated following next week's event in Cupertino.
Keep in mind that Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be a little more than a month away from this Prime Big Deals Days event, and there's potential for even bigger sales from a variety of retailers. The downside is that there's a potentially tighter shipping timeline before the holidays. Either way, we recommend adding the products you want to buy to your shopping cart so you can track the price drops and are ready to go when the discounts arrive.
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