You will no doubt be aware your searches on the Internet are driven in part by collusion between the big "tech-bro's"; Amazon, eBay, &c getting top billing to sell you stuff even if you are looking for the answer to some question. Often, the sales pitches completely overwhelm and destroy any hope of using the internet for research. Until one of these greedy genii figures out that a choice offered between two search categories, "shopping" and "information" would have people flocking to the engine that offers that feature, that's what we're stuck with, an unregulated internet marketplace, rather than a useable encyclopædia. If we had the two functions offered separately and distinct from each other, think how useful and attractive a product that would be!

That, however, is a thought for another time, as this posting is to present to folks who read my keyboard-faeces a quick lesson in how you, my dear friends, are being fleeced when you fall for the magic that is Amazon.

Subscribe to Amazon Prime and get that shipping for free! You can get anything! So easy and convenient. That ease and convenience comes dear, gentle reader, as I shall now demonstrate.

Recently, I needed some 1mm plastic rod for a modelling project. My go-to sources for plastic architectural shapes are Evergreen and Plastuct. A quick search and the first page is nothing but eBay and Amazon. Photos, searchables, text, no matter the style of entry, one after the other all lead to Amazon, then eBay.

What I needed in a ten-pack from Amazon looks like this:



Scroll through the first page to finally find the stuff as retailed by the manufacturer and we see this:



That's right. The "free-shipping" offering under Amazon Prime is twice retail in price. There is a little clickable under the Amazon listing called "More buying choices".



Very often, there are far better prices offered there, even if you pay shipping rather than believe Prime membership is saving you anything.

Know this, chilluns. Every time you use Amazon Prime and think "Free-shipping! What a deal!", they are getting their shipping and more by this method. If you aren't going directly to the manufacturer or a proper retailer found buried on subsequent pages, at least check the "More buying choices" options, for often the shipping added to the lower price offered there is far less than the Prime pricing.

A Prime subscription is not the vehicle for savings you might think, and Amazon itself really is dangerous ground in the main. Indeed, it comes at a great cost, so it better be something you need and cannot source elsewhere. The old bit about careful comparison shopping applies here even more dramatically than in the days we learned the concept shopping on the High Street.

Be informed in your spending.