Great Shopping Deals Year Round (Not Just Black Friday!)

So I know this deal has absolutely nothing to do with teaching… but hey, teachers deserve to get some great shopping deals, right?  And, since today is Black Friday, I’m sure this is the exactly what’s on everyone’s mind! (Well, it’s on my mind at least!)

Obviously everyone knows about Amazon, but do you know that you can easily find the price history of any item on Amazon to tell if you’re getting a good deal or not?!

First things first, head to Amazon, and pull up an item that you are interested in.  I pulled up Avery 5160 Labels… my favorite! 🙂

Copy the link from your address bar (e.g.: http://www.amazon.com/Avery-Address-Labels-Printers-08160/dp/B00004Z5SM).  You can copy the link by choosing Edit > Copy, or by doing Control + C on a PC, or Command + C on a Mac.

Next, visit the website http://camelcamelcamel.com .  You can head there by clicking the picture below!

In the top right hand corner, there is a box that says “Enter Amazon URL or keywords to find products.” Click in that box and paste in the web address that you just copied.  You can paste the link by choosing Edit > Paste, or by doing Control + V on a PC, or Command + V on a Mac.

Click “Find Products” next to where you pasted the link.  If you scroll down a little bit, you’ll see a chart that shows the item’s price history.

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find a list of the dates when the item was highest priced and lowest priced, as well as the last 5 price changes.

So… if you’re looking to find out if you’re getting a good deal on the item you can easily tell!  Right now these labels are pretty reasonably priced… perhaps I need to stock up.

But, wait… I haven’t even told you the best part yet!  If you create a free account for the website, you can get email alerts when the item drops below a certain price!

Head back to the main website, http://camelcamelcamel.com/ .  Click “Sign Up” (in the top right hand corner, or towards the middle right of the screen.)

Paste back in your item link.  In that big maroon box, it says “Create Amazon price watches for: …your item…” Right below that, there is a green box that says “Amazon.”  In the desired price box, enter your desired price.

When your item drops below that price, CamelCamelCamel will send you an email alerting you of the new price.  (For those of you worried about junk mail… I’ve used this option for a few months and I haven’t noticed any additional spam from it!)

If you want to check which items you are tracking, you can always click “Your Price Watches” at the top of the page.

I entered in all of the Christmas gifts that I want to get people and set up to be alerting when the item drops within a dollar of its lowest documented price.  I’ve already gotten alerts for two of the items… and for my printer ink!  I am absolutely loving it!

I’d love to hear about what items you’re loving from Amazon that you’re going to enter into the price tracker… and about any Black Friday excursions you went on!!!!