Prime discounts on Kindle EBRs: buy 2 Voyages, save enough for Prime for a year
It always seemed to make sense to people that
Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
got discounts on Kindle EBRs (E-Book Readers). Early on, in fact, many people thought that Prime members should get a Kindle EBR (back when there was only one model) for free. The thinking was that the device existed to sell e-books, and introducing people to e-books through a free Kindle would…um, “kindle” the market, so to speak. 😉
Well, people don’t need to be introduced to e-books any more. That doesn’t mean that the market share won’t grow…I think it still will, and considerably, over the next ten years (if we include electronic books regardless of how they are read, including in Virtual/Augmented Reality).
My sight reading is mostly done on Kindle EBRs: I read a Voyage in bed, and I read on a Paperwhite in other places in the house. My Significant Other reads on a Paperwhite. I also sometimes read on the entry level Kindle.
Some of my sight reading is done on a now discontinued Kindle Fire HDX7 tablet: I don’t bring an EBR with me to work. My text-to-speech reading, which I do for usually hours a week in the car, is done on the KFHDX7.
My favorite reading experience is on the Paperwhite, although I like the Voyage, too.
So, it’s nice to see this morning that Amazon, for a limited time, is offering Prime Members discounts on three out of four of their current Kindle EBRs:
- Entry level Kindle (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) $49.99 ($30 off)
- Kindle Paperwhite (at AmazonSmile*) $89.99 (also $30 off)
- Kindle Voyage (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) $149.99 ($50 off)
My recommendation would be the Paperwhite…I consider the Voyage incrementally better, but I think for most people, it’s not $60 better. All are good, though.
Not on sale? The top of the line Oasis. It’s still not possible to buy it without an animal leather cover directly from Amazon, so I’ve never tried it. It’s also roughly twice the price of the Voyage right now at $289.99…I do understand that people like the feel of it better.
My guess is that this sale won’t last long…and I don’t think it necessarily portends new models.
If you aren’t a Prime member, this is a good incentive to try it. As a Prime member, one of the benefits is
Prime Reading (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
which lets you borrow from over a 1,000 titles (a few of them really well-known).
You could get an EBR at a discount and lots of books to read…a good combo. 🙂
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* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 
Shop ’til you help!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.
I Love My Kindle 
March 28, 2017 at 2:47 pm |
One quite often over looked benefit to Prime is a larger rebate if you have the Amazon visa card. This benefit is roughly 2 months old. Non Prime members get 3% back on Amazon purchases but Prime members get 5% back. 5% is huge. Considering we order about 100 times a year from Amazon that is a lot of money for something we’d buy even without money back. Buy a new Paperwhite for $119 and get $5.95 back on your Visa statement. That money can accumulate over time and a person could make a large purchase for free down the road.
A person could use the points to purchase stuff at checkout on Amazon but they are short siding themselves in my opinion when they do that. If you purchase a $100 item and use points to do that then you check out and it shows $0 balance due. You pay nothing for the item. However, you are loosing 5%. I’d say pay for it with your Amazon Visa card then go to the web site and ask for a statement credit of $100. That way you get the 5% back on the $100 purchase. To me, it’s worth $5 to log onto the bank website and click a couple of buttons. I log on every day anyway for safety reasons.
March 29, 2017 at 2:19 am |
Thanks for writing, Phink!
Thanks for sharing that! We use debit, but we don’t use credit cards much. The way you describe it, though, it makes sense. 🙂 It’s funny because so far, I haven’t been able to use Samsung Pay, since it doesn’t work with debit cards (which I’m told by a very savvy relative that that’s a good thing).
March 28, 2017 at 2:52 pm |
One comment on doing a statement credit over using points at Amazon checkout. I live in Arkansas. Amazon just recently started collecting sales tax on us. If I were to use points I have no idea if it’d charge sales tax on final price, which could be zero, or original price. If it’s final price I might start using points at checkout because sales tax is 9% here. That’s more than the 5% cash back. I’ll have to look into this when the time comes.
March 29, 2017 at 2:23 am |
Thanks for writing, Phink!
I plan to write about the state of play on equal collection soon. I don’t know how it will work for you, because it depends on how your benefit is applied. If it’s a discount, then it would reduce the sales tax. If it’s a credit, it wouldn’t…at least, those would my guesses. The credit would just be a different way to pay the same amount.
March 29, 2017 at 11:26 pm |
Amazon has been collecting taxes in my state for several years now. Several times I have gotten credits for various reasons. Whenever the credit is applied and the purchase price is $0 they collect $0 in taxes. I haven’t checked with the “Tax Man” of my state to see if I’m still required to pay it anyway. I know, I know, Bufo. I should say “Tax Person” but I’m sure George Harrison fans understand;)
March 30, 2017 at 12:32 am
Thanks for writing, Lady!
Good to hear!
Oh, I get it…”There’s one for you, nineteen for me”. 😉
March 29, 2017 at 6:18 am |
I have gotten hundreds of dollars a year back for years with my amazon Visa card with 3%. It’s even better now at 5%. Thanks for the tip on not using points Phink. I have a few left.
March 30, 2017 at 2:48 am |
You’re welcome alanchurch. Just know, the smallest statement credit you can ask for is $50.
March 30, 2017 at 2:49 am
Other than the $50 minimum it can be of any amount including cents such as $52.14 if ya wanted to do so.
April 1, 2017 at 8:38 pm
Thanks for writing, Phink!
You can also do that with Amazon gift cards, which is nice…you can do a very specific amount.
April 1, 2017 at 8:37 pm
Thanks for writing, Phink!
I appreciate you sharing the details with my readers! 🙂
April 1, 2017 at 8:36 pm |
Thanks for writing, alanchurch!
