I'm not sure what kind of data is vended through this API, but it seems like if this is data on products that amazon.com sells, won't people simply resort to scraping using residential proxies, mobile networks, etc. which are harder to mitigate?
I have a hard time imagining what kind of "side project" would be making use of the Amazon Selling Partner API. It all revolves around managing listings and sales through the Amazon storefront - if you've got a use case for that, it's probably for something serious.
It’s interesting that only GET calls are metered. Is this a common thing to do?
I wonder if this is also being done to limit marketplace data being scraped with the API or limit how this data gets used by limiting low margin business models. Increasing the fees will have these effects.
The focus on charging for GETs is unfortunate given that in my (very outdated) experience developing against MWS, many of the APIs are of the “POST to receive a token that you GET-poll on” variety.
$1/20k gets shouldn't be a big deal?
I wonder if this is also being done to limit marketplace data being scraped with the API or limit how this data gets used by limiting low margin business models. Increasing the fees will have these effects.