While I prefer supporting true radio retailers like Universal Radio and C. Crane with my radio-related purchases, there are many products (including a number of imported radios) only available from Amazon.com and eBay.
Amazon’s pricing can change from day-to-day, but I do end up buying quite a lot of stuff from them–everything from groceries to technology to books and music.
Today–and today only–I found out that Amazon Prime is being offered to new (and existing!) subscribers for $72. This is a one year membership to all of Prime benefits: 2 day shipping, instant videos, Kindle lending library and a lot of streaming music (click here for the full list).
Prime has never been this cheap and the normal annual price is $99. It’s so tempting, I may just bit the bullet.
OK obviously too late (or maybe not, your “cheap” year should be over soon:)) to state a different POV but here it goes:
1. For me, Prime is offering next to nothing that warrants $99 or $79 or even $38.50/year. I’m a pretty busy guy and I already have more to watch, more to read and more to listen to than I could squeeze in between all my other leisure time activities. Even if I could – the internet is filled to the rim with free media sources, movie platforms, podcasts, webradio stations, resources, resources, resources…
2. Amazon used to ship often within 24hours in the past, 2 days was the absolute maximum. Awesome. Then they decided to needlessly and arbitrarily deteriorate their service in favor of introducing 2 tiers of customers, normal delivery (what they called “fast” or “Prime” from then on) for more $$$, and artificially slowed down delivery for us average cheapskates, I often have to wait 2 or more days before they even get anything shipped and consistently all the time small “market place” sellers ship much faster than Amazon with their monster logistics and whatnot. That way they want to convince (you could also say blackmail) me to pay more to restore their former standard service quality for me. To alleviate the bitter bytaste, they bundle (sorry) crap on top and try annoyingly hard (every time I visit their site and again when I go to the checkout) to tell me that I want Prime.
Well I don’t and 100 bucks is pretty steep just for getting normal delivery. If I had wanted any of that “extra” before, I would have it already and the old commie fart in me detests this kind of business conduct. So I just can’t fall for that BS, as much as I occasionally want to get things a tad faster, which I think they sabotage too – whenever I order express delivery, the stuff is still starting to rust in their warehouses before it gets shipped express. I returned all the favors by ordering less, and less expensive items on Amazon, in favor of local stores and the local second hand market. I may still be be paying more but at least someone in my neighborhood gets the money, someone who didn’t try to f… me over in an aggravatingly shabby way.
But that’s just me and my 0.02€.
No, you do not have to have a Kindle device thingy to use the Lending library feature. If you do not have a Kindle Fire or anything there is a Kindle/ebook reader program available for Windows as well. So if you only have a computer available you can use that to read ebooks.
I will clarify…many devices have Kindle readers, but only Kindle owners can use the Lending Library feature from Amazon. At least that’s what Amazon says: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000739811 . Anyone can use e-libraries such as Overdrive or OneClickDigital.
That’s a good price. Considering there is talk Amazon may hike the Prime subscription above $100, now is a good time to grab it. I am a member.
Yeah–my wife and I have long resisted Prime, thinking we never really required 2 day shipping. With the number of things we buy at Amazon, though, it would be awfully convenient even if for one year. I would really enjoy the Kindle lending library as well.
The Lending Library is decent – but you have to have a Kindle Fire to use it, I believe…