Amazon promotions confuse me

EeveeFanboy

EeveeFanboy

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People who use their Amazon credit make no sense. Like when Amazon had the buy 80 get 40 promotion, people were saying to preorder MW2 because you get it for FREE because you use the $40 credit and then you get $20 credit with MW2. Then they use the $20 credit and that's another deal. So the deals continue, but they always think they got more deals than they actually have. Using the $40 on MW2 doesn't make it a deal, because I already got that deal with the b80g40. Then the $20 credit you get with MW2 just means that you have to spend that money, so people buy more games that give them $10 credit or less. So customers get stuck in an endless loop of "killer savings" and Amazon is guaranteed that they will buy every new release from them on release day because they're getting such killer deals.

Did that make sense? I was just kind of rambling, so not sure if that's coherent to anybody other than myself. I know the customer really is saving money, but they make it seem like they're getting every big release for a super amazing price. Amazon seems to win more than the customer, but the customer feels like the real winner.

I just thought of maybe a better example. You buy a new game with $10 credit, so you say you bought the game for $50. You use that credit on another new game that also has $10 credit, so you say you bought that game for $40, because you got to use $10 off PLUS you get another $10 credit for buying it. Then another game has $10 credit, etc. So you think you bought all of those games for $40, but really you bought all of them for $50 and have an extra $10 credit to spend when there aren't any new games left to buy. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that seems to happen in Amazon promotional credit threads.
 
I sold my MW2 the day I got it and I also used a previous $10 promo credit so it wasn't full price. During all the "deals" in September thanks to the ECA and the promo credit all those games were either free or half the price of retail so basically saved a fuck load of money. $20 promo credit is going towards a non-fail game called Bad Company 2 for significantly cheaper price. Great stuff
 
So it's not the promotions that confuse you, it's the fuzzy math that people use to claim that they got a deal on a game.
 
Yeah, amazon does end up making more, but lets say they give $20 or, $10 in credit towards your next purchase on every game you want. As long as you buy from them it basically means first game is full price, and every subsequent game is $10 or $20 off.

$60 + $20 gift card
$60 - $20 gift card = $40 + $20 gift card
$60- $20 gift card = $40 + $10 gift card
$60 - $10 gift card = $50 + $10 gift card
$60 - $10 gift card = 50
Total Spent: $240
Average per game: $48
Assuming $57 instead of $60 Average = $45
Average at B&M Assuming 8.5% sales tax = $65.1
Savings per game= $20

So say you bought 5 games, you end up spending $240 instead of $300, as long as you keep using their promotions. On top of that most games arent even $60 (lets say they average at 57, since some are 60 while a lot are 57 or 53) and you don't pay tax (which is around 8.5% on average from what ive read). So with that, you really end up spending $225 instead of $325 and end up saving around $100
 
Amazon wins because it guarantees future sales. Customers win because they can use the credit towards Amazon's already decently discounted games and which may net them additional future credit. I suppose one could argue that Amazon could do this to prey on weak-willed individuals that lack self-control, but Amazon isn't forcing anyone to buy anything; it's up to customers to pace themselves.

If anything, it's an example of how Amazon is engaged in predatory pricing against competitors.
 
^Yeah buying on Amazon w/ no tax > thank any B&M.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I had traded in some older games for amazon credit too.

But yeah, I suppose if you don't do any discount and buy ONE game at full price then it's a pretty big waste of time.
 
I agree some people don't do the math right but you do save money. It is a win for both gamers & Amazon as I continue to get discounts and they know I am going to buy at least 1 more game from them with every purchase made.

I did the spend 80 get 40 deals and got NSMBW which came with a 10. So in the end I got 2 games at full (amazon) price, NSMBW for 10, and have a 10 dollar credit towards another game to still use.

Sure someone would argue that they got 2 games for half price, new SMB for free, and 10 off on another game. But that doesn't make the Amazon promotions confusing, it just makes people bad a math.
 
[quote name='RoadDogg']I agree some people don't do the math right but you do save money. It is a win for both gamers & Amazon as I continue to get discounts and they know I am going to buy at least 1 more game from them with every purchase made.

I did the spend 80 get 40 deals and got NSMBW which came with a 10. So in the end I got 2 games at full (amazon) price, NSMBW for 10, and have a 10 dollar credit towards another game to still use.

Sure someone would argue that they got 2 games for half price, new SMB for free, and 10 off on another game. But that doesn't make the Amazon promotions confusing, it just makes people bad a math.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the people bad at math are calculating it this way:

($80 - $40 GIFT CARD I GET)/ 2 Games = ($20 + $20 gift card) x 2
$50 - ($20 gift card x 2) - $10 GIFT CARD I GET = $10 + $10 gift card
$60 random game - $10 gift card = $50
Average: $25

REAL WAY:
$80 / 2 games + $40 gift card = ($40 + $20 gift card) x 2
$50 - ($20 gift card x 2) = $10 + $10 gift card
$60 - $10 gift card = $50
Average: $42.50

making the average of all the games come out to $25.00 instead of the real $42.50 , which is still a deal, but not nearly as nice as they make it seem to be.
 
Yeah, it's the people that are confusing. I was trying to make the title short :p Amazon's got some amazing business sense. They might make less per game sold, but they make it up by having more loyal customers.

[quote name='darkslime']Hey, I think I know you from Pokemon Secure! I remember the avatar and sig.[/QUOTE]
Yep! :) That was a long time ago. I kind of remember you, but I never really became a regular member, so my memory's a bit fuzzy...

REAL WAY:
$80 / 2 games + $40 gift card = ($40 + $20 gift card) x 2
$50 - ($20 gift card x 2) = $10 + $10 gift card
$60 - $10 gift card = $50
Average: $42.50
Click to expand...
You're making it look more confusing than it is :p Although it might be because I treated it like a B2G1F special. I essentially got the 3 games I wanted for $4 less than retail if they had those 3 games in stock (which they didn't, damn niche titles).
 
Ok... take for instance Halo ODST. Regular price was what $56? Then amazon has a price drop before the release so it's like $50? Then there's the ECA, twitter discount, and something else promo discount? which I can't recall the actual amounts but I remember the others being $5 and $10 off. That bought the total to around $35 plus $10 off your next game purchase. In my case I was able to do this twice with Halo ODST so I got twice the discount on my next game too. Throw in no tax and no shipping charge as well as trade in credit and there you go... It's not fuzzy math and ANYTHING is better than full price ANYWHERE.
 
The real trick to saving is to only buy the games you want to play at that time. If there's a promotion at the time, great. But don't buy a game that you won't play for months since the price would probably be even lower when you do have time for it.
 
yeah i'll agree some people don't do there math right. personally i consider any "$X credit" promotions as amount off the game it comes with, but not on what i actually use it on. basically as an example, i considered the $20 i got from MW2 as $20 off that game, but when i used that credit on a new DS, i considered those $20 as part of my money, not an extra amount off the price.

sounds kind of backwards i suppose, but i prefer it that way heh.
 
[quote name='y2jasper']yeah i'll agree some people don't do there math right. personally i consider any "$X credit" promotions as amount off the game it comes with, but not on what i actually use it on. basically as an example, i considered the $20 i got from MW2 as $20 off that game, but when i used that credit on a new DS, i considered those $20 as part of my money, not an extra amount off the price.

sounds kind of backwards i suppose, but i prefer it that way heh.[/QUOTE]

Same here. When I got Mario Wii, I saw it as price of Mario Wii - $10; The next game I viewed at full price, eventhough I'm using the credit. This way it clears any fuzzy math confusion about credit.
 
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