My Amazon-Free July - Days 3 & 4 - THEY TRICKED ME!

I'm so mad right now.

So, I got home yesterday from work to find this package.

Umm.... that looks like an Amazon package.

And I start trying to figure out if I ordered something back in June that had a delayed shipment or that I didn't use 2 day shipping for. Don't think so.

I open it up.

Well, that's the phone stand I ordered.

FROM EBAY.

I went to check my eboy order.

Yeah. That doesn't look like "Amazon" seller to me.

I check the inside of the package and out falls two pieces of paper. Once is a receipt. The other:

Yeah.

Some jerk decided to make a measly $2 off of advertising the phone holder and then buying it for me as a 'gift' from Amazon.

I won't be using ebay again, suffice to say.

Seriously though, I'm TICKED! Even when I try not to use Amazon, someone else just ended up using it FOR ME!

However, my July ordering is so far not a total loss.

I'm going to focus on my successes, because there were quite a few other things I ordered for the convention last night and I actually found some really great stuff by NOT using Amazon!

For one - I'm one of the hosts for the Sci-Fi Dance Party and we need decorations / favors. I did a google search for alien stuff and ended up finding these awesome inflatable aliens from Partypalooza, for way cheaper than any of the alien stuff I'd found on Amazon when I'd looked there last month! I'd been putting off buying anything because I couldn't find what I liked on Amazon...

Aren't they cute?!

Silly Angel. But I was so well trained to do Amazon that I only looked in one other place - Etsy. And literally, that was it.

Something else I didn't find on Amazon when I've been looking? Favors for the ball table I'm hosting. I've been looking for nature themed jewelry on Amazon for the past several months now and didn't find anything that I liked, but one search on google and these gorgeous sets came up (for 90% off their usual price! - it looks like the price has gone up a little since I bought them, but I got them for less than $10 each).

The other thing I ordered - a Kobo ereader. Now, I haven't bought anything from Walmart in a looooooong time. I have a lot of issues with how they treat their employees. But, there aren't that many viable ereaders outside of Kindles, I cannot use apple products at all (it's an exercise in frustration that stresses me out), I'm leery about the Nook now that it's been sold, and I figure I don't HAVE to purchase epubs off of Kobo, but at least this way I'll have an epub reader AND a mobi reader and so I should be able to get books from any site I want.

Also, the Kobo looks similar enough to a Kindle that I hope there's not going to be a steep learning curve for me.

I also had to make an intentional order to Amazon for Literary Love: Authors Rock Savannah at the end of this month, since I needed paperbacks.

As far as I know, Ingram Spark is the only other paperback option for indie authors outside of Amazon. I never looked into it because, as always, Amazon made their paperback system so easy. So convenient. And for someone who struggles with any kind of new technology (you should have seen me the first time I got a smart phone, I swear, my own mom had one before me), I just wanted easy and convenient. Why stress over and take valuable time to learn something new when this gets me the result that I want?

Well, obviously I never thought I'd do an Amazon-free month. 

So, true confessions, I ordered over 40 author copies of books for the convention last night. I didn't have another choice, because I rely so heavily on Amazon 

Looking at Ingram Spark, I'm a little leery too. It looks so different from what I'm used to. But I'm going to spend at least part of this weekend trying to set it up, because otherwise I'm totally reliant on Amazon for all paperback stuff. I'm also a little worried that it's going to get expensive, because of the covers. Amazon allows indie authors to just use the same cover they use for ebooks in their cover creator, which can save an author a lot of money (especially if they're not sure their paperbacks are going to sell enough to even justify covering the cost of a cover).

In the meantime - I'm going to go spend some time with my friends and enjoy my day off... and also think about what I'm getting my friend for her birthday tomorrow. I still haven't bought her anything.