Amazon Prime Day, or Waste of Time Day?

Happy Prime Day! Or is it?

I've never bought a drone on Prime Day, will that change?

We know that products are advertised by Amazon associates, influencers, and resellers based on product popularity and ratings. This is a strategy that drives sales but if you follow it, you might end up with a good deal on a low quality drone.

Amazon is not the place to purchase enterprise or industrial drones, so even if there are great Prime Day deals on drones, your selection is limited and really it is a choice of DJI consumer drones, the Mavic 3 series being the best available on Amazon right now, and everything else.

Prime Day and Top-quality DJI Drones

If you're in the know, at all, you know that DJI is the undisputed top drone brand worldwide - despite the politics, they are simply the best quality. 

DJI has their own store on Amazon however, their Prime Day event is pretty lackluster as expected as they had their own DJI Day sale at the end of June.

Prime Day deals on the DJI store are up but are nothing incredible. 20% off the Mini 3 Pro with RC and 20% off the Air 2S Fly More Combo .

A DJI Prime Day list sorted by popularity and then rating yields this otherwise random list of DJI Drones. Simply choosing a drone, even a DJI drone, from Amazon ranking lists doesn't mean you're going to get the best deal or best drone or best drone package for yourself. Nonetheless here is that list:

#1 DJI Mini 3 Pro with RC

• Simply the best micro drone with all the options but no extra batteries

#2 DJI Mini 3 with RC and Fly More Combo

• The best micro drone without all the options but with extra batteries

#3 DJI Mini 3 Pro (DJI RC) + Fly More Kit Plus

• The best small drone with all the options and extra long lasting batteries

#4 DJI Mini 2 SE Fly More Combo

• DJI quality entry level micro drone with extra batteries at lower quality brand price

#5 DJI Mavic 3 Pro with DJI RC

• Simply the best small professional drone without extra batteries

#6 DJI Avata Pro-View Combo

• DJI's FPV for everyone drone with intuitive motion controller

#7 DJI FPV Combo

• DJI's original FPV for everyone drone with manual RC controller

Mid and Low-Quality Drone Brands

Drones aren't even a category on Amazon, they are found under quadcopters, RC aircraft, action cameras, and toys.

In the quadcopter category, the top rated drone is a RADCLO Mini Drone. Never heard of this brand but hey at $55 I guess it couldn't hurt to pickup to see how it became so popular and highly rated. At 1.04lbs though I can't fathom someone using this that has their Part 107.

Then there are a plethora of toys, other unknown brands and Holy Stone which, IMO, is probably the only other brand that can/should be bought on Amazon from which you could have a reasonable expectation of quality. The top Holy Stone drone in the Amazon ranking of quadcopters is the Holy Stone HS175D.

You can get Autel drones on Amazon such as the Autel Robotics EVO 2 PRO V3, but they are not popular on there, don't seem to be available for Prime, and don't appear anywhere in the top rankings. 

Drone Accessories and Office Products

Amazon is definitely the place to go for drone accessories and related office products. 

For sure, these include batteries and ND filters. But probably the best deals to be had will be on office supplies. SD Cards come to mind but they're cheap enough that even a great deal might not amount to much. External drives for backup though are pricey enough that I will certainly check this category on Prime Day.

Well if you do choose to search out drone deals on Prime Day, make sure you have a Prime membership.