Amazon.com

Amazon.com is the world's largest online retailer and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. It was founded on by Jeff Bezos, an avid fan of the Star Trek who had a brief cameo in. Initially starting out as a book seller, the retailer's assortment quickly expanded to include almost all other conceivable consumer merchandise as well, including those stemming from the Star Trek franchise, in the process becoming an important distribution partner for the franchise, if not the most important one where its merchandise – in both physical and digital manifestations in regard to the print, and home media entertainment formats – is concerned.

While originally founded as an online retailer, Amazon has, after a tentative start, rapidly evolved into a multi-media conglomerate whose many holdings include, among others, the below mentioned Amazon Prime and Amazon Studios as well as the online publisher CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, which has released several original Star Trek related book titles.

Exclusive home video releases
Because of its importance to the franchise, especially for its worldwide coverage, Amazon.com is increasingly given – or has enforced – the right to release so-called "retailer exclusive" home media entertainment formats, thereby joining the traditional chain store retailer, having already been previously allowed to release such exclusives, but which has only North-American coverage.

No details on the financial arrangement between franchise and the respective retailers have ever been disclosed, but it is save to assume that the "retailer exclusive" format entails a larger margin cut for the retailer involved over the regular releases – and thus a smaller one for the franchise and/or manufacturer.

Star Trek: The Original Series
Variant packagings of the DVD release were retailed as limited exclusives through the German Amazon.de and the French Amazon.fr and in November 2005. The German set came with a Starfleet arrowhead insignia shaped display shelf, whereas the French one came in a black hard plastic Starfleet-style "records bin". Four years later, in July 2009, the Japanese Amazon.co.jp released the same set as a limited "Galaxy Box" edition and came packaged with a full scale tricorder toy.

The German and French editions rank to date among the earliest known Amazon Star Trek exclusives, along with the below-mentioned Japanese ones.

Star Trek
Amazon.com exclusively retailed a Blu-ray version of that contained a QMx model of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701 alternate reality) in 2009. The metal model was limited to an edition of 5,000 pieces.

The German Amazon.de exclusively retailed a November 2009 2-disc DVD release of Star Trek that contained a model of the Enterprise, which, when assembled, served as a disc holder. This edition was geo-restricted to German and Dutch (through the now defunct retail chain store) speaking European countries only – though the same product was, in a variant packaging, also available as "retailer exclusives" in Canada through Best Buy and in the USA through  (as were their Blu-ray counterparts for that matter).

Star Trek Into Darkness
In 2013, Amazon.com, the German Amazon.de and the French Amazon.fr exclusively carried a 3D Blu-ray Disc edition of that contained a QMx phaser replica. The German release differed from the two others in that it had its discs packaged in a "steelbook" casing, a format popular in Germany (see: below).

Star Trek Beyond
A number of Amazon-exclusive editions of the home video release of Star Trek Beyond included a QMx "Mini Masters" seven-inch replica of the USS Franklin or a three-pack of Snapco miniature starships. These sets were released in November 2016.

Prime universe films
In December 2005 the Japanese Amazon.co.jp retailed a limited exclusive of the, which consisted of a box featuring a die-cast model of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) on top of it. It was reissued in July of the following year in a smaller production run, but now featuring a smaller scaled pewter model of the refit-USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

Released in November 2013, the Star Trek I-X - Limited Collector's Edition, collecting the first ten remastered versions of the, was exclusively retailed through the British Amazon.co.uk and the German Amazon.de, with its total numbered production run limited to 5,000 copies. The disc contents were the same as in the earlier released regular Blu-ray version, which had not seen an European release, making the Amazon one truly a "retailer exclusive". As extras were included, a 112-page full-color photo book containing original studio production manuals and behind the scenes stills, film cells, three storyboards, a fabric Federation badge and a blueprint of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D).

The Japanese Amazon released in the same year a Stardate Collection exclusive as the to 500 copies limited "Premium Edition", likewise containing extra contents exclusive to that release, which consisted of a film cell from each of the first 10 films and a Star Trek-themed USB flash drive with storyboards and posters.

Limited "Steelbook" Editions
A "steelbook" edition, on occasion also referred to as "tin can" or "metalpack", concerns an optical disc release packaged in a metalic foldout (hence the "book" in steelbook) casing, typically in a limited, one-time only production run at a higher price-point, as opposed to the regular plastic snapcases, though contents are usually the same for both variants. While not as elaborate as the above featured exclusives, a segment of the collector scene values these for its perceived cachet, and is a format utilized in many countries, Germany in particular, where the format is especially popular. Amazon is but one of the many retailers which regularly employs the format as an exclusive. 

The 2018 Season One "Limited Steelbook Edition" was not limited to Amazon.com alone, as this particular release was carried by Best Buy as well, whereas it was in Europe carried by UK retailer Zavvi and French retailer FNAC as well.

Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a service that allows Amazon.com customers to pay a annual fee for unlimited two-day shipping. As part of the service, Amazon offers a free eBook from its lending library each month and free video streaming of select older titles.

For subscribers, all Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise episodes are currently available to stream for free. Original Series and Next Generation episodes are available in remastered high definition format.

Amazon.co.uk subscribers can watch both the original and remastered editions of The Original Series and the entirety of Voyager.

During its pre-production in 2016, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime all vied for the rights to stream the series outside the home market, where the series was to be streamed by CBS All Access. The latter two companies' bids were not successful. Nonetheless, the series became featured on the main Amazon.com website, open for customer review and commentary, thereby becoming the first Star Trek series to be featured on the site, long before any of the home media formats were released – the sale of which having been the traditional purview of the site. Ever since Amazon launched its own television production company in 2010, (with the science fiction series The Man in the High Castle being one of its most notable productions as of 2019),  it has – regardless of whether or not Prime has secured streaming rights – featured motion picture and television productions on its main site before the release of any of the corresponding home media formats, thus essentially expanding it with -like characteristics. IMDb itself incidentally, was already in 1998 acquired by Amazon. 

Prime customers can subscribe to CBS All Access (and others) through Amazon.com via the pages where the pre-home media release productions are featured.

Series

 * Star Trek: The Original Series - Fan Favorites Collection
 * Star Trek: The Original Series - Fan Favorites Collection

Films

 *  (Original & Director's cut)
 *  (Original & Director's cut)
 *  (Original & Director's cut)
 *  (Original & Director's cut)
 *  (Original & Director's cut)
 *  (Original & Director's cut)