Anti-Deal: Amazon Prime no longer applies to toys to life and CEs

bradbo said:
If you have prime for discounts on video games you're using it wrong anyway. Huge waste imho.
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I disagree, I use same day shipping for GameStop flips and last weekend alone I easily doubled my credit from Amazon games, some of their prices I used to even price match at local stores. I wouldn't say it's a huge waste, if I didn't have the Prime membership last weekend would've been a bust for me

 
Major bummer.  Now the hard to get stuff will be even harder to get from BB.  Also, what if BB now rethinks GCU?  I know it existed before prime discounts, but what motivation will BB have to keep it intact?  Aside from keeping loyal customers... but that only lasts for so long these days it seems.

 
ToadKirby said:
Major bummer. Now the hard to get stuff will be even harder to get from BB. Also, what if BB now rethinks GCU? I know it existed before prime discounts, but what motivation will BB have to keep it intact? Aside from keeping loyal customers... but that only lasts for so long these days it seems.
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Maybe they get increased volume and sales that it doesn't hurt them? They're just hoping to get people in their stores. Now that Amazon charges tax, people will do impulse buys at Best Buy.

I've been surprised since the beginning Best Buy or Amazon offered a discount on CE products. I would have thought they would have been told to sell at MSRP.

 
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ToadKirby said:
Major bummer. Now the hard to get stuff will be even harder to get from BB. Also, what if BB now rethinks GCU? I know it existed before prime discounts, but what motivation will BB have to keep it intact? Aside from keeping loyal customers... but that only lasts for so long these days it seems.
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GCU very well may change, but I feel there's a lot more motivation for Best Buy to keep this program the way it is than for Amazon to match them. Amazon Prime is already a juggernaut and will continue to rake in subscribers whether they continue this game discount program or not. The game discount is a small part of Prime when you have their Prime Instant Video, Prime reading, and of course the shipping, and I can't imagine discounting games has that much impact on them losing subscribers.

GCU on the other hand lives off that 20% discount. Less people are going to re-up after 2 years if the discount becomes worse. If they make it worse to match what Prime is now, sure some people will still take it for $30 (especially those without Prime). But for those that have both, it would make GCU essentially pointless. And given how good GCU has been up to this point, IMO it's been well worth $30/2 year regardless of having a Prime subscription.

 
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Looking around at listings, the Elex Collectors Edition has the 20% discount, but the new LE for Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash does not.

 
donny2112 said:
Yeah, that's my thinking. Amazon seems to be harder hit by bots causing insta-sellouts, but BB now has the better price. Will have to see.
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People used Amazon as no-committal (since they don't bill) backup for CEs until BB put them up on the site for pre-order instead of Gamestop. I'm betting this will drive more business to Gamestop from Amazon for the CEs that Best Buy won't carry, or for the times when BB is sold out/not-orderable. Especially recently with CEs showing up in better condition from Gamestop than Amazon.

 
Seem like  a lot CE version coming this year and a lot will be after E3.  I guess bestbuy will be my Best Bet for CE version or i pick up regular version whenever it go down $20 or less.  Amazon will stock up a lot CE this year and no one wants it.

 
Yeah this is bad news.    

Not only that benefits are going away devaluing Prime, but competition for CEs will skyrocket on Best Buy now due to GCU discount.  Which probably means you need to snag a CE within an hour of it being available on BB.  

Less availability and options all around.  I guess it's a good thing I have stopped collecting CEs and focused more on steelbooks due to lack of space.

 
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shrike4242 said:
People used Amazon as no-committal (since they don't bill) backup for CEs until BB put them up on the site for pre-order instead of Gamestop. I'm betting this will drive more business to Gamestop from Amazon for the CEs that Best Buy won't carry, or for the times when BB is sold out/not-orderable. Especially recently with CEs showing up in better condition from Gamestop than Amazon.
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Yep and you can pre-order in-store, to have even less of a chance of it being damaged. The thing that sucks with GS online is you have to wait until Monday to get your Friday release.

 
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Honestly, I never used this benefit...
 

Most Toys to Life purchases favored you waiting them out and buying at Best Buy when there was a promo+GCU or on the Toys R Us website when they had buy X get X promos.

Save for the random store exclusives Zelda figures or Player 2 variants, there really hasn't been any Amiibo in the past year or so that really NEEDED preordering, or was necessarily worth picking up on day 1 unless you wanted it NOW. 

CEs are just an area that make little sense to me unless you're a super-fan of the franchise, as it's frequently just some weird swag bundled with game soundtrack and a book (artbook, guide, etc) of wildly varying quality. 

