Free Shipping, Online Savings, Thrift Shopping
In Amazon, Amazon Prime, SwapaDVD.com on August 14, 2008 at 3:04 pm
We shop pretty regularly at Amazon.com. Why wouldn’t we? It’s a great site, easy to navigate, fully stocked with great deals on just about everything you’re looking for and one of the most customer-centric online sites in existence today. It’s safe to shop at Amazon because their A to Z Guarantee is always working in the buyer’s favor. For the past two years we’ve been using the
Amazon Prime program in order to save even more money on shipping costs. The
Amazon Prime program allows us to shop for a full year on
Amazon
and have the purchases we make directly from their warehouse or one of their participating 3rd party vendors shipped to us directly or anywhere in the country we need it to go via 2 day delivery for FREE. Of course, there’s a fee to join Prime, which is currently $79 for a full year.
$79 sounds pretty steep, doesn’t it? Let’s look at that number. If one were to buy only the items they need (and not extra items to get up to Amazon’s $25 Super Saver Shipping threshold) it would break down this way: Regular shipping for books is $3.99 and for music, DVDs, VHS etc.. Amazon charges $2.98. If one bought 20 or more books in a year’s time through Amazon (singly), the Prime program justifies itself. If one were to buy 27 or more DVDs, CDs etc the same would be true. That still sounds like a lot of dough! However, if one has the periodic need for other items like yard tools, kitchen appliances, video game players etc, the savings is more significant as it costs much more to ship these larger and often heavier items.
Here’s where the Prime Membership has really been a boon for us. Ever wait too long to shop for someone’s birthday, graduation or wedding? Ever need a close-to-the-last-minute gift? With Amazon Prime’s free 2 day shipping, there’s no cost involved to receive the expedited delivery service of 2 day receipt. And Amazon will let you send these last-minute-gifts to any US address at no additional charge! For books, expedited service usually costs $6.99 and Amazon charges $5.19 for expedited shipping on other media items (like DVDs, CDs). At these rates, expedited service translates into 12 annual book purchases or 16 annual DVD or CD purchases to reach the break even point. Though we haven’t used it, Prime members are often offered the ability to upgrade their 2 day shipping to ONE day shipping for just $3.99 more.
Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives Season Four, Dirty Sexy Money, Gossip Girl, Lost Fourth Season, movies
In Manage your SwapaDVD Account, SwapaDVD.com, Wish Lists on June 17, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Here are a few hyper new releases that are already listed in the catalog at SwapaDVD. If you’re interested in any of these series you may want to get them onto your wish list fast! I’m including the Amazon link for each title below for those of you who (like me) like to take advantage of Amazon’s pre-order deals.
Generally, you’ll see more and more wishers added to any particular title the closer it comes to its release day and the lower its sales rank becomes on Amazon. Amazon’s Top 100 lists are browsed thousands of times a day and they are a great source for finding new release information. While it sometimes seems to take a while before these items show up in the catalog over at SwapaDVD it does pay to check for them occasionally as the length of time an item spends on your wish list, combined with the rank you assign to it, is what determines how quickly you would be given the opportunity to swap for them.
Disney, Disney Vault, movies, Out of Print DVDs, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D, Tim Burton
In Disney, SwapaDVD.com, Wish Lists on June 17, 2008 at 8:37 am
Disney is re-releasing Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas as a special 2 Disk Collector’s Edition DVD as well as in the high definition Blu-ray format on August 28th of this year (2008)! As of approximately 9:30 AM CST today, the new Blu-ray edition already has 2 members waiting on its wish list at SwapaDVD. Only one of these wishes resides in the top 5 and none in the #1 position. The new 2 Disk Collector’s Edition DVD on only has one member currently on the wish list and that member only has it ranked at #12. This is a prime opportunity for those at the back of the old line to jump ahead of everyone else for a copy of the newest Disney versions! Pre-orders for both titles are available at Amazon with a 30% discount.
Disney has announced that there will also be a special 3D version of the film released in select theaters for a limited period (beginning October 19th, 2008). You can view the announcement from Disney here. Lastly, there will be an ultra-special Ultimate Collector’s Edition DVD that will feature a hand-painted and numbered bust of Jack Skellington with his Sandy Claws hat and a sound chip that plays quotes from the movie. Amazon’s catalog indicates that there are 3 disks in this set where the regular collector’s edition only has 2 mentioned so there’s evidently a bit more to this super pricey option than just the limited edition artwork! This little goody will retail at nearly $180 a pop but also may be pre-ordered for 30% off at Amazon with a release date of August 28th. With 124 people wishing for the out of print Special Edition and approximately 100 wishes for the other previously released versions (though many are likely duplications from the same lists) there’s no doubt that many SwapaDVD members could benefit from this expulsion from Disney’s vault!
(Just because I like to track this sort of thing, Amazon’s current sales ranks are 3,311 for the 2 disk DVD version – 1,702 for the Blu-ray edition – and 1,914 for the Ultimate Collector’s Edition.)
