How to Never Overpay on Amazon.ca Again
Amazon's pricing algorithm changes product prices hundreds of times per day. "Deals" and "sales" are often products temporarily repriced up before being "discounted" back to normal. During Prime Day and Black Friday, a significant portion of the most-promoted deals aren't deals at all -- they're items whose prices were quietly raised weeks earlier.
Price tracking tools expose this completely. Here's how to use them.
The Core Problem: Fake Amazon Deals
A product listed at "$89.99 (was $149.99 -- 40% off)" sounds compelling. But if the item has sold at $89.99 for 300 of the past 365 days, and the "$149.99" price existed for only two weeks in January, the deal is fake. This is not an edge case -- it's a documented, widespread practice.
The solution is a price history chart. Any item you're considering should have its price history checked before purchase.
CamelCamelCamel: The Essential Price History Tool
CamelCamelCamel tracks every price change on every Amazon.ca (and Amazon.com) product since the item was listed. The result is a chart showing you the true price history.
CamelCamelCamel
Track Amazon.ca price history and get alerts when prices drop to your target
How to Use It
- Copy the Amazon.ca product URL
- Paste it at ca.camelcamelcamel.com
- Read the chart -- look for the "Amazon" price line (sold directly by Amazon) and the "New" price line (third-party sellers)
- Check the lowest price ever, the 90-day average, and where the current price sits relative to history
If the current price is at or near the historic low: it might be a real deal. If the current price is higher than the 90-day average despite being labelled "on sale": it's not a deal.
Install the Camelizer browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. It adds a price history graph directly to every Amazon product page -- no copy-pasting required. You'll never look at an Amazon listing the same way again once you can see the full price history at a glance. The extension is free and takes 30 seconds to install.
Setting Price Alerts
Create a free CamelCamelCamel account to set price alerts. Enter the price you're willing to pay, and CamelCamelCamel emails you when the item drops to that level. Useful for non-urgent purchases where you know what fair value looks like.
Honey: Secondary Price History on Amazon
Honey's price history feature is less detailed than CamelCamelCamel but is available directly in the browser extension you may already have installed for coupon codes.
Honey (PayPal)
Automatically find and apply coupon codes at checkout while shopping online
Honey's Amazon price history shows a simplified chart and highlights when the current price is high vs. low relative to recent history. The "Droplist" feature lets you save items to watch and receive alerts when prices drop -- similar to CamelCamelCamel alerts but within the Honey interface.
Use both: CamelCamelCamel for deep history and precise alerting, Honey for quick checks when you're already browsing.
Keepa: The Power User Option
Keepa (keepa.com) is the more advanced alternative to CamelCamelCamel. It shows more data dimensions including sales rank history, offer count, and price trends broken down by seller type. The browser extension overlays this data directly on Amazon pages.
Keepa has a free tier with basic history and a premium subscription (~$20 USD/year) for full data access. For casual shoppers, CamelCamelCamel is sufficient. For deal hunters who buy frequently or in categories with volatile pricing (electronics, toys), Keepa's additional data is worth the cost.
Best Times to Buy on Amazon.ca
Knowing the calendar helps set expectations:
- Prime Day (July): 48-72 hours of genuine deals mixed with a lot of fake discounts. Use CamelCamelCamel to separate real from fake in real time
- Black Friday / Cyber Monday (late November): Amazon's best event for electronics. Historically lowest prices of the year on many categories
- Boxing Day (December 26): Significant Canada-specific promotions. Amazon.ca competes for this traffic
- End of season: March-April for winter gear, September for summer items. Not marketed as sales but prices often dip quietly
Prime Day preparation tip: in the 2-3 weeks before Prime Day, add items you're considering to your Amazon Wish List and track them on CamelCamelCamel simultaneously. When Prime Day starts, you'll immediately know whether the "deal" on each item is the real lowest price or a manufactured discount. Most serious Amazon shoppers do this every year -- the result is buying maybe 30% of their planned Prime Day list at genuine deals and skipping the rest entirely.
Lightning Deals: How to Evaluate Them Quickly
Lightning Deals are time-limited offers that run for a few hours during sales events. They create urgency, which is exactly why they're effective at getting people to buy without checking history first.
The evaluation process takes 60 seconds:
- See Lightning Deal
- Open new tab, check CamelCamelCamel
- If current Lightning Deal price is at or near historic low: potentially worth buying
- If current Lightning Deal price is above the 90-day average: skip
The urgency is a psychological tactic. The deal isn't going anywhere that matters if it wasn't a good price to begin with.
The Summary
For anyone buying anything non-trivial on Amazon.ca: check the price history before purchasing. CamelCamelCamel takes 30 seconds. The Camelizer extension reduces it to one click. This single habit, applied consistently, will save more money than any other Amazon shopping tip.