Prime Day 2018 wrap up: despite hurdles, Amazon sets record…and we saved more than our annual Prime cost

Prime Day 2018 wrap up: despite hurdles, Amazon sets record…and we saved more than our annual Prime cost

Amazon’s

Prime Day (and a half) (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

was this week, and according to this

Amazon press release

it was the biggest 36 hours in the history of Amazon.

Not bad for a holiday that they made up. 😉

There are lots of interesting stats in the press release…just for one, more than 100 million products bought. For perspective, only about 15 countries in the world have a population greater than 100 million.

This was all despite a boycott, and major glitches (especially on the first half day). This

Mashable post by Jake Krol

gives an explanation for the glitches. Apparently, basically what happened was that a scaling system, which should have brought more servers online as needed, didn’t work. That meant people manually switching things. This appears to be all internal to Amazon, by the way.

As to my Significant Other and myself (that makes up our household, not counting the dogs), we saved $141.52. The biggest part of that by far was the $95.90 we saved on two years of

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

That is money we would have spent anyway…we just spent less of it. 😉 The value of KU has been diminished for recently because I haven’t been able to use text-to-speech with it (that’s my preference in the car)…they seem to only let me do audiobooks for audio, but it is still worth it for sight-reading.

The second biggest savings? The $10 we got for shopping at Whole Foods for qualifying purchases. We didn’t change behavior for that, so that was essentially just a reduction on our Prime membership. 🙂

We bought eight other miscellaneous things…some practical, some for gifts. We wouldn’t have bought them all now, but none of them were just impulse purchases we regret. We did buy one toy item and then decide it was too young for the intended recipient, but we’ll donate that to Toys for Tots; we have an annual budget for that, so this is also within our plans.

All in all, a successful Prime Day. 🙂

Feel free to share your experiences (including, perhaps, why you joined the boycott) by commenting on this post.

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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.

 

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40% off KU and other last minute Prime Day bargains

40% off KU and other last minute Prime Day bargains

The first half a day of

Prime Day (and a half) (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

had a lot of glitches and crashing…in my family, we saw the “Uh-Oh dogs” a lot!

In fact, we speculated that maybe Amazon would extend Prime Day to make up for it…but we didn’t really expect that.

It seems quite odd that the super powerhouse server provider company (AWS…Amazon Web Services is now almost Amazon’s most important business), with massive algorithms to predict demand, could have been that far off. It was bad enough that some conspiracy theory type things occurred to me…not as likely, but just as possible scenarios (including sabotage, equipment failure…even “false flag” type self-limiting to obscure certain other impacts). I didn’t believe any of those, but my mind is always running down alternative timelines. 😉

Regardless, I wanted to highlight a few bargains available now:

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

This is Amazon’s subser (subscription service) for e-books…normally $9.99 a month for “all you can read” (you can have up to ten books out at a time) from a quite large selection.

If you aren’t a member already, you can get three months for $0.99…how could you not? 😉

If you are an existing member (we’ve been happy members since it started…even though I’ve been less happy lately, since I haven’t been able to use text-to-speech…the only audio choice it will give me is an audiobook, which I know the majority of people prefer), you can also get a discount:

Kindle Unlimited deal (at AmazonSmile*)

You can get 12 months for $80.32 (which works out to $6.69 per month approx.), and it tells you to enter the promo code of PDKU18. You can also select 24 months for $143.86 ($5.99 per month approx.). It doesn’t mention the code, but I’ll enter it. 🙂

You can generally get to the deals through the

Prime Day (and a half) (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

so I’ll just mention a few you can find there…double-check the price before you buy it:

• Alexa Fire TV Stick for $19.99…great way to get Alexa, and we use Fire TV to watch TV just about all the time
• Echo Dot $29.99
• The Fire TV Cube for $89.99 (this is $30 off their new, and I think eventually game-changing, device)
• The Echo Show is still $100 off at $129.99
• Echo 2nd Gen for $69.99
• Kindle Paperwhite (still my favorite Kindle model currently available) for $79.99 ($40 off)
• Echo Spot (love this one!) for $9999
• $50off the Fire HD 10 (which has Show Mode)
• I mentioned earlier today: buy an e-book off the top charts and get 75% off another e-book purchase, or buy one other Kindle e-book and get 30% off Buy a Kindle book from the top read and sold charts, get 75% off your next Kindle book purchased by July 31st

Okay, those were all Amazon…but there are so many things! About six hours to go at time of writing…

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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.

