Amazon Vine Reviewers?

There's no way to find items with no estimated value, is there? I've never seen one myself, but some of you have mentioned it.
 
There are quite a few $0 ETV this morning under health. Mostly stuff I'm not interested, although I got a little pill container a few minutes ago.

Food goes fast. I got my first food item ever yesterday. Food items are usually gone within 1 minute. The problem is you have to check ETV, and sometimes in the time to check ETV, the item is gone.
 
RetiredAndLovingIt said:
Right now Elsha Russian Leather Cologne is 0 ETV if you're a guy
Auvon Neck Stretcher 0 ETV
Click to expand...

Gotta love the brand names. Both are gone, BTW.

Someone on reddit was talking about the randomness of brand names and some guy comes on and says his Hooshing fittings are awesome.

I thought he was joking. A week later I get a Hooshing fitting and I have to admit it is of good quality. Most of these brands are random, but some are actually trying to make a name. I would put Hooshing in that camp.

I think over time we're going to see Chinese brands separate in quality and have some rise to the top and do what the Korean and Japanese brands did in the previous decades.
 
I received an invitation for the Amazon Shopper Panel…no mention of Vine or receiving stuff to review. Has anyone done this? Is it worth it?

I’m not interested in receiving stuff to clutter my house or be something I have to figure out how to dispose of. I try to keep from unnecessarily adding to the landfill. However, if it is just completing surveys for some minimal compensation then I might consider it.
 
FIYes said:
I received an invitation for the Amazon Shopper Panel…no mention of Vine or receiving stuff to review. Has anyone done this? Is it worth it?

I’m not interested in receiving stuff to clutter my house or be something I have to figure out how to dispose of. I try to keep from unnecessarily adding to the landfill. However, if it is just completing surveys for some minimal compensation then I might consider it.
Click to expand...

I got that same email too. I am a Vine Reviewer but think I'll pass on the survey thing. This reminds me a lot like a long time ago there was this thing where you could get free long distance phone calls but had to listen to a 30 second or so of commercials to equate to a few minutes of talk time. Was fun and feeling they were "suckers" at first. But as time went on, I felt like the sucker. Just my 2 cents.

In the meantime, back to Vine shopping. Even with this, I haven't ordered anything from Vine for about 6 weeks.
 
I don't even know why I'm trying for Gold, but I am. Trying to order stuff under $10, and food/health stuff for $0.

Some is good. I now have a decent supply of stainless screws. I got some garden stuff. I've had some duds, so it goes.

I think I'll make gold, but not sure it will be worth it. I'm already feeling "full" and don't need more stuff. This may just be a fun experiment for a year or so.
 
JoeWras said:
I keep reading that others are classifying their 1099-NEC as "hobby" income, thus not requiring the self employment portion of the tax code.

I won't get a 1099-NEC this year, but I might next, so I'm preparing.

Here's what the IRS says about Hobby vs. Business income:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/earning-side-income-is-it-a-hobby-or-a-business
Click to expand...

I got over $600 of Vine stuff this year so got a 1099-NEC. Starting my taxes now with Turbotax (TT).

Seems straightforward enough (unless I'm missing something). In TT, I let TT know I got a 1099-NEC. Put in the proper amount I received. There's an option in TT's questioning to select as other income (like a hobby). Then I went to form mode in TT and see that my 1099-NEC was considered other income (as in not self-employed).
 
I did NOT get over $600 of Vine stuff. Do I need to report what I did get? I use Turbotax, is reporting this additional stuff more complicated than is worth while?
 
I purposely went over $600 so I'd get a 1099-NEC to match up against.

As for reporting if didn't get a 1099, you are supposed to. Supposed to report every bit of income. I'd think, similar to if you don't get a 1099-INT from a bank because interest under $10. Still supposed to report.

How and where on tax form if didn't get a 1099-NEC, I don't know. Again, that's why I went over $600.
 
Vine sent me a survey, and I did that. But no invitation to a panel.

I've hit the 100 mark, but need to do a few more reviews to get to 90%. Once I do, I wonder if I'll immediately move to gold, or does that only happen on the review time ?
 
Sunset said:
Vine sent me a survey, and I did that. But no invitation to a panel.

