Comments for 9 Better, Cheaper Ways To Search Amazon

9 Better, Cheaper Ways To Search Amazon

2007-12-06T22:55:19Z

The Amazon home page has somewhere around 16 different sales pitches, and more unnecessary graphics than a MySpace page. Here are 9 money-saving ways to shop the site without waiting for another customized ad to render.

1. Amazon Filler Item Finder — Sometimes you're just a buck shy of the $25 threshold to qualify for free shipping from Amazon. Why use something from your wish list that would cost ten times that amount? Enter the amount of the price gap (up to $15) in Amazon Filler and it will spit out a long list of Super Saver qualified items.

2. Super Saver Shipping Search — If you rely on Amazon's free Super Saver Shipping feature, you know the feeling of disappointment when you click through to a product page and see that the item "doesn't qualify." This search engine filters all those third-party items out.

3. Amazon Light — This "lighter interface to Amazon" jettisons all the targeted sales pitches Amazon packs on each page. It may not cover Amazon's entire inventory, but hits all the big categories.

4. WishRadar — This service tracks the items on your wish list (or someone else's if you know the associated email address) and alerts you when something "matches the price you want to pay at either Amazon or Half.com." It also works with mobile phones, according to the trendy silhouette on the front page.

5. Mozilla Amazon Browser — This amazing Mozilla-only service is our favorite new way to shop Amazon. It delivers an entire in-browser application for fast, comprehensive searches of Amazon's database.

6. JungleCrazy — This bargain-bin site aggregates anything from Amazon that's at least 70% off. Some of their tags, like the "one cent bin," are of dubious value (that tag returns mostly cellphone deals or penny items with shipping & handling fees that make up for the discount). But we found a set of 8-piece set of silicone covers for four Wii controllers for under $10 total including shipping—maybe that's not a 70% savings, but it's certainly cheaper than any retail offers we've seen.

7. Spendfish — Some of our readers have suggested Spendfish in the past, which is more of a general-purpose discount aggregator for Amazon deals. We found its general presentation a bit too vague for power-searching, but it's a low-pressure way to browse current Amazon deals quickly (try clicking a category instead of performing a search).

8. Amazon Discount Link Generator — If you're a DIYer who doesn't want to support some Associate's profit scheme, try the link generator here. You enter your criteria: "books" + "60% or more off" + "Amazon Prime only" and it'll spit out a direct link to the appropriate Amazon search results.

9. 162 Discount Amazon URLs — And for the rest of you who can't be bothered with visiting all these sites just to find a bargain, this post provides 162 links to specific discount searches within 16 different Amazon categories.

All of these services are free; most of them make money via Amazon Associates earnings on sales they help enable, but as far as we can tell, there are no markups.

"$8.00 for shipping or.... $0.87 for some batteries" [Metafilter]

Comment from GravitysRainbow on 2008-11-16

2008-11-17T03:57:54Z

You guys might be interested in [www.spectackler.com] . This site allows you to search the electronics section of Amazon via a funky AJAX interface, so you can sort and filter products in realtime. I think it's a bit better than Amazon's slightly clunky interface!

Comment from chrhup on 2007-12-15

2007-12-16T01:01:12Z

Try Jungle-Search.com as another alternative. It lets you search by keyword, category, subcategory, brand name, percentage off, price range, and more. It also has an Advanced Book Search and a Media Search. Check it out.

www.jungle-search.com

Comment from jdan57 on 2007-12-08

2007-12-08T19:00:29Z

Here's a 10th money-saving way to shop Amazon.

Jangle.net

Using jangle.net it's easy to shop by categories and sort products by:

  what's most popular,
  biggest discount amounts,
  lowest price,
  highest customer rating.

Tis a gift to be simple!

Comment from jonathanl on 2007-12-08

2007-12-08T06:27:36Z

Som nice ideas in there, but how did you miss helping shoppers find an Amazon promotional code in this list of 80 Amazon coupons?

Also there is a better Amazon Discount tool that works for for the Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, as well as Amazon Germany and France.

Finally this site helps you buy Discount Amazon.com Gift Cards.

Long live the savvy Amazon discount shopper and Happy Holidays!

Comment from That70sHeidi on 2007-12-07

2007-12-07T19:25:10Z

THANK YOU!!!! for the PriceProtectr site! They advertised a DVD for 60% off in the morning but by the time I got home it was sitting there at full price in my basket that night. I added it to PriceProtectr and sure enough, this morning it was back down to an even lower price, and I bought it.

Everything in my cart was added to the site, this is a great tool at Christmas, THANKS!!!!

Comment from Scott on 2007-12-07

2007-12-07T17:53:50Z

Amazon's 30-Day Price-Drop Refund Guarantee has saved me a LOT of money.

