Black Friday is just around the corner.
In the blink of an eye, the holiday season and Christmas festivities will be here, and you’ll wonder where time passed, sulking on the thought that you didn’t get gifts you really wanted for your friends and family.
From carriers to retailers, this time of the year presents a bombardment of deals and promotions, so much so that picking selecting items becomes a little overwhelming. Adding to the is the uncertainty of stock of highly sought-after products, including the latest-gen consoles.
Thankfully, some tools on the internet can help us keep track of stock and prices, ensuring that you always get the best deal possible.
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One of the most reliable tools that can alert you about Amazon stock, product price and price history is CamelCamelCamel. A website and extension that lives on your browser, Camel allows you to select products that you’re interested in buying and sends you an email notification the moment it detects a price decrease/discount on it. In the case of sought-after products, like the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X, Camel will send you an email notification about the product being in stock.
The service isn’t limited to electronics and can be used to track any product on Amazon’s super vast catalogue. Further, Camel is a free tool and can even be used with fewer features without signing up. CamelCamelCamel supports Amazon United States, Canada, Europe, Australia.
To simply check the historical prices of a product on Amazon, head to Amazon, navigate to the product listing, copy its URL and paste it on the top ‘Find Amazon Products’ bar on Camel.
This is also where you can add your email and set a price drop percentage. Whenever the price of the product drops to the set percentage, you’ll get an email notification. I like to set the drop at “Any Price Drop,” so I recieve a notification whenever the price heads south.
In the example below (second screenshot), we can see that the ASUS TUF monitor was available for $349 in late June/early July. Considering the abundance of incoming deals in the coming weeks, the monitor’s price will likely go down to the sub $350 level. So instead of getting it now for $389, I can set a price drop alert and purchase it for a better price.
Price Dropper
Unlike Camel, which only tracks products listed on Amazon, pricedropper.ca can track over 100 Canadian retail websites, including Best Buy, Apple, Canada Computers, Canadian Tire, Costco, EB Games GameStop, Microsoft, Newegg, Razer and countless more. While pricedropper works similarly to Camel, its main strength is the vast number of retailers it tracks.
The website’s homepage displays different sections, including ‘Featured Price Drops,’ ‘All Time Low Prices,’ and ‘Latest Price Drops’ which allow you to stay on top of the trends.
You don’t need to create a pricedropper account to track historical pricing; however, you’ll have to sign up if you want to be notified about a discount.
The procedure works similarly to Camel. You locate the product you want to track and copy its URL. Head to the ‘+ New Product’ tab on the top right and paste and paste the URL. To simply check the pricing, click on ‘Search,’ also located on the top right, and enter the product’s name.
In the example below, I can clearly see that the second-gen Google Nest Hub is currently at an all-time low listing and that too at multiple retailers, giving me confidence that the deal I’m getting is the best one.
Following the right Twitter accounts
Twitter is more than just a hate-spewing microblogging platform. If you’re following the right accounts, it can be a place to learn and grow your circle. Some Twitter handles that focus primarily on Canadian retailer stock and product pricing are a must-follow if you’re trying to find the best deals.
These are the most notable Twitter accounts that I and others at MobileSyrup follow, and you should too if you want to stay on top of deal trends:
@Lbabinz — “Video Game deals in Canada 🇨🇦, preorders, news. Nintendo, PS5, Xbox, PC.”
@GameDealsCanada — “Why pay full price for games, Canada?”
@CDNnotify — “Info to help out the Canadian sneaker and #PS5 community”
Bonus
RedFlagDeals is like Reddit but for Canadian deals. It publishes several new deals, promotions and flyers on its forum-style website across more than 70 categories, including Fashion & Beauty, Health & Wellness, Sports & Recreation, however, we use the platform primarily for its Computers & Electronics Threads, TV Threads and Video Game Threads.
RFD has full-time employees scouring for bargains, coupons, and freebies, plus the thousands of users, who can also add threads about notable promotions they discovered.
Right now, RFD has a special ‘Black Friday’ section with top deals, promotions and flyers from retailers across Canada. Check it out here.