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Stupid Amazon hacks
By Mr. Stupid | March 27, 2008
Before I buy anything, I check Amazon first. That site is such a jungle that you’ll find just about anything. There’s even a book about exploiting Amazon hacks.
Here are some of my favorite Amazon hacks.
Reaching deal thresholds
I want a book. It typically costs between $10 and $20 bucks. If I want to get free shipping, I need to add another $5 to $15 to reach the “free shipping” threshold of $25.
Sometimes, I hunt around for something I *kinda* want, and add it. I’ll spend $10 to save $5. That’s stupid with a small “s”. Other times, I’ll just go buy the book at a brick and mortar store’s inflated price. What I pay at the store often turns out to be the same as Amazon’s price, plus shipping. And still other times, I hold off on my purchase altogether until I find a second item I want. Amazon is good about remembering things in your cart for a long long time.
Well, there are web sites to help you find those filler items. One such place is filleritem.com. I think I read about this on The Consumerist.
Get a 4% rebate
This occurred to me the other day when I signed up to be part of Amazon’s Affiliate program: Click on your own affiliate ad before you buy something. You’ll earn the referral bonus. For most items, the referral rate is 4%. There are some special rates for other items. If you buy a Kindle, for example, it’s a 10% referral bonus.
And if you don’t have the time to sign up, then use my affiliate links in the left gutter of this page. Be sure you tell them Mr. Stupid sent you.
URL hacks to find bargain prices
Boston Gal describes some interesting URL hacks to find bargains on Amazon. Check out her Amazon tips. The Consumerist did her one better and published the links to make it easy on ya.
Log out before shopping
Not all customers pay the same price for goods on Amazon. It makes sense that the users who are offered the best prices are those users that do not have a history with Amazon. Amazon wants to convert you into a regular customer.
Users who have a long history with Amazon, specifically users who subscribe to Amazon Prime, might be presented with higher prices.
So before you go to Amazon to buy that book, CD, or power tool, log out of the site. Then return to do your shopping. During the check out process, you can log back in so you can load your saved settings.
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April 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am
You need to be careful about clicking your own links… The terms of service explicitly say they cannot be used by you or immediate family. If they catch up with you, you’ll lose your account and money.
And with logging out before making a purchase, you may want to also clear your cookies to be sure they haven’t tagged you beyond just being logged in to your account.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Wow, I didn’t know that you couldn’t use your own Amazon links. I read about husbands/wives earning bonuses for things like the ING Direct referrals, and just figured it was de rigeur.
And, who really reads those terms of service anyway? Pretty odd that they would care if you did that, though, since it’s so easily circumvented. But thanks for pointing it out.
And good point about the cookies, too. Thanks for the info!
May 18th, 2010 at 2:00 am
i have just signed up with the amazon affiliate program and i am still not earning a good deal of cash from them.;`-
July 10th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Amazon Affiliate program pays much better than other affiliate programs out there.:~~