What not to buy during Amazon’s October Prime Day sale

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Amazon will dish out thousands of discounts during Prime Big Deal Days, its members-only “October Prime Day” sale (set for Oct. 8 and 9). But buyer beware: Not every “deal” is as good as it may seem.

It can be difficult to decipher what’s worth your hard-earned cash and what’s better to pass on. So we’ve rounded up a list of what not to buy on Prime Big Deal Days to help you shop wisely.

Avoid products sold and shipped by third parties

It’s safest to stick to stuff that’s sold and shipped by Amazon, rather than an obscure third-party seller. While many of them are legitimate, too many of them aren’t. It’s not worth the risk of getting scammed or buying a counterfeit item. (You do have some recourse under Amazon’s “A-to-z Guarantee” in such cases, but that involves a whole eligibility and claims process.)

You can find out who’s selling an item you’re interested in by visiting its product page and looking just below its “Buy Now” button on the far right side. If you see two lines indicating that it “Ships from Amazon.com” and is “Sold by Amazon.com,” you’re good to go. It’s covered by Amazon’s refunds/return policy, and you’ll deal with Amazon’s customer service if you have any issues.

This laptop listing passes the sniff test.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon.com

This one doesn’t. Skip it!
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon.com

Any deal that seems too good to be true…probably is

There are a few different ways you can check if an item’s sale price on Amazon is a legitimately good deal that’s worth adding to your cart. One is by cross-checking the listing with its manufacturer’s website to verify its MSRP; Amazon will occasionally inflate them to make discounts look steeper than they really are. We also recommend cross-checking sale prices at competing retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target, which will often match or beat Amazon’s offers.

The Amazon price-tracking website camelcamelcamel is an especially valuable tool during sales like Prime Big Deal Days. If you plug an item’s Amazon listing into the search bar at the top of its homepage, you’ll be able to see its going rate(s) over the weeks/months/years. The site occasionally misses short-term discounts, but it can give you a good general idea of whether or not a discount you see is actually as impressive as it seems.

Take this Rockland luggage set, for instance. In September 2024, Amazon put it on sale for $97.26, making it appear to be 56% off a $219 MSRP.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon.com

However, when we entered the luggage set’s URL into camelcamelcamel at the time, we saw that it’s rarely ever listed for that full price. In fact, it’s been hovering around the $90 to $100 mark for literal years. That shined a new light on its “big discount.”

Credit: Screenshot: camelcamelcamel.com

Here’s another example: At $189.99 (down from $249), this seems like a great deal on the Apple AirPods Pro 2, right?

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

While they are a decent buy, camelcamelcamel tells us the AirPods 2 are regularly discounted to this price, so there’s no need to jump the gun. In fact, it’s worth waiting a few more weeks in case they return to their all-time low of $168.99 during Prime Big Deal Days.

Credit: Screenshot: camelcamelcamel.com

Impulse buys: Just say ‘no’

Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean you have to buy it. Seriously. Yes, those dirt-cheap Echo Pops are pretty dang tempting, but do you actually, desperately need a new smart speaker?

Sure, FOMO is real, but so is buyer’s remorse. In a 2023 Google survey of U.S. adults, nine out of 10 respondents said they’ve experienced buyer’s remorse from impulse purchases, while 42 percent said they’ve regretted buying something simply because it was on sale. Be careful out there, folks.

Last, but not least: Stay away from Ring camera deals

We always see a ton of Ring deals pop up during Prime events, but we don’t recommend buying any of the Amazon brand’s home security equipment if you like your privacy and your neighbors. The company’s recent history is mottled with security and data handling issues, including sketchy law enforcement partnerships. (It finally shut down the tool that let police publicly request footage without a warrant earlier this year, but we’re still skeptical.) To quote the great Randy Jackson: “It’s a no from me, dawg.”