What is Amazon Prime Day? It’s a special 2-day deals event on Amazon. It’s described as 2 days of “epic deals.”
Update: Here are this year’s Amazon Prime Day Tool Deals
When is Amazon Prime Day in 2019? July 15th and 16th.
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Learn More: Amazon Prime Day Landing Page
What Tool Deals Might we See? In the past, we’ve seen deals on Bosch cordless power tools, Dewalt cordless power tools, Wera hand tools, Makita tools, Tekton, and some other brands. I’d all but guarantee that we’ll see deals on these same brands this year.
This year, with Amazon having added a whole lot of new Craftsman tools to their catalog, now including cordless power tools, hand tools, and tool storage, we might expect to see their first Craftsman tools promos.
Prior Years’ Prime Day Tool Deals
Past tool deals might be a good predictor of the types of tool deals we can expect to see this year.
- Prime Day 2016 Tool Deals
- Prime Day 2017 Tool Deals
- Prime Day 2018 Tool Deals
- Prime Day 2018 Wera Deal
- Prime Day 2018 Bosch and Dewalt Tool Deals
How to Prepare? You need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber (or trial member). If you’re not a Prime member and used up your free trial, you could potentially just sign up for the month for $12.99.
Is Amazon Prime Day Worth it?
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This is a tough one. I bought a couple of things last year, and I know many readers did as well. There are going to be a whole lot of uninteresting products on sale, but there were some notable tool deals in the past, and I would expect the same this year.
Amazon has been advertising and promoting their upcoming Prime Day 2019 deals event all over their site. Not only that, media coverage of Prime Day has also been full of hype.
Having observed Amazon’s deal trends over the course of many winter holiday seasons, Father’s Day shopping seasons, and Prime Day events, I can say that there’s a whole lot of “nothing good to see here,” but also some very good deals mixed in.
There might be some deals on tools from your wishlist or shopping list, but most deals might be more impulse-buys – tools you didn’t know you wanted until you see them discounted for a limited time.
Prime Day will likely save you money on some good tools. But, there’s a greater chance that it’ll get you to spend money on tools you didn’t plan on buying. I’m sure psychology can explain how tool deals can be “too good to pass up,” even if they’re items we might not have planned on buying. Somehow a good discount can convince us that a tool we never even considered before is now a must-have.
We’ll be analyzing and posting about the more interesting tool deals, and as always will be open to any tips, heads-up, requests, questions, or opinions.
Frankly, I would say that Amazon Prime Day is worth paying some attention to, but it’s not worth going crazy over. Some of my non-tool deal purchases from past Prime Day events worked out great, but there were one or two that didn’t.
A Word of Caution
One thing to keep in mind is that, like ToolGuyd, many magazines, YouTubers, bloggers, websites, and influencers are Amazon affiliates, meaning purchases made through special links or “influencer storefronts” will earn that affiliate some revenue.
Prime Day deals seem designed to encourage you to buy items you might not otherwise purchase, or at least purchase at that time, and most online magazines, digital news sites, bloggers, YouTubers, or others posting about Prime Day deals and promos are eager for affiliate commissions on your purchases. It’s too easy to get caught up in the moment these days.
Nathan
last two years I’ve not been impressed with prime day anything.
OH deals on amazon crap I don’t want – that’s about what it looks like.
and I’m far far less enamored with Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and Google Voice (does it have another name) than others. Don’t like knowing the recordings exist for others to use.
anyway I’ll look, because I have to look.
PW
Ditto. The first couple years they did it, I found some wheat in the chaff. The last couple years it’s been all chaff. I guess it’s a good time to buy Amazon branded electronics but that seems about it. Otherwise it’s mostly an alibiba express reseller event…
Aaron
Google voice is actually a different product. I think you mean Assistant
Steve
I have been throughly unimpressed by prime day in both tools and in all other categories, I haven’t purchased anything on a prime day sale yet.
Jim Felt
Yeah.
Meh. Too.
But it is a fun coffee shop or lunch time skim.
And, Stuart, you’re like the gold standard of useful thoughts (and prayers?) of practical buying suggestions.
So maybe stuff of interest will appear but if not Too bad so sad.
fred
I’m reminded that a bargain is not a bargain if you don’t need what you buy.
Buying tools on speculation that you might need them some day – is seldom a good deal.
The old Vaudeville skit had the top banana’s wife come out onto stage and tell him that she had just saved $10,000.
He told her that that was great but asked for the “how”.
She exclaimed that sable coats were on sale – reduced from $10,000 to $5000 so she had bought 2.
Kizzle
“Yo dawg. This is a deal you won’t find anywhere else! You need this tool! Just remembered to hit the link in the description otherwise you won’t get the deal pricing. I’m basically homeless and this channel is the only way I get money for scraps. Oh yeah, don’t forget to obliderate that like button. Also, destroy that subscribe button by smashing it with your cursor of death peeps!”
I hate what affiliate purchasing has turned into. Toolguyd does it right by being an actually helpful resource for tool research and not just an advertisement.
Stuart could have easily stated that there would be a ton of great deals and we should check back here to find them, but no. Some real honesty about what prime day really is… Impulse buying for stuff you really don’t need.
Stuart
Thanks, I appreciate it!
As always, I need to treat ToolGuyd as a publication I want to read myself.