Prime Day (and a half) starts today at noon Pacific

Prime Day (and a half) starts today at noon Pacific

Amazon’s

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

starts today (Monday, July 16) at noon Pacific. It will continue through midnight on Tuesday, July 17 (just before it becomes Wednesday) Pacific.

There will be lots of bargains, and they won’t all last all day. There are new products being introduced, freebies, all for

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members (free trial memberships are available).

This year, I’ve had a couple of people bring up personally to me a strike/boycott against Amazon which goes through Prime Day (meaning that some people are not ordering things through Amazon or using their services).

There are quite a few articles on this, and I would say even more buzz on social media. Here’s a Bing search:

Bing search for “Amazon strike”

One person asked me specifically because they thought I could give the best pro-Amazon argument.

I’m not going to argue for or against joining this action: there will be people who are passionate about it on both sides.

Essentially, the initial impetus for this was European Amazon employees stating concern about how Amazon treats them.

What I’ll do is suggest you consider these two questions:

• Does Amazon treat its employees (European and otherwise) fairly?
• If you decide they don’t, will boycotting Amazon affect that situation, and if so, how?

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* 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.

Wrap up: Prime Day 2017

Wrap up: Prime Day 2017

I found that this year, after the third

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

on July 11th, the buzz was generally positive. People at work knew about it, asked me about, and smiled about it. I know some of them saved some real money…some with my help, some without it.

In this

press release

Amazon gives us some of the statistics.

While I have no doubt that there was really significant growth, Amazon doesn’t make it easy to tell. They compare this year’s 30 hour Prime Day to “…the same 30 hours last year”. Was that July 10th at 6:00 Pacific to July 11th at midnight (not Prime Day to Prime Day)? Seems like it…

When we look at the amount of participation, we have to note that there were more countries participating this year, and there were probably a lot more

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

in the USA going into it as well.

Those caveats out of the way…

These are two of the big stats, in this short excerpt from the press release:

“More new members joined Prime on July 11 than on any single day in Amazon history. Tens of millions of Prime members made a purchase on Prime Day 2017, more than 50 percent higher than the prior year.”

Getting and keeping Prime members? That’s an important part of Amazon’s retail strategy (which is only one of Amazon’s revenue streams).

They are also right to tout the growth for third-party sellers.

Now, in terms of what sold, no question that Amazon devices dominated, with the

All-New Echo Dot (2nd Generation) – White (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

on sale for $34.99 ($15 off) leading the way.

They also gave us the bestsellers (outside of Amazon devices) from each Amazon site, and they are interesting to compare!

One surprise for me for the USA was that they list one of the

23andMe DNA tests (at AmazonSmile*)

as one of the bestsellers.

You can tell looking at this that people did buy expensive items (they might have bought inexpensive ones, too), which is good…bigger cash savings for the same percentage.

That’s what people did generally…what about you, my readers?

We’ll start with a poll I already had up in a post where I tried to help you find bargains. If you already answered it there, you can answer it again to add other choices…just don’t put the same one in you already did. 🙂 I did it this way because I posted it before Prime Day was over, and I figured your circumstances might change. I also added one option (about Kindle Unlimited) at the suggestion of my regular readers and commenters, Lady Galaxy:

I also said I would add a poll about how much you saved. When you answer this, count money you saved on the 40% off Kindle Unlimited deal, or other deals which were on the Prime Day page before Prime Day officially started. Oh, and I’d combine all the money from one account (even if more than one person was shopping on that account), and, I suppose, if you shopped on more than one personal account on Prime Day, I’d combine those, too:

I’ll be interested to see how many people saved more than the normal Prime membership cost!

