How to spot a good Amazon Prime Early Access deal — make the most of Prime Day 2

(Image credit: Future)

The Amazon Prime Early Access Sale (a.k.a Prime Day 2 or Prime Day October) is here and we’ve got some handy tips to help you on your quest to find a good deal.

It’s set to be a big week of deals, leading into a big month with Black Friday waiting for us at the end of November. There are going to be a ton of savings and the last thing we want is for you to pick the wrong deal and regret it.

That’s why I’m going to give you some insider knowledge. From this writer with a love for good deals, here’s what I use to find the cream of the crop worth buying.

Go in with a shopping list

Amazon Prime on laptop — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Amazon is the undisputed champ of the upsell. Product pages are littered with various other recommendations to expand upon what should just be one simple purchase, and it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole without proper planning — leading to increased damage to your bank balance.

We’re all feeling the pinch at the moment, but that shouldn’t stop you from making important upgrades to your tech. Write up a list of things you need/want to buy and stick to it over the sales period, or use Amazon’s Wish list feature if you’re not as ancient as me!

Based on what we’re hearing, I’m 99% confident that what you’ve written down will be discounted. But in the absolute worst case scenario that it’s not, there’s always Black Friday!

Check out our deals hubs

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this chance to mention the incredible work happening behind the scenes to find and curate the best deals worth your hard-earned money.

Our team are working around the clock, scouring the far corners of the internet to find the biggest and best savings for you to take advantage of. So, if you’d rather skip the legwork of finding deals yourself, let us take care of it. Bookmark the hubs below:

There are a ton more, but I wouldn’t want this to turn into a giant bullet-pointed list!

Embrace The Camelizer

That deal may look like a steep saving in the here and now, but how does it compare historically? Sometimes, retailers are guilty of being pretty sneaky with their sales, giving you what seems to be a good deal, but is actually a fraction of the huge discount offered a few months ago.

What’s the fix? Allow me to introduce you to The Camelizer. Simply open up the respective product page and click on the Chrome extension’s icon, to open up a graph that shows you exactly how much it cost over the past few months.

This is super helpful in giving you better insight into pricing history. In turn, you’ll make some educated guesses about when it will return to its lowest price.

Check the specs

If something sounds too good to be true, there’s a fairly decent chance that it is. Look past that overly wordy product title (usually done to hit every keyword search term possible on Amazon) and scroll down to take a closer look at what you’re actually about to buy.

I found a good example of this last year, which formed part of a handy guide to spot fake Black Friday deals. Sometimes, brands use “cover all” terminology in its product name and bullet points (e.g. you may be looking at a non-OLED version of a laptop, but the name is copied over from an OLED configuration of the same system).

Other times, brands just don’t care and will use every SEO trick in the book to appear higher in Amazon search results, even if the name is not representative of what you get. Let me just say, this does not mean that every product is tricking you. In fact, most of the deals will be legitimate with a name that accurately reflects what you’re getting.

But as someone who has been burned before, it’s always good to do your homework and be 100% sure that you’re not being deceived.

Check the competition

Just because the price is cheap on Amazon doesn’t mean it won’t be cheaper elsewhere. One good example would be Dell, which is prone to hosting a bigger and better sale on its own laptops than Amazon ever does.

Plus, our secret Dell discount code is in effect until the end of October, so who knows! You may be able to knock an extra 5% off the price.

So, whenever you find a good deal, make sure you check around other retailers and the brand’s own online store before clicking ‘buy.’

Jason brought a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a writer at Laptop Mag, and he is now the Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He takes a particular interest in writing articles and creating videos about laptops, headphones and games. He has previously written for Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.