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After Amazon’s crazy-fast lightning deals yesterday on Legos, I got a number of questions from readers about how the waiting list works for these kinds of deals.
Given that we’ve got a few more weeks of Holiday Lightning Deals on Amazon, I wanted to explain this great feature in a bit more detail.
Here’s the scoop:
Lightning Deals go for two hours – or while supplies last.
As you can imagine, the super popular items – like Legos, but also jewelry, electronics, household appliance, and game systems – go fast. Very fast.
Sometimes they sell out almost instantaneously.
This is because you – and a couple of thousand (or tens of thousands, in some case) other people – are all clicking on BUY NOW at the exact same time.
Sometimes, Amazon even makes the “Buy Now” button go live before their price point does.
Major bargain shoppers know: Add the item to your cart, you can always decide later not to get it. But grab it before it sells out.
So, let’s say people were expecting to see a 50% savings on Legos, but it ends up being only 38%. Many will still want the item – it’s a great deal.
But lots more will say to themselves, “Meh, I don’t really want it at that price.”
At which point, the items go back into rotation. And the folks who are on the waitlist are first in line to get it.
Sure, being 1st on the waitlist is good. But I’ve had friends get goodies when they were 300th on the waitlist. I’ve even heard of people getting it past the 500th position.
In other words – don’t despair. If the Lightning Deal you want is already sold out, sign up for the waitlist.
How do I join the Amazon Lightning Deal Wait List
First things first, you need to be signed in to your Amazon account. So make sure you do this before you start staking the hot Lightning Deal pages.
If you are on the product page, look for the yellow “Join deal waitlist” button.
If you are on a LIGHTNING DEAL page, click the yellow Join Waitlist button.
Amazon will notify you via email if and when you get of the waitlist. You will then have 15 minutes to complete your checkout.
As far as I know, the wait list function does not work from Amazon Mobile unfortunately. I am not sure about using it from an iPad or other reader either – does anyone else know?
Do lightning deals automatically come with free shipping? My father-in-law has Amazon Prime, and we usually just use his account. For the wait list, however, the e-mail would just go to him, which doesn’t really work. However, I do like the free shipping, and if I’m signed in to my account I wouldn’t get it.
Also, once everything is really sold out (including the wait list) Amazon will change it to SOLD OUT. I’ve gotten several things off the wait list when they tell me my chance is “poor”. So as Mara said, don’t get discouraged, you still might get the item you were looking for!