Amazon made a name for itself by selling books online. Today, however, it provides an amazing variety of goods, not to mention its own invention – the Kindle ebook reader. If you want to buy an ebook reader, the Kindle from Amazon.com is probably your best bet. The cheapest way to buy a Kindle is to buy it directly from Amazon.com. ( We provide you with links for that .) Ebooks are also an excellent buy from Amazon.com because you can download them without paying for shipping.
There are a few things which you have to bear in mind when buying from Amazon.com:
Shipping
Amazon.com does ship to South Africa – although, not all their products. Pricing for shipping is divided into 3 categories: Kindles, books + DVDs and everything else. (Pricing provided is approximately based on an exchange rate of R7.60 per $1.00)
- For any Kindle shipment you pay R150 per shipment and then add R75 per Kindle. So for example, if you buy 2 Kindles for your family, you’ll pay R300 for the shipment.
- For books you pay R300 per shipment and then add R75 per book.
- For anything else you pay R300 per shipment and then add R100 for every kilogram.
It takes 3 to 6 days for your items to arrive.
Of course, there are items that you can just download, such as ebooks for which you don’t pay any shipping.
Caveat
There is a problem, though, that you need to be aware of: Amazon does not ship all its products to South Africa. They have two types of restrictions:
- Shipping restrictions: These are easily overcome. Read my article on Why you need an American shipping address.
- Billing address restrictions: These are much more serious and have to do with digital rights. Bypassing these are illegal – so I won’t go there.
Best Buys By Far
For me the best buys by far from Amazon are the Kindles and ebooks. The Kindles are a good buy because you buy them directly from the supplier and get the best prices. Read my article on the best way to buy Kindles.
Ebooks are a good buy because you have a great variety at an excellent cost and you can download them directly without paying for shipping. Read my article on Why ebooks are a good buy.
|