HOW TO SHOP EFFECTIVELY ON AMAZON
I am an Amazon fanatic. I am also a bargain hunting nut. I admit it. I became hopelessly addicted to Amazon once I learned how to 'bank' those gift cards, and I get them from everywhere. My Points, Winster, Swagbucks, Surveys sites, you name it I find them.
To 'bank' your gift cards go to My Account and click the link for view or add a gift card. Enter the code and it adds it to your total. You can have up to $5000.00 (five thousand) dollars banked at one time and you don't have to worry about losing the gift card or it expiring in the future.
Last year I got more than $3000.00 (three thousand) dollars worth of products from Amazon and my total out of pocket expenses? Less than $50.00 (fifty) dollars and that was because I was impatient and didn't want to wait for the next cash out or gift card to arrive.
Amazon is the bargain hunters paradise but you have to know how to go about it.
First when you are looking for that item and find it you will notice several sellers and several prices. Some will be less than Amazons price but wait, look at the shipping and handling charges the other sellers apply and recalculate the cost.
Most items sold by Amazon ship for free if the order is over $25.00 (twenty five) dollars. So you might have to add some little gizmo for two or three dollars to push it to the $25 mark.
Also Amazon offers many items at 4 for the price of three if you buy them together or added bonus items or magazine subscriptions. The best way to do the 4 for 3 specials is to keep all four items in the same price range because the free items is the cheapest one. You don't want to buy three items at $25 and have your free item be $5. You can mix and match products offered on the 4 for 3 special so I try to keep all my items within a few dollars of one another.
I highly recommend you make up several very itemized wish lists.
- 3/4 Specials
- Buy this and get that
- Items in a collection like cookware or tools that go together
- Items you want but have no specials
- Fillers (cheap stuff to push the $25 mark)
Last year I got every piece of Corning ware, Corelle and Pyrex available and not only did I not pay any shipping and handling charges I got 25% of each set for free and got a lot of other little bonus items like blending spoons, etc.
I got a Toshiba Netbook PC with 9 hours of battery life at a great price, around $299.00. I bought an Embroidery Machine that was over $700.00 (seven hundred) dollars and all the extra attachments, I got a Spot Bot Carpet Cleaner (my out of pocket expense $5.95).
I got a $700 set of China that I had put in a wish list and then caught a closeout bargain at $169.00, so I picked up and got all the extras like serving platters, gravy boat, veggie dishes, tea pot, etc., with the savings.
I needed a new back light for my HD TV, the manufacturer wanted $214.00, I picked it up off Amazon for $99.00 with a gift card. The list goes on but you get the idea.
Also the great thing about buying from Amazon is that they have excellent customer service where some of the sellers do not. If something is broken or damaged they send out a replacement and pay the return shipping on the broken item or just tell you not to bother sending it back.
One other thing, when you have an event come up and you might be short of cash or unable to get out and get a gift - you can buy it on Amazon and have it shipped direct to the recipient - even gift wrapped if you want.
So if you decide to shop Amazon this is the way to go about it, save tons of money, lots of time and get some great bargains and free stuff in the process.
