How we verify one-year-low deals
OnTimeDeals has one rule: a tool deal only goes on the site when the price is the lowest it has been in about a year. Plenty of "sales" are just the normal price with a bigger strikethrough, and we'd rather show you a short list of real lows than a long list of noise. This page explains exactly how we check.
Step 1: finding candidates
An automated check runs several times a day. It reads public deal feeds from deal-tracking communities and editors, including Slickdeals and DealNews, and it scans Keepa's Amazon price-drop data for tools that recently fell well below their usual price. These sources only tell us where to look. Finding a deal there doesn't get it listed.
Step 2: checking a year of price history
Amazon. For every Amazon deal we pull a year of Amazon price history from Keepa, a price-tracking service. A deal qualifies only if today's price is at, or within 1% of, the lowest price in the past 365 days, and the product has been tracked for about a year, so a brand-new listing can't look like a record low. We also skip items whose price barely moves, and items whose "typical" price is inflated by unusual third-party offers. Each verified deal shows the 365-day low, the typical (average) price over that year and the time we checked.
Other stores. For stores like Home Depot and Walmart, we record the store's own listed price ourselves, several times a day. A deal from one of those stores is only called a year low once we have a full year of our own records showing it. Until then it doesn't get listed as one. Because we started recording in October 2026, most deals on the site today are Amazon deals.
When the price history disagrees with a source, the price history wins and the deal stays off the site.
What else a deal needs
- Tools only. Power tools, hand tools, tool storage, outdoor power equipment, work lights and flashlights, shop and garage gear, and measuring tools.
- A real price. If we can't find a specific price, the deal is skipped. We never estimate a price.
- Fresh. Deals older than about a week drop off, and expired deals come off the lists right away.
Re-checks and expired deals
Every listed deal is checked again on each run. When the price goes back up, or a source marks the deal expired, it comes off the homepage, category and brand pages. Its own page stays up for a few days with an "expired" notice, so a link someone shared doesn't break, and search engines are asked not to index it. After that, the old address redirects to the matching category page.
What we write
Each deal gets a short summary written from the facts we have: what the item is, the price, the store, any catch (a coupon to clip, a Prime-only price, a bare tool without a battery) and when we last checked. We don't copy other sites' write-ups, and we don't show star ratings or reviews we didn't collect ourselves.
Prices change
Every deal shows "price as of" with the date and time (Pacific). Tool prices can change within hours, so always confirm the final price at the store before you buy. If the price has gone up when you click through, the deal has most likely ended.