Amazon gives you free shipping if you buy over $25 of qualifying goods so people will sometimes search for “filler” items, little cheap doohickiesand to toss in to bring the total up. Here’s three quick ways to find them, courtesy of WiseBread:
1. Add the secret code
After you search on Amazon for what you want, add &emi=ATVPDKIKX0DER to the end to find an item that gets you Super Saver Shipping.
2. FillerItem
Put the amount you need to spend to reach SSS in the box and select the categories to search within.
3. FreebieVille
A list of fillers from $1-$5.
Filler strategies for Amazon’s Free Super Saver Shipping [WiseBread] (Thanks to Chris!)
(Photo: funny strange or funny ha ha)
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Awesome This is SOO useful.
Some of those sticker offers would be good to stock up on for things to give the nieces or even as grab bag fillers for your kids. Or to decorate your cubicle with, I dunno.
Orrr….pony up the cash for a Prime membership and not have to worry about it. There’s also the option of just paying the shipping and not buying stupid trinket “fillers” to contribute to the nation’s landfills.
Amazon has totally lost my business. The last two orders I have placed with them have been completely f*’ed up. Calling customer service gets me someone in India who can’t speak english and obviously could care less about fixing problems. They read from a script and try to get you off the phone as fast as possible. Back to bricks & mortar for me.
I’ve never really bought anything from Amazon. Just checked on a book price that I need to write an essay on in two weeks, and for free shipping in Canada it’s $39. Ouch.
@mopar_man: I had Prime for 6 months and thought it was great, but just not worth it for $80 a year. I just stockpile my purchases of stuff I actually need til I hit the $25 mark.
And sometimes you’re at $23.17 and you just want to buy some toothbrushes or something you’d actually use to get the bump rather than pay $7 for shipping and no toothbrushes.
@selectman: I do a similar variation where I just think of a simple item I may want or would like that fills the gap. Last time it was magnets, next time it may be a spatula, or something else that is pretty cheap, and yet useful.
I don’t see the point in getting a filler you won’t use, spend the extra couple bucks and find something cheap you can actually use.
@mopar_man: And since those “fillers” already exist, what happens if no one buys them? Do they break down on their own, make some carbon disappear, and emit a fresh pine scent? No, they’ll get old and tossed in the nearest stream.
@mopar_man: But the point is that Amazon’s policy seems a bit screwy — should I really have to pay an extra 7 bucks or whatever in order NOT to “contribute to the nation’s landfills” as you put it? If they’re going to sell cheap qualifying items that make the shipping magically free, people are going to do it. Perhaps they shouldn’t be charging so much for shipping in the first place, or maybe they should recognize that if $25 is really a good break point for turning on free shipping they should come up with some other solution (raising the price automatically to $25.00 including shipping, allowing charitable donations to bump your order over 25 bucks, etc.)
I found the Amazon Super Saver Snooper Greasemonkey script when checking to see if anyone had written a script to do the first. (Could someone write one, pretty please?)
@Beerad:
If they’re going to sell cheap qualifying items that make the shipping magically free, people are going to do it. Perhaps they shouldn’t be charging so much for shipping in the first place, or maybe they should recognize that if $25 is really a good break point for turning on free shipping they should come up with some other solution (raising the price automatically to $25.00 including shipping, allowing charitable donations to bump your order over 25 bucks, etc.)
Absolutely
Irarely buy from amazon, but this should be usefull for when I do.
I usually look for a Dover Thirft book. I think the last one I picked up was Candide.
@Git Em SteveDave: This current stock of fillers? Yes. But if there is no demand they will stop making more of them. Duh.
I first heard about the website http://www.filleritem.com on Consumerist just a few days ago and it’s not listed in this post. You can find stuff under a dollar there, just type in how much you need to spend.
@Vanvi:
its number 2. in the list of three
I always either buy myself something I want but don’t NEED badly enough to flat-out buy, or I stock up for upcoming Xmas and birthdays!
It’s entirely possible (indeed likely) that I’m doing something wrong, but the “secret code” doesn’t appear to do anything for me. I tried appending it to the end of the URL of an item then reloading, and I’ve tried adding it to the end of my search phrase.
@m1k3g:
You’re not going to like it any more
Whether you work extra to pay the shipping or buy fillers, you are still causing more landfill.
Your income comes from someone else’s purchase. Eventually that means product being moved. Even if your income is from programming and you just sell your software via the internets, at some point, there’s some landfill action going on.
I know, it’s all sad in the end. At least you can get trinkets that are useful to someone and give them away!
@chrisfromnl: Try http://www.abebooks.com — maybe you can find it used.
@mopar_man: Boo-hoo landfills. I want to hear no more of this silly consumption snobbery until and unless you are a subsistence Amishman (or Frau/lein), living off the land that you till at 5 am after you fed the pigs & chickens and milked the cows. And your computer must be hand-cranked, your iPod pedal-driven. Good luck with that. Even the Amish think Crisco is pretty cool stuff.
When it comes to books, I always check http://www.bookmooch.com first. It’s a great book-swapping service.
@ChuckECheese: Um you can enjoy a modern lifestyle without being nearly as excessive and wasteful. Yeah, I’m a snob and I’m calling you out on your bad habits.
Those are very useful tips, thanks for the post.
Good for shoppers. Potentially very bad for the environment (see earlier posts about tiny items being shipped in lots of packing and big boxes).
Honestly, I wouldn’t feel good about doing this.
How does that Amazon secret code supposed to work? I tried it but didn’t see any difference.
family prime gets my vote.
I’m sorry, but prime’s a ripoff. well let me take that back. It’s AWESOME, it can save you LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY, provided that you absolutely positively have to have all your stuff either (a) overnighted or (b) two-dayed to you, and you (c) spend all your money at amazon to begin with.
I tried the free membership, but honestly? Free shipping sounds so much better, and I rarely need anything so badly that I can’t wait the third day. It’s not like I’m ordering that defibrillator that I need at this exact moment or anything…
@randombob:
$80 is steep, but you can sign up to 4 other people up under your account making it ~$17 each. I’m sure you can find 4 other people who would be willing to shell out for that…
Eh, kind of pointless… One COULD NOT buy from Amazon and wait to buy enough products to go over the $25 limit.
You can also check out Jungle-Search.com to find fillers on Amazon.com.
I found a $25 item for $4, and the shipping is $5!! So, smart me, I’ll try the free shipping “Amazon Prime” trial membership.The item is a USB flash drive, so for some odd reason it doesn’t qualify for the Amazon Prime free shipping. I don’t know, bubble wrap it and put it in the smallest envelope you have, would cost about 2cents of packaging, plus about 30 cents postage. I am also led to believe by Amazon that a case of 24 cannisters of Ajax cleanser costing $1.07 is either “hazardous” or has “unique shipping characteristics”, 12 softsoaps for $2.00 also doesn’t qualify. Whatever. I’ll wait for it to go on sale at the store around Thanksgiving. Thank goodness there is an option to not auto-renew the Amazon Prime Trial, as it’s pretty worthless. Amazon sucks.
try facebook application
[apps.facebook.com]