I Broke Down and Signed up for Amazon Prime - Free 30 for 30 Days.

[qwerty3656]

Hard drives and home based storage is Soooooooo cheap.

If you have prime, photo storage is no additional charge. My wife has over 100GB of photos that I'm responsible for not losing. I set up a home server in Linux where normal backups occur, but it is nice to know I have that offsite backup. I've also broken my server more than once.

 

[W2R]

I love Amazon Prime and have had it for years and years. That said, I only use it for shipping. I don't even watch Prime Video although I have heard it is very good. I don't back up photos on Prime either; I back up my laptop and photos on two external hard drives. I do have the Amazon Prime Visa card and enjoy getting 5% back.

I like the fast shipping, and not seeing that shipping charge when I order things; still, I don't know if I save enough to make up for the annual fee. For whatever reason, logical or not, it makes me very happy. Don't confuse me with actual math! Just kidding. I feel like I get more happiness for the dollar from paying for Prime than from other uses of my money, so I don't mind paying for it.

 

[steelyman]

I like getting notifications of free Kindle books. Most recent that I found interesting were The Second World War by Martin Gilbert and Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings (the whole thing!).

 

[Scuba]

I love Amazon Prime and have had it for years and years. That said, I only use it for shipping. I don't even watch Prime Video although I have heard it is very good. I don't back up photos on Prime either; I back up my laptop and photos on two external hard drives. I do have the Amazon Prime Visa card and enjoy getting 5% back.

I like the fast shipping, and not seeing that shipping charge when I order things; still, I don't know if I save enough to make up for the annual fee. For whatever reason, logical or not, it makes me very happy. Don't confuse me with actual math! Just kidding. I feel like I get more happiness for the dollar from paying for Prime than from other uses of my money, so I don't mind paying for it.

Ditto for me

 

[tmm99]

I love Prime. I've been an Amazon customer since 1998 in the US (not sure when I became a Prime member, but very early on) and in Canada once I moved here several years ago. I don't use their music streaming or digital storage. I would be their Prime member even if it didn't come with Prime Video. Convenience is the biggest factor for me.

 

[easysurfer]

Amazon Prime is one of my only blow that dough subscriptions.

 

[Calico]

Been a prime member for as long as I can remember, somebody tell me why not to be. It was a life saver during the initial stages of the C-19 pandemic.

+100

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I just checked the prime video line up. Honestly there is nothing new there, nothing that is not available from other sources that I have. OK if you like re-runs I suppose, but we only watch anything once. My friend tells me the music is good but I do not listen to a lot of music and what I like is on my pre-made USB playlists.

 

[4legsgood]

Can anyone convince me not to cancel it on day 29?

The only real value I can see is 2 day shipping. I do not buy a lot from Amazon and when I do I make sure shipping is free.

I am looking for reasons other than shipping to keep it.

Thanks for your insight.

Amazon Prime Video is reason enough for me, but a very close second is ordering grocery delivery "available in select regions".

I order everything via smile.amazon (so a bit goes to my selected charity without any extra charge to me) and pay with my amazon chase card for 5% back on most things (like 98%).

Grocery deals don't always show up when clicking on the 'deals' link, but I scroll through past purchases to quickly see if any of my usual stuff is on sale - very convenient.

Especially over winter holidays there are specials on prime video channels, 99 cents for a month and the trick is remembering to cancel.

I periodically subscribe to 5 items for one month to get typically 15% off (again, I pay with my amazon prime card and get 5% off as well). Lately there are deals with 40% off first delivery of subscription, and I hope to determine this month if when I cancel before the 2nd delivery they still honor the 40% off.

Maybe some of this stuff is available to non-prime people, I don't know.
I've learned to navigate the situation and am very happy with it.

 

[cathy63]

I just checked the prime video line up. Honestly there is nothing new there, nothing that is not available from other sources that I have. OK if you like re-runs I suppose, but we only watch anything once. My friend tells me the music is good but I do not listen to a lot of music and what I like is on my pre-made USB playlists.

There are lots of Amazon Originals that you can't watch anywhere else. You may not be interested in them, but they're there. I probably wouldn't subscribe to Prime just to get video, but as long as we have it anyway I've found quite a few new shows to watch.

 

[jollystomper]

Prime shipping works well for us. It seems half of the stuff we order arrives the next day. Perhaps due to our proximity to fulfillment/warehouse centers. Prime Video is fine, and the total Prime price is cheaper than Netflix. for $120 a year this is waaaay down on the expense list for us. But that is just us. Not being drinkers more than covers the cost. Life is a tradeoff .

 

[cathy63]

If you have prime, photo storage is no additional charge. My wife has over 100GB of photos that I'm responsible for not losing. I set up a home server in Linux where normal backups occur, but it is nice to know I have that offsite backup. I've also broken my server more than once.