I was researching iPads and Microsoft Surface Pro 6 tablets a couple of months ago. The basic iPad was $250. The Surface Pro 6 was $999 and there was one weekend where it was $899 at Best Buy. Since then I’ve seen “deal” posts pushed to my Google news feed, hyping up $329 “sale” prices on the iPad, and Surface Pro prices from $999 thru $1099.
Those posts drive me nuts!
I don’t know what would be worse, if mass media channels were naive of the context and really think every “sale” is a “must-buy deal,” or if they know they’re not great deals but are saying anything they can just for clicks and commissions.
Ryan
Last year’s prime day deal of the Bosch flexi click was really good and I picked it up.
jayne
I really like it . I’m already a prime member so its a no brainer for me. Last year I got a mop and bucket. This year who knows maybe a rake or a trowel….
DC
For the past 3 years, I didn’t buy anything as stuff I wanted wasn’t on sale, just a 1% discount of list price. I got better deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Father’s Day but this year it was lousy as well.
fred
By lots of measures the economy is booming – stock indexes are way up – passive and disposable income is setting records in many sectors – so the online deal makers may not feel as compelled to cut prices.
The funny thing is – that if (or when) we get to the top of the market – have a major correction or slump – we will probably not be talking about what great deals are being offered to get rid of excess stock.
Drake
Dewalt had the bare tool jobsite blower for $67 last year (regular $99). That was the only Prime day deal I bought.
There was a similar flash sale one day earlier this year that had one or two ~$100 Dewalt bare tools for ~$70 earlier this year. One was the tire inflator and the other I think the old style (enclosed handle) grinder.
Frank D
The flexi click got me started with bosch 12v… now would love to see bosch flesh out the entire 12v series with items we see bosch eu or milwaukee carry.
Can’t justify more power tools right now.
Will be donating some older dormant tools to Habitat for Humanity. I still have the desire to minimize the number of items, go more cordless, optimize my tool storage and solve storage / mobility issues.
Aaron
Intensive but honest black Friday coverage is what put toolguyd in my multiple times a day routine. The fact that you actually do articles instead of just linking everything makes it far more valuable than just the lists or forums.
Brian M
Did you hear that eBay is doing a sale to counter Prime Day. That may be worth looking at, Prime Day has been a disappointment since it started.
Toolfreak
Yeah, I haven’t bought anything on Prime Day since they started doing it.
The first year, it was all junk. The last few years, there have been some ok deals but nothing that wasn’t priced lower before or after.
The other thing about Prime Day is they are swamped with orders, so stuff ships WAY later than usual, like several weeks after you ordered it rather than just a week or two.
Also, given all the news on the poor working conditions for Amazon’s warehouse workers, I’d rather their sales for Prime Day be terrible and the workers have an easier time.
Rcward
Talk about fake news, come on dude
Kizzle
Things that you do not agree with or don’t want to hear ≠ fake news.
Vards Uzvards
I placed a few orders on Monday (7/15), the Prime Day. Some of the items were delivered next day, some others (including Bosch Flexiclick) – on Wednesday. The last two items, ordered late at night on Monday, were supposed to arrive yesterday, but came in this morning (Friday, 7/19). Not bad, huh?!
jkjk
Last year I had about 100 items in my saved for later list. Checked periodically throughout the day. Not a single one had any kind of discount. Also had price notifications set on camelcamelcamel and never received any price drop notifications. Prime Day seems like a waste of time
Brian M
That’s kind of a ludicrous thing to say; Amazon has over 600 million skus, you had 100 items on your list and those 100 items weren’t on sale. I’m in agreement that the deals on Prime Day aren’t anything special but to expect the sale to be on your hand picked list of 100 is kind of ridiculous.
Frank
That is probably very easy to do.
One could put 25-50 items from one brand in the wish list, and if that brand chose not to participate ( let’s say the brand controls their AMZ presence, has an organized store front ) or AMZ has a mix of their stuff and thinks the margin is not there, or maybe there are no new models coming out in the fall, so they can’t jump to clearance price now and to make room for the new stuff … then that’s just that.
There’s probably a dozen things I would like to get.
Do I expect to get a deal (20-25% maybe more off) on them on AMZ prime day?
No.
AMZ Prime day is very broad and just like with anything on AMZ or deals sites, I probably don’t need or pay attention to 90-99% of it … because either we have it and the item is functioning … or it is too specific to be included in the average discount deal.
RKA
The best thing about prime day is the deals other online and brick and mortar stores are offering. It seems like everyone is paying attention and competing for dollars. I got an email from grizzly today that basically said stay tuned for offers starting tomorrow. There is very little to zero overlap between what amazon will offer and what grizzly offers, but, they felt the need to compete.
All that said, I don’t see myself buying anything, but I’ll pay attention to my inbox to see what other stores offer. Who knows. As for Amazon, meh.
ktash
I notice Lee Valley have free shipping July 12 through the 16th. Perhaps related to Prime Day since they usually have a longer period for free shipping.
ktash
Apple IPad 6th generation with wifi and 128GB is the deal of the day for prime members. It ended up being $290 with a $30 Prime Day and $10 Whole Foods coupon added automatically. If you pay using the Amazon Prime Visa it’s another 6% cash back, so $272. A deal I couldn’t pass by since my iPad is 2nd generation. Not sure where the Whole Foods coupon came from, but since Whole Foods has wifi in their cafe, I’ll probably use it there 😉 .
There are also some Wera deals at 20% off, but I passed on these since I wanted the iPad much more.