One last thing: the most downloaded

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

book was

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine (at
AmazonSmile*)

It’s well-reviewed and one of the most read books, and it was published by one of Amazon’s traditional publishing imprints, Thomas & Mercer.

Well, that was fun this year! I’m looking forward to next year!

Have anything to add? What was the weirdest thing you bought during this year’s Prime Day event? Did you find Prime Day uninteresting? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

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 you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help! 🙂 

 

Prime Day 2017: partial list of sale items! (buy an e-book, get 40% back for another one)

Prime Day 2017: partial list of sale items!

I’ve been writing about this year’s

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

and people are asking me what’s going to be on sale. 🙂

They have told us about some items, but I thought it might be useful for me to look at the

Amazon shopping app (at AmazonSmile*)

which is listing many of the sales ahead of time, and list them for people.

Note that they don’t tell us what the price will be. I’m just going to give you the item and what time it is on sale. Wait  until that time, and then ideally, check it in the app to make sure it on a Prime Day sale…I may have some difficulty telling exactly what version it is.

I won’t get anywhere near all of them, and I’ll be subjectively choosing what’s to list first. They may sell out or only be on sale for a short time.

Right now (5:38 PM Pacific), Alexa voice deals are live…and you get an extra $10 off if it’s at least a $20 item (I think just once, not on multiple items). So, we got the

Fire HD 8

for about $30 through Alexa! That’s about $50 off, a great deal! Note that that deal is not available except through Alexa at this time (it may go live other ways at 6:00 PM Pacific on Monday, today, but won’t have the extra $10 off).

Alexa voice deals (but note that you have to order them by voice…you can see them here)

I saw this one this morning (Tuesday):

UPDATE: dulcibelle, one of my readers and commenters, had an important and probably correct interpretation (see comment). It now looks to me like you get 40% back of the purchase price of your first book. that’s an important and big difference. It also makes sense. So, if you bought the $50 book, you would get $20 credit for another book (so you could get two $9.99 books, for example). If you buy a $0.99 book, you only have about forty cents credit. I’ll make this clearer.

That’s one reason I love my readers! They want to help other people, and will respectfully correct me when I’ve made a mistake or misinterpretation.

buy an e-book, get 40% back for another one. Details on page

I do want to point out that you need to wait for a credit to show up in your account before buying the second book, which could take a day. Please do read the details on the page…many of my readers are in parts of the world where this probably doesn’t apply.

• search for $50 books at Amazon.com (which would get you the maximum $20 back for the second book) (at AmazonSmile*)

One more thing: I’m going to try to link some of these bargains…but to save time, I’ll only link to the main Amazon site. If you want to buy them through AmazonSmile, click on the link, then replace the “WWW” with “Smile” and hit enter.

Good luck and get bargains!

Remember, too, that they may be off sale by the time you click on them. I’ll change it to “live” when they go live, but probably won’t be able to change it to “done” near when most of them finish.

• Amazon devices category of deals (includes half off Echo,
  $30 off Paperwhite…)
• Bookworms category of deals (books, but more)
• There are quite a few ninety-nine cent magazine deals…unfortunately, their filter for magazines doesn’t show them. They are 3 to 6 issues, depending on the magazine…good way to try out e-magazines, if you haven’t
• athletic & outdoor shoe deals
• 5:44 PM Yuneec q500 4K Typhoon drone
• 5:44 PM iRobot 330040  L00J 330 Gutter Cleaning Robot
• 5:44 PM August Smart Lock
• 5:59 PM 3G Cardio Elite Runner Treadmill
• 5:59 PM: Dior La D De Dior Silver Dial Stainless Steel Ladies Watch
• REPRAPGURU DIY RepRap Prusa I3 V2 Black 3D Printer Kit
• Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch UHD LED-Lit Monitor with Freesync support
• Musical instruments category
• Larabar Gluten Free Bar, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, 1.6 oz Bars (16 Count)
• Injustice 2 (popular DC comics fighting videogame) 40% off
• NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1750 Smart Dual Band WiFi Router (R6700)

Keep checking back, I’ll be adding to this later!

