If you’re trying to get your hands on the hot new thing, like one of the top holiday toys or Advent calendars, Amazon’s preorder options can help you lock in a popular item at a good price.
The tricky part about not-yet-released items is that prices can fluctuate drastically before the official release date. This is likely due to the high demand for the anticipated item. And it doesn’t help that Amazon is notorious for changing their prices every day. Amazon's policy for preorder items is that you're charged the day they ship. So what if the item drops in price after you order it, but before it ships? Are you stuck with the higher price it was on the day you ordered?
Nope! You get the lower price. The retailer makes preorders a little less risky with something called the Amazon Pre-Order Price Guarantee. And yeah, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Amazon will grant you the lowest price offered between the time you place your order and the product’s official release date.
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Our Favorite Items Available for Amazon Preorder Right Now
The Amazon Pre-Order Price Match Guarantee gets you the lowest price on not-yet-available items.
You can find the Amazon Pre-Order Price Match Guarantee anytime you find a not-yet-available product listed on Amazon as a preorder. The guarantee means Amazon will charge you the lowest price offered from the time you place the order until the day the product is officially released.
Say you preordered an Amazon Delivery Van Ride-On toy for $39.99. Then the price dips to $35.99 a week before release. You’d only be charged $35.99 — since that was the lowest price between the time you preordered and when the product shipped.
And you don’t even have to keep track of the prices or do any extra work. You'll automatically get charged the lowest price.
You can use the Amazon Pre-Order Price Match Guarantee on digital content too.
The guarantee applies to any digital game, software download, Kindle book, or Amazon music that has the “Pre-Order Price Guarantee” message on the product listing page. This guarantees you'll get it for the lowest price offered by Amazon.com from the time you ordered it until the release date.
This means no more stalking the gamer vlogs to find out the best day to get the best prices on the newest games. You can preorder knowing that you’ll get Amazon’s lowest price available.
You can't use the guarantee on third-party items.
As with any promotion, you should expect rules and restrictions. Here are some guidelines to consider:
The price match applies only to items sold by Amazon.com. It doesn’t apply to other sellers on Amazon or to products purchased on other sites owned by Amazon.com (such as Zappos.com).
Only items that aren't yet released and that explicitly list the “Pre-Order Price Guarantee” message are eligible.
The price match doesn't correspond with any other discounts — like those checkbox coupons you see on product pages. Although those would reduce your total cost, they wouldn’t be considered a price change and wouldn’t qualify.
You'll still get a refund if the price drops on release day, even if the product already shipped.
Amazon will often ship preorder items a couple days before release day to make sure you get them on release day. And the moment the product ships is when your card gets charged. So what happens if your order ships before release day, but the price drops on release day (after you've already been charged)? Don’t worry — you’ll be refunded the difference in the price. The difference will automatically be refunded to the credit or debit card you used to make the purchase.
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