Amazon and Apple have had a tense relationship over the years. For a while, Amazon Prime videos were not allowed to have an app on the Apple TV app store and Amazon did not sell Apple TV units. Fortunately, things have begun to thaw a little between the two companies since, after all, they are both wanting to just make more money. They can do this if they end up doing some things together in this space.
Apple Devices Sold By Amazon
Great News for Deal Hunters
For a while, you have been able to buy Apple TVs on Amazon and Amazon Prime video apps were on Apple TVs. Now, this has progressed even further and we now have the opportunity to buy things like Apple Watches, new iPads, and even new iPhones. Computers were already sold by Amazon before.
This is great news for deal hunters since it is very easy to purchase Amazon gift cards and earn points/get discounts. They can be had through things like:
- using a Chase Ink card at an office supply store to buy gift cards
- using a card with a bonus at supermarkets to buy gift cards
- using Amex Offers at retailers (for the gift cards) or at Amazon
- using an Amazon credit card that earns 5% back
Sure, it has been possible to buy these things from other retailers before that had discount methods available, but Amazon is something different altogether.
This means that you can now use Amazon gift cards, arguably the most popular cards actually given as gifts, to purchase Apple iPads, Apple Watches, and Apple iPhones directly from Amazon. One of the questions I had previously received many times about Apple Watches was if people could use Amazon gift cards to purchase them – now you can!
Just remember that you do not get the protection with gift cards that you may get on some credit cards that you could purchase it with instead.
Bad News for Resellers
The flip side of this agreement between Apple and Amazon is that resellers that are not authorized by Amazon can no longer sell Apple devices on Amazon. This used to be quite lucrative for resellers in the past.
If you had looked for these devices on Amazon, you probably noticed some high markups on devices. This was due to the massive customer reach of Amazon mixed with the fact that Apple devices were not sold by Amazon. This was great for resellers to buy iPads during big sales like Black Friday and then flip them on Amazon at retail or even higher.
As of January 4, 2019, resellers will have their Apple items removed from sale unless they are an authorized reseller. That is going to really hurt anyone that is doing this without the ability to get authorized.
Takeaway
There is always good and bad in these situations. The good is that buyers can benefit, the bad is that resellers are hurt. If you are a buyer and you wanted to get one of these Apple devices, time to start picking up Amazon gift cards or putting them on your Christmas list!
Let’s see what Amazon does with prices on these items over this busy shopping season in response to other retailers…
Or you can buy from BHphoto and not pay sales tax for now.
Unfortunately, they aren’t as good as they used to as I think it is like 18 states that they now charge sales tax for. As a NYer, I always had to look outside of B&H for big stuff, even though I love shopping with them.