Curiously I am on the exact same boat as you. For Amazon (in my personal experience) I've found it's better to trade in localbitcoins, I check their trust score and the built in escrow is also a plus, that is not to say there are not scammers there though. I've also traded with a user in these forums, you can find him in my "left feedback" if you are interested. For the other thing, I have no idea, if you do find someone that isn't shady as hell, let me know.