October Prime Day feels like the worst Prime Day ever

As a child I could never understand the phrase “you can have too much of a good thing.” How on earth could you have too much candy, or too many toys? Sadly, as I got older, I learned just how true this phrase really was, a lesson taught many times by painful hangovers.

Everybody loves a good sales event. Being able to buy that product you’ve had your eye on for ages at a price much lower than it was before is always satisfying. I’ve enjoyed many happy hours browsing the discounts during Amazon Prime Day events and will usually make some purchases.

It feels like these events are becoming far too regular, however. First there was Black Friday, then there was Amazon Prime Day, and now there’s Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event, a name so ridiculous that most sane people just refer to it as October Prime Day. You barely have time to recover from one sale before the next one comes along.

Of course, this would all be fine if it meant you could get your hands on some amazing deals every few months, like a new console or heavily discounted laptop. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, this year’s October Prime Day feels like it could be the worst Prime Day ever. Here’s why.

There are literally zero good gaming deals

If you want a discounted console, look elsewhere

Square Enix

If you were hoping to grab yourself a big discount on a new console during October Prime Day, you’re bang out of luck. There’s not a single deal on any of the major consoles, with the deals limited to low-quality handhelds.

It doesn’t get much better when it comes to games, either. The best video game deal currently available on Amazon is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PS5, which is down to $49.99 from its original price of $69.99. However, this isn’t even an official Prime Big Deal, it’s just a standard discount that’s not specifically part of the October Prime Day event.

There are some games that have Prime Big Deal labels, but these are hardly enough to get the pulse racing, including titles such as Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection for $19, Bluey the Videogame for $24, WWE 2K24 for $29, and Madden NFL 25 for $43. If you’re a gamer, October Prime Day has been a real bust.

Many of the best “deals” have been cheaper in the past

It’s easy to check the price history to see how good a deal really is

It’s hard to resist making a purchase when you see a big discount on a product, showing that it’s down by a significant percentage from the list price. However, these list prices aren’t always an accurate indication of how much a product is really selling for.

Price history sites such as CamelCamelCamel allow you to enter the URL for any product on Amazon and see a graph of the changing price of the product, along with the lowest and highest prices it’s been available for. Often, when you do so, you’ll find that what seems like a great deal can actually be a higher price than the product has sold for in the past.

I took a look through the bigger ticket items in Amazon’s Top 100 deals for October Prime Day. While some of the products were the lowest price they’ve ever been on the site, such as the Sony 85 Inch 4K Ultra HD TV X77L Series: LED Smart Google TV, and the Samsung 4K The Frame 55” TV with Teak Bezel, there are plenty of products in Amazon’s Top 100 deals that have sold for less on Amazon in the past.

These include the Dyson Hot+Cool AM09 Jet Focus heater and fan, which seems a bargain, having been reduced from $470 to just $299. However, there have been multiple occasions in the past when the same product has been available on Amazon for just $240. The same goes for the KitchenAid KSM150FEER Value Bundle Artisan 5 Quart Stand Mixer, another of Amazon’s Top 100 deals. It seems a snip, having been reduced from $480 to $320, but in the past, it has been on sale on Amazon for as little as $224.

Even Amazon’s own Kindle Scribe Essentials bundle, which is down from $440 to $300 for October Prime Day, has been available for just $291 in the past.

Even some of Amazon’s own products are missing discounts

Most Amazon devices have discounts, but there are some notable exceptions

There’s usually one range of products that is always guaranteed to have significant discounts during Prime Day events, and that’s Amazon’s own devices. Echo smart speakers and smart displays almost always have discounts across the board, with Amazon Fire TVs, Amazon Fire tablets, and Amazon Fire TV sticks also usually being discounted during Prime Day events.

This year, however, there are some products that are noticeable by their absence. While the Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 both have big discounts, the same isn’t true for the Echo Show 10, which is firmly stuck at its list price of $249.99. If you were hoping to get an Echo Show 10 at a discount during Prime Day, it’s even more upsetting to learn that the Echo Show 10 has been reduced to as low as $159.99 in the past.

If you were expecting to find a great deal on an Echo Show 15, Amazon’s largest smart display, it’s even worse news. Amazon has apparently quietly discontinued the Echo Show 15, meaning you can’t even buy one at full price.

Amazon’s smart speakers aren’t exempt, either. While the majority of smart speakers do have discounts, the Echo Studio, Amazon’s best-sounding smart speaker, is stuck at its list price of $199.99. The Echo Studio has been available for as little as $154.99 in the past.

What’s most frustrating is that Amazon appears to be reducing the prices on all of its more affordable devices, while leaving the more expensive items such as the Echo Studio and Echo Show 10 at full price.

There are some good deals around, but this still feels like the worst Prime Day ever

Bargains are available, but most of the discounts leave me cold

That’s not to say that there aren’t some bargains to be found, if you look hard enough. I couldn’t resist pulling the trigger on a pair of AirPods Pro (second generation) which at $169 are currently the same price as the AirPods 4 with ANC, making the choice something of a no-brainer. This is the lowest that they’ve ever been on Amazon. There are also some excellent TV deals, such as the Sony Bravia KXR80 4K Ultra HD TV, which is down to just $1698. This is significantly lower than it’s ever been on Amazon before.

The majority of the deals, however, just feel a bit, well, meh. Amazon’s Top 100 deals include products such as teeth whitening strips and protein powder, where the savings are a few dollars at most. One of the collection of what Amazon thinks is its best 100 deals is genuinely a ten-dollar throat spray that’s been reduced by four bucks for Prime Day and has been on sale for even less in the past.

Ultimately, I can’t help but want to use the ridiculous actual name of October Prime Day to sum up the majority of the discounts available this year. Four dollars off a throat spray? Yeah, big deal.

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