Trevor

Exactly. Rob's two important points mean absolutely nothing to me. I mentioned speed of shipping being irrelevant and sales tax is a legal requirement whether Amazon takes it out ahead of time or not. But I know that some people think these or other parts of the process are important.

But the more I think about the inevitable price jump and decision that I'll have to make, the more I think that $99 is the absolute most I'd pay for the combined shipping/streaming/book borrowing benefit. Perhaps they'll add more perks to it when they raise the price.

fujishig

Interestingly enough, Newegg is rolling out Newegg premier, basically $50 for 3 day shipping, free returns, and some exclusive deals.

I always thought the whole thing with Prime was to get people to want to use their investment and buy as much as possible from Amazon.

CRM114

But you're still paying for shipping, just in a lump sum. It makes more financial sense to group two items and just get free shipping.

Holy shit. Never mind. Now I know who Prime is for. I thought ordering once a month was excessive.

Thats why I pay Barnes and Nobel $25 a year to get free two day shipping on books and movies, etc. For the impulse buy. And a discount in the brick and mortars.

Wait, you order one book or movie a week and have thousands of orders but you are complaining about getting stuff "you don't need"? Your mailman must despise you.

Well, many of us pay sales tax already and it does not effect our purchasing. Plus, I've always reported and paid sales tax on my state income tax. That's all I need is to get called out on tax evasion in a simple audit.

davidh777

At that point I sit down with my order totals and figure out the math.

...assuming those two items hit the threshold. Sometimes I found myself searching for an add-on and cursing that the price hadn't been just a little higher.

CRM114

Yes, the $35 increase certainly has effected my purchasing. Now you need ~ three items.

WallyOPD

It seems like you could save money by paying for shipping those rare times there's a particular time crunch on placing an order (like in the case of a price mistake), rather than paying $80 for shipping for an entire year, if the shipping speed doesn't matter to you.

With Prime you're placing over 2 orders per week, so it doesn't seem like it would be that big of an issue for the rest of your orders to wait a week until you've accumulated enough in your shopping cart to qualify for free shipping.

Trevor

Good points and how I did it for years. Most of my orders are $5 to $10 each. So waiting to hit $35 or even $25 would result in missing those sale prices.

That said, many of my orders are marketplace sellers so don't qualify for Prime anyway, and occasional ones are over $35. I resisted Prime when it was a shipping only service, as for small orders I didn't want to risk waiting for add-ins I'd just pay for shipping and pay under $80 a year in shipping fees. But once they added streaming and I found a coupon, Prime was worthwhile. I watch quite a bit of their streaming now.

DJariya

Serious question, do most of you just use Amazon to buy movies and video games?

You don't buy anything else there throughout the year?

Trevor

My ~10 orders a month are probably something like:

one game
one CD
three movies
three books
two grocery/household items

Vipper II

If there's something I need/want and Amazon has it and it's cheaper than it'd be at a B&M, which is frequent, then I buy from them. Over the last year it's been non-movie purchases more than anything else.

fumanstan

Like others have said if there aren't any other items you want, or you only want a specific item that's on sale for the week, you either pay for shipping or miss out on the deal. For people that purchase a lot of items, the difference there can easily surpass the $79 spent on Prime. And while some mentioned not caring that much about the shipping speed, for me release day delivery on movies and games has been important to me over the years, and the option for $3.99 for next day shipping also has it's uses.

Although for me, it was more "kick ass" when there wasn't sales tax in California.

CRM114

Yes, I do miss out on "deals" on occasion. But then I look at all the BD's still in shrink wrap on my shelf and the Tivo full of stuff.

nickdawgy

I still shop at Amazon a lot, but mainly for convenience. I used to buy EVERYTHING there. Now since they started charging tax, I'll typically buy from Best Buy or Target, or even Costco or Sam's Club.

PhantomStranger

I've shifted many purchases I would have made at Amazon towards other vendors. Amazon is so big at this point, they know smarter consumers have started dropping them as their go-to retailer and probably accept it. They want the dumber customers, willing to pay a 20% premium for the brain-dead convenience.

auto

I'll take that brain dead convenience if it means I never have to step inside a Best Buy, Wal-mart, etc. again. Life's too short to deal with that.

CRM114

Amazon has 20% higher prices? Amazon is almost always cheaper on everything.

Gizmo

Target with 5% is just a better deal now. Amazon lost some sales from me when they started charging tax.

That'sAllFolks

I'm probably more like a normal person for non-movie items, in that I need something and just look for the lowest price. I hardly buy anything online except for movies. Since I'm a BBY elite member though, I will PM a really good Amazon deal.

What I usually do is if the deal is good enough, just buy multiple copies and flip them. Normally the worse I do is break even on the price of the item after fees and usually make a little. Most really good deals at Amazon (except for BF) are from MP vendors.

I've never really cared that they do that, but it is kinda douchee (word?). Around BF though they seem to get stuff out hours after your order it so you can't do that.

The Cow

Good for you. Play in the gas price and your time to got to the box store.

It's the item and convenience price that I go for. I don't get the allegiance to a particular vender, there is a variance on the sell item.

jjcool

Prime is worth it for the convenience of being able to order whenever I want. No need to wait to get an order together. Able to get in on every deal that I want to. The price of prime is miniscule, next to the amount I have saved by not having to buy shit I dont need to get an order up to $25, as well as not missing out on sales because I took too long adding something I didnt ened to the order. Now the free shipping minimum is $35.

CRM114

I guess I don't buy a lot of $10 items. i never had an issue getting to $25. $35 is a bit tougher.

Gizmo

I'm at Target 3-4 times a week so it's not an issue.

I'd be paying more from Amazon with Tax. Period.

darkdaze73

I see that line mentioned a lot. But if you were already going there for other things or drive by one along your route, I don't see it as being that much of an inconvenience.

But if you are driving 15-30 minutes out of the way just to purchase an item, yeah then you have to enter time and gas into the equation.

If Amazon had actual sales like they used to do in old days, rather than just price match certain retailers, I would have no problem ordering more from them. Even if it meant hitting the $35 threshold for FSSS.

Occasionally they still do have sales on video games and other items of interest, and I do order from them if it is something I am looking for, but I just don't see it happening enough without it being a price from other retailers.

darkdaze73

And to add, that by ordering it online means I should not expect it now. But for them to not ship something that is in stock is pretty "douchee". As I mentioned before, they can send it super slow shipping for all I care. But it's the principal that they hold an order just because they can as for some punishment for not paying extra from their 2 day shipping. Just my .02.

Wolf359

Prime is increasing for the U.K. and for Germany.
http://consumerist.com/2014/02/21/is...#more-10153878