Amazon wishlists / journal / hicksdesign

18/04/04

Amazon wishlists

I’ve seen quite a few bloggers post their Amazon wishlists on their site, and this has always struck me as being odd. Do complete strangers look at these and say “Ok! I’ll buy you that!”. If so, the world has more generous people in it that I thought.

So I’ve changed my mind on the subject. For those that are interested, here is my wishlist.

Technorati Tags Tags: wishlists

Comments | RSS

Comments are now closed, but you can still have a jolly time reading what others have left:

Neil said 1692 days ago:

Ha! Good one.

sil said 1692 days ago:

Arf, arf, arf.
I'll buy one of those "good night's sleep" for a measly £15.99. In fact, I'll buy a dozen. I am, however, uninterested in a pet Cocoa programmer, unless I get the opportunity to brainwash him into working with Gnome instead.

Sparticus said 1692 days ago:

I actually clicked on the "Single Window Mode in Firefox" thinking "Wow, someone wrote a book on that?".

I post my wishlist around every birthday time, just to help out relatives, so they know what to buy me.

Andy said 1692 days ago:

I remember when the guy who writes at The Mighty Geek was getting married someone bought him something off of his wish list. He's got an award on the side of his site called the "World’s Nicest Person Who Buys Stuff For Other People They Don’t Know Good Award" for that person.

I do imagine whishlists are most useful for relatives and friends around your birthday and other gift-giving holidays.

Jon HIcks said 1692 days ago:

Yeah, I definitely use them for friends and relatives - very useful. Its the advertising on the blog thing I'm not sure about.

Ah well, I've don it now :o)

Christopher Holland said 1692 days ago:

Actually, I use my wishlist for myself. If I hear about a book that I would like to read or see one on Amazon then I just add it to my wishlist.

Then, when I visit the library I pull my blog up on the computer there and I can check to see if they have any of the books while I'm there looking for reads. I suppose that you could argue that I could look the books up on the library system via the net but...well, that takes planning ahead. Something for which I am not really known for. This way, if I feel like going to the library while I'm out then I can and I know that I'll always have access to my book list.

Paul Mayne said 1692 days ago:

That's hillarious. I too was trying to figure out why someone wrote a book on Single Window Mode in Firefox.
I enjoy when designers / developers post thier Amazon wishlists, I like to browse them and use it as a suggested list of reading or buying. I've accually bought a few books (for myself) that were found on others posted wishlists.
Plus, you can add them as Amazon friends and send them discounts when you purchase a book on their wishlist.

Shaun Inman said 1692 days ago:

A way of stopping the annoying rename extension warning in OS X
I get SO wound up about that - yes of course I'm sure!
Special order - please call for availability

Go to the Finder, and open the preferences (Apple+comma) and select the Advanced tab. Check off "Show all file extensions." That's it. Now when you change an extension, no dialogue. Of course, now you have to look at every files extension--but you're a web designer/developer, you're used to it. ;D

Or you can just toggle that setting when you're changing the extension on large batches of files and switch it back when you're done.

Nicole said 1692 days ago:

Would be more realistic, if it was the visit mode, not the edit-your-own-mode ;o))

And yes, complete strangers to buy from it. I only had one as thankyou for my soundfiles, but I am confident of more to come. ;o)

#10

Silus Grok said 1692 days ago:

What a great lark! ... it took me a read-through or two to realize the game.

Heh.

As for posting wishlists... remember, wishlists aren't just pitches for gifts. I never expect to get a thing from my wishlist — in fact I only just included shipping information — but (rather) use it as a shorthand of sorts.

- sG

PS... On your comments area: the preview is pure genius — no more guessing what works and what doesn't! I just wish I knew what the "Subscribe to Comments" did... perhaps a tool tip would be useful here?

#11

Jon HIcks said 1692 days ago:

Shaun - you took my bait. It was a very roundabout way of asking "does anyone know of a way of ..". I had money on it being you to answer first (maybe I should've just emailed you?!).

As all my file extensions were showing up, I'd assumed I had this on already. Thanks - its a big help!

#12

Nicole said 1692 days ago:

Usually, if someone has a similar interest like you have, wishlist either contains everything you have on your list, or adds things. I can take a look at it and find many things I did not know but also would like to have.

I have not gone through Sirus completly (1033 items! finally I don't feel that funy anymore with all these <200 on my list!) but already added the simplebits book to mine - thx for the reminder.

Jon, for the 'put on the blog thing' - why not.?

First of all it can be a great ressource for people to see, what somebody with skills like you would like to have. And for everything else you would not like the world to know about, there is always the special list in the shopping card (it is 'Merkliste' ~ 'remember it list' in german)

Second: You (and many others of course) spend time and money bringing joy and knowledge into the world. And if something that you write helps somebody so much, that he would like to show his or her reward - this person knows where he can go.

Third, but this is a minor one, it is much easier for you to remember where you have the link when it is on your blog. ;o)

#13

Travis Cripps said 1692 days ago:

Brilliant fun. I hope you get some of your wishes. :)

Whoa. Cool live preview field, too! That rocks!

#14

Ben Poole said 1691 days ago:

Like others I tend to use the wishlist as a personal thing, something with which to keep track of the books, DVDs and CDs I will never have enough money for. ;o)

That said, I did put a link to my site (after months of inner-wrangling I might add).

So far, the yield has been a spectacular zero. LOL!

#15

Silus Grok said 1691 days ago:

1033 items and counting... : )

Well, having subscribed to comments on a lark, I now know what it means... and a tooltip of some sort would be a very good idea — I woke this morning thinking Jon was angry with me when I found a bunch of e-mails from him in my inbox.

Heh.

Also... thought you'd want to know: seems your style sheet went all wonky. Everything that was a lovely shade of periwinkel is now black and a number of your headers have grown a size or two (specifically those in the sidebar).

- sG

#16

Josh S said 1691 days ago:

That's hilarous!

I would like everything you asked for, as well. I especially vote for the Apple Pro XHTML/CSS editor! I would love to have one of those someday...

#17

Ben Poole said 1691 days ago:

The way I'm feeling at the moment, I'd go for the telekinetic garden kit too ;o)

#18

Nigel Goodfellow said 1683 days ago:

Hahaha John, you're quite the card. Tell you what. I have plenty of good night sleeps, so I'll trade you a few for some of your Illustrator skill.

Deal?

#19

Jon HIcks said 1683 days ago:

Nigel, its a deal! Meet me in the park by the duck pond at 8pm for the swap over. I'll be wearing a trilby and carrying a copy of the The Times. The password is "Its cold in Russia this time of year".