43 Folders

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Your Amazon wishlist when you really need it

If you're like me, a trip to a record or book store often results in a complete brain fart; I can't remember why I'm there, what I want, or what I potentially might have wanted. It's farcical, and it often leads to stupid impulse buying instead of picking up what I'd really needed.

I get around this parietal deficiency by using my Amazon wish list as a parking lot for some of the books and records I want to buy (no, I don't want you to buy me anything; I'm just showing you).

Then, evey month or so, I print out and re-stash a miniature version of the list in my notebook so I'm always up to date when I'm out of the house and happen by a store.

So try this:

  1. Go to your Amazon wishlist and click the "Compact View link under "My View."
  2. Resize the width of the browser window until all the columns you find most useful are a comfortably small width (definitely less than 6 or 8 inches, optimally). If your browser lets you, you can also reduce the on-screen type size to get things even smaller.
  3. Print the page
  4. Grab your safety scissors, and cut out just the columns you need in order to find or request the items in a real-life store (Title and Author should do, although I also like to know what Amazon charges, just for comparison)
  5. Fold up the cut-out section and stick it in the pocket of your backpack, purse, or whatever you always have with you on the road

At the right resizing in Safari, then trimmed and folded, the "Title," "Author," and "Price" columns fit exactly into the back folder pocket of a mini-Moleskine. Swish.

wish list in a moleskine

Go forth and consume intelligently.

Joshua Rafofsky's picture

You can always just sync...

You can always just sync it to your PalmPilot via AvantGo, or bookmark it in your PDA's browser. I've got a Treo too, and this provides me with a "live" link to the current wish-list, not just a printout from a few weeks ago.

Coupled with PalmPrices (a free Palm app that lets users with wireless devices determine prices of things by the UPC, ISBN or model number) it's an unbeatable combination to have when traveling or shopping.

 
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