Amazon’s Prime Day 2022 sales event is over. Let’s talk about it.
There were some decent tool deals this year, but not quite as many tool-related deals as in previous years.
Prices were lower, about the same, or higher, depending on the product.
Gearwrench was definitely a winner this year, with what looked to be lower-than-ever prices on certain tools and sets.
There were a couple of standout Dewalt deals this year, most notably their premium compact oscillating multi-tool kit.
There weren’t any notable Wera deals, and few Wiha deals aside from a couple of lighting deals. Other brands looked to have skipped Prime Day this year as well, such as PanaVise and Mitutoyo. That was disappointing.
It was no easy task sorting through Amazon’s deal listings. I don’t care about the no-name import brand deals, and I assume most of you feel the same way.
Save big on this must-have kewlansee tool, best gift idea for men, DIYers, pros, get-it-doners, handypersons. No thanks.
Once I was done with my initial post and the first couple of rounds of additions and layout updates, I took to the web to see how major magazines and review sites were covering the sales event.
At least one major media organization highlighted Amazon Prime Day deals on Ryobi and Milwaukee Tool products. But Amazon isn’t an authorized dealer for those brands!! I looked at the links, and as far as I could tell, they were simply 3rd party listings of tools seemingly purchased from Home Depot.
Where are they even getting this from?
Amazon also didn’t provide any press/media support at all, at least not about their tool deals. They used to provide details of big sales events, and although not very thorough, it was better than nothing.
One, maybe two organizations were touting that the Leatherman Micra was on sale for $55. They advertised that Amazon had a Prime Day discount of 18%, with “was” pricing of $67. Leatherman’s everyday price for the Micra mini multi-tool is $34.95.
So how is $55 for a $35 tool a good deal?
But of course, Google’s search algorithm doesn’t care about authority, expertise, or usefulness, they care about “freshness” and factors I could only guess about.
This kind of thing gives me a headache.
There was a Prime Day deal on Knipex Cobra 6″ pliers, and it’s still on sale. The price didn’t seem right to me. I looked it up, and you can buy the same exact tool but in different packaging for $5 less. So, I included both in my post.
Amazon tends to change prices for certain products dynamically, even on Prime Day (or Black Friday), and so that’s why I had to include the alternative option as well as the Prime Day SKU.
They weren’t changing prices too much, and so I later added them into my post for future reference.
I cannot believe mass media “expert” reviewers and buying guide writers keep promoting the Dewalt DCD777 cordless drill kit as being compact, light, and powerful. It has its place in the market, but there were so many far better bargains, both within and beyond Dewalt’s 20V Max cordless power tool system. But, that’s the situation every tool-buying holiday sales event.
And then, looking back on Amazon’s page to see if there’s anything new, there are influencer “live streams” where they hold up no-name stuff to the camera and promote it. Ooh, a car vac, with a power cord <— this long —> as they hold up their arms to show the length of power cord that’s wrapped up in the middle.
I did mention in the headline that this would be a report, rant, and feedback post.
I tried to follow last year’s posting model, and separated my post into different sections, each with shortcuts. I also tried to reflect updates in the title and a now-removed changelog.
Maybe next year I’ll have separate discussion posts, as I did last year.
The sections this year included “top deals,” “what are readers buying?,” “new tool deals,” “tool deals by category,” and “lighting deals.”
At one point I realized I still had Amazon Prime Day bonus credit to spend, and so I added a “good bargains under $10” section. I later changed the title to what you see here:
ToolGuyd Favorites Under $10
Dewalt Medium Tough Case – $6.98
Dewalt 14pc Drill Bit Set – $9.98
X-Acto Wall-Mounted Pencil Sharpener – $9.99
Gerber Paraframe Mini Knife – $9
It seemed like a good inclusion, but I’m not sure.
I like to think that my overall coverage format was helpful, and are eager to hear what you think.
Could my Prime Day tool deal coverage have been any better or more helpful for you?
The main reason I ask is because I reworked my Prime Day 2021 post on the fly last year, settling on a format that mostly resembled this. I built on that idea for Black Friday/Holiday 2021, and then followed the same format for Prime Day 2022.
With your help, maybe I can tweak things further when it’s time to curate and format Black Friday and Holiday 2022 tool deal coverage. If last year is any indicator, the 2022 holiday shopping season is due to kick off in just 3 months.
The easiest approach would be to create a simply filtered link. For instance:
From an affiliate link standpoint, retailers don’t care if you link to a product, home page, landing page, or elsewhere, all they care is that you referred a sale.
In other words, from a revenue perspective, 100-200 words plus a big clickable button has about the same effect as putting hours into an organized list of hand-picked deals.
So while there are site-supporting incentives tied to Prime Day coverage, there’s a rapid approach towards diminishing returns, where added effort doesn’t encourage added affiliate sales or referral commissions.
This is presumably why mass media sites pour a lot of effort into Prime Day coverage, but not necessarily authoritative or particularly useful coverage.
But, I like being able to refer back. Which hose reels were on sale last year? There are no miter saws on sale this year, were there any last year? I also refer to old promo details when looking forward to potential purchases. If there’s a good chance something I want to buy will be cheaper, maybe I can wait.
The way I laid out this year’s tool deals, that works for me. But does it work for you? What might be more useful to you?
I always sink a lot of time into my tool deal coverage, partly for future reference, but because I know how hard it is to sort through everything. If I can make things easier for more people, isn’t that better than everyone having to sort through all the deals themselves, duplicating the efforts?
My post still does have a lot of deals listed, but hopefully you’ll agree it make things easier.
If you find my Prime Day coverage helpful (or unhelpful), please chime in with some feedback!
