Find a Product’s ASIN

Many hacks and features depend on knowing a
product’s Amazon ASIN; here are a few ways to track it
down.

ASIN stands
for Amazon
Standard Item Number, and every product Amazon sells has one. It’s a
number that’s unique to Amazon, and it is at the center of the Amazon
universe. Many pages and features rely on the ASIN, so the first
skill needed in tweaking Amazon is the ability to hunt down and
gather ASINs.

Finding the ASIN for a
book is easy because it’s the same as the ISBN.
ISBN stands for International
Standard Book
Number, and is a unique numerical ID given to every book published
since 1972. The key word is standard, because
the ISBN allows the book to be identified across varied systems.
Libraries, publishers, bookstores, and anyone who handles books use
ISBNs to identify them. Not only does each book have a unique ISBN,
but each edition of the book has its own ISBN. That way there’s never
confusion between the hardback and paperback versions of a book.

So where is this magical ISBN number? Turn this book around, look at
the back cover, and find the UPC barcode on the back. Usually printed
just above the UPC is “ISBN” followed by 10 digits, as in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2. UPC symbol with ISBN highlighted

You can also usually find the ISBN printed somewhere on the copyright
page at the front of the book. Sometimes the digits are separated by
dashes, but only the numbers are important. This book’s ISBN is
0-596-00542-3.

Finding ASINs for other products, such as DVDs, CDs, or even toys,
isn’t quite as straightforward. Amazon doesn’t use any standard
method of identification for other products, so each ASIN is unique
to Amazon. A quick way to find the ASIN is to search for the item on
Amazon and go to its
product detail page. The ASIN will
be printed on the page, as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3. ASIN listed in Amazon Product Details

If the ASIN can’t be found anywhere on the page, you can always find
it in the URL. Examine
the address of any
product detail page, and you’ll likely find a series of 10 letters
and numbers separated from other sections of the URL by slashes.
They’re often preceded by ASIN, as in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4. Amazon Product Detail URL