Here’s one poll about Prime Day…I’ll add another one for how much money you saved after Prime Day ends:

Speaking of which, want to save the most money you can on one item? That’s likely to be the most expensive items, so here I have sorted the Prime Day deals with the most expensive items first. You can literally save thousands of dollars on things like luxury watches…I’ve seen more than 50% off on watches that they list at more than $5,000:

Prime Day deals from most to least expensive items (at AmazonSmile*)

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

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! 

Prime Day starts today at 6:00 PM Pacific (4:00 PM for Alexa voice shoppers)!

Prime Day starts today at 6:00 PM Pacific (4:00 PM for Alexa voice shoppers)!

This one is simple. Amazon wants people to be

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members.

Prime members reportedly spend more, and importantly, that includes on higher margin physical items (what I call “diapers and windshield wipers”).

To increase the number of Prime members, they have to do two things: keep the ones they have, and get more people to become Prime members. Basically, they need to gain more than they lose.

They keep Prime members through all the benefits, and there are a lot. Some of them:

• Prime Reading (borrow from a selection of about a thousand e-books to read for free)
• Prime Video
• Prime Music
• Free speedy shipping on many items

and that’s just scratching the surface.

They can also offer them special discounts. While that’s not a big thing throughout the year (you don’t usually see two prices on an item, one for Prime members and one for non-members), a couple of years ago they started

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

There can be really big discounts, and they will change rapidly throughout the “day”, with new ones happening as often as every five minutes.

I put “day” in quotation marks, because it is now a lot more than 24 hours.

There have been some deals leading up to it, including a great 40% off discount on

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

but it officially starts today, Monday July 10th, 6:00 PM Pacific Time (9:00 PM Eastern time). People using Alexa voice shopping will be able to start two hours earlier (4:00 PM Pacific time).

How does that get non-Prime members to join?

They can do a trial Prime membership to take advantage of the sales on Prime Day. Sure, they could quit before they paid for it, but Prime tends to be pretty “sticky”, as marketers would call it. Once you have Prime and try it, you tend to like it and convert to being a Prime member.

There is something else that Amazon wants you to have:

Amazon shopping app (at AmazonSmile*)

It’s free, by the way.

What’s the advantage to Amazon of you having it, over shopping through a browser?

It’s possible to browse Amazon without being logged into the site, and I suspect that happens fairly often in places like work.

With the app, you are always logged into it…so Amazon knows what products you visit without buying, and while I don’t know this, they may also know how long you spend on a particular page.

The other thing is that people do shop on mobile, and increasingly so. If you have the Amazon app, you are presumably more likely to buy on your phone.

A third thing about the app? Notifications.

That’s a big advantage for Prime Day!

You can use your Amazon shopping app to see what will be on sale, and when…but not the price until it goes on sale. For example, you might want a tablet stand. There’s one from Pasonomi going on sale at 5:59 PM (that should be Pacific…I assume it shows it to me in my time). You can tap “Watch this deal”. You’ll get a notification when it goes on sale, enabling you to perhaps buy it before the sale ends (or the product sells out…hopefully, there will be less of the latter this year). I’ll track that one, out of curiosity. Amazon has it listed right now at normal price $20.85, and $17.99…that’s before the Prime Day sale.

So, get the app, track the sales.

There may certainly be sales which aren’t in the app. For one thing, I believe Amazon is encouraging third-party sellers to put things on sale during Prime Day, too.

We know some of the things that will be on sale. For example,

Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

will be half off! It will be $89.99, versus $179.99.

The

All-New Echo Dot (2nd Generation) – White (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

will be only $34.99, as inexpensive as it’s been.

