# What was the first thing you purchased on Amazon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 8, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600 "2016-04-08T20:56:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/61 "2016-04-10T16:28:28Z")
Dec 1997 - I bought copies of “Top Secret Recipes” and “More Top Secret Recipes”, according to my order history. I’m pretty sure there’s stuff missing from that list though, because distinctly recall earlier in the year buying some kind of music compilation CD for my girlfriend at the time, because Amazon was the only place I could find a copy of a song she liked. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/62 "2016-04-10T17:59:10Z")
Textbooks in 2005, for all my sophomore year classes: discrete math, cell biology, ancient Chinese history, and politics of the Middle East and North Africa. This when I discovered that Amazon had new textbooks for cheaper than the shittiest used copies at the school bookstore, and third party used sellers with even lower prices… I probably bought a few things before that, but I would have been using my parents’ account. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/63 "2016-04-10T21:54:43Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I’m feeling really cheated now. My pull-down menu only goes back to 2010. Same for me and I am not sure why. I have ordered from Amazon since they were just an oddly ambitious little internet corner bookstore in the mid-90’s but my history stops at 2010 as well. My answer is some sort of book but I don’t remember which one was the first. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/64 "2016-04-10T22:53:25Z")
Proxabrush refills in January of 2010. I could never find them in the stores. I’m still using up the massive supply I bought. The second thing was the DVD of Equus with Richard Burton. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/65 "2016-04-11T00:07:37Z")
Four saw chains for my husky. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/66 "2016-04-11T00:57:07Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > It was malarkey, and I did give it a fair trial. > > Actually my second purchase was far more interesting than the first. I don’t recall the title, but I came home to find an Amazon box on my front porch. It wasn’t closed. The average Amazon consumer might have found this alarming, but not me. I had to open it. Inside I found > > 2 loose turds. > > And no return receipt. Well, in our defense, we are the Anything Store. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/67 "2016-04-11T01:09:33Z")
My drop down goes back to 97 but the earliest order it will show me is in 2001. [They Call Me Trinity](http://www.amazon.com/They-Call-Trinity-Terrence-Hill/dp/B001U1RQVE) and the sequel ‘Trinity is Still My Name’ I was a fan of spaghetti westerns and cheesy dubbed martial arts movies at the time. And the video game Half Life: Blue Shift. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/68 "2016-04-11T14:55:04Z")
In November, 1995 I purchased a copy of Calvin Trillin’s “Alice, let’s eat.” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/69 "2016-04-11T15:07:24Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I might be dense but where are people seeing the total they spent? You have to request Amazon to generate a report (it’s under My Account in the account/orders section). It’s an automated thing; you’re not bothering anyone to do it. It always errors out for me though. I’m guess the invoice errors from 1997-1998 means it can’t find the pricing to build the report. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/70 "2016-04-11T15:29:45Z")
I ordered a couple of books from them on January 2, 1999. Since the drop-downs don’t go back any earlier for me, I’m assuming that was my first Amazon order. ETA: Damn, that was a long time ago. I wasn’t even a Doper yet. ---
**Author:** ![Blackstock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@Blackstock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackstock)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/71 "2016-04-11T15:39:29Z")
A book of poems, called Towns Facing Railroads. Jo McDougall. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/72 "2016-04-11T17:55:21Z")
I could only access back to 2005, and I know I purchased books prior to that. However, I’ll go with what it shows and say my first purchase was in Jan. 2005 and it was a paid of garnet dangle earrings I bought as a birthday present for a friend. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/73 "2016-04-11T18:03:44Z")
The person who made [the first Amazon purchase](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/here-is-the-first-book-ever-ordered-on-amazon/264344/) says “It’s still in my order history listing”: > [@](#): > > Wainwright is famous in his own right as a computer scientist – a pioneer of object-based computer languages, he was the principal architect of both ScriptX and MaxScript – but he is now almost as legendary for a simple series of clicks he made in 1995. On April 3 of that year, Wainwright was at work at Kaleida Labs, one of the early Web’s joint ventures between Apple/IBM. He’d been given a beta invite to a fledgling company – a company that was trying to make a go of selling books over a fledgling Internet. And he found himself in want of some reading material. So he ordered a book – “over,” he recalls, “a T-1 connection.” > > The book he ordered was Douglas Hofstadter’s Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought. And the service he used to order it was Amazon. Legend has it they named a building on the Amazon campus after him. I think he wins. ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/74 "2016-04-11T18:08:06Z")
February 1999, a CD by the Blind Boys of Alabama, “Holding On.” I bought several CDs in 1999 from Amazon. I’m trying to run the orders report mentioned above, and it’s still in process. ETA: The report failed. I’ll try it again later from home. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/75 "2016-04-11T18:10:46Z")
You can set custom dates for the reports - try running them for shorter increments and then, if you care about having everything in one spreadsheet, manually cutting and pasting them together afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/76 "2016-04-11T18:23:37Z")
> [@Fleetwood](#): > > Four saw chains for my husky. For a moment there I thought you said chain saws. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/77 "2016-04-11T18:27:33Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > My drop down goes back to 97 but the earliest order it will show me is in 2001. > > [They Call Me Trinity](http://www.amazon.com/They-Call-Trinity-Terrence-Hill/dp/B001U1RQVE) and the sequel ‘Trinity is Still My Name’ > > I was a fan of spaghetti westerns and cheesy dubbed martial arts movies at the time. > > And the video game Half Life: Blue Shift. Was Half Life: Blue Shift any good? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/78 "2016-04-11T18:35:17Z")
The Avengers Emma Peel Mega Set of DVDs. (August 2001) ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/79 "2016-04-11T18:56:54Z")
Huh, well look at that, I just passed my 10th anniversary with Amazon (no free gift :mad::p) > [@](#): > > February 4, 2006 > 2 of Corsair Value Select memory - 512 MB - DIMM 184-pin - DDR ( VS512MB333 ) ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Radio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mr\_Radio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Radio)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600/80 "2016-04-11T18:56:58Z")
The soundtrack to Brazil on 9/18/98 because it had a Kate Bush song on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-thing-you-purchased-on-amazon/751600.md?page=5)