Buying less from Amazon these days?

I'm finding myself buying less and less new vinyl and CDs from Amazon over the last year, particularly the box-sets. Mainly because they don't seem to be doing the heavy pre-order discounting to the extent I have seen in recent years.

I'm basing this on the fact that in 2014 I found better preorder deals on all of the Led Zeppelin super deluxe sets, the Beatles Mono Vinyl box, and the upcoming Pink Floyd album deluxe edition and vinyl edition.

Compare to 2009 when I couldn't find a better pre-order price for the Beatles CD boxes, 2011-12 when their preorder price for Pink Floyd box sets was also very good, as was the Nirvana Nevermind remaster sets and the U2 Achtung Reissue boxes.

Also with them charging sales tax to my state (TX) now, I find that over the last year that if an item is only several dollars less than list at Amazon, it makes more sense to order out of state from specialized sellers with better service like Acoustic Sounds or Music Direct. All of these places have free shipping with certain purchase levels.

Anyone else finding Amazon is no longer the deal it used to be on the music you buy new?

 

I'm having the same experience - I used to buy quite a bit of new vinyl and CD's from Amazon. Now I buy very rarely from them - when all factors are considered, most of the time other online retailers are providing a better price, better service and comparable delivery time.

 

I buy about the same but have spread the wealth among the various countries Amazon sites, whoever is cheapest with shipping gets the order. People outside the USA have less choice with regards to vendors who ship internationally.

 

Agree, Amazon has become much less competitive on new music releases. This, combined with far too many extended delays in international expedited shipping, have seen me shift most of my music purchases elsewhere.

 

Where did you preorder the floyd?

 

Not intentionally, but I guess I have. I do lots of pre-orders even if I am just mildly interested in something to see if the price dips. In years past, I would end up getting them because it did, but this year I think I have canceled more than I ended up getting. I still like pre-ordering from them if it is something I really want, due to getting it by auto rip the morning it comes out.

 

Much less since they started charging me tax.

 

Same here. Amazon is much less price competitive these days. It seems like if I do order something from Amazon, is from one of their international sites rather than the USA site.

 

I preordered the new Floyd album from CDimports.com. Not for quality service (it's a discount internet seller), but I have previously ordered all of the first 3 of the Zeppelin super-D boxes earlier this year from them and it was near wholesale price with quick delivery so I can't complain. I preordered the next two sets there as well (around $90 each).

 

Yes, not their fault, but it is amazing how much difference that makes in the decision of where to buy if their retail price is only a couple bucks cheaper than local stores.

For me it's that combination of paying tax and not getting the unbeatable pre-order deals that I used to.

 

i've been buying more.

 

Yes, as others have noted, fewer deals to be found on Amazon these days. I also buy much less from marketplace sellers since they upped the shipping to $3.99/cd

 

Actually, it is their fault, since they don't have to charge tax except in states where they have a "nexus" of operations, but have started to charge tax in a lot of other states as well--giving into greedy state politicians. Yes, the buyer should be paying tax on interstate commerce, but that doesn't negate the fact that legally there is no reason or precedence that Amazon should be collecting such taxes.

Amazon capitulated because they decided that such taxes hurt their competitors more than they hurt Amazon.

 

I'm not a fan of the sales tax, but it's the same $$$ that I'd pay from a local retailer. The issue I see is that some of the other retailers are now charging the same as Amazon. For whatever reason they've simply given up their price advantage.

 

Eventually the sales tax thing would have happened. I buy just as much if not more, especially with Prime.

 

The sales tax (9.25 % here ) definitely made a difference for me. I'm forever checking, and double-checking prices for pre orders, and for items already available, private sellers on eBay, and Bull Moose are the big winners these days for my $$$.

 

I am finding better deals elsewhere.
It makes me wonder. Does Amazon own all these other smaller companies like Collector's Choice, Oldies.com, Deep Discount, etc??

 

The funny thing about sales tax is that we all owe the tax to our state even when the seller does not collect it (i.e. we are supposed to file and pay use tax to our home state) but since it's not widely paid by most individuals and does not seem to be widely enforced, we all (myself included) punish the compliant retailers by buying elsewhere. It would be like refusing to work for an employer who insisted on withholding income tax if most did not!

 

It's not just sales tax, Amazon hasn't really been competitive on music pricing in some time. I noticed it as soon as last Christmas shopping season, when music was heavily stripped from their daily deals. The margins are probably very tight on single CDs for Amazon, since they have so many Prime customers now. That was a great draw to the program in its early years, but Amazon was likely selling them at break-even much of the time. I've done some back of the envelope calculations, they generally value the worth of the MP3 streaming license when you buy an album at $1.25.

 

Interesting point. Hadn't considered the royalty associated with Auto Rip & Prime streaming as part of the cost. The $$$ are much different than a decade ago but this sounds similar to the costing issue with multi-layer DVD-A and SACD.

 

Super D owns Collector's Choice and Deep Discount. Oldies.com is owned by Gotham Distributing, who owns the Collectables label.