[M_Six]

Anyone here participating? I got invited to join and did based on my wrongly preconceived notions of how it works. I quickly learned it's a tiered based system where you start out only being able to request stuff that's under $100. Most of it is waaay under $100. IOW, cheap stuff. Then to get to the Gold tier, where the higher priced stuff is, you have to review at least 100 items and 90% of all the items you buy within your probation period, which is 6 months. That's about one item every two days. Plus the value of the items are considered income, so there's a 1099 and the accompanying tax hit there. Amazon bases your estimated tax as 20% of the value of all the items you get. So the stuff isn't really free at all. More like an 80% discount.

Despite all that, I figured I'd find things I'd like to try and see how far I got. If I didn't get to the Gold tier, no biggie. But after 3 days of looking through the available stuff, I found nothing that I thought was of value to me and opted out of the program. I'm either a bit of a product snob or I have very focused interests and nothing outside of that seems worth my time. I joined the AmazonVine subredit for a few days. It seems there are folks who do the Vine thing as a major hobby or side hustle or even a full time job. I'll leave it to them.

[ShopVac]

Saw this offered a little while back...had zero interest then as it seemed like too much work. After reading your post...I'm somehow even lower now.

Guess I come from the school of 'nothings for free'

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by ShopVac

Saw this offered a little while back...had zero interest then as it seemed like too much work. After reading your post...I'm somehow even lower now.

Guess I come from the school of 'nothings for free'

I'm kicking myself for not researching it further before I signed up. Like I said, I was going on preconceived ideas of how it worked. They changed the system right before they invited me. You used to start out in Gold and could get some decent stuff, but the new tiered system seems designed to make you pay your dues by reviewing crap. I should have been more cynical.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Onesie

Never heard of this

Amazon Vine

That Wiki article is out of date, but the gist of it is there.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Onesie

Interesting!
Holy since 2007? What rock have I been living under…

So you’re saying it’s not worth it?
I mean, reading the description, I’ll get some free stuff and write what I think of it, right?

Or do you have to pay for the stuff?

You don't have to pay, but the value of the items are considered income, so you get taxed on it. Back in the day, you could get TVs and cameras and other cool stuff. With this new tiered program, you have to wade through 100 pieces of crap and review them before they let you into the tier with the good stuff.

[dreamingat30fps]

Never done Amazon vine, but there use to be sites that basically did the same thing. You would get free crap in exchange for a review. Amazon changes it's policies and a lot of the sites died and/or switched to a different model where you don't HAVE to leave a review and just offer less crap for a slight discount. Now they are switching it up to where you buy the crap and then later get the money back through PayPal or what not.

I used those sites before the policy changes. It was mostly all chinese junk. However at the time it was worth it to just leave a review for some $15 pos I needed anyways. Don't bother with them anymore and certainly would have no interest in requirement like leaving x number of reviews per month etc.

[Kolyan2k]

So how many reviews do you need to have to get an invite?

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Kolyan2k

So how many reviews do you need to have to get an invite?

Not a clue. I do write a review occasionally, but it's not like I have a ton there. I don't know why they invited me other than I've been a Prime member almost since the beginning.

[3.0L]

New version of a Pyramid?

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

New version of a Pyramid?

Seems more like a way for Amazon to peddle a ton of cheap stuff. The vendors are probably making dirt while Amazon rakes in the Vine fees. The thing is, even if I got to the Gold tier and could start ordering stuff like TVs and cameras and laptops (or whatever high end stuff you can get there), there is still a big tax hit and the requirement to continue to order stuff and write reviews. Their policy is that you have to keep the stuff for 6 months (although I don't know how they enforce that). So unless you really want to stockpile stuff and then turn into a reseller, I don't see the point.

[RobLloyd]

I was just invited and started at Gold level. I don't see anything really worth a lot on there. We did get some stuff we wanted to try, some junk, some not. Certainly no TV's or cameras. Unless I'm not fast enough to keep watch on it all day every day.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by RobLloyd

I was just invited and started at Gold level. I don't see anything really worth a lot on there. We did get some stuff we wanted to try, some junk, some not. Certainly no TV's or cameras. Unless I'm not fast enough to keep watch on it all day every day.

So maybe I'm not missing out on anything anyway. Odd that they started this new tier system at the beginning of October and yet they're still starting some reviewers at Gold. But whatevs. Do you have to order a certain number of items to maintain Gold status?

[Suds]

Wasn’t Amazon an online book store before they took over the online market place?

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Suds

Wasn’t Amazon an online book store before they took over the online market place?

Yes. Amazon started as a bookseller and put most of the bookstores out of business.

[RobLloyd]

Yes ordering 100 items and reviewing 90% or something like that. Not sure the time period to do so. I was able to score what looks to be a really nice office chair last night that has a $400 value.
Maybe the selection gets better when you start doing more? I'm sure they have some algorithms in there for that. Or the vendors aren't putting high dollar items in the vine pool.
I haven't a clue why i was selected.