It’s that time of year again where Amazon lets customers vote in 6 different rounds for the product that they want to see at a huge discount. If the product that people vote for doesn’t get picked, then it’ll be offered at a “runner up” price.
They started it last year and at first it was a free for all, first come, first served kind of deal. Anybody could get in on the deal, even if it wasn’t the thing that they voted for. And that really killed their servers when everyone was trying to score a $99 Xbox 360. Then they switched it up to be slightly like this year’s promo where you were only eligible to buy whatever you voted for… still first come, first served. That still crashed their servers. So in the final rounds of the promo, they changed it to exactly how they’re doing it this year – you’re only eligible to buy whatever you voted for AND you have to be randomly selected by Amazon to get in at the special price.
After all was said and done, I didn’t end up getting in on anything except for their “thank you” deal which was a Swiss Army Knife at a discount price. I was lucky to get in on that.
This year, they’ve got a lot of great choices as far as the voting goes. I was totally torn between the PS3 and 360 in the first round, but seeing as how the Wii is in the lead and the runner up prices on the PS3 and 360 aren’t as good as the “winning” price for them, I’ll probably end up voting for the Wii even though I’ve already got one two.
I’m really not expecting to be picked for anything, but it’s always worth a try just to see if I’m actually lucky enough to get in on some amazing deals.
Check it out, if you haven’t already. Just visit Amazon.com’s home page and there should be a scrolling Flash animation in the top right corner about the Vote promo.