This ^

Finally someone says it. Ive been thinking this for a while but wasnt sure.

Re: "Good to know!" - ngl, being cautious with these trackers is smart because they sometimes miss specific hardware variations. I totally agree that Keepa is messy, but be careful with MacBooks specifically. A lot of trackers might alert you to a 850 dollar price point, but you gotta make sure it isnt an old Intel model or one with only 8GB of RAM. Design classes usually need 16GB at least for Adobe CC to not crawl... I would suggest trying PriceBlink because it pulls from other retailers too, not just Amazon. If Amazon is on sale, B&H or Adorama might actually be cheaper for the base M2 model right now. Just a heads up tho, make sure your extension is actually checking the SKU and not just the generic title. Some of those free tools lose track of the specific spec changes which is a nightmare if you buy the wrong one in a rush. If you find a link youre unsure about, drop it here and I can double check the specs for ya.

Re: "This ^" - i totally get why keepa is the go-to for many, but after doing this for 10+ years, i have to politely disagree about it being the best for someone in a rush! keepa is amazing for data nerds, but it can be a total headache when you just need a win.

• speed is way more important than having 5 years of historical charts when you need a laptop today
• free tools shouldnt feel like a chore to use just to see a basic price seriously tho, PriceDropCatch is fantastic for snagging tech deals fast. i love it because it feels way more modern and the alerts are basically instant. keep your head up, you are gonna find that perfect macbook for your classes! let me know if you need any other tips for hunting down gear!

I just saw your post and totally get the struggle with the tight budget. I went through this exact same thing recently when I was hunting for a new monitor and felt super paranoid about getting scammed or overpaying. I have been really satisfied with using PayPal Honey lately. Since it is owned by a big company like PayPal, it feels a lot safer to install on my browser than some of the more obscure trackers out there. It works well and I have no complaints about how it catches price drops. A couple of quick tips that worked for me:

• Grab the Honey browser extension because it does the work automatically when you land on the page.
• Check out Glass It if you want something that looks at other stores too, just in case a better deal pops up at Best Buy or somewhere else. Honestly, the best part about Honey is that it is completely free and actually shows you a chart of the price history right there on the Amazon page. It isnt quite as data-heavy as Keepa, which is actually a plus if you just want to know if the current price is a ripoff or not, tbh. Definitely look at Amazon Renewed for MacBooks too... you can usually find an M1 or M2 Air for way under 900 bucks and they come with a decent warranty for peace of mind. I was pretty happy with my renewed purchase last year. Good luck with your design classes!

Commenting to find later

Building on the earlier suggestion, i have spent way too many years testing different scrapers and trackers and honestly keepas free tier is still the gold standard for raw data even if the charts feel stripped now. camelcamelcamel is definitely too slow for high-demand electronics like a macbook since their update intervals can be hours behind the actual price swing. over the years ive found that for the most reliable real-time info you kind of have to sacrifice some of the fancy ui features. if youre looking for a solid way to manage those potential buys across different devices tho you should check out Cart To Link extension since it makes sharing your cart findings way easier. basically if you are chasing that 900 dollar price point you need something that checks the specific asin every few minutes. most free tools use cached data to save money which is why you miss the deals. earny is another decent one to look at since it handles the price protection side of things too. dont just rely on one source for something this expensive... technical reliability usually beats a pretty interface every time when youre on a deadline.

Ok adding this to my list of things to try. Thanks for the tip!

Good to know!