When I first enrolled in Amazon Vine there was nothing but junk. Car parts, and nothing else. Eventually, thanks not to directions from Amazon or anything but from combing the internet looking for information and ending up in various Discords and Reddits, I got the down low.
It seems that Amazon has enrolled a lot of new people in the program. This increase in people means an increase in competition for items. And, as always, as anything online moves from down home to mass market, the less savory types come out. The outright scammers for sure, but also the people who do things less as a side hobby and more as a grift. I have no doubt that Vine accounts are for sale to the highest bidder allowing someone to both find items to sell for profit, as well as control the reviews for your product.
Still, this is a fun little side hobby for me. It turns out that there was a bit of a lull followed by what can only be described as the new normal. Each day (or approximately each day, holidays sometimes excluded) Amazon conducts a “drop.” A single period in which all the items for the day are uploaded to the system. For scammer and side hustler alike, this is the only real time to get items. Every possible wanted item — and I mean EVERY possible — useful item is snatched up during the drop, often in seconds.
Looking after the drop is a waste of time unless you need a specific part or internal mechanism of a device or product that may not have a wide following. Batteries for off-brand devices, microwave motors, and of course, car parts are available in other hours, but anything you might just want, it is just gone.
It is fine. After all, we are talking about free products. When the drops were at 3:00am, that was rough. Now, that the drops seem to come at least during waking hours, I will occasionally come across one.
Which brings me to my point for the day. I am coming up on the so-called Gold checkpoint. Should I review at least 80 items at least 90% of the time, I will move up to Gold tier where the points can really add up.
Just kidding. However, Gold members can get items above $100 in value, the cap for us non-gold members. Also, Gold members can get as many items as they like each day. Currently, I can only get three items. On most days, this is more than enough, but when you grab two items during the drop and something you find cool, but maybe not that cool, you end up waiting to see if something better will come along. 99 times out of 100, this is a fool’s errand, but it’s hard not to think about that one time that missed out on just what you wanted for the wall in your office, or to organize your shed.
By the time you decide that the item is good enough, it’s already gone. After all, if you thought it might be useful, so did one of the other thousands of people watching the drop.
Now, I’m doubly conflicted. See, I have only reviewed about 70% of my items. Each new item puts me further away from that 90% goal… and yet…