More deals are listed in this

press release

I haven’t seen yet that the Fire HD 8 will be on sale (except in the kids’ version) and we do need to buy a new one…the battery on my Significant Other’s old Kindle Fire HD 7 is not charging well (and I’ve tried several things). We’ll buy one during Prime Day, whether or not they put it on sale…but virtual fingers crossed. 🙂

I’m going to be in my “day job” today when it starts, but if I can update you on great deals I see after that, I will…you can also let me and my readers know by commenting on this post. I’ll need to moderate it, but that often happens pretty quickly.

Good luck and save big!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

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! 

Prime Day is July 11th…and 40% off Kindle Unlimited is available now

Prime Day is July 11th…and 40% off Kindle Unlimited is available now

In this

Amazon press release

they announce the third annual

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

This is an Amazon-created mid-year “holiday” which has been very successful for them. It has great deals for people who are

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members.

Some deals are short-lived…but some are starting now (even though we are more than ten days away).

This is a case where you can save a lot of money, but do have to watch your impulse control. 😉 Just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean it’s a bargain…if you aren’t really going to use it. That said, we have saved a lot of money on things we would have bought anyway.

Saving up to 40% off on

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is one great example!

You can order right now, and you can give it as a gift.

• 6 months is $44.95 versus $59.94 (these are USA prices)
• 12 months is $80.32 versus $119.88
• 24 month is $143.86 versus $239.76

This is what Amazon says about restrictions:

Kindle Unlimited offer is limited to one per account. This offer is available to Prime Members only and is a limited-time deal starting at 12:00 am PST 6/29/2017. Customers who have purchased multiple prepaid plans that are currently associated with their Amazon accounts are not eligible. For existing monthly Kindle Unlimited subscribers who redeem this offer, automatic renewals will be temporarily suspended for the duration of the prepaid subscription purchased and will automatically restart at its conclusion. You may gift a subscription purchased via this offer. If a gifted subscription is returned, your refund will equal the amount you paid for the subscription, subject to applicable refund policies

I’m not quite sure what that “multiple prepaid plans” exclusion means…I’ll have to check. We have one plan associated with our account, but we have purchased it more than once. My guess is we can get the discount, but I’ll confirm.

If you’ve been curious about Amazon’s Music Unlimited, Prime Members can get four months for $0.99 each…if you are a new MU subscriber.

It’s not all going to be subsers (subscription services), of course! I’ll be mentioning more about it, and I’m sure my readers will contribute to the group wisdom, too. For now, I recommend you check out Amazon’s own

Prime Day Insider guide (at AmazonSmile*)

for what to do to make sure you are ready.

Prime Day is officially July 11th, but it is starting before that…for example, in Eastern time in the USA, it starts at 9:00 PM Eastern (so, 6:00 PM Pacific) on July 10th.

Happy savings!

Update: somehow, I thought it was starting at midnight Pacific, but that was incorrect and I’ve updated this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* 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!  

How to save almost $100 on Kindle Unlimited today…and it’s not obvious

How to save almost $100 on Kindle Unlimited today…and it’s not obvious

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Hello, Here’s a copy of the chat transcript you requested: Initial Question: How do I get the 40% off on Kindle Unlimited as part of Prime Day (being a Prime member)?

10:15 AM PDT Chinmay(Amazon): Hello, my name is Chinmay. I’m here to help you today. Firstly, I’d like to thank you for being a Prime member. 10:16 AM PDT Chinmay: As I understand that you want to purchase the kindle unlimited subscription with discount. Right? <snip> 10:18 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Correct. <snip> 10:19 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Yes, that’s right. An Amazon press release said KU would be 40% for Prime members today, but I’m not seeing that reflected online. Sorry, for 40% off, not 40%. 🙂 10:21 AM PDT Chinmay: Thanks for waiting. 10:21 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Sure! 10:22 AM PDT Chinmay: Please click on the link below to purchase the subscription with discount https://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/ku/gift_landing (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) [NOTE: I’m using a different link than they sent me] 10:23 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: That doesn’t show the discount, though…24 months shows as $239.76, which is still $9.99 per month. 10:23 AM PDT Chinmay: The discount will automatically get applied to 24 months of subscription. 10:24 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Oh…that will show up at checkout? May I share that link with other people? Is that good for all day today (through midnight Pacific)? 10:24 AM PDT Chinmay: Yes, sure. it will apply to check out. 10:24 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Perfect, thanks! 10:24 AM PDT Chinmay: You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can do for you? 10:25 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Nope, that’s it! 10:25 AM PDT Chinmay: My pleasure helping you today. We are always here to help you. To close this window, please click the “end chat” link. Have a great day!! 10:25 AM PDT Bufo Calvin: Love Amazon, Prime, and the customer service! 🙂 10:25 AM PDT Chinmay: Please do not forget to click on END CHAT. Bye!!

