- These are the top 10 holiday shopping secrets
Amazon does not want you to know.
Welcome back to the channel.
Some of this information is going to infuriate you,
but I'm here to save you a lot of money.
I'm The YouTube Deal Guy, Matt Granite.
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Cyber Monday and beyond.
I'm also gonna share some insight tied
to how to score a PS5 on Amazon.
What you need to know.
Before we get to all of that, if you do have questions,
you're welcome to text me at any point.
My phone number four (440) 298-2181 (440) 298-2181.
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Holiday shopping secret number one,
that Amazon does not want you to know
when it comes to the Echo
and some of the Alexa based products,
you're often better off purchasing them
from Home Depot or Lowe's.
What?
Seriously that annoying guy on YouTube
just told me to go to Home Depot or Lowe's
for products that Amazon makes.
Yup.
Take a look at the Echo Dot.
Now the deals this holiday season
are gonna be the same everywhere.
There's Echo Dot which is 29.99
is gonna drop to 19.99 on Amazon Black Friday.
Same for Lowe's and Home Depot,
they will all have that price.
But if you look at the in-stock date offering,
December 25th, that's not helpful
for anyone that wants to give this as a Christmas gift
or a stocking stuffer.
It's not in stock on Amazon till December 25th.
The exact same price is available not only at Lowe's,
which will also match the Black Friday prices
and Cyber Monday prices from Amazon.
But I could pick it up right now,
I could also get it delivered.
At Home Depot, same thing.
I could get it delivered
as early as November 17th to the 20th.
I could get it shipped to my home
and it's the exact same price being offered on Amazon,
just Home Depot and Lowe's have their own stock
tied to these products.
Holiday shopping secret number two,
that Amazon does not want you to know.
They don't have a price match guarantee,
but they do have a pre-order price guarantee sort of.
So if you look at some of the PS5 games
that I am going to discuss,
the actual PS5 consoles more in depth in a few moments,
you'll notice that if you wanna pre-order
this December 31st, you got a pre-order price guarantee.
And basically what it says
is that Amazon will give you the lower price
if the price drops between when you buy and release day
only if the item hasn't shipped.
And it's really important to know
that sometimes just because an item hasn't shipped on Amazon
doesn't mean it hasn't entered its shipping process.
How often do we order products and they go into shipping
and you can't cancel the item?
Well, this pre-order price guarantee
will not automatically work
if your item is in its shipping stage.
So, sometimes you have to proactively call customer service.
And for games this far out like Outriders
is not available till February 2nd, next year.
We often forget, with the pre-order price guarantee,
what our rights are and how it works.
But one thing I will tell you on like PS5 games,
Dirt5, one of my favorite racing games,
there's actually an advantage to buying it on release day.
You sometimes get an Amazon Exclusive Edition.
Amazon does have some cool insider relationships
with all sorts of companies
where you will get some Amazon Exclusive vehicles editions
if you do buy this as a pre-order.
So that's a cool thing to know.
Holiday shopping secret number three.
Try and not order on your mobile device
as much as Amazon loves to push their app,
and as much as they want you to order from your Alexa,
which is really strange.
You're just ordering audibly
and you can't often see what you are trying to buy.
You get a better experience on a desktop or a laptop.
Things like the coupon section
seem to display a little bit better for me
than they do on a mobile platform.
Again, there's usually a coupon that could be $30 off
that doesn't always pop up the way you'd like
if you're on a mobile phone
and you're trying to order quickly.
We sometimes forget about the additional incentives
like, we get so excited,
the gaming headset deals have all dropped.
And by the way,
I will put these into the video description box.
I do use affiliate links, which means a benefit monetarily
if you're kind enough to use one of my links,
but you'll get an additional 20%
when you apply this coupon here.
On this gaming monitor, you'll save $20
just for checking that coupon box.
For this product, it's 70 bucks at a 26.89
and an additional 10% when you apply the coupon.
That's great,
but how often will we forget to clip the actual coupon?
Sometimes it doesn't even appear, you're in a rush,
you're excited, you're saving 37% already.
And again, these extra coupons do add up,
please make sure you clip them.
Holiday shopping secret number four,
for amazon.com is, please watch out for the resellers.
I am gonna talk about the PS5 console
in my next Insider Secret,
but the DualSense Wireless Controller
right now is available at 69.96.
But the problem is for a lot of us,
we'll actually just see
the other sellers on Amazon offering their prices,
and they have got the prime lows on
and we assume that it is in fact shipping from Amazon.
$90.95 is a ridiculous price
for the $69.96 DualSense Wireless Controller.
For items that are in stock on Amazon,
please make sure it ships from and sold by Amazon.
That's really important for you to see.
And if you are dealing with a third party reseller
that's jacked up the price,
your next best bet is to ensure that they have prime
and if they don't have prime
and if it just shows free shipping,
good luck, if something goes wrong,
trying to get a return done with them.
