Amazon Versus Finland

I am of course referring to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de - heck, even Amazon.it!

For those of you that are familiar with Amazon and it's products, you have probably heard of the "Kindle", the "Kindle Touch" and the "Kindle Fire".
Kindle is a particular brand only sold by Amazon and it's a type of E-Reader.

Why blog about an E-Reader?


Well, it's another one of those "experience things" while living in Finland and perhaps you are trying to purchase one as well!

When ordering books or DVDs - we usually go through The Book Depository (free shipping world-wide!) and Play.com (free shipping to EU and UK but not on everything to the EU).
While the Book Depository sells E-Readers - they are all sold out.
And Play.com does not ship them to Finland.

So - we looked downtown to see what we could find for my academic husband (who is always reading and requires tonnes of books!) and he decided that the Kindle would be perfect for him because you can make notes, highlight sections of the book etc.  As well, the extremely long battery life, E-Ink feature and light-weight was also a plus!
Okay perfect!
But Amazon UK does not ship their Kindles to Finland - nor do the other EU Amazon sites!
Great.......

So the husband orders his from the USA but you have to pay a little extra for the "International Shipping" version....AND you also get charged for import fees etc - about 30� extra.  So he paid about 125� for a Kindle to be sent here.
You will notice that the Kindle fees for within the US differs from the international shipping by quite a bit!

Now with any kind of electronical device - when you live with children/pets, travel a lot or perhaps you are accident-prone, you should get a case or protective sleeve for it - right?
Amazon US (.com) does not ship their cases....
Now I understand if Amazon.com does not ship their Region 1 DVDs because they're meant for North American DVD players and you're not supposed to know how to change the Region on your DVD player...(Nothing a little Google search can't help you with by the way!)
But a protective case is not Region-based nor does it require a specific plug outlet.

However! Amazon UK ships the Kindle accessories to Finland!
So he ordered from there and got it quite quickly!
His Kindle arrived 2 (business) days after ordering!  WOW!  UPS emailed him and called him and delivered it to the door!

So after some thought, I decided I will get one too.
Why?  Although I am not a scholar, and I do love to flip pages and read normal books - the library downtown does not always have the ones I would like to read!  And the waiting list can be quite long!  (I am still waiting on a book I placed a reserve on in December 2011.)
As well, I had left behind many books in our storage unit in Canada that I could re-read all the time!  Especially series of books that can be quite heavy and would add to my luggage's weight!
And let's face it - English books in the shops here are quite expensive!  (And the selection not as large of course.)
Oh and of course there is the green aspect of saving paper and trees by not purchasing as many paper-made books....
I also love the idea of being able to carry my whole "library" in one compact and light-weight product!  Great for the bus, the plane, the train, walking, etc.!

Well, I ordered my Kindle and it was shipped April 2nd and should have arrived to me via UPS by April 5th.
Today is the 10th - granted, there were several holidays and  weekend- but at least I know via Amazon's website that it was in Helsinki as of April 4th at 9:15am local time.
I'm still waiting for it and hope to get it soon.....because I have my case from Amazon UK - just not my Kindle.
And I haven't gotten an email or a phone call from UPS!

Oh and you cannot order from Amazon.com unless it says "International Shipping" is available...so the cool Kindle Fire (a tablet computer for a really affordable price - under 200�!) I would love to have in the future?  Nope - not available for shipping.  (The links for the Kindle and Kindle Touch above are for international shipping - so I saved you some trouble there.)

Funny how my husband got his Kindle from the US before he got his Kindle case from the UK!


**Please note: I do not work for, represent or am related to anyone employed by any of the above mentioned companies!  I'm just a customer like you.**

Play.com...darn you!

We order from Play.com a lot.... well within reason!
Things like cheaper DVDs, video games for the husband, books (if they're cheaper than the Book Depository) and this year, we opted to get 1 toy for each child for Christmas.

Our oldest is almost 2 and doesn't speak yet....he says something that sounds like "�iti" (mom in Finnish) and "Bubba" and "zzzzzzz-ah!" - that's it.  And it applies to everything - so there's no consistency with his language yet.  Probably because he's exposed to Finnish and English equally (the Finnish courtesy of the Teletubbies and our friends).

I thought of a great educational gift to get him that would hopefully encourage him to speak (in English at least) and remembered that it wasn't sold on Play's site last year.
They've since, increased their inventory of Leap Frog toys and I was ecstatic!

So what did I order?  An alphabet magnet set that speaks and pronounces the words (up to 3 letters)! YAY!
And for the wee one, a caterpillar who opened up into a book and could be tied to the crib and read the stories out loud in a soothing voice complete with a soft light....YAY!
Both toys were under 40� in total....excellent!  I'm not complaining!


Unfortunately they only shipped it to the UK.  BOOOOOOOO!

So I swung over to  Amazon's UK site and they had the magnet set...but not the caterpillar.... *sniffles*.
I found an alternative toy that was slightly cheaper and because it was over 25� - FREE SHIPPING! YAY!  Thanks Amazon!

Now here's the funny part about that magnet set:

What else can your child learn with this alphabet set??









Give up?

Yep - how to have a British accent!  LOL

If my boys both end up liking this toy and speaking with a British accent - they'll be charming little girls world-wide...ha.  Except maybe in the UK.