Thank you.

—

Note that this was set up as buying it as a gift, but I put in the e-mail address under which we currently are KU members, and it worked just fine.

The discount did not show until the very final step, just before payment. It had offered me another discount before that with a new credit card, but that was irrelevant and I ignored it.

At checkout, it showed a “Prime Savings” of $95.90, making two months of KU $143.86…about $5.99 a month instead of the normal $9.99 a month. We did this during last year’s Prime Day, so  that works. 🙂

Check the price before you finalize the order…this may be only for the USA, and I think it’s only for 24 months.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project! Do you have what it takes to be a Timeblazer?

* 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!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

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.

 

 

Prime Day preview…and how to find out about more

Prime Day preview…and how to find out about more

Tick…tick…tick…ka-ching!

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is about seven and a half hours away as I write this (starting at midnight Pacific time Monday night/Tuesday morning).

We now know some of the deals, which I’ll highlight shortly.

There will also be many we don’t know about yet. You’ll be able to find out about them at that Prime Day link, but that does mean you have to go there.

If you are like I will be, you are more likely to be near your SmartPhone or tablet than near your (home) computer tomorrow.

The first thing to do is make sure that you have the free Amazon shopping app

Amazon for Tablets (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

which is also available through Google Play and the Apple Appstore.

Amazon recommends that you go into the settings for your app, which are usually not in the app itself, but in the Settings on your phone. On my Galaxy S7 Edge, it’s: Applications – Application Manager – tap the Amazon Shopping App – Notifications – Allow Notifications – More. Check that you have notifications turned on for Your Recommendations and for Your Watched & Waitlisted Deals.

This will give you “push” notifications to let you know when sales are happening…not all sales, not even all the sales you want, but you are likely to hear about some possible things of interest.

Amazon would also like you to set up a new Wish List and add at least one item to it…my understanding is that will also tend to inform your recommendations for those notifications. I’ve done that myself.

That’s a couple of ways to track…oh, and you might want to follow me:

Follow Bufo on Twitter

It’s going to be a lot easier for me to tweet deals I notice than to start a post here and periodically update it throughout the day. You can unfollow me afterwards, if you want. 🙂 I’d really appreciate it if you went to Amazon to buy the item from the

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

link here, but it’s more important to me that you get the deal. 😉

Okay, here are some interesting deals I expect to happen. That doesn’t mean that they’ll all be available for the full 24 hours, by the way…some of them might sell out quickly, although Amazon has been stressing that they are better prepared this year than last (when quite a few people on social media complained about that, and about the selection). As I often caution you, check the price before you click or tap that Buy button. Not all of the countries in which my readers reside get Prime Day, and for the ones that do, the prices will vary from Amazon site to Amazon site.

Oh, and remember that you need to be a Prime member to get these deals, but you can get the free 1-month trial (and then cancel, if you want, but I don’t think you’ll want to do that). You can sign up here:

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

• Fire, 7″ Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) for $33.33! I have this model for our guest Kindle right now (I also have a non-backlit Kindle guess can use). This is a remarkable price for this serviceable, if not top of the line, model. It would make a good gift…my Significant Other and I plan to shop for the holidays tomorrow. This one is normally $49.99 in the least expensive configuration, which is the equivalent of the $33.33 price…you could pay more if you didn’t want ads/Special Offers, for example
• Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) $50 off (should be $129.99)…we use this every day
• Amazon Fire TV (at AmazonSmile*) $30 off…should be $69.99…again, we use this streaming content device every day, our main provider of TV
• Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote (at AmazonSmile*) $15 off (should be $24.99 without the voice remote, $34.99 with it). This is the least expensive device where you can get the Alexa voice service…you can use it without the voice remote by using the free app on your phone. Definitely a great “emergency gift”, when someone shows up for whom you weren’t prepared!
• All-New Kindle Paperwhite, 6″ High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi – Includes Special Offers (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) $30 off (should be $89.99). I love this Kindle, it’s probably my favorite one right now…and this is a wonderful price!

