It was $25 of merchandise to get free shipping. Oh well.
From the Amazon website:
Note: Amazon free shipping changed on October 21, 2013. Read more about it.
To place an order online, do the following:
Add at least $35 of eligible products to your Shopping Cart.
Get prime! 
i have amazon prime myself
they just started charging sales tax in CT but still have the best prices on a lot of items
and their customer service is the best.
Once you go Prime you never go back. Little stuff I used to have to make a trip to the store for I now buy from Amazon. Whether it’s a pair of socks or a $5 pen, they put it on a plane and it’s here in a day or two. The 80 bucks a year it costs (and you can share it with several family members) we more than make up for in gas and saved time.
It's Time for Prime.
I thought Prime would be awesome w/free shipping, but not ALL items are free.
Usually the items that aren’t Prime are the third party sellers not fulfilled by Amazon. Items where Amazon is the seller or fulfills the order are usually either Prime or Prime add-ons.
Prime also gives you access to a ton of TV shows and movies. Between that, netflix, and huluplus, I haven't had a cable subscription in quite a while.
My wife and mother in law get all the free Kindle books from our Prime account. I think you can add up to 5 of your immediate family members to your account and it automatically enables Prime for their Amazon accounts. People say “wow 80 bucks, what a ripoff” but it’s kind of like being the fat people at the buffet. We order so much stuff from Amazon I guarantee they lose money on the deal with us, not even counting the relatives on our account who order a lot of stuff.
I guess it’s only a good deal if you take full advantage of it, which we definitely do. Like, last week we went shopping and I forgot to buy a little space heater for my home office. I could’ve got into the car and drove somewhere to buy one. They run about 20 bucks at Walmart or Shopko. But I found one on Amazon for 14 bucks with 4.3 stars I believe, and it was here in 2 days. Once we factor in time and gas for the car, Prime is an even better deal. And walking through Walmart, I have no idea of which models are good and which ones suck. So right there I’ve saved 6 bucks on the heater, probably 3 or 4 bucks gas and an hour or two of my time, AND I have a decent chance that the one I bought is good. Now, multiply that one scenario by a whole year and at least for us, it would seem silly not to have it.
I was not aware of the 5 immediate family members deal… that is awesome. Will have to take advantage of this.
I have pretty much the same deal here. I live out in the sticks on a farm, driving to a big name store for something is a 45minute minimum ordeal just for the drive forward and back. $5-7 in gas. Add in whatever the tax is for the particular item. Stack on the frequently cheaper price on amazon, and I’m looking at about $10-15 saved per order on low cost items. Plus you get that added bonus of having a mini-christmas feeling with each order, and it almost never turns out to be a sweater.
The increase for free shipping doesn’t affect me because I never use their “slow” free shipping. Once you pick free shipping they hold off on when they ship.
It’s better to use their marketplace and pick someone else with a good price and low shipping and no tax. They are located in my state so I get charged 8% sales tax unless I use their market place.
They definitely ship slower with the non-Prime free shipping. Before we got Prime, some orders took a week to ship and almost a week to arrive. Not much better than ordering from China. With prime, the order processing is expedited, and it’s much faster than most other sellers. I’m so spoiled that when I order something on a Friday evening and get it Tuesday, it feels slow. My EagleTac D25A Mini and Schrade Tactical pen won’t be here until Tuesday 
Amazon prime is the way to go. Its only about 40$ a year, but no tv shows or such. Just fast shipping.