Amazon is dropping the price of its Prime Membership this weekend only. Starting this Friday (1/15/16) and ending Midnight Sunday, the price will be $73 for a single year instead of the usual $99 per year. This is a one-time-only deal for new members, and your renewal rate will go back up to $99 for next year.
If you’re no stranger to this site, you have probably noticed we often link out to Amazon, and that’s because they usually have the best price even without the free two day Prime shipping. If you’re a Prime member the free shipping is worth the price alone if you buy a lot of stuff through Amazon.
A word of caution though, a “Prime” item sometimes isn’t the lowest cost version on the site. Sometimes you can find the exact same product cheaper from a 3rd party “marketplace” seller, even with free shipping included.
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Strangely, I’ve also encountered products with two different Prime listing for radically different prices. So always browse the other sellers box that you find on the far right side of the page.
Amazon Prime entitles members to free 2-day shipping (except where noted otherwise) on items sold directly by Amazon, and by those sold by 3rd party sellers who ship their goods to Amazon for fulfillment. Such “Fulfilled by Amazon” items are sold by other sellers, but order shipment and customer service is handled by Amazon.
Prime Membership has other advantages for ToolGuyd readers. For instance, they sometimes have special member-only prices on tools, like the Keter Masterloader Toolbox which Prime members can get for $50 shipped free. The best pricing I could find elsewhere was $48 at Sears for the Craftsman version, or $53 shipped to the store at Home Depot. Throughout the year there are usually better examples of real savings on member only prices.
It’s strange, but that Keter toolbox and scores of other tools can only be purchased from Amazon directly if you are a Prime member. If you’re not a Prime member, you’re directed to an Amazon Prime page where you could sign up for a free trial.
(Thanks to Toolfreak for the heads-up about Prime member-exclusive items!)
Also, if you remember back to the Holiday season, Prime members get early access to many Lightning Deals. If an item is popular and heavily discounted, it can mean the difference between owning it and being too late to buy it at the deal price.
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Amazon Prime has some other great benefits if you’re not buying tools. You have access to a small library of free movies and TV shows, access to a pretty decent streaming music service, unlimited photo storage, and access to the Kindle Lending Library.
Follow the link below to buy a prime membership at the $73 price. Or give it a try with a free 30 day trial.
Buy Now ($73 Prime Membership)
Try Now (Prime Membership Trial)
The discount is only for new subscribers.
This offer is valid through 11:59pm PT on Sunday, January 17th.
If you’re wondering about the loophole that supposedly has worked before where you turn off auto renew and buy yourself a gift membership, Amazon explicitly states that: “Promotion does not apply to the gift of Prime.”
Stuart Note: I’ve been a Prime subscriber for over 10 years now. It all started with a free trial in 2005. Now, I probably order more from Amazon than any other online retailer – combined.
Bob
Hi all,
Great heads up. “The discount is only for new subscribers.” Is not entirely true! My membership is up at the end of the month, I happen to have a few minutes to kill yesterday so i decided to chat with amazon via the customer service chat feature. Essentially i asked what could be done since i am expiring not long after and i would prefer to keep prime but at this rate. After an extended period where they were “looking into it”. They came back and stated if after i renewed i called or did another chat they would credit my acct the difference. I emailed the chat log to myself and am sure Amazon will honor this commitment.
Not sure if anyone else will have this luck but $26 credit is as good as cash for me.
Benjamen
Interesting, my Prime renewed this last Tuesday. Stuart was trying to get me to talk to Amazon to apply the deal to my account, but I didn’t think it’d be worth the hassle.
Maybe I’ll have to rethink that.
Stuart
It’s worth a shot. I wouldn’t bother with a phone call, but a 2-minute live chat or email couldn’t hurt.
The worst they can say is “sorry, we cannot apply the discount to your renewal,” and the best they can do is give you the discount as a credit.
If they say no to a credit, you could alternatively ask if they would be able to give you a short no-cost extension. An Amazon rep gave me a 1 or 2 month extension to my Prime subscription once, after I complained about an order arrived well after the guaranteed delivery date.
Benjamen
Went to contact Amazon. I was shut down before I could even get to chat with someone:
Mozart in the Jungle – Amazon Prime Offer
If you’re contacting us about the Prime offer in celebration of Amazon’s Golden Globe Award winning series, please visit amazon.com/mozartprime for more information about eligibility.
I know some people can ignore the rules and get what they want, but I’m not one of those people. Having been on the other side, it annoyed the hell out of me when things were clearly stated and they ignored them.