If the price of an item you buy (shipped from Amazon, not a partner) drops within 30 days of your purchase, Amazon will refund the difference. And, you can request multiple refunds (if it drops every day for 30 days, you can get 30 refunds).

Go to My Account, check the prices of the items you bought within the last 30 days, and if anything has dropped, go here:
[www.amazon.com]

Find your order (using the "More Orders" function), put a check in the box of the item(s), then click the "Email" button. Select "Refund Inquiry" in the "Issue" drop-down, and tell them you're requesting a refund. Within 24-48 hours, Amazon will email a confirmation to you, and a refund will be issued (a charge-back to your card, or a credit to your Gift Card balance, etc.).

I bought an LCD TV a few weeks ago, and I've had over $230 refunded so far; it's worth the effort!

Comment from BugMeNot2 on 2007-12-07

2007-12-07T10:58:38Z

Enter "&field-enc-merchantbin=ATVPDKIKX0DER"
without the quotes in the search results URL, to get Amazon only products.

Comment from That70sHeidi on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T03:43:49Z

Something that just scared me - I was on Amazon around 1pm today, through the hot deals link here on Consumerist. I just checked my email and about three hours after I'd been surfing their site they send me an email that starts "As someone who's recently visited our Toys & Games Store at Amazon.com, you might be interested in the huge savings now available...."

How about less stalky stalky, more discount discount? geez.

Comment from BeFrugalNotCheap on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T03:19:47Z

NO one has commented on how easy it is to find Amazon's new e-reader "Kindle". ;)

Comment from SaraAB87 on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T01:49:28Z

I put all the items I want on my wish list then I just click on my wish list to see all the prices for that day. Takes minutes a day to do this.

I load the items I really want into price protector also and get email alerts either before I want to buy the item or after I purchase it for price drops.

If you catch a price drop on an item and its within 30 days of you purchasing it you can ask for a refund, just shoot them an email and they will give you a refund on the price difference, no need to wait until you see the item for the lowest price this way..

If the need arises I will use the filler item since I rely on their free shipping on orders over 25$

Comment from Myron on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T00:23:18Z

@junior: The link shows the bestselling BAKING books.

Comment from yetiwisdom on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T00:21:40Z

@Dibbler: I've noticed the price changes too (most recently on the Apples to Apples game which I love and got several as gifts...) and have been using a newish (to me) trick to work around it:

I load each item into PriceProtectr either before (if I'm not definite on the purchase yet) or after. PriceProtectr notifies me if there is any price change so I can snipe the lower price &/or get a refund back from AMZN for the difference.

Comment from Dibbler on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T00:14:25Z

I'm getting tired of Amazon's price changes. It used to be that I could find what I want and if the price is right add it to my cart and than a couple days later I could add something else and keep it up until I get my needed $25 for free shipping. Anymore they seem to raise and lower the prices of EVERYTHING a few bucks on a daily basis so I have to keep waiting until all the things in my cart are the same price again. They've really lost me as a loyal customer and now I just go there when I can't find it anyplace else.

If anyone at Amazon reads this stuff...Please quit trying to use the "you better buy it now cuz the price just might go up the next time you visit" routine. All it does is piss me off!

Comment from vertigo on 2007-12-06

2007-12-07T00:12:57Z

Is there something that lets me filter for amazon prime only things (ie not stuff from their affiliates)

Comment from Munsoned on 2007-12-06

2007-12-06T23:41:31Z

@Myron: Um. That link shows me 26,613 books. The first 12 are just the first that they show you (bestsellers). What am I missing?

BTW, I've been using junglecrazy for some time. It's ok. I can already tell that the filler item finder site is going to be my new favorite...

Comment from MameDennis on 2007-12-06

2007-12-06T23:23:57Z

The Filler Item Finder makes me happy. Thanks!

Comment from Myron on 2007-12-06

2007-12-06T23:11:43Z

Sorry to change the topic slightly but when did Amazon's categorization of books start sucking so hard? Here's an example. Lets say you are interested in getting your mom a baking cookbook for Christmas. So you navigate to books->cooking and wine->baking and you get this list:
[www.amazon.com]

12 books, 2 of which are about baking. Kitchen Confidential, which is not even a cookbook, is on this list.

Comment from Jozef on 2007-12-06

2007-12-06T23:09:56Z

I noticed that Amazon has recently made changes to the front page, and removed category listings. I found myself unable to simply browse around to see whether anything catches my interest, which caused me to use Amazon only when I know exactly what I want. I'm using Mozilla Amazon Browser for that, but would like to point out that the name may be a little misleading: it's a search engine; not a browsing interface for Amazon.