Amazon Prime Exclusive items?

WinMacSims3

Recently, I've seen some items on Amazon.com being listed as "Exclusively for Prime Members" which has came under fire particularly from gamers when Amazon.com made some games Prime Exclusive in 2016.

Here are some examples of Prime Exclusive items:

• ASUS 12X Blu-ray Burning Speed USB 2.0/USB 3.0 External Blu-ray Drive (BW-12D1S-U Lite)
• WD 2TB Black My Passport Ultra Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBBKD0020BBK-NESN [Old Model]
• Thermaltake CORE V21 Black Extreme Micro ATX Cube Chassis CA-1D5-00S1WN-00

This is probably just as bad as the "See price in cart" that Amazon and other stores tend to do. What do you think of "Prime exclusive" items?

mintycupcake

I don't see why not. They certainly not the first company to do it. And looking at that first product you've posted, it's available from other sellers, so obviously there's a work around anyway.

Prime is such a good deal; you get so much with it, it very quickly pays for itself.

WinMacSims3

mintycupcake wrote: »

I don't see why not. They certainly not the first company to do it. And looking at that first product you've posted, it's available from other sellers, so obviously there's a work around anyway.

Prime is such a good deal; you get so much with it, it very quickly pays for itself.

That is a good workaround but you may have to pay more. For the 3rd product, the item from Amazon costs $57.99 vs $64.99 if you buy from the other seller. I don't if Amazon does this for games today but in April 2016, Amazon has came under fire for making some games exclusively for Prime members. The problem with this is most people on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One tend to purchase games on disc from stores such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. whereas PC players tend to either purchase games on download from stores such as Steam, Origin, and GOG.com.

And it not just games, this can also affect people who want to order products that usually can't be in local stores (at least in my city) such as computer cases, blu-rays, optical drives, hard drives, and SSDs; this can be problematic if he/she can't buy them from Amazon.

Of course you could either purchase from a different seller or purchase the product from a different store such as Newegg.

SSDSSDSSD2

I'm not a fan of it; however, the company has the right to do what it wants.

toroo

Its either a hit or miss. Might attract someone to buy Prime or to buy a game from another seller. Most people would most likely not buy Prime just for a single item, so I don't see much sense in it. (Coming from a prime member.)

WinMacSims3

The Prime Exclusive action will most likely make people buy from another seller or use a different store such as Newegg, Best Buy, and eBay which would carry the same item.

Unless if you have $50+ products, it sometimes may be better to use Newegg or other stores that have free shipping since Amazon requires $50+ in orders to have free shipping unless you have Amazon Prime but that would assume the products have a similar price. Similarity, video games on disc may be cheaper to either buy locally or from stores that have free shipping as opposed to using Amazon to buy it since Amazon will not have free shipping if your game doesn't cost $50 but most newer games (including Windows exclusives) these days cost $60 so that wouldn't be a problem.

WinMacSims3

What can make Amazon Prime Exclusive items worse is many rival stores often carry the same item sometimes at the same price so it would be better to buy the item from another store if the other store is a better deal. In the video below, I've spotted some items like the NETGEAR PLW1000 and Logitech G105 being Prime Exclusive items but also found it in other stores.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gNLSSHxht4