Dad Revisited

Last year, just before Christmas, I invested in an Amazon Prime membership. For $75 a year, you get free two day shipping on most of your orders from Amazon.

At first blush, Amazon Prime seemed like a terrible idea. However, I was ordering something last December, and I was in a hurry. I believe it was something like a PS3 game, and I needed it in 3 days. Well, when I calculated the two day shipping, it amounted to nearly half of the cost of an Amazon Prime membership. I did the math, I rolled the dice, and signed up.

Since then, I have completed 44 orders from Amazon. Each of them has 2 day shipping free. Amazon is not dumb in offering this service. I have ordered three times as much this year from Amazon as I have in the past. When I go looking for something on the internet, I always check Amazon. I was getting ready to pay shipping on an ink cartridge for my photo printer the other day when I thought “wow, I wonder if they have a double pack on Amazon.” They did, and while I paid 1.7 times what I would have paid for the single pack, I saved money on shipping, and I will certainly print enough photos to use that extra cartridge.

It’s no small piece of change, and really is not a bargain for you if you don’t really use Amazon, but if you do, review your purchasing history this year and see if a Prime Account will save you money. I calculate that I would have spent at least the cost of membership this year on shipping. I’ll let the account renew, because simply breaking even on two day shipping would be good enough for me.