Interesting! We use debit, but we pretty much don’t use credit at all, so we haven’t been getting cash back.
March 30, 2017 at 5:36 pm |
Whenever Amazon starts offering device discounts like this, I wonder if we are seeing a spate of inventory clearance in advance of some new product announcements.
In your post after this one, you refer to a post in the love my echo blog that suggests that there could be some new echo devices coming along with some new features that may or not play on existing Alexa devices.
As is usual Amazon never seems to discount the current top of the line EBR (they used to not discount the voyage, but now that slot is held by the Oasis). I use an oasis as my daily driver EBR — I’m on it 10-15 hours per day every day (I read a lot :grin). Most of the improvements in the oasis are IMO marginal. The dual battery doesn’t seem to lengthen battery life all that much over my previous daily driver EBR: the PW3. After using it for 8 months now, I would have to say that a $200 premium over the PW3 is a bit much.
Many tech companies do new product announcements around this time (as witness Samsung’s recent GS8 announcement). Microsoft is rumored to be planning a H/W event next month. In recent years Amazon has mostly announced new stuff in the run up to the end of year holidays.
So beyond Alexa, what might Amazon announce? For EBR’s I can’t think of much save driving the cost of EBR’s ever lower. On the tablet front they seem to have pulled back from the premium tablet game and have focused their tablets on mass market media consumption at low price points. Since a lot of streaming video is becoming available in 4K, I’m guessing Amazon will need to provide a tablet capable of displaying 4K video. This will be a challenge to do at an affordable price. Also rumored is an Echo device containing a touch screen. They already offer a tablet with Alexa, but it doesn’t have the far field microphone always listening capabilities of the Echo devices — some interesting possibilities there.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 😀
March 30, 2017 at 6:03 pm |
I think I’d like the way the Oasis would feel in my hand. My favorite way to read is without a case. Probably the only thing Amazon has to do in order to convince me to buy a $300 EBR is to have it front lit and capable of immersion reading, even if it’s done through blu-tooth. Then, I’d for sure want it, even at $300. My dream EBR is an exact replica of the Kindle Keyboard with blu-tooth and immersion reading capabilities.
March 30, 2017 at 6:05 pm
Plus front lit on that new Keyboard. I forgot about that. I need it to light up. I would pay $300 in the blink of an eye for that kindle.
April 1, 2017 at 9:33 pm
Thanks for writing, Phink!
I definitely want my EBRs to light up…much better. 🙂
April 1, 2017 at 9:32 pm
Thanks for writing, Phink!
I prefer reading with a case…I’ve dropped my devices a few times. 🙂 I”m actually in no hurry to get a new EBR…I”m pretty happy with what I have, and that’s a problem they have. The waterproofing would attract me, and it’s possible they could develop something else, but I’m not quite sure what.
April 1, 2017 at 11:54 pm
I also prefer reading with the case on — both with my PW3 and my Oasis. With the case open when I hold it, it gives me two different ways to hold it: one for my left hand; one for my right.
In response to Phink’s post, today I’ve been using my Oasis without the case. It’s interesting — a different way to hold it. OTOH with the case on in bed I can squeeze the case between my knees, and read with both hands free to do something else.
April 2, 2017 at 3:42 am
In response to Edward Boyhan I have used a case and some are really nice which I like a lot but for me I think in part it’s because of my damaged left hand. I had a motorcycle wreck in 2003 which five days later took my right leg above the knee and they were going to take my left hand as well. However, a few hours before surgery it showed signs of improving.
I still have it and it functions properly except it’s extremely easy to irritate and cause pain. Sometimes a case is fine in my left hand but sometimes it’s extremely difficult. I think I have just gotten used to it without a case. I switch hands quite a bit when reading.
My left hand is so weak at times, a few weeks ago I hurt it at work simply putting up an aisle blocker for the fork lift in a big box retail store. I twisted my wrist a little when putting it up and it hurt for the rest of the day and into the night. Thank God for the Kindle. DTB’s would be difficult for me. I’d have to have them on my lap and not in my hands for sure.
Hey don’t worry about me though. There are a lot of benefits to losing your leg such as I have not mowed a yard on a 100 degree day since 2003. My wife has to do that. Family members never ask me to help them move….ever! I could be a total jerk and still not worry about getting punched in the face. You can’t hit a one legged man LOL. So many benefits.
April 3, 2017 at 12:36 pm
Thanks for writing, Phink!
Love your attitude! I find there is almost always good and bad in everything…not in equal proportions, of course, but one of the “catchphrases” I use at work is “It’s all about the framing”. How you think about things makes a giant difference. For example, we are fine with a doctor doing things (even a doctor we don’t know) that we might think we would never be comfortable with someone doing. We’ve put that in a psychological space that works for us.
“We are what we pretend to be.”
Kurt Vonnegut, introduction to Mother Night
April 1, 2017 at 9:26 pm |
Thanks for writing, Edward!
As I mentioned, I don’t think this portends new EBRs in the near future. The big thing they have yet to do with EBRs is waterproofing, and I expect that will happen at some point.
I’m sticking by my thought that Amazon will get big time into Virtual/Augmented Reality this year, although I’m not saying thta will necessarily be hardware (but it could). I just can’t imagine them letting another holiday season slip by with Hulu and Netflix getting solidly settled in video in VR without Prime Video even having a presence…and that’s just the beginning.
While Alexa is spreading rapidly on other people’s devices (rolling into the Amazon shopping apps on both iPhone and Android), there are some hardware possibilities, including an Alexa device with a screen. A car device would be possibility, although getting on car’s existing tech might be easier…or maybe not. 🙂