Prime Day 2025: How to Tell If a Deal Is Legit
Amazon Prime Day 2025 is here, and it’s time to start shopping for the best deals on products from companies both big and small. But with so many offers vying for your clicks and bank account, it’s essential to know how to spot a legitimate deal from a bad one.
1. Use a Price Tracker
- Browser extensions like Keepa can help you track a product’s price history and alert you when it goes on sale.
- Other trackers like Capital One Shopping can help you find prices and price histories for items across multiple stores.
- Their browser extensions are especially useful: If there’s another store selling the same product you’re looking at on Amazon for less, you’ll get a pop-up letting you know, with a direct link to that store’s product page.
Knowing whether something is a good deal isn’t just about getting the best price, though. You might see that this item isn’t any cheaper elsewhere on the web, but there’s more than just the general price tag to consider.
2. Check if it’s an Amazon Product
Amazon’s own products will have the best deals, but that doesn’t mean you should only buy from Amazon. Compare offerings from different companies, too.
However, if you’re looking at an outdated version of a product, Amazon lets you know, and gives you a link to the current version of that device. But that’s only true if Amazon carries that new version of the device or if there’s a direct successor to that product.
Lines are blurred these days: Last year’s device isn’t necessarily obsolete just because there’s a new version out, so Amazon doesn’t always try to sell you on the newer product. Research is your friend. It’s more than okay to buy something that came out last year or the year before; what matters more is making sure the product still works as it should in 2026, and if it’ll last as long as you’d reasonably expect it to.
3. Be Wary of Cheap Tech
Not everything that’s “cheap” is good. Be wary of cheap tech that simply isn’t very good. It might be affordable, but if it doesn’t work well, it’s not worth the cost.
Often, this issue arises with the many brands you’ve never heard of selling items for pennies compared to other companies. Sure, you could save some money and go with these brands, but what about the long-term investment? After Amazon’s 30-day return policy is up, you’re sunk without a customer support channel, something many of these tiny companies lack themselves.
4. Read Reviews
One way to make sure that tech is worth its steep price cut, or whether those cheap headphones are going to pass the listen test, is to read reviews for the products you’re considering buying.
I’m not talking about Amazon reviews, either: Amazon’s ratings can be helpful, but they can also be compromised. Sometimes the reviews don’t even match the product they’re supposed to be talking about, which doesn’t bode well for the integrity of the review.
When it comes to tech, the best approach is to listen to reviewers with technical experience, who put these products through their paces before issuing an opinion. An outlet like our sister site PCMag will help you figure out pretty quickly whether that TV is really worth the hype, and they show their work so you can understand how they came to their conclusions.
5. Take Your Time and Do Your Research
At the end of the day, it’s all about taking your time and doing your research—the opposite of Amazon’s “BUY IT NOW” strategy. Fight the urge to buy something on impulse, and make sure your money is going toward the best possible product for your needs.
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