I guess if you're the sort who's running a side hustle where you're picking these up on a discount and relisting them directly to ebay or even just right back on Amazon, this could be a big ding and a loss to you. But I kind of expect that in it's data Amazon probably sees that very few people actually use this benefit, and the few that do abuse it as much as possible. 

 
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This is definitely not cool, but Prime's discount has always kinda sucked compared to GCU. I barely order games from Amazon anymore and really only have Prime at this point for The Tick series. 

 
Wow It also says:

"Offer restricted to a quantity of 1 per qualifying item."

Isn't GCU 3 per title per system, per year or something like that?

 
I liked buying from Amazon as opposed to Best Buy due to working at Best Buy for 8 years. They already took my soul, I didn't want to give them more money... 

 
LimitedRunDoug said:
I liked buying from Amazon as opposed to Best Buy due to working at Best Buy for 8 years. They already took my soul, I didn't want to give them more money...
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I hear that.

Once they gave me that watch, I was like, ugh...I've been here way too long. LOL!

Can't believe I spent so many years there, but luckily that's all in the past now, far, far, far in the past. :D

 
Durpington said:
Kinda sucks, but Prime is just so much better with everything else overall, I can't justify GCU yet.
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Best Buy stacks sale price, GCU, VCO, and reward coupons. More stacking than a body builder or a game or tetris.

Amazon needs to get a rewards program asap.
 
I remember back in the days when Best Buy would literally call us their devil customers and I despised them. But my love of cheap ass deals with GCU and the occasional Visa checkout deal has won me back even if the store itself sucks.

Amazon isn't even close to Gamestop bad but things like this are putting them on the wrong path.

Although I am happy to report that my ESO Morrowind CE looks like it will ship for the whopping $23 I paid for it (also had a $5 welcome series promo to stack).
 
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Squarehard said:
I hear that.

Once they gave me that watch, I was like, ugh...I've been here way too long. LOL!

Can't believe I spent so many years there, but luckily that's all in the past now, far, far, far in the past. :D
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My watch broke in like a month, I got mine in like 2011? It was much cheaper looking than my longtime coworkers...

 
As long as it's just the big CE's (the bigger $$ ones) that's fine.  I don't typically go for more than just the base game.  The only special verison of a game I have preordered right now is Yakuza Kiwami Steelbook Edition and my order total still looks good as well as the page listing still shows the prime discount.

So overall this won't affect me much.  I don't collect amiibos or other stuff like that.

Goodluck getting any Amazon Exclusive games over at BB.  I mean if you won't buy enough to make prime worth it, sure go that route but it's like some companies that sell limited physical games.. you will still have to deal with them eventually if you want the games.

 
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LimitedRunDoug said:
My watch broke in like a month, I got mine in like 2011? It was much cheaper looking than my longtime coworkers...
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Yeah, the older watches were certainly in way better shape because the one I got back in the latter half of 2000s, it was still a decent watch, no Rolex, but at least it wasn't a plastic one you get out of a claw machine. XD

 
This is all very confusing - has this actually been confirmed?  Both the FAQs and Terms and Conditions from the Prime Savings page do not reflect collector's editions being exempt.

If the CE exemption is real, it is being applied inconsistently.  For example, Elex: Collector's Edition includes the  Prime Savings discount.

I received today Tekken 7 Collector's edition for which they did not deduct Prime Savings.  I called customer service and they applied the discount immediately. 

 
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Good night sweet Prime.

tenor.gif


 
mywhitenoise said:
That's a hell of a price you're paying for one show.
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Well I do buy things on Amazon that aren't games so the free shipping is definitely nice. I also use Prime Music and watch other things on Prime Video as well, but not nearly as much as I use other services like Hulu and Netflix. The Tick was a big reason why I renewed my Prime this year though.

 
JSweeney said:
Honestly, I never used this benefit...

Most Toys to Life purchases favored you waiting them out and buying at Best Buy when there was a promo+GCU or on the Toys R Us website when they had buy X get X promos.

Save for the random store exclusives Zelda figures or Player 2 variants, there really hasn't been any Amiibo in the past year or so that really NEEDED preordering, or was necessarily worth picking up on day 1 unless you wanted it NOW.

CEs are just an area that make little sense to me unless you're a super-fan of the franchise, as it's frequently just some weird swag bundled with game soundtrack and a book (artbook, guide, etc) of wildly varying quality.