I realize Amazon has an A to Z guarantee,
but customer service has not been overly helpful
in many situations that I've experienced personally
in the past.
So I'm just letting you know, sometimes if you end up
with a not so great third-party merchant, it's a problem.
Holiday shopping secret number five
that Amazon does not want you to know,
or at least something they're not advertising
and I'm of course not speaking on behalf of the company.
This is all my personal opinion.
You can still score a PlayStation 5 easily
at certain times over the course of the day on Amazon.
As you guys can see,
the $499 physical PlayStation 5 console
is available right now,
I'm able to add this to my cart and get this,
and just because I know what certain times of the day
to look for the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition,
399.99, I could buy it now, get it this weekend.
And again, no issue finding these products.
Amazon's not heavily advertising
the fact that they have these like Walmart.
Walmart will tell you,
come on, order every three hours and we'll be there,
and we got them for you.
And then they add the items to your cart,
and they tell you it's not available
or Best Buy cancels your order after the fact,
which was what happened to me.
Amazon's got a better approach.
It seems like they don't wanna disappoint the customer,
but because of that,
they're not necessarily heavily advertising
that they do have availability on the PS5.
If you guys are looking to score some of these deals,
you're welcome to subscribe to this channel,
turn your notifications on.
I'll alert you whenever I can.
I also did a full video on how to score the PS5
even if it's sold out from all of the major retailers.
So I did upload that, that was last week.
You're welcome to check that out.
And now for my next saving secret.
Amazon shopping secret number six,
lightining deals just aren't actually that good
in my opinion.
And there's another category you should be shopping from,
which is secret number seven,
but let's start with number six.
I'm on the first page of the lightning deals.
And the lightning deals on here are not only redundant,
but they've basically been the same for the last few days.
And yeah, some are prime, early access deals.
And again, if you're not a prime member,
you're welcome to use my free 30 day trial
in the video description box.
But if you look at a lot of these deals and offerings,
I can't say that these are the most in-demand items
that I've seen.
The LED Ring lights,
a lot of these lights that you can hang up
around your property, the USBC hubs,
and some no name action cams
are kind of what populate these lists on a regular basis.
A DVD player,
maybe you want one 39 bucks, okay.
Collagen, I feel like I've seen the, an FM radio.
I have seen the same deals for the last few weeks.
They're not changing.
And it's almost as though Amazon
has moved all of their attention to a different category
where the deals and the savings are much more significant.
And yes folks,
that's shopping secret number seven,
and this is an epic one.
Epic, that's the new designation of deals
that Amazon created earlier this year and epic daily deals,
which have these red tabs and these designations.
Not only are these some of the best deals
that you're going to see from,
deals on, the iRobot and the savings again.
On par with what you will see on Black Friday itself
and Cyber Monday for a lot of these categories,
but the Sony Home Audio Products,
there are categories within categories,
which my opinion need a lot more attention
than the lightning deals.
40% off select Samsung soundbars.
$50 off, a GoPro Hero8.
32% off, a new Samsung 75 inch QLED TV, that's 32% off.
These are all epic daily deals, in my opinion,
they are far more worth your attention,
and a category a lot of people are less familiar with
because we're somehow all programmed to believe
that if it's not a lightning deal,
it's not a great deal.
And that's just definitely not the case.
Holiday shopping secret number eight,
that Amazon does not want you to know.
And don't worry when I get to nine
which is gonna infuriate you.
I hope you like shopping on Amazon
because you are possibly just shopping from better spy.
What?
Well, you might not think that two massive retailers
that both specialize in electronics and tech
would be working together,
and maybe it's a little bit more obvious for an Insignia TV,
which is Best Buy's in-house brand.
But although you are buying this TV
advertised as a daily deal from Amazon,
you are in fact dealing completely with Best Buy.
Ships from and sold by Best Buy.
Amazon is just acting as the marketplace
for your transaction.
And maybe you could say on Insignia,
since that's Best Buy's brand,
that's a little bit more obvious.
But if you look at some of these Toshiba deals
and there will be some great Toshiba deals
throughout the holiday season, this 4k ultra HD FireTV.
Now this is what's really strange.
FireTV, Amazon's operating system
and Toshiba, which to my knowledge is not owned by Best Buy.
You're still dealing only with Best Buy
for this FireTV deal.
So again, you think you're buying from Amazon,
they're just operating as the marketplace,
even on some of the outdoor security products
like this one right here from Eufy,
ships from and sold by Best Buy.
So have a great holiday shopping season
from amazon.com and Best Buy.
Now, for holiday shopping secret number nine,
and bear with me because I'm going to use a calculator
just to demonstrate the audacity
tied to some of these so-called offerings.
And I'm not gonna hold Amazon responsible for this,
I'm sure it's a misprint,
but I've seen at least several examples of this.
