Questions regarding Amazon Prime with specific interest in Australia

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

Fairly self explanatory topic.
Amazon Prime Day starts in Australia tomorrow. I've never bought a thing from Amazon in my life but, as I'm now stuck for at least the next month or two in a rural hospital, hours away from home and nearly as witless as I am brickless (ie - totally) Imgoing to need to do some internet wrangling before the few marbles that are left roll away! I can't help but think that the familiarity of the system might get some bashed about neurone repairing and firing and, as I'm a 44 year old where the next youngest patient is in their mid sixties I'm also intruiged to see what those with even less faculties than mine may be able to do with some bricks and instructions.
Any Aussie users with experience in this whole Amazon lark? Is it worth signing up? Are there any genuine deals or steals to be had?
As it's becoming more obvious that there is a bit of an ABI to deal with here (my posts are taken taken me quite a while to write) - is the whole Amazon site and process users friendly (and above all, worth it?) - As a guide, I'm stumbling around eBay with some degree of ability (despite that I'm yet to trust myself to "pull the trigger')
Obviously, Australian info is what I'm seeking but would also love any anecdotal international info that people abroad care to share or recommend.
Thanks in advance

Bumblepants · July 2018

If you have never used it you can probably sign up for a free 30 day trial and then just cancel after giving it a go. Amazon is about as user friendly as it comes.

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

^Got that far - now just need to find a nurse with better eyesight to read my credit card numbers (because it looks like you need to add that for Prime membership to start)

Every day I'm amazed at the little things I took for granted...

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

Ok I'm obviously missing something here - gone through nearly 100 pages and haven't found a single LEGO item I'd consider GOOD buying let alone a bargain...

blokey9 · July 2018

no, you haven't missed anything. there's very little on Amazon Australia that i would consider a bargain.

Baby_Yoda · July 2018

The large BB-8 was at a decent price shortly after Amazon Australia was launched. There was also a code last month for orders over $79 to get $20 off if it's your first Amazon purchase, but I don't think it works anymore. Maybe it'll show up again, though?

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

^Looks like Prime day is done and dusted for Australia 2018. I did manage to pick up #75187 delivered for $74.99 Aud (over 50% off RRP). I missed a fhandfulNinjago and small Creator sets at around 50% off. Also managed to go a bit silly on non TLG items (which would have been lessened if there were more LEGO items on offer.
thanjs for the input

alaskaguy · July 2018

I'm a Prime member. Have been for years. But I never buy anything on Prime Day because it's just too hard to sift through all the bullshit to see anything of interest to me.

Fundamentally, like most search engines, their search engine sucks. You need to have an option to remove things based on criteria you select. for example:

Start with a listing of 50,000,000 deals.

Remove clothes

Remove jewelry

Remove chairs

Remove girl-oriented stuff

OK, now we're down to only 10M deals.

Remove Amazon devices

Remove TVs

Remove DVD/Bluray/whatever players

Remove subscriptions

Remove food items

OK, now we're down to only 2M deals. Still a lot to sort through.

Remove furniture.

Remove vacuum cleaners.

Remove computers.

Remove batteries.

Remove office supplies.

Remove licensed-theme Legos

Remove Ninjago Legos

Remove Friends Legos

Remove Nexo Knights Legos

Remove Dimensions Legos

Remove Brickheadz Legos

(etc. etc. etc.)

and so forth. The point is, I want to BROWSE, I'm not looking for anything in particular. But there is lots of stuff I don't want to look at. The filters and stuff don't really cut it. I want the ability to click on stuff and say "remove stuff like this", but not everything that may be in the same category as that.

Then I want to be able to save such searches and recall them later. I'd probably buy a lot more stuff if they did this..but as it is now, I really only use Amazon when I already know what it is I want to buy, and just search for that thing.

Summary: Prime Day is worthless to me.