I'm also using Amazon photo storage for a slide scanning project. We have about 5K family slides from the 1950s to 1970s and we'd like to extract all the photos of specific people. In my testing, Amazon's facial recognition worked much better than Google's at accurately identifying the same person over a long time period. Also, the interface makes it's easy for our older family members to just click on the face they recognize and see all the photos of that person.

 

[ivinsfan]

I just checked the prime video line up. Honestly there is nothing new there, nothing that is not available from other sources that I have. OK if you like re-runs I suppose, but we only watch anything once. My friend tells me the music is good but I do not listen to a lot of music and what I like is on my pre-made USB playlists.

There might be nothing you like but there is a vast quantity of Amazon exclusive shows. Including Amazon originals.


But its no difference my life if you don't pay for prime.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

There might be nothing you like but there is a vast quantity of Amazon exclusive shows. Including Amazon originals.

Not much we cannot get from other services we use. (From the UK)

 

[ivinsfan]

Not much we cannot get from other services we use. (From the UK)

Well value is in the eye of the person who pays so that's your call.

 

[Walt34]

I use it for both the faster shipping and streaming video. The shows are not static, they do change from time to time.

 

[target2019]

I just checked the prime video line up. Honestly there is nothing new there, nothing that is not available from other sources that I have. OK if you like re-runs I suppose, but we only watch anything once. My friend tells me the music is good but I do not listen to a lot of music and what I like is on my pre-made USB playlists.

Earler I thought of the series "Mrs. Maisel." Last night I went to Prime Video and found a new season for "Bosch." Some of these Amazon productions may be beneath your radar, but very entertaining.

WRT your USB playlists, they work well enough. I hardly do that anymore, and stream from my phone or desktop. On Sunday we had a party that consisted of bridesmaids (30 y.o.). In my office I turned on a Spotify playlist called "Wedding Party". I didn't prepare it, and it took no effort. And yes, it turned out to be a never-ending list of music you'd hear at a wedding reception. Some remarked that my playlist was one of the best ever. Lol! So I got some kudos.

It does take some reading to find what streaming is superior, as there are many (too many) titles.

 

[calmloki]

Last February we paid for our Prime membership with free money. Our Navy Flagship credit card ($49 annual fee) picked up $130 of the Prime $129.49 annual fee. Not a bad deal at all, and the main reason we still have the Navy card.

In the absence of free money we would still pay the Prime fee without hesitation for the shipping, music and tv. To say nothing of the way Alexa listens in on us and offers to send us things and remove money from our accounts without our even doing anything. And yes Alexa, I should pass on that extra slice of pizza as the sodium level is too high and you can tell my blood pressure is trending out of range..

Maybe the last part is bogus. We really do find value in Prime though.

 

[Music Lover]

In this day and age you need digital picture storage somewhere.

Some people do. I rarely take pics so my entire collection is stored on my phone with plenty of room to spare.

We have Amazon Prime but have used it so little lately, both ordering products and streaming that we'll probably cancel it.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Well Over the last day I have done a fairly good in depth look at Prime Video. Other than "Reminding" me of a few things I may like to see, I did not find anything compelling. Nothing that was not available elsewhere. Amazon originals or otherwise.

However, I have since ordered a few more things from Amazon, and the Shipping, some in one day is quite compelling. I do not know who benefits from this more, Bezos or me. I probably would not have purchased a couple of items otherwise.

I always used to resist Amazon in favor of other sites that did not charge Sales tax, but now they all do. So Amazon may be the answer, if not for shipping alone.

I will need to watch the prices as Amazon was never the most cost site effective to buy something from, maybe the shipping makes up for that too.

 

[freedomatlast]

Don't have prime and never plan to.

Anything Amazon tries to push so hard must be extremely profitable for them. If I do buy something on Amazon, there is usually a free shipping option without prime, and it is usually delivered as fast as if I would have had prime.

It's just something else you didn't know you needed to pay for until Bezos told you that you needed it.

 

[athena53]

However, I have since ordered a few more things from Amazon, and the Shipping, some in one day is quite compelling. I do not know who benefits from this more, Bezos or me. I probably would not have purchased a couple of items otherwise.

And that's the main reason I don't want it!

 

[ivinsfan]

Don't have prime and never plan to.

Anything Amazon tries to push so hard must be extremely profitable for them. If I do buy something on Amazon, there is usually a free shipping option without prime, and it is usually delivered as fast as if I would have had prime.

It's just something else you didn't know you needed to pay for until Bezos told you that you needed it.

Maybe that's true for you but let the rest of us decide for ourselves

 

[mh]

5% off Amazon purchases with Amazon Prime credit card .

Also discounts at Whole Foods if you happen to frequent that establishment.

 

[freedomatlast]

Maybe that's true for you but let the rest of us decide for ourselves

Hey ivins....this is a message board where we share ideas and opinions. No one is trying to make a decision for you or for anyone else. Take care and have a great day!