The Strange, the Special, and the Super Cheap
Chapter 7: The Strange, the Special, and the Super Cheap
8. In the new page that appears, confirm your bid
This is your last chance — to review the details of your auction and to change your mind. Make sure you take more than a cursory glance at the details because once you click, you’re committed. When you’re sure, click the Confirm Your Bid button.
Amazon lets you know via e-mail if you’ve been outbid, and gives you an opportunity to raise your maximum bid. They’re good about keeping you in the game. In fact, one difference between Amazon’s auctions and auctions at eBay is that at Amazon, if a new bid is received with less than ten minutes to go in the auction, the auction is automatically extended for an additional ten minutes. So you don’t have to worry about someone creeping in at the last second and snatching up your item. If you win your auction, they’ll send you an e-mail notifying you — very exciting!
If you’re desperate to have some cherished item and you don’t want to risk losing the auction, you can use the Take-It Now option. This is a fixed price that the seller is willing to take for the item. It’s higher than the minimum bid, but it’s a sure thing. You can also use 1-Click to buy auction items with Take-It Now, but unlike usual Amazon 1-Click shopping, you can’t cancel a 1-Click Auctions take-it now purchase.
Everything from A to zShops
zShops is a collection of smaller merchants (we’re not talking Macys here), sell- ing just about everything at a fixed price. You’ll find individuals like you and me running zShops and even small companies (such as the jewelrynetwork.com) selling through Amazon zShops.
As with auctions, zShops are run by people other than Amazon. What Amazon provides is (simply) the venue. Product selection within any given zShop can be very eclectic indeed. It’s something of an online bazaar.
Each of the zShops merchants has a storefront in zShops. But you don’t actu- ally shop zShops by storefront. Instead, it’s set up the way all Amazon stores are arranged — by category. You can access several of the categories in the Browse box on the left side of the page or, to access them all, click Browse Categories in the zShops subnav. You can also do a search for items within zShops. So how do you access these “storefronts” I’ve mentioned?
Let’s say you’re looking to buy a vintage lunchbox. You might browse the categories or do a search and make your way to a detail page for a vintage lunchbox. (See Figure 7-2 for a zShops detail page.) On that page, you’ll see a link next to the bolded “merchant”. Click on that and you’ll find yourself at that merchant’s storefront. That’s an easy way to access storefronts — by first landing on the detail page of an item that interests you.
Figure 7-1:
An Auction detail page and the Bid Now box.
99
Chapter 7: The Strange, the Special, and the Super Cheap
What you’ll find at a zShops storefront varies from merchant to merchant.
Some merchants do very little with their storefronts and some really dress theirs up. You may find a collection of similar products or a hodgepodge of stuff. Some people use zShops to list just one high-ticket item at a fixed price (because they can’t sell it through Marketplace and they don’t want to auction it off).
Here are two important things to look for when you visit a merchant’s storefront:
Feedback Rating. Actually, this is themost important thing. You’ll find the Feedback — how customers would rate their experience with the merchant — just below the navigational boxes on the left side of the page. Remember, you’re not buying from Amazon here, so it’s essential that you do your homework. The highest rating is 5 stars and the lowest is 0. Make sure you consider not only the total score, but also how many people rated the seller.
Company Information.In the upper-right corner of the storefront, below the subnav, is a spot for merchants to tell buyers about their company.
Click on the link that begins “Learn more about” and you come to that merchant’s information page. Here you can discover important things — like what payment methods they accept and what their shipping and returns policies are — and some more fluffy stuff — like what their com- pany is all about.
Figure 7-2:
Get to merchant storefronts from the zShops detail pages.
Payment, shipping, and other important matters
Buying from Auctions and zShops is fun. It’s also very different from buying directly from Amazon.com. Here’s why:
You can’t always cancel your order.In fact, with Auctions, after you confirm your bid, you’ve committed to buying it. If you win, it’s sold and it’s yours. Period. Some zShops merchants will let you cancel an order, but you have to deal with them directly.
You can’t always return things.Again, Auctions sellers won’t let you return (unless it’s a very, very nice and patient person). zShops mer- chants are required to accept returns, but they have their own policies, so make sure you know what they are before you buy.
Amazon is not shipping your order.The individual seller is, so shipping charges and times may vary.
You can’t use gift certificates to buy from zShops or Auctions. I’m guessing that this is something that will eventually change, but right now — because you’re not really buying from Amazon — you can’t put gift-certificate cash toward Auctions or zShops purchases.
The good news is you use Amazon.com Payments to pay. So the paying process is seamless. You pay Amazon and they pay the seller, which is easier for you and just like buying from Amazon directly. Some sellers also allow other forms of payment, but take my word for it, Amazon.com Payments is the way to go.
Outlet
I love outlet malls (despite my flippant comments about the soft pretzels and fudge factories). I love them because I love a good deal and I’m not ashamed to admit it. (I also love soft pretzels and fudge, but I am a little ashamed about that.)
To access the Amazon.com Outlet, just click on the See More Stores link at the top of the page to the right of the tabs. You’ll find it in the store directory under the Bargains heading. And bargain-licious it is!
