Amazon’s Prime Day sales are now live, and the deals on Kindles are the worst I’ve ever seen, with the exception of the Kindle Scribe. My Prime Day predictions were way off because I was using last year’s sales as a starting point, and the deals aren’t nearly as good this year.
Prime Day used to be the best time of year to buy Kindles at the lowest prices, but this year that’s not the case at all. They did a similar thing last Black Friday, but these deals are even worse than those, and it’s kind of sad, really.
This year Amazon is only discounting the Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite by $15. That’s $20 higher than Prime Day last year on the Kindle and $45 higher for the Paperwhite.
The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is only $10 off. The price is $55 higher than it was last year during Prime Day. $55!
The Kindle Scribe is the only Kindle deal worth paying attention to unless you have an old Kindle to trade-in to get an extra 20% off Prime Day prices. However, the 16GB Kindle Scribe is the only one on sale without having to buy a bundle package.
It’s weird because Amazon’s sale prices on Fire tablets are much lower than Kindles. I don’t understand why Kindles are being treated differently. These prices aren’t even as low as standard sales.
See the Prime Day Deals page at Amazon for an updated list of deals.
Kindle Scribe Deals
Kindle Scribe 16GB – $234.99 ($105 off)
Kindle Scribe 16GB Premium Pen – $259.99 ($110 off)
Kindle Scribe 16GB Essentials Bundle – $271.97 ($168 off)
Kindle Scribe 32GB Essentials Bundle – $314.99 ($175 off)
Kindle Scribe 64GB Essentials Bundle – $324.00 ($195 off)
Kindle Scribe Accessories
Kindle Scribe Premium Pen – 17% off
Kindle Scribe Pen Replacement Tips – 33% off
Kindle Scribe Fabric Folio Cover – $44.99 ($15 off)
Kindle Paperwhite “Deals”
Kindle Paperwhite 5 – $134.99 ($15 off)
Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundle – $164.97 ($40 off)
Kindle Paperwhite Kids – $149.99 ($20 off)
Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition – $179.99 ($10 off)
Kindle 2022 “Deals”
Kindle – $84.99 ($15 off)
Kids Kindle – $99.99 ($20 off)
Kindle Fabric Covers – $20.99 ($9 off)
Other Kindle Deals
3 Months of Kindle Unlimited for free (existing subscribers excluded)
Deals on Other Reading Devices
Kobo Sage – $239.99 ($20 off)
Kobo Elipsa 2E – $349.99 ($50 off)
PocketBook InkPad Color 3 – $279.99 ($50 off)
PocketBook Era Color – $229.99 ($30 off)
PocketBook InkPad Eo – $466.65 ($82.35 off)
PocketBook Verse Pro – $135.15 ($23.85 off)
PocketBook Verse – $109.00 ($20 off)
It’s really simple—they are tired of losing billions on their device divisions. The truth is the Kindle should never have been discounted as much as it was in the past, and they are trying to reset expectations now. I would not expect huge sales to return to the Kindle.
I kinda get the feeling Amazon has decided they’ve put out enough Kindles into enough people’s hands that those who don’t have one up to now will not get one so they aren’t putting them up for big sales anymore.
They want to take over e notes market so thats why Scribe gets discounted so often.
They aren’t losing billions. Kindles aren’t made for profit. Profit comes from selling books on Kindles and they need as many people to have those as possible. It’s the same thing gaming companies do with consoles – they sell them with loss because they know people will spend much more on games then.
I thing they aren’t bringing any new devices this year so they don’t give discounts because they don’t need to empty their supplies…
“They aren’t losing billions. Kindles aren’t made for profit.”
Indeed—but between the Kindles, and more importantly the Echoes, they have lost billions in their device divisions. It’s been covered in big stories in Business Insider and elsewhere. I suspect the Echoes are more of a problem for them fiscally, but the hammer has come down on all their devices.
Fire tablets are still being deeply discounted, though. I think it’s probably because they’re selling the Kindle Scribe for so cheap they have to make up for it somewhere else, and that’s why other Kindles aren’t getting discounted as much anymore because they know those will sell anyway. Nobody sells eNotes for anywhere close as cheap as the Kindle Scribe when it’s on sale; they have to be losing a ton of money on it, and I don’t know why they even bother.
Prime Day sucks in my opinion. Discounts and good deals are hard to come by. Prices are not much different than what they normally are. Example: Blowdryer $35 plus $8 coupon = $27. On Prime day all they do is eliminate the coupon and put the $27” Prime Day Special”. Really pathetic honestly.
Yeah… On German Amazon smartphone Xiaomi 14 Ultra was 30.000 CZK before Prime Day… Now it’s “discounted” to 32.000 CZK which is more expensive then any other store I know…
Hey, Nathan. I found really, really helpful your review on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6gg4bZvxng
While trying to contact you I noticed that the top EMAIL button on your website is not working on firefox.
Thank You for the cool stuff you put out.
Thanks for stopping by, but that was never an actual email link. It was for getting updates via email back when feedburner still worked. I guess I should probably remove it at some point…
Worst deals ever
That is an understatement, Kindle Paperwhite @ $135. I bought mine for $95 on Black Friday in 2022. Or was it the Christmas holidays? I’m glad I purchased it when I did.
I hope mine will last ten years, like the first Kindle I bought.
While I may not like all the software configurations that Kindles currently have, I will put up with them, as Kindles are very durable devices. At least Kindles added thicker fonts, unlike B&N Nooks, which my poor eyesight appreciates.