I can’t recall my first purchase but I bought lots of books before they went public. To an Aussie, even with shipping costs , they were ridiculously cheap.
When they went public my boss said to me, “You can get shares now in that internet company, Amazon, you are always talking about.”
“I don’t see how they can possibly ever make a profit,” I wisely counselled her.
April 4th, 1998. The Straight Dope Tells All and The Vampire’s Beautiful Daughter. I was fourteen.
Kind of fitting, all things considered.
The Education of a Poker Player by Herbert O Yardley. August 1998.
I had been looking for this out of print book so I called the nearest used book store. He didn’t have it but he said he’d try to find it for me. He called back an hour later and has located a copy. It had a slightly torn front cover and he’d sell it to me for $50. I didn’t want it that much.
Then I remembered that Amazon place that everyone was starting to talk about. The had a new one for $16. I called back the used book store and told him and that he better find a new line of work soon.
Less than a year and a half ago. I know I opened my Amazon account between the time I arrived here in Hawaii in August 2016 and when the wife went back to Thailand for two months in January 2017. I ordered a book for our niece in Bangkok, something about computers and design IIRC. The wife took it to Bangkok to give to her.
I thought my answer sounded familiar.