Exploiting Amazon Prime

If you’re ordering through Amazon regularly, the Amazon Prime service that they offer seems like a pretty good deal – you get vital shipping deals, plus access to a free video library and even the ability to “borrow” books for your Kindle. But being a cheapskate in the moment, I’ve never wanted to pony up the $89 for a year of membership. But I knew that I could get a free month of the service at any time – as can you – and now I struck.

This is an excellent time to take get your free month. If you’re not a prime member, if you want free shipping of your order, you have to take a relatively slow form of shipping, and you have to order $25 worth. The slow shipping trips you up if you’ve put off ordering until close to the holiday, and the $25 makes it awkward if you want to get some a nice $11.99 DVD, rather than spending more on them. But for Prime members, you can get 2-business-day shipping on just about any item that Amazon is selling (rather than third-party vendors) for free. The gift arrives on time, and without all that extra expense. (Plus, if you’re running closer to deadline, you can get 1 day shipping for just $3.99). And if you start your free month now, it will cover all the gifts you send for Christmas and even to the end of Hannukah. So I was set to exploit it… but then I realized that I could exploit it further.

Y’see, when I order my own copies of the various new Peanuts book for the AAUGH.com Reference Library, I always end up either delaying a book so that I can get two books shipping together that add up to $25 (and thus qualify for normal free shipping)… but it looks like my month sample of Amazon Prime covers all the orders I place during the month, and not all the ones that ship during the month. So I went and ordered all the upcoming books I’ll need: the book collection of the new Peanuts comic books, the new book adaptation of the Easter Beagle special, the Flying Ace kit, (I’ll be getting a review copy of the next volume of The Complete Peanuts so I don’t have to buy one). Even if I cancel my Prime subscription after my free trial month ends in December, I should have books shipping to me quickly and cheaply as late as August!

So how do you get in on such a deal? Simple… just order anything (I encourage clicking through on the links above, of course!) and when checking out, look at the shipping options they give you. One of them should include an offer for the free month’s trial of Prime. Take that option, and you’re on your way! Suddenly, if you want to order a $1 book of realistic snake stickers, you don’t have to cough up several times that for shipping or hunt up another $24 of items. (And if you want to send a book of realistic snake stickers to your highly educated, very respected sister for absolutely no reason, you can! Hmmmm….)

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