You can also shop directly from your Echo device. You’ll be able to get the

Fire HD 10, 10.1″ HD Display, Wi-Fi, 16 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black (at AmazonSmile*)

for $129, 43% off…and you get an additional $10 off your first eligible Amazon order on your Echo device over $20. There will be other good deals…check

http://www.amazon.com/alexadeals (at AmazonSmile*)

but then order them by asking Alexa. “Alexa, order…”

There will be lots more!

I also appreciate that they mention

http://www.amazon.com/bestfriends (at AmazonSmile*)

which I didn’t even now existed! It might be new. You can send pet supplies (from a list) to an organization, described in part this way: “Best Friends Animal Society is the only national animal welfare organization focused exclusively on ending the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters…” We will definitely look at that.

One of the other great deals will be on

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

You will be able to save up to 40% on this subser (subscription service). We are happy members and have given a membership as a gift. It’s an “all you can read” program, where you can have up to ten books out at a time from many more than a million titles, which includes some famous books (like the original James Bond books and the Harry Potter books).

This will likely be the biggest day of the year for Amazon.

It’s also expensive for Amazon. When I managed a brick-and-mortar bookstore, we really amped up our resources for the holiday season…hiring new people, including temps, for one thing. We also needed more bags. 🙂 Amazon will also have to ramp up resources for Prime Day, and then ramp up again for the holidays.

It’s well worth it for them, though, if people become Prime members or solidly stay Prime members. Prime members spend more, and they spend more on those bigger margin physical items (which I call “diapers and windshield wipers”).

I think it’s funny, but I’m genuinely excited about Prime Day…like the night before a holiday!

I’ll be ready to tweet. 🙂 If you see great sales and want me and my readers to know, you can comment on this post, or . me (@bufocalvin) and I may retweet it…I’ll be at my day job, but I’ll check when I can. 🙂

Have a price-cut Prime Day! 😉

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project! Do you have what it takes to be a Timeblazer?

* 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!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

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.

 

Amazon’s 2nd annual Prime Day is coming July 12th!

Amazon’s 2nd annual Prime Day is coming July 12th!

I guess you really know you’ve made it when you can make up your own holiday…and enough people celebrate it so it gets to a second year. 😉

Amazon did that last year with

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

which was on July 15th, 2015.

This year it is on July 12th (the second Tuesday…last year it was the third Wednesday, so we can’t predict for next year).

It was big…really big. According to Amazon peak sale rates were higher than for Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year in the USA).

They said they sold 4,000

Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

in fifteen minutes.

One of the best deals last year was a discount on

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

It worked out to $5.99 a month for the best deal…a great savings over the normal $9.99! Look for that again this year, at least on July 5th and July 12th.

So, what is Prime Day?

Very simply, it is special sales just for

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members.

The advice I gave last year

Get the most out of Prime Day

look to me like it should all still be valid.

In this year’s press release

Prime Day 2016 – More Than 100,000 Deals Worldwide Exclusively for Prime Members on July 12

they give us some hints.

One of the biggest thing is that, although it is Prime Day, they are going to have things happening starting tomorrow (July 5th) and running through the 12th.

I expect it will be even bigger this year. Prime members (even those on a free trial month) in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and Austria will have more ways to access…including through Echo devices.

There are special promotions for listening to Prime Music, uploading pictures…details are on that

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

and they may add new ones throughout the week.

I’ll be keeping an eye on it…my Amazon sense is tingling!  😉

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* 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!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

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.