I guess if you're the sort who's running a side hustle where you're picking these up on a discount and relisting them directly to ebay or even just right back on Amazon, this could be a big ding and a loss to you. But I kind of expect that in it's data Amazon probably sees that very few people actually use this benefit, and the few that do abuse it as much as possible.
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I get your line of thinking and think you are probably right about the majority of customers, but for me, I really like CEs but they are often overpriced and predatory on their most loyal customers. That 20% discount at Best Buy and Amazon often made me consider it (and buy it). For example, the Sonic Mania CE is slightly overpriced imo. However, the 20% discount brought it down to a fair amount for me. If Amazon takes away the 20% discount on my pre-order, I'm going to cancel it and try at best buy or not get it at all.

WIth that said, there's also series I will probably buy a CE for no matter the price if I can afford it, such as The Witcher or Zelda. I think that's what Amazon thinks the majority of CE purchases are.

Honestly though, it probably isn't a conspiracy about how they can get away with it, it's probably much simpler: Toys and CEs take up far more space in their warehouses than games and probably aren't worth stocking to make little to no profit on.

 
Jurai said:
it's only $30 for 2 yrs of coverage, pays for itself pretty quick
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But why would I spend $30 more for it when Best Buy isn't within walking distance and Prime is eligible on other things? If it has the same, free release day shipping, then it's worth it. If they ever implement that, I'd be 100% down, but Prime has too many other benefits outside of video games for me to give GCU the money right now.

 
Durpington said:
But why would I spend $30 more for it when Best Buy isn't within walking distance and Prime is eligible on other things? If it has the same, free release day shipping, then it's worth it. If they ever implement that, I'd be 100% down, but Prime has too many other benefits outside of video games for me to give GCU the money right now.
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They do have the same free, release day shipping (over $35 which covers most games and there's in store pick up as well). It only takes three games to more than pay for it and it also applies to ALL games that are new not just the pre-orders and the first two weeks. Plus it stacks on sale prices. Save way more on games with GCU. Well worth it IMO.

I have Prime but never use it for video games unless I have some credit to burn.
 
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Too many damaged items and returns. The people buying these items expect minty conditions on receipt- Amazon can't deliver that and returns are killing them. Blame the shipping companies- they damage the boxes and raise prices often. Amazon is passing it on.
 
bradbo said:
Too many damaged items and returns. The people buying these items expect minty conditions on receipt- Amazon can't deliver that and returns are killing them. Blame the shipping companies- they damage the boxes and raise prices often. Amazon is passing it on.
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Usually Amazon bans those customers... I would know, they banned my account like 5 years ago for too many damaged returns... I got around their ban, have to use a family member's address.. Eh, is what it is.

 
bradbo said:
Too many damaged items and returns. The people buying these items expect minty conditions on receipt- Amazon can't deliver that and returns are killing them. Blame the shipping companies- they damage the boxes and raise prices often. Amazon is passing it on.
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No, it's Amazon's processes which have their fulfillment reps cutting corners and using bubble mailers fair more often than they need to. Some stuff, if they took the time to pack it properly and put it in a box, not a bubble mailer, wouldn't be damaged nearly as much as other items.

 
bradbo said:
Too many damaged items and returns. The people buying these items expect minty conditions on receipt- Amazon can't deliver that and returns are killing them. Blame the shipping companies- they damage the boxes and raise prices often. Amazon is passing it on.
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Maybe the carrier pays for "damaged in transit" items if Amazon has some kind of shipping-insurance agreement.

 
Every item I've ever returned to Amazon has been inside a physically damaged shipping box- it's usually a larger book or something with banged up edges. I've never had an issue with a bubble envelope- maybe I'm lucky. I've had to have probably a dozen items sent again because they were "delivered" but didn't show. I don't blame Amazon for any of this but I've certainly read many complaints where they were to blame. I can see both sides.

I did receive MANY smashed amiibo boxes that were folded and packed into tiny boxes- I opened them anyway but if I was collecting hell no.

I've received and sent at least 500 games, dvds etc in bubble mailers (usually very used and ragged ones) on various trading sites and don't remember any complaints. I also don't cram oversized collectors editions in them.
 
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Ah well, this'll have me spending more responsibly then. I used to only get CE that I really wanted and I started buying them way more with the discount.

I don't have a BBY near me within like 45+ minutes so GCU sucks for me. If they gave me 2 day shipping I'd switch but IIRC they don't. 

 
Everyone complaining about best buy not being close as a reason to not have gcu....

Best buy gives free 2 day shipping when you spend $35+. Almost all new release and all collector edition games are easily above that price point.
 
So I have no reason to subscribe prime now?

I only ever subscribe to prime when I knew I was going to buy CE of any games during Christmas time along with other gifts.

 
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