another Kindle US spend $20 get $5 offer, Nov 27 - Dec 4

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

That if I spend exactly $20 (and no more), then I'll get $5 in credit.

And if I spend more, then the savings (%) drops. That's all.

My good Dr., I think you are looking at it the wrong way. (Or you're the pessimist and I'm the optimist)

I spent my twenty-ish dollars buying books I would have bought regardless. Just in this instance after a certain number of my purchases, Amazon said "Hey kid, here's $5. Knock yourself out."

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

My good Dr., I think you are looking at it the wrong way. (Or you're the pessimist and I'm the optimist)

I spent my twenty-ish dollars buying books I would have bought regardless. Just in this instance after a certain number of my purchases, Amazon said "Hey kid, here's $5. Knock yourself out."

Well, I only bought one book (out of the 60-ish or so that I have on my Wish List); so I declined the offer, although I easily could have spent exactly $20 (four ebooks at $5 each) and would have been given the $5 credit. (And I also have that List quite a number at $4.99)

The reason I decided not to spend any more (until next week ) is that I just bought the Kindle Oasis 3, along with Amazon's Merlot cover. And also three cases: two different ones - different styles - for my Kindle Voyage, and one for my Kobo Forma. In addition to that I purchased a case from Noreve for my Kindle Oasis 3. This is a premium, top-of-the-line case. (I've purchased their cases before.) And finally, two paper editions of my first book. --- All this is a Christmas gift to myself!

Oh, yes, and my final Christmas gift to myself: $2,000 - $3,000 for cataract surgery, probably right after Christmas! To include (in that price range), eye exam, medication, and new glasses!

Santa's one fat ol' sucker - not that there's anything wrong with being fat.

[sufue]

Exactly how I see it too...I buy enough books to activate the deal, and Amazon gives me a bonus credit this time, whereas they normally don't.

Except, in addition, I use deals like this as a rationalization (slightly flawed, but hey, it's my rationalization, not anyone else's ) to buy some books that I normally wouldn't buy because I find them both too expensive and highly unlikely, based on my experience, to ever go on sale. But this way I can feel like I got a little bit off.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

My good Dr., I think you are looking at it the wrong way. (Or you're the pessimist and I'm the optimist)

I spent my twenty-ish dollars buying books I would have bought regardless. Just in this instance after a certain number of my purchases, Amazon said "Hey kid, here's $5. Knock yourself out."

[Kindleing]

Originally Posted by Apache

This reminds me of stores offering 70% to 80% off back in the mid to late '80s. People would buy something at 80% off even if a store next door was selling it for less money. Customers would say, " but it is 80% off".

It's like the grocery store that was closing out a slow-selling product. I don't remember the exact dollar amounts, but they set up a display near the check-out advertising them something like "Closeout - $0.99 Each" and they still didn't sell. After a couple of days the manager crossed out the "$0.99 Each" and wrote "Closeout - 3 for $5" and they all sold that day.

[binaryhermit]

I think this ends in about 3h35m

And regarding questionable sales tactics, from what I've seen as a low-level retail employee, there's a lot of people whose IQ is lower than the high temperature on a typical winter day in Chicago.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by issybird

Again. The savings is never going to be 25%. You've got to spend another $5 to get any savings at all, making a minimum total outlay of $25, of which the $5 credit would be a 20% savings.

If I'm understanding the terms here correctly;
In a perfect world where you have 5 items @ $5 each, you can spend $20 and receive the $5 credit.
You can then use the $5 credit to purchase one more of item X which costs exactly $5.
You have $25 worth of X but spent $20.
So you've now received 125% of what you payed for.
We can now drop the 1 as insignificant, leaving us with 25% remaining! I'm not sure where *your* math went wrong

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

If I'm understanding the terms here correctly;
In a perfect world where you have 5 items @ $5 each, you can spend $20 and receive the $5 credit.
You can then use the $5 credit to purchase one more of item X which costs exactly $5.
You have $25 worth of X but spent $20.
So you've now received 125% of what you payed for.
We can now drop the 1 as insignificant, leaving us with 25% remaining! I'm not sure where *your* math went wrong

That's not how you calculate discounts.

You spent $20 for $25 worth of items.

Discount:

($25 - $20) / $25 = 20%

Alternately:

(125% - 100%) / 125% = 20%

You did get 25% "cash back" though.

[Glorfindel]

That was tongue in cheek and hacky math, I actually am in agreement with issybird.
Perhaps my attempts at humor need some refining

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

If I'm understanding the terms here correctly;
In a perfect world where you have 5 items @ $5 each, you can spend $20 and receive the $5 credit.
You can then use the $5 credit to purchase one more of item X which costs exactly $5.
You have $25 worth of X but spent $20.
So you've now received 125% of what you payed for.
We can now drop the 1 as insignificant, leaving us with 25% remaining! I'm not sure where *your* math went wrong

And you've paid 80% of what you received.

issybird and ilovejedd are correct.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

That was tongue in cheek and hacky math, I actually am in agreement with issybird.
Perhaps my attempts at humor need some refining

Gotcha.

The sad thing is too many people think this part's correct that it's hard to tell if you're serious or not.

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

So you've now received 125% of what you payed for.
We can now drop the 1 as insignificant, leaving us with 25% remaining! I'm not sure where *your* math went wrong

I remember reading a finance article and when people were asked how much would the stock market need to gain if it drops in value by 50% and way too many people answered 50%.

[TrevorViking]

Bought $20+ in kindle/Comixology comics, all of which was free shipping credits, and received the $5 credit. Thanks OP!