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

^thanks for your perspective. Interestingly, the only thing I bought was the BB8 - no interest whatsoever in it but couldn't do no at the price. I had never looked at Amazon a single time before the day before prime day but had to (mainly due to reading here about some of the incredible deals on Lego that people had got over the last few years. From an Aussie perspective- on Prime day we also get free international shipping on orders over 99 USD from Amazon US site, so there was the CHANCE to get some GREAT bargains.
Interestingly, the Australian media was widely reporting that Prime Day was a failure before it had even ended with users reporting a lack of bargains and selections across the board and the fact that Prime membership (despite being available for free trail) was stopping users from engaging.
When I found that affiliate link on the Brickset main page I was TOTALLY over the moon - it was going to be my first opportunity to help support my favourite site.
If there were 50 off and bett I was prepared to be spending hundreds. There wasn't, I didn't...

Summary: Prime Day was like a few dates I went on back inthe day - My expectations were considerably greater than the overall result...

alaskaguy · July 2018

Yeah...Prime Day seems to cover "deals" on a ton of stuff I'm just not going to buy, and it is too hard to browse stuff I MIGHT buy with all the clutter.

For example...EVEN IF they're selling $2000 TVs for $500, I just don't care. I'm not in the market for a TV. I bought a TV in 2011 and it meets my needs more than adequately. Now, I will grant you, if they were selling them for $1, I would have some interest...but even then, not enough to "camp out" on-line, waiting for the magic moment when it will appear for 20 minutes some time during the day.

If I'm going to buy something, I just want to see it, click on it, buy it. No bullshit please.

You know what WOULD be an interesting Prime Day format? If they would just offer me deals on things I've looked at already - or let me specify things I'm interested in over the course of say, a month - ahead of time - and then offer me deals on some or all of those things. In other words, I'll tell you what I'm interested in, you tell me what you can offer me. If I have to go traipsing through a virtual "bargin bin" looking for something I can use - I've got better things to do.

Another interesting format...just rebate me based on spend. Examples:

Spend $200 (on anything), get 20% off.
Spend $500 (on anything), get 35% off.
Spend $1000 (on anything), get 40% off.
Spend $1500 (on anything), get 45% off.
Spend $2500 (on anything), get 50% off.
Spend $5000 (on anything), get 55% off.
Spend $10000 (on anything), get 65% off.

You get the idea. Limit it to one rebate per account/address/whatever. Now THAT would get me to spend, and spend big too. With the example above, I'd be in the $5000 category, at least.

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

While I like your rebate idea, I do like the fact that I only had to spend $75 AUD to get 54% off! ;)

alaskaguy · July 2018

But it was probably on one or two things - not everything you wanted to buy that day.

Baby_Yoda · July 2018

Spend $100 000, get 100% off. Hell yeah!

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

@alaskaguy - Just the one set (which represented a bargain) I did spend another $60 on 3 other totally unrelated items. There is NO WAY I'd have have spent 2.5-5K To get ANY kind of discount (and I think a wee bit elitist to think most users would find it acceptable). I think your idea of opting in to only getting advertised on item groups you'd already looked at is quite meritous also.

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

Oh, BTW I DID go into Prime Day with a $750 set budget (which if there were bargains to be had MAY have been blown).
Ive just giggled to myself reading that back - imagine if you told someone 10-15 years ago that you had that big a set budget - you'd be buying multiples of everything released for the year!

alaskaguy · July 2018

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA said:

There is NO WAY I'd have have spent 2.5-5K To get ANY kind of discount (and I think a wee bit elitist to think most users would find it acceptable).

You should re-read my post.

1). My example indicates 20% off for spending as little as $200.

2). It was just an example to demonstrate the idea. The specific numbers are not hard and fast.

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA · July 2018

Perhaps you should re-read mine (in conjunction with each other)?
I bought one set, spent $75 and got 54% off - I wouldn't have spent 2.5 - 5K to justify that kind of discount, and I doubt anyone would.
Apologies if you thought I was taking a shot there - you seem a bit agitated about it (though my own present state on mind is, I openly admit, questionable at present - brain injuries are a bitch)

Questions regarding Amazon Prime with specific interest in Australia

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