This thread's primary purpose is to clarify what Amazon.com's quick picks are and how to manipulate them.
PLEASE READ THE FAQ BEFORE ASKING ANY QUESTIONS.
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Amazon.com Confirmed Quick Picks Info
(These games have been confirmed to show up, within
the last year, in your Quick Picks by CAG members)
:3ds:Nintendo 3DS
Spoiler
:wii:Nintendo WiiU
Spoiler
:pc:PC
Spoiler
:ps3:Playstation 3
Spoiler
:psp:PSV
Spoiler
:360:XBox 360
Spoiler
Strategy Guides
Spoiler
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FAQ (Updated 11/04/11)
I keep hearing about 'gold/quick picks'; what are people talking about?
This is referring to the Amazon Gold Box page which lists personal quick picks just below the gold box and best deals. You must be logged in with your Amazon account to view these and they're updated daily (note: actual update times vary from person-to-person and day-to-day).
What can appear in my Quick Picks?
Books, CDs, DVDs; just about anything Amazon carries but more importantly -- video games! In addition to games, strategy guides and accessories may also turn up. Consoles can pop up from time to time but are usually not eligible for long.
What exactly are Quick Picks?
Quick Picks are items selected specifically for you, accompanied by an additional savings coupon. For video games, it's always an additional 5% off the sale price. For example, a $60 game marked down to $56.99 will yield an additional $2.85 discount. With pre-orders this will only lock in the discount percentage, so a price drop will cause the actual amount of the discount to be recalculated.
Does this discount stack with other offers?
Absolutely. Manufacturer coupons, trade-in credit/promotional codes, et cetera will all stack with this discount. I challenge you to find something that doesn't.
I just got three games in my Quick Picks; how many am I allowed per day?
While Amazon stipulates that only one is allowed per day, you can choose as many as you want with some trickery. To pull this off, make sure to keep the original Gold Box page open until you've completed your order(s) and begin by right-clicking the 'Add to cart' button. Now select 'Open Link in New Window/Tab' and you should see the discount applied in your cart. Repeat this process from your original page for each item, then proceed to the checkout and finalize your order.
What disqualifies an item for Quick Picks?
Items in your wish list, cart, or existing purchases/pre-orders will not appear. Marking a game 'not interested/owned/rated' will also disqualify it, but for multi-platform titles it may or may not exclude it for other console(s). The reason why is some games have individual product pages and some do not, so you will need to check this yourself on a case by case basis (1). Canceled pre-orders will not disqualify a game from showing up again; this has been proven and the game can show up again as early as the next day. Additionally, Amazon must have the item flagged for eligibility to show up (there is no way of seeing this).
Lastly, while this generally holds true for most items, certain games will bend this rule and can still appear again despite any of the above.
Where can I read more about Quick Picks?
Here or
How can I contribute to this thread?
Ask questions not covered by the FAQ, tell us your personal success stories, or list your gaming quick picks of the day. Feel free to brag about what games you got in your quick picks today and how you did it!
Is there any way to improve my chances of getting Quick Picks I want?
YES! The second half of this thread will be detailing proven methods for making items appear in your Quick Picks tailored to what you're targeting.
Recommendations
Recommendations are based on three factors: purchases, items you've marked as owned, and items you've rated. Each of them contribute to what will appear on the page and are key to manipulating your Quick Picks. Let's start with some basics by removing items in the list that you have no interest in.
Step One
If you'll notice, each item in your recommendations has a check-box titled 'Not Interested' below it. Because each item here is a potential candidate for your Quick Picks, you will want to check this for items you never want to be selected. Alternatively, you may just want to remove the offending item that is generating the recommendation by clicking 'Fix this'.
Fixing an item will bring up a detailed list of why the item is being recommended. It will always be based on one of the three factors aforementioned and from here you can check 'Don't use for recommendations'. However, this will drastically reduce items on your list and could also remove recommendations for items you do want! Use this method only if you're confident it will not disturb recommendations you want, but you can always undo this later if it does. You may find that your recommendations are now empty! Not to worry, we're going to populate it with only the good stuff now.
Step Two
Start by searching for the exact game you want. For this example I will use Dark Souls. Scrolling down on the product description page you will notice a section entitled 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought'. These work just like your recommendations page since they're linked. From this list you will want to pick a game that is popular and very closely matches the style of game-play. Since DS is an action RPG, good choices would be Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3, or Mass Effect 3. Now, return to your recommendations page and use the search bar there to 'Search for items to rate' (you may need to specify what department). Tell Amazon that you own it and give it five stars for good measure. Going back to your recommendations, you should now see Dark Souls staring you in the face along with plenty of other games. Remember what we did in step one? Hop to it!
Pro-Tip
The last thing I want to touch on with recommendations is how much weight each of the three factors give. Purchases are the major factor in successfully getting games in your quick picks, but for newer accounts you will likely not have any. To remedy this, you can place a faux (fake) pre-order for one of the games you selected in step two (such as Uncharted 3) and rate it five stars once it shows up in your 'items you own' page. Make sure you pick a game that is not already released, as you will not be charged until it ships (this includes Amazon/game credit; they will be refunded immediately after canceling). Simply cancel it once the game you wanted shows up in your quick picks. By telling Amazon that you own the item and rating it can still get the game in there, but this is a surefire method.
Browsing History
This has no impact on Quick Picks whatsoever, since they're locally stored on your PC. However, it is an incredibly handy tool for narrowing down which games will factor into getting an item into your recommendations. After viewing a game, go to the Your Amazon page and you'll notice a section called 'Customers Who Bought Items in Your Recent History Also Bought'. These items absolutely pinpoint what you should own/rate. Afterward, just delete your browsing history to reduce the clutter.
Maintenance
Lastly, I can tell you from experience that like day old bread -- your recommendations begin to stagnate. If you notice a lull in getting games or the wrong games are appearing, it's because Amazon has no recent activity to go by. Cancel and re-order games that you were using to target stuff with or try pre-ordering other games that you think will get what you're after. Even if you do this daily, you can still get junk mixed in with games. If you still get nothing but junk daily, it's because either what you want isn't eligible to show up or you haven't picked the right combination of games to pre-order/own/rate.
Also, Amazon is constantly updating and so are recommendations. This means that you should keep an eye on your recommendations in case something new pops up in the list. Can't tell you how many times junk will hop into my Quick Picks instead of what I was aiming for because I didn't mark them not interested in time.
Final Word
While this may seem like a lot of work, it can be very rewarding and a meta-game of sorts. Just keep in mind you're still at the mercy of Amazon's luck of the draw, so don't get frustrated if games don't start showing up right away. Have fun with it and enjoy the extra savings. You've earned it!
Edited by Jodou, 30 January 2013 - 05:28 PM.
Nintendo Wii
PC
Playstation 3
PSV
XBox 360
Nintendo DS
