I’m also still willing to pony up my paltry $8 a year for some sort of minor reward or something.
Another vote fo Amazon here. And I’m sure I’d be worth a lot more than $100 a year.
Ditto. my A.V. card has increased my Dizzy Gillespie collection by quite a bit.
No reason not to help Cecil.
My membership comes up next in about 3 months. Assuming no change by then, I’ll still renew. And I’d pay extra for no ads, or especially for no images or large avatars.
And I’d support an Amazon affiliate program. Due to budget, my spending at Amazon is down the last couple of years, but it’s still a couple of hundred per year.
Someone said NewEgg has an affiliate program? I’ve spent probably $15,000 at NewEgg in the last two years, and while it will probably be less this year, it’s still likely to be $5000. I’d support an affiliate program with them as well.
Thanks for keeping us informed, Ed. I too would support an affiliate program, though my spending is rather lower than RJKUgly’s. I would, though, ask that you ensure such an affiliate program is valid outside the US.
Seconded. I’m located in the Netherlands and I spend on average 150 dollars a year on Amazon.com.
You cand send the $8 to me and your reward will be 2 toasts in your honor.
That’s an open offer, by the way, folks.
You’re missing the point. I’m saying that if the SDMB can get the exact same deal from a coalition of indy stores, then why should the board send all customer business to Amazon?
Yes, there are some loyal Amazon customers on the board. I’d guess that the vast majority of members have no loyalty to anyone in particular. Why should your loyalty to Amazon send the whole board there? Use the coalition and let each member decide on his own.
InvisibleWombat–what is your attachment to this site?
What’s your attachment to Amazon?
I guess I’m not clear why your choice is inarguable, and his is not. Either are perfectly valid suggestions.
I buy an awful lot of stuff from Amazon each year. I also lurk here every single day, so it would be no problem at all for me to go to Amazon from here whenever I plan to shop there, even when I’m not actively posting.
A mostly-lurking (at least for the last few years) member’s opinion, FWIW. 
Well, the Amazon spending mostly my personal reading, but the NewEgg spending is almost all business. I buy stuff not only for my own small company, but also for my customers if they want me to. So it tends to add up.
Things I bought from Amazon include splitrings, 1" stainless steel bearings, bitter apple spray, and a marble butter keeper… I’ve been looking at laboratory glassware recently. I don’t expect I’d find that in a bookstore, “indie” or not. (Also purchased a bunch of books and music and movies and computer games, of course)
The “indie bookstore consortium” case would probably be better argued with links to their websites to evaluate their convenience and selection.
Amazon is also global - possibly a lot of independent bookstores are not.
I do have an attachment.
I buy there, have an Amazon Visa, and sell the books I don’t want on Amazon Marketplace, where hundreds, if not thousands, of small or used booksellers do business. BTW–I have never hid any of that, & it is all reasonably common knowledge on the Board, mentioned in Threads relevant to online buying/selling of books.
There… I made full disclosure.
InvisibleWombat–I offer you the same opportunity.
<mod>
Gentlemen (I assume) back to your corners.
Thank you for your suggestions. Leave it at that, please.
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All I ask is that before TPTB decide to shut the board down someday because they can’t make any money off of it they take the advice I have been giving every time they have complained about making money for years: Open the floodgates and let Google send you customers. Yes, you’ll get more trolls, but you’ll also get more smart people. The doper culture will pervade.
We run some Amazon ads now on column pages. We could do more with them, no doubt. As you know they have a number of programs involving varying degrees of hassle, intrusiveness, and profit potential. At the moment we’re toiling away at some basic improvements to the site, but we’ll probably take a closer look at Amazon in due course.
I would like to chime in with support for the system as-is. Pay to post is fine, and pay-for-ad-free-posting is exactly the same from a paying member’s point of view. If either system generates the needed income to keep the board running, great. Honestly, I doubt Ed’s goal is to milk the system for every last penny of available cash.
Thank you for the update, Ed. Thank you for doing what is needed to keep the site running.
I forgot to mention this part in my last post. Agreed.