The bundles are often providing no savings whatsoever,
despite being advertised to you
as a great grab.
We're human,
when we see a price drop or incentive,
we're more likely to buy something
and get more excited about that.
For me that it releases all sorts of endorphins
'cause I have no life and I don't get out much and whatever.
Although I do love my wife and my daughter very much,
I just mean generally I don't leave this room.
The Ring Peephole camera right now with the Echo Dot,
is one 159.98.
And Amazon tells you that if you buy this bundle right now,
you're saving $10, that's not true.
A Ring Peephole cam on its own is 129.99.
If you were to then go and buy the Echo Dot independently,
it's 29.99.
What happens when you add 29.99 and 129.99,
you get 159.98.
How were you saving $10?
Explain to me Amazon.
If I were to go buy the Ring Peephole Cam,
and then I go to a different listing
and I add the Echo Dot to my shopping cart,
I'm at the exact same total as if I buy this bundle.
And I'm not saving any money at all.
And if you thought that was not great,
and a little bit deceptive,
let's look at this offering.
This Echo Show 8,
is 117.98,
and Amazon is telling you,
you will save $37 if you buy the Echo Show 8
and Echo Flex bundle.
Trust me, I love both products, they're great.
Now let's do the math.
If I were to go right now and by the Echo Show 8,
which is on sale, it's 104.99.
And if I were to go buy the echo flex on its own,
it's 12.99.
When you add 12.99 and 104.99,
you get a total price of 117.98.
Where do you get the $37 in savings?
You've not saved 23%, you haven't saved any money.
I agree, you saved independently on both of these products,
but you can't present this bundle to me
on my app or in my feed
and tell me to get excited about that.
There are no savings whatsoever tied to this bundle,
if you buy the two products together.
Weird, oh, that got me all hot and heavy,
I was really fired up about that.
You can tell my oversize nose is sweating
and my giant head is collecting sweat on its forehead.
Anyhow, moving on to shopping secret number 10
that Amazon doesn't want you to know it.
Sometimes colors will make a world of difference
in terms of your purchase.
And this is not anything deceptive,
but if you look at how Amazon advertises its price drops,
it's usually just tied to the most popular colors.
So right now there's a ton of PR tied to the fact
that you can save 20% on Beats by Dre headphones,
199.95, $50 off, that's great.
But if you're willing to accept the Moss color,
which is 151.95,
you are saving substantially more than $50.
Same thing with the yellow,
you're saving 90 bucks instead of 50.
So clicking around just as you would do
on fashion items and sizes
to see the different price fluctuations,
that applies to tech on Amazon.
These Beats Solo Pro headphones,
Again, a great deal, 40% off 179.95.
If you choose the dark blue,
if you choose the light blue,
again, 179.99.
And if you like red,
you'll lower the price all the way to 168.
So maybe it's not that Amazon doesn't want you to know that,
but it's just that the page is so overwhelming.
You can actually save significantly more
than just the base level offer.
And that actually applies to television,
specifically during Black Friday.
This Nanocell TV, 696 down from 849, that's great,
but did you know you can also get a free Bluetooth speaker?
Wait, what?
Although it is listed,
you need to click a bunch of drop down boxes
to reveal the promotion.
What's very enticing
and what you should know about is,
if you add this Bluetooth speaker
to your shopping cart before November 22nd,
the XBoom, which has a value of over a hundred dollars
is completely free.
Same goes with the Samsung Frame televisions.
The promotions are completely different
based on what model you select.
Let me just show you this one right here.
If you buy the 55 inch Frame TV,
you'll actually save 50% on the stand for this television,
if you add it to your shopping cart,
that's a savings of almost a hundred dollars,
but it gets even better.
If you go to the 65 or the 75 inch TVs,
which are both on sale for the Samsung Frame,
this is again that television that doubles art.
You can score a 32 inch TV for a hundred dollars.
You just need to add them both to your cart
at the time of checkout.
And that's substantial
because assuming you wanted a 32 inch Frame TV,
it has a price of $597.
By adding that to your shopping cart,
assuming you wanted to buy the 75 inch TV,
you're not just saving $202,
but you're saving another $490
on the cost of that television.
So your $200 off, become $600 off,
assuming you wanted to buy both televisions.
And these are not things that are very carefully laid out,
again, not Amazon's fault on that one,
but with the app,
you don't see it as well.
And on a desktop,
you need to really look and click.
And of course, I'm here to make sure that you guys
do see it all.
And if you do have additional insight or incentives
that you want to share, things that you've heard about,
please leave me a comment.
If you subscribe and turn your notifications on,
I promise to dispense this type of deal advice
whenever I possibly can.
And more importantly,
because I'm looking for more friends,
please feel free to text me (440) 298-2181.
You wanna save money on anything,
questions you need answered.
Thank you for watching.
Happy shopping.
Bye-bye.