Amazon’s latest Prime Day sale arrives on July 12

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Amazon on Thursday announced that its latest Prime Day sales event is set for July 12 through 13. The company says the event will begin at 3 am EST and run for 48 hours across 20 countries. As in past iterations of the event, you'll need to be a subscriber to Amazon's Prime service to receive access to the offers.

The annual promotion primarily drives sales and Prime subscriptions for Amazon during a relatively slow time of year for its e-commerce business. The event is often filled with many junk sales, in the sense that many of the items can be found at similar prices throughout the year, and many of the offers available apply to relatively generic products. That said, there are usually a few diamonds in the rough. Good deals often rival prices you typically find around the holiday season, plus various discounts on products you may buy anyway.

Amazon did not provide too many specifics on offers it will promote but noted that many of its own gadgets and services will be discounted before the event and that "select products" from Sony, Bose, Beats, and iRobot, among others, will see price cuts during the promotion. The company also said it would make more than 30 video games available at no extra cost through its Prime Gaming platform.