Since I used a Coinstar machine to convert $120 worth of change into an Amazon gift certificate, I've been combing Amazon looking for cool gifts I can get for friends and family (mostly quirky items under $50 like a fish tank that looks like an office cubicle or a tissue holder that dispenses from a tiki head's nose). While searching, I decided I would post my findings here so others could maybe benefit from my time searching. This made me think, hmmm maybe I can use that cool Amazon Web Service to show my items in a webpage just by making a list of Asin's (Amazon unique id's). Unfortunately, this spiraled out of control for me, and now (after spending way too much time on it) I have a ColdFusion function anyone can use to accomplish this same task. You can view my shopping list (friends and family may want to ignore or ruin the surprise) as well as download the function by following this link:

Shopping List and Amazon ASIN ColdFusion Function

For the ColdFusion function you just send in your Amazon developer id and your list of Asin's and optionally an amazon affiliate id (so that you can quickly make a store for your website and get the referral bonus). FYI, the Amazon service is still a little quirky, some prices come up strange and some images don't show properly. Also, later I'll post a function for searching Amazon by keyword instead of ASIN.

Hey Drisgill-

Know you are a fan of Coinstar so I thought you might be interested in a new web tool that Coinstar has to recommend the best gift card to get friends and family.

Might save you the time searching Amazon. (Although that fish bowl is very cool).

Check it out at http://www.coinstar.com/us/IRDocs/A1-0-3-3