Bob
I didn’t get that at all. I saw a article pop on yahoo and must of gotten to then before they had made a corporate decision on it. That is why I made sure to email myself the chat.. I figured they would eventually close that door hard and fast.
Greg Post
Prime membership is some of the best money I spend all year. I recently put up some Wall Control pegboard over Thanksgiving. I have a Lowes and Homedepot less than 5 minutes from my home, went to both to look for the product or another pegboard system. Both stores were lacking and disorganized, Lowes workers were friendly, HD not so much. Both trips a waste of time. Got home later that night around midnight, ordered on Amazon and noticed Prime one day delivery for the next day by 8pm. Item arrived at 4:45pm next day to my door. Amazon is taking over.
fred
I’m slowly becoming less enamored with my Prime Membership.
I have to admit that I don’t use it for anything other than shipping – so I can’t comment about its other benefits. Lately – I’ve been noticing more “2-day” Prime shipping that has been delivered a day late – typically by USPS – and I’m not counting weekend days. I also see some Prime items that now say “2 business days” – presumably excluding weekends and holidays from the count. Of course the flip side is that some Amazon Marketplace items do arrive more quickly than promised. I’ve also remarked before that Amazon seem to be building shipping costs into their prices (not really a surprise) – but this makes Prime a bit less valuable. Overall – I’m a creature of habit – and will not likely cancel my Prime membership.
Benjamen
I’ve noticed that they really stretch the meaning of Two Day Shipping also. You’d better get up pretty early on Tuesday if you want something two day shipped by Thursday.
I don’t think I’ve ever had something arrive later than the promised date and sometimes my two day shipped items come the next day. Maybe it’s just a factor of where you live.
Also just recently, I just got a Prime package delivered to me by the USPS on Sunday.
Bruce
I’ve been the secondary on my buddy’s membership for several years now. There are a couple of things I like a lot, if you don’t need it quick, pick slow shipping and receive credit for music and books. This helps feed my book habit. I’ll probably buy the membership at this price, at least if it’ll let me. I’ll probably buy it anyway because Amazon video is coming out with some pretty cool stuff lately.
Bob
Been a prime member for years… Early on i had all types of issues with two day shipping. Usually a chat with a rep would get me a few dollar credit. I am normally not that guy but if your advertise it follow through.
I recently started using prime music and photo.. Both are awesome, prime photo is a storage live saver on the phone. Prime music replaced Pandora, no commercials and I can go backwards and forwards… Sold. Has allowed me to cancel xm radio.
Bob
* caveat, “prime pantry” irks me.
Wait pay for shipping… Why am i paying for prime!? Also many items are nothing special on pricing
WBC
Amazon Business accounts get free 2 day shipping (the major Prime perk!) for all orders over $49, and there is no yearly subscription fee like there is with Prime.
I’m not really in love with using Amazon. They’re website organizational structure is horrible, there are too many competing products, etc etc. But sometimes it is useful when you need two or three very dissimilar items that you would otherwise purchase from two or three other places, to just buy them in one shot at Amazon.
And lately Amazon has been missing the mark on 2 day shipping. Twice in the past two months, I’ve had 2 day orders take 3 days. On Tuesday I placed a sizable order with Amazon at 10AM EST, all items available for 2 day ship and all fulfilled or sold directly by Amazon. Nothing shipped until Wednesday, so the packages didn’t show up until yesterday (Friday), which was the third day.
A 5 minute online chat with an Amazon.com rep resulted in them giving me a 20% refund on that order. So at least it is nice to know that when Amazon does drop the ball, they’ll hold themselves accountable for their errors.
Andy
I actually had them refund the entire price of a late item to me and external my prime by a month. You can’t really ask for more.
Paul G.
I live in a rural area. I had prime a few years ago at the $79. price but when they raised it to $99 I felt it was a bit too much. Without the prime membership I would always try to accumulate the $35 minimum order to get free shipping and then wait (for my location) the typical 5 days to get delivery. At times I would need something quicker so I paid for the shipping. I may have saved a few dollars doing this over the course of the year and it was a draw regarding the inconveniences of not having the prime shipping vs. saving the $99. But.. when I saw the one week special for $73 (thanks ToolGuyd) I immediately jumped at the opportunity.
Andrew Lethbridge
I just got off amazon chat and they reimbursed the difference ($99/$73 )of $26 to my account from the prime I purchased January 31st 2015. I’ll be signing up again but I felt this was pretty good customer service!