Better Than Black Friday? We're Skeptical

Amazon.com kicked off a one-day sale early Wednesday, offering what it says are more deals than Black Friday.

The “Prime Day” sale, which is available only to its Prime subscribers, includes a wide variety of items - from toys to electronics to medical devices - and features some significant discounts.

Some of the savings are impressive; most are lackluster.

Selected items:

  • The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: $27.99 (77 percent off)
  • Husqvarna Self-Propelled Mower: $299.99 (40 percent off)
  • Bose SoundTrue Headphones $79.99 (47 percent off)

Oddly, Amazon also featured a 24-inch shoehorn - which it said was 20 percent off.

Amazon said it was posting the specials in waves, as often as every ten minutes. Most items were limited by either time or quantity.

Walmart, which responded to the Amazon sale with an offer of “rollbacks” for everyone - and for 30 days - posted a similarly diverse variety of sale items overnight. The price cuts we found were equally varied. 

Selected items:

  • 55” RCA 1080p HDTV: $399 (usually $799)
  • Disney Frozen Skating Anna doll: $10 (usually $24,97)
  • Coleman 12-person tent: $149 (usually $249.97)

Our advice is to browse, but also shop around and compare prices. Don’t let this mid-July hype lead you to frivolous purchases