How to Score Rock-Bottom Prices at Amazon by Diligent Searching

Would you like to save BIG on the multiple, multiple types of products offered on Amazon.com? 

Diligent searching, which can require several hours you need to be aware, but there is a literal pay-off that I think is worth your time and trouble.

This week I’ll apply this principle to Amazon.com. In next week’s blog post, I’ll show you how you can purchase used books for the measly price of $2.00 each—and these can be books in very good condition! (That is on the Better World Books site.)

You will use the “Wish List” feature for parking your choices. Once you complete your parking of potential selections, analyze each item that you placed on your Wish List carefully by returning to its description page. Take notes on the top contenders—or, if you have a printer, this is a cost-effective way to use it!

For goods that come in various colors, look for a mismatch of the photograph and the description regarding the color of an item. Sometimes, this shows up as no photograph at all. If there is a photograph, it might perhaps show a “putty” (beige) file cabinet, but the description specifies that the cabinet is “black.” That is a clearance item, and I have the file cabinet to prove it! (Half market price.) Another example is a photograph showing “green” file folders with a description that specifies “blue”—those, too, I bought for half-price! (You can tell that as a former attorney, current writer, I believe in keeping papers organized!)

Returned items are your best friends for other goods (those where color choice is not available.) There are two sorts, opened boxes and returns that have been reconditioned. Generally, the second sort are electronic equipment.

The opened boxes have a variety of descriptors. Read the pricing column carefully on each item you find to be a good value so that it is worth placing on your Wish List. That column is on the right and often includes pricing for the “Subscribe and Save” option. Generally speaking, if subscription is available, opened boxes are not, but this is not inevitable. Nothing about the world’s largest retailer is inevitable!

Here is an example of an opened-box item that I recently purchased—toilet paper for the old-fashioned price of 38 cents per roll. I haven’t scored that price at a chain drug store for decades! The item, Cottonelle Ultra Gentle Care with Aloe and E—who needs such fancy features, but it was at an introductory price of 45 cents per roll for 48 double rolls. AND I spotted the opened box offer—16% off the introductory price! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the packaging of each of the four eight-roll packages—it was simply that the carton had been opened and re-taped.

The other kind of returned item is factory-reconditioned electronic equipment. Reconditioned electronic products such as computers that remain under warranty from the manufacturer are often offered on Amazon if you search for them.

I have purchased computers and printers routinely for most of two decades that are reconditioned. Not a single problem has ensued. And I have saved at least one-third of the already-discounted Amazon price on each item!

Searching for such clearance items takes time, to be sure. A couple of hours at least for each search. But it results in tax-free “wages” that beat what most people earn!