It seems like I can hardly make it through a week without telling someone about Amazon Prime for the first time. It is quite simply one of the best things on the web. If you have nothing but extra time to run extraneous errands and/or wait weeks for free shipping then don’t read any further. But if you’d like to reclaim more time in your life then read on.

For those of you who have never heard of Amazon Prime before this is it in a nutshell. Prime is a $79/year* membership with Amazon that entitles you (and three members of your household) to unlimited free two-day shipping with no minimum order price on any product fulfilled by Amazon.com. If you are really impatient you can even get $4/item overnight shipping.

*Prime is free if you are a student or you buy diapers from Amazon.

“I usually get free Super Saver shipping anyway”

A lot of people I mention Prime to tell me that they already usually get free shipping at Amazon.com by waiting until they have $25 of items to buy. Here is why Prime is different and vastly superior though. First, you don’t have to figure out $25 of things to buy if you just need one $8 product. Second, Amazon doesn’t just have UPS/Fedex/USPS/etc ship the package quicker for Prime, they actually fulfill the order and get it to the shipper sooner.

Back in my pre-Prime days my Super Saver orders usually shipped 1-3 days after I placed my order. Now with Prime it almost always ships within 12 hours, usually less. Basically you get to cut in line just like people in the First-Class security line at the airport. So instead of waiting a few days to order, three days for fulfillment, and seven days for shipping it is now replaced by less than a day to fulfill and two-days or less to ship.

Many purchases can’t wait a week

There are a lot of things in life that I buy that I don’t need this very second which are impractical to wait a week or more to receive though. The Super Saver shipping may be fine for much of the typical Amazon.com fare (books, music, videogames) but it doesn’t work for these items. Here is a small sample of things I purchased in the last 12-months that arrived in two days that I wouldn’t have waited for:

• “Weed wacker” Trimmer String
• Electric Lawn Mower (seriously. It is an excellent mower btw)
• Refrigerator Water Filter
• Windshield Wiper Blades
• Car Engine Air Filter
• Coyote Urine Deer Repellent
• Batteries (AAA, AA, cordless phone)
• Garage Door Opener Remotes
• Marshmallow Roasting Sticks
• Many Kitchen Tools
• Printer Toner
• Pre-ordered Video Games delivered on their release day
• Many last minute gifts

The best part of getting all of this stuff delivered to my house? Each one of them would have required a 30-60 minute errand to go buy it, I could easily comparison shop and read product reviews, and Amazon.com was always cheaper than the brick-and-mortar store I would have driven to. So the member hip pays for itself and it gives me more free time to do other things that are more important/fun.

Do yourself a favor and sign-up for an Amazon Prime free one-month trial and see for yourself how much time and money you can save.