Amazon: some items restricted for Prime members only?

Amazon's decision to restrict sales of some items to Prime members only is very frustrating.
Why should one pay for a useless "premium subscription plan" (no, I don't need your "30-day free" trial offers!), when all than one needs is to buy some items occasionally, and there's no need to hurry with "free 2-day shipping"? And BTW, do they ever care of international buyers (IMHO, they constitute a significant base of Amazon's sales)?..
Well, OK, let there be some "premium discounts" for Prime users (e. g., 10 %), let that "exclusiveness" be for pre-ordered items and fresh releases (e. g., for 3 months after inital release), but "banning" ordinary users from using the Amazon stocks for some non-exclusive products (released few years ago!) is not only unwise, but also somewhat dangerous, IMHO.
Why would loyal buyers buy directly from Amazon? It's because they know the Amazon goods stocks are (by default) genuine and of good quality.
By imposing that controversial "Prime-exclusive" restriction, ordinary buyers are forced to buy the wanted items from the stocks of the 3rd-party sellers (usually listed at the same Amazon item's page). The item prices offered by those sellers are usually higher, and so is the shipping (when those 3rd-party sellers don't use Amazon fulfillment services), but that's not the main problem (sometimes the 3rd-party sellers can even offer better prices!); the main problem, IMHO, is the following: some sellers could possibly try to sell (intentionally or unintentionally) some wrong or counterfeit items on the same product page; anyway, newbie buyers could think that's Amazon selling bad products to them (we're still shopping from the official Amazon's site, right?), and that can worsen Amazon's business reputation even more... Why should one want to subscribe for a "premium Amazon plan", just only to buy an item which is readily available everywhere else?!

Note: that applies not only to the main US Amazon.com site, but also to UK's Amazon.co.uk, at least.

P.S. Fortunately, if you're not in a hurry, sometimes you just can wait for some time (e.g., 1 month), to see the wanted Amazon item released for sale to general non-Prime public ;-)

External links:

1. Amazon Has Begun Labeling Some Items Prime-Exclusive (Updated) - Gizmodo
2. Amazon refusing to sell certain video games, movies to non-Prime members - ExtremeTech
3. Did You Know That Some Amazon Items Are for Prime Members Only? - DealNews
4. Amazon won’t sell you some video games without a Prime membership - GeekWire
5. Amazon temporarily slaps “Prime-only” rule on GTA V, other major games [Updated] - Ars Technica
6. No Prime, no sale: Amazon under fire for refusing to sell to shoppers unless they shell out for £79-a-year service - The Sun

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Last updated: 2019-04-24

Sites. Amazon: useful direct links

That's a list of direct links to quickly access some useful features at Amazon.com.

• Shopping Cart:
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/cart/view.html
https://www.amazon.com/cart
• Short links to a specific item:
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ID
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ID
• Buying Choices (offer listing; lists price offers from all the sellers of a specific product):
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ID
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ID/?aod=1
• Customer Questions & Answers (about a specific item):
  https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/asin/ID
• Customer Reviews (of a specific item):
  https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/ID
• Amazon Smile (charity/donation project, free for customers; discontinued since 2023):
  https://smile.amazon.com/
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/cart/view.html
[etc.]

Note. By ID, I mean ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), a 10-character alphanumeric Amazon product identifier (for books, it usually matches ISBN-10), e. g.:

• "B07978J597" is a Kindle E-reader (2019),
• and "0345803485" is for the Fifty Shades of Grey (paperback book, 2012), sorry for NSFW ;-)

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Last updated: 2026-03-03

Websites: camelcamelcamel: Amazon item price history

camelcamelcamel is a cool (surprisingly, camel-branded) free online service to check the actual and past prices (historical prices, price dynamics etc.) for items on Amazon online marketplaces (including the regional sites).
For example, here is a link to the Amazon price history for the Fifty Shades of Grey (paperback book; somewhat NSFW, sorry):

• Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey Series) (0345803485) | Amazon price tracker / tracking, Amazon price history charts, Amazon price watches, Amazon price drop alerts | camelcamelcamel.com

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Last updated: 2019-09-10