I've hit the 100 mark, but need to do a few more reviews to get to 90%. Once I do, I wonder if I'll immediately move to gold, or does that only happen on the review time ?
Click to expand...

Happens at review anniversary time.

I'm going to make gold, but will reconsider my participation after the gold period. I'm going to go very slow. There's just too much non-quality stuff. Light fixtures downright scare me, for example.
 
I'm definitely not trying for gold; it feels like they should be paying me a lot more for quality reviews of things I wouldn't buy otherwise. Maybe once I'm retired it'll be one of my hobbies, but now I don't really want to devote that much time to it.
 
Pellice said:
I did NOT get over $600 of Vine stuff. Do I need to report what I did get? I use Turbotax, is reporting this additional stuff more complicated than is worth while?
Click to expand...

Thought this might help you ...

I took a peek at my TT generated form. The Amazon Vine 1099-NEC info ended up in Schedule 1 (1040). Part I (Additional Income). Section 8z under "other income" with a description of "Nonemployee compensation from 1099-NEC".
 
If we were able to claim the vine "income" as self employment, then couldn't we take health insurance premiums (even medicare ones) as a self employment expense ?

That would more than wipe out most vine "income" unless folks in the gold get much better stuff.
 
Sunset said:
If we were able to claim the vine "income" as self employment, then couldn't we take health insurance premiums (even medicare ones) as a self employment expense ?

That would more than wipe out most vine "income" unless folks in the gold get much better stuff.
Click to expand...
You also would need to pay self employment tax I think and then if the state found out they might chase you for a business license. I don't think it's worth the hassle and plan to make it Other Income the way TurboTax is filing it.
 
RetiredAndLovingIt said:
You also would need to pay self employment tax I think and then if the state found out they might chase you for a business license. I don't think it's worth the hassle and plan to make it Other Income the way TurboTax is filing it.
Click to expand...

I've been self employed for years, and didn't require any business license, maybe because I never dealt with the public or had customers come to my place.
The State took my self employment income and taxed it without even a thanks :LOL:

<edit> But, yes the 15% self employment tax would sort of wipe out most savings , and yet be too small to change SS payments in any significant amount...
 
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Did everyone get a "Friendly Reminder" on their vine message, or am I being told they are not happy with me, but are just being polite :confused:

"Hello Amazon Voices,

Some of you have just joined us, and some of you have been with us for many years. We are sending this message as a friendly reminder of our Vine reviews guidelines.

Please ensure that your reviews always reflect your independent opinion and are personally written in your unique voice. We want to hear your perspective in your own words and with photos and videos, when possible.

For more reviews guidelines, please visit your Resources page. Note that failure to comply with reviews guidelines may result in being removed from the program.

Thank you for your ongoing dedication to Vine! We appreciate all you do.

The Vine Team
 
I got it and I assume everyone did. What's happening is people are starting to use ChatGPS and Bard to write their reviews and the Reddit people are calling them out so I'm sure Amazon knows about it as well by now. You can tell which ones are AI reviews.
They get free stuff and they're too lazy to write an honest review, what a bunch of losers and they should be tossed from the program.
 
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Yes, it is certainly due to all the bot reviews. Amazon just didn't say it because they didn't want to give ideas.

I hope they continue to toss low-value reviewers. There are some terrible ones out there, not just the AI generated ones either.
 
I've been on an Amazon Vine binge lately :).

But sometimes products get away.

For example, I've been browsing portable car inflators lately (actually, got one from Vine a few months back). When I came across a product that is a pistol type inflator that uses Milwaukee M18 batteries (creative!). Reading the reviews on that product, I see that almost off of them are Vine reviewers and just put up their reviews fairly recently.

Vine is definitely a snatch products now or forever hold your peace as some things go fast. The excitement of the hunt, I suppose :popcorn:.
 
I'm coming up to my review, so really hoping to move up to Gold. I slacked off ordering so my reviewing could catch up.

I've enjoyed getting some things I can use, my biggest "score" was a 100W solar panel, something I absolutely can use. When I think of the grab it now nature of vine, I am absolutely amazed I came up the stairs logged into vine and saw it and got it. How randomly lucky.

I'm hoping as gold that there are better things that will show up.
 
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