May 1998. Two physics textbooks (“Solid State Electronic Devices” and “Physics of Semiconductor Devices” - I was in the middle of grad school) and a Haynes manual for the Volvo 240 (my father had one that I often borrowed).
August, 1999: Ethics in Psychology: Professional Standards and Cases (Oxford Textbooks in Clinical Psychology, Vol 3) by Gerald P. Koocher & Patricia Keith-Spiegel.
Around 1998, a book-collecting co-worker wasn’t yet online and asked me to help him track down some Anthony Burgess rarities. I got most of them through Amazon and Bookfinder. Never did find The Ring and the Worm.
For myself, I think the first thing I bought was Venus on the Half Shell by “Kilgore Trout” (Philip Jose Farmer) and a complete set of Weird Heroes, Byron Priess, editor.
I bought the three volume history Byzantium, by John Julius Norwich sometime in 1998 or 1999.
These days, you wouldn’t need Amazon. It’s scanned and available free on archive.org.
1999 Carpe Jugulum: A Novel of Discworld Hardcover.
The oldest order they show for me is June 2001, but I’m certain I was a customer long before then.
They Call Me Trinity
Trinity Is Still My Name
Half Life: Blue Shift
2004-ish. I ordered cheap, used paper versions of some books I had pirated. It was cheaper and more available than ebooks.
I think the first order was the Hitchhiker’s Guide books.
February 2001, Inner Visions: The Art of Ron Walotsky. I got that book because his art was on the cover of one of my albums.
Interesting: According to Amazon the second thing I ordered is a book I don’t recall ever reading. In fact it looks like a book I’d never even consider ordering.
Apparently I must have switched accounts at some point because it only has data back to 2008.
the First thing it has on record for me is Warhammer Online, Which is depressing because
A. What a sad-ass first purchase, the game sucked.
B. That game was 10 Freakin’ years ago??? I was actually thinking about it a couple weeks ago, about seeing if it was still around, to check into something in the game. Damn time is passing too fast.
December 1997, I bought two wedding books.
Amazon claims my first purchase was in 2006. But I am absolutely sure this was my first purchase in 2002.
I’m yet another person whose order history doesn’t go back to the beginning. It only goes back to 2002, and I know that I ordered the original magnetic poetry kit from them in 1999, just a week or two after I graduated from college. I can’t stake my life on that being the very first thing I ordered from them, but I do know I hadn’t heard of Amazon until that year.
A Don Camillo Omnibus by Giovanni Guareschi .
Hardcover.
The oldest thing in my order history is from December, 1999: a Savage Garden CD, which would have been a Christmas present for my wife.
I was surprised that it wasn’t a book, and that it was as late as 1999. I’m now wondering if I’d had an earlier account on Amazon, and that CD was the first thing I bought with the current account.
July 2010- stainless steel pressure cooker (using about a gallon of U.S. cents to get a certificate at a CoinStar) because I wanted to tenderize tough meat in tomato juice for chili. I won’t cook high acid foods in an aluminum pot.
Amazon.ca shows the following items from September 2002:
Tom Strong: Book One
Alan Moore, et al
V for Vendetta
Alan Moore, et al
Top Ten: Book One
Alan Moore, et al
Portraits from Life: The Complete Comic Book Biographies by David Collier
Prior to that, I think I used to order from Chapters.ca.
I was late to amazon wasn’t until 2005 my first purchase was a cookbook for my aunt “better home and gardens cookies and candies” its from the 60s but has the best peanut brittle recipe I’ve ever tasted……… and then I bought a couple of ps1 digimon game guides
Those of you with order history problems, perhaps you changed email addresses and started new accounts?
In any case, for me, it looks like August 23d, 2000, I ordered “Planet of the Apes - The Evolution (Complete Series)” – probably because I’d been having a conversation with an electrician at work about Planet of the Apes. Man, Dave, you retired up north. I really need to look you up!
“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” some time in 2001.