Product, date and price of your 1st Amazon order?

[Steampunk]

/\/\/\ Rakuten bought the play.com website some years ago. It was never the same after that happened. I bought many a DVD from that site in my early years of online shopping.

Play only sold out to Rakuten when the government closed the Channel Islands tax loophole that allowed them to charge significantly lower prices (which the likes of Amazon then had to match). Everyone and his granny seemed to be opening a shipping warehouse in the Channel Islands to take advantage of the tax loophole. After that loophole was closed, the Play business model became unsustainable, and Rakuten bought it and rebranded it to a marketplace.

 

[Relentless81]

9th October 2005
Saitek Eclipse Gaming Keyboard and Mouse
£64.37

Completely forgot about these and no idea where they are now!

 

[majestyk]

I should ask for a refund.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Did Amazon just sell books back in the day?

 

[DB_SamX]

Commandos 2 for PC in autumn 2001. Then i didn't buy anything until 2003, when I bought loads of stuff for uni.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Did Amazon just sell books back in the day?

Not at that time it was more of a novelty as I recall. "Order stuff via the web! Thats a new one must try it!"

Actually I didn't use them much then as they were expensive there were cheaper deals elsewhere. Come to think of it i don't use it much these days either they've pushing to get mass Prime takeup and pushing out customers that aren't interested I just ordered a bulky item from Asda of all places because it was 25% cheaper than Amazon.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

For those who first ordered in 2001, it's scary to think that it was only a few months before or after 9/11.

Does anyone remember jungle.co.uk? We're talking pre-OcUK era, around 1999. They sold some of the earliest MP3 players and other electronics, in particular, computer parts. They were kinda like mid 2000s-stage Amazon where they expanded from being a book shop. Argos eventually acquired Jungle and it was never the same after that. If you type jungle.co.uk in a web browser now, it redirects to argos.co.uk

 

[Hades]

Yep I remember Jungle. I have always thought that was such a missed opportunity.

 

[Raizle]

2nd August 2004
Lazy Bones by Mark Billingham
£11.84

 

[DarrenM343]

I'm actually surprised at this as I thought I bought this book much later. Reminiscences of a stock operator., 10th November 2002. Wasn't actually as good as I had heard it was.
I wish I had bought £10k of Amazon stock at the time too . Lets do the maths. $24 on 1st Nov 2002 to nearly $2400 today, that'd be worth about £1million now . Not long before 2002, after the Y2K crash, it was $7 too.
Definitely bought a lot more stuff from Amazon in recent years, looking through my history. Even stuff like sheers and lawnmower . After buying my first item in 2002 from Amazon, it was another 4 years before I purchased anything else.

 

[craptakular]

Wow, I remember play.com! Not heard of it for years, just tried the site and it forwards to https://www.rakuten.co.uk/ ??

I think they bought play.com years ago and effectively shut it over last year or two

 

[hans gruber]

• 13 Nov 2005
  Order Total
  £129.99 (1 item)

Shipped
22 Nov 2005 - 24 Nov 2005

Friends: Complete Series 1 - 10
£129.99
Qty: 1
Sold By: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.

 

[Grimley]

Play only sold out to Rakuten when the government closed the Channel Islands tax loophole that allowed them to charge significantly lower prices (which the likes of Amazon then had to match). Everyone and his granny seemed to be opening a shipping warehouse in the Channel Islands to take advantage of the tax loophole. After that loophole was closed, the Play business model became unsustainable, and Rakuten bought it and rebranded it to a marketplace.

I forgot about that. There some online firms still trading out of of Jersey & Guernsey though.

 

[RoyMi6]

Ohhh mine was a good one!



Interestingly Amazon was a slow burner for me. My next order wasn't until August 2004

 

[Steampunk]

I forgot about that. There some online firms still trading out of of Jersey & Guernsey though.

Yes, but they don't get that same tax advantage when exporting out of the Channel Islands. It was getting silly, with the likes of Tesco opening warehouses out there to gain advantage, but for a few years, Play.com was the place to buy stuff, and everyone had to price lower to match them. When Play effectively closed down and sold out, it was noticeable how prices rose all across competing businesses.

 

[ecksmen]

SANDISK MINI SD 2048MB CARD

2006 doesn't show price, nor invoice. Hardly excitiing but I bet the price would be eye watering compared to todays capacity / prices. Google suggests anything from between £50 and a few hundred £. I'd suggest the former is far more likely.

 

[secretspy]

2 books called "Knocked out by my nunga nungas" and "Dancing in my nuddy pants" by Louise Rennison
Purchased 13th March 2002

 

[zophiel]

PlayStation 2 Console (New Smaller Model)
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£97.99

Sonic Mega Collection (PS2) - With Free Sega T-shirt, Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£24.99

Purchased 14 April 2005

Most stuff before that was bought at game/play.com etc as they were cheaper.
and some stuff at the supermarket I worked at at the time as we had discount.

 

[geekyEd]

Oh Christmas Day, must have been a voucher:


Star Wars Battlefront II (PSP)
Ordered on 25 Dec 2005