101
Chapter 7: The Strange, the Special, and the Super Cheap
Amazon’s Outlet is bigger and better than any outlet you’ll find in the physi- cal world. There are literally hundreds of “stores” in the Amazon.com Outlet with thousands of products on sale. Every Amazon category, most every Amazon partner, and many Amazon smaller partners are represented in the outlet. Hold on to your purse strings, people. It’s a dangerous place for any crazed bargain hunter carrying money.
Bargains vs. Used vs. Factory Reconditioned
The Amazon.com Outlet is a little bit different than your average outlet mall because they don’t just sell new products for less. They also sell used mer- chandise and factory-reconditioned merchandise. So what’s the difference?
Table 7-1 gives you a quick look at the three types of merchandise in the Amazon.com Outlet.
Table 7-1 “Bargain,” “Used,” and “Factory Reconditioned”
Type of Product Description
Bargain These are your basic sale and clearance items. They’re new, in perfect condition, and haven’t been owned before.
In books, they’ll probably be “remainders” — publishers’ over- stocks that just didn’t sell as well as the publisher predicted. You can often find hardback books for about $5. In the Music world the extras are called “cut-outs” and you’ll find lots of those in the Music outletIn the other products lines, they’re likely to be items that an Amazon.com buyer just bought too many off. Lucky for you!
Used These are Marketplace items that are being repurposed and offered in the Outlet. In other words, these are items being sold by individuals, not by Amazon — so all the usual rules of buying from a non-Amazon entity apply. You’ll only find used items in the following categories: Books, Camera & Photo, DVD, Electronics, Music, Video, and Video Games.
Factory These are items that were returned to the manufacturer for one Reconditioned reason or another (sometimes because they were broken but
often “just because”). The manufacturer thoroughly cleans, inspects, and, if necessary, repairs the item, and then sells it again at a dramatically reduced cost. The upshot: great prices and more often than not, it works perfectly because it’s actually been tested. The downside: It may not come in its original pack- aging so it won’t make a great gift.
How good are the deals?
Sometimes they are outstanding (I just bought a pair of red leather Kaepa ten- nies for $9.99, down from $49.99) and sometimes not so great (like two dollars off a $25 book). How do you know you’re getting a good deal? The obvious answer is to look at the list price versus the sale price. When you see a 75 per- cent discount, you know that’s got to be good. But there is another good way to check. Do a Web search before you buy.
You can use Google to search from the Amazon site. On most store home pages at Amazon.com, there’s a Web-search box just beneath the Amazon site-search box. Use it to find out what your item is selling for on other sites.
If you’re getting ready to buy a pair of red leather Kaepa tennies, search for
“red leather Kaepa shoes” and see what you come up with. (For the record, no one could touch my $9.99 deal!) I also use this little technique when I’m getting ready to bid on an auction, just to make sure I’m not being snowed.
Specialty Stores
Specialty Stores are the online boutiques of Amazon shopping. There are more than 200 of them (that’s a lot of boutiques!) and what makes them fun (and different from the rest of Amazon.com) is that they’re thematic: All the products in a given specialty store relate to its theme. But none of the prod- ucts that you can find in a Specialty Store are unique to that store. They all live somewhere else on Amazon as well.
You can access the Specialty Stores directory from the main store directory.
(Just click the See More Stores link and then the Specialty Stores link in the box on the right side of the page.) So why would you shop in a Specialty Store? You’d shop there because you’re passionately interested in (say) Lego, Jazz, cult movies, or power tools. This isn’t utilitarian shopping where you go to the site and quickly get what you want. Specialty Stores are good for browsing and for satisfying your personal interests. They’re also another great way to find gifts, assuming you know what the recipient is into.
There are a few different kinds of Specialty Stores at Amazon. Table 7-2 out- lines the various types and gives a few examples of each.
103
Chapter 7: The Strange, the Special, and the Super Cheap
Table 7-2 Specialty Stores at Amazon.com
Type of Store Description Examples
Brand Brand stores feature all the products KitchenAid, Lego, at Amazon from one company (or brand). Sony, Black & Decker Genre These stores lives primarily in books, Westerns, Anime, Cult
music, and video/DVD. Movies
Celebrity/ Ah, celebrities and the products associated Emeril Lagasse, Character with them. There are so many celebrity or James BondTM, Rick
character-based stores at Amazon, you Steves, Harry PotterTM won’t know where to begin.
Interest/ These stores pull in all the relevant Early Adopters, Activity products that relate to a particular Cooking with Kids,
hobby or interest. Summer Entertaining,
The Router Workshop
Okay, I admit it. Some specialties are lame — just category pages from one of the bigger stores stuck in the Specialty Store lineup. But lots of them are great.
My personal favorites are Early Adopters (because those gadgets are amaz- ing) and Cooking with Kids (because they have a great Essentials section).
Where are they?
You’ll find Specialty Stores sprinkled throughout the site. You can access them from relevant “big store” category pages or from the Specialty Store directory page. Getting there is easy. Here’s how: