Amazon does it again, price change.

[wolf]

Ordered Lasko, 42" Tower fan. $ 53.12. Shipped/Sold by Amazon. On Sunday.
It arrived next day, Monday. Liked what I saw, so immediately ordered another one.

Now the price is $ 62.72. One day later. This has happened so many times.

Whenever, I look at items, shopping around for best deal, with in a couple of
days, items I look at the price jumps on Amazon site.

Anyone else experience this with Amazon? (I did order the 2nd fan).

 

[geeky_grrl]

I haven't noticed it myself, I've heard stories that if you go in an incognito window you may see different prices than in a window with all the cookies tracking what you have looked at.

I'll often use https://camelcamelcamel.com/ to track the prices of items before I buy. It it is something I don't need right away I'll set an alert for when the price drops. And it is handy to know if something advertised as a sale is actually at a lower price than normal.

 

[statsman]

My DW has been checking out air purifiers for several months now. I keep telling her to order one as she would very likely benefit from it, but she keeps price watching. Old habits die hard (bang-for-buck purchasing). The couple of purifiers she has in her cart vary in price constantly.

 

[Chuckanut]

Amazon is about convenience these days.

It is not a price leader anymore. I often find an item I want cheaper someplace else. OTOH, on cheaper items, if I have to get in my car and drive 15-30 miles round trip using up 40-60 minutes of my time, any savings compared to Amazon melts away.

 

[euro]

Amazon is about convenience these days.

It is not a price leader anymore. I often find an item I want cheaper someplace else. OTOH, on cheaper items, if I have to get in my car and drive 15-30 miles round trip using up 40-60 minutes of my time, any savings compared to Amazon melts away.

Agreed. Usually, I still do price comparisons and sometimes I decide to order from a different (lower price) place. Almost invariably, it will take much longer to arrive, be it because they use slower shipping or be it that takes them way longer to "process" the order. If the item is truly something I'm fine waiting a few extra days or weeks then that is ok, but typically, I want it NOW...... spoiled, I know! Amazon have trained me well.... but I don't care - it works well for me

 

[cbo111]

Ordered Lasko, 42" Tower fan. $ 53.12. Shipped/Sold by Amazon. On Sunday.
It arrived next day, Monday. Liked what I saw, so immediately ordered another one.

Now the price is $ 62.72. One day later. This has happened so many times.

Whenever, I look at items, shopping around for best deal, with in a couple of
days, items I look at the price jumps on Amazon site.

Anyone else experience this with Amazon? (I did order the 2nd fan).

Yes, we have experienced the same type of price increases sometimes 50%+ higher than the first purchase. I ordered a 3-pack of jockey shorts last month for $19. Liked them and tried to buy again, price now $36. I copied and pasted the exact item description in google and found them for $24 at Overstock.com of all places.

 

[Aerides]

Amazon uses automated repricers to be the lowest price. If their bots find that everyone else is selling for 62.95, there's no need to sell for $50. But if Walmart lowers to $50, they will go to 49.99. When walmart sells out and goes back to 63, Amazon goes back up with them.

 

[Car-Guy]

Well like so many, prices going up, services going down... My last order was due to be delivered yesterday (express shipping) not here yet.

 

[JP.mpls]

My friend says she puts an item in her shopping cart, and then doesn't buy it.
(Not necessarily on Amazon. )

She claims to get reminders to buy that product, and often at a lower price.

I just tried this on something I thought was too expensive. I'm getting reminders, but so far at the same price.

JP

 

[HI Bill]

I've noticed that as Amazon's stock gets very low, the price increases. Once they receive a new batch of product, the price returns to normal. One example is the NVidea Shield Pro (streaming device). This retails for $199, but when Amazon was having low stock, it was going for up to $300.

 

[HI Bill]

My friend says she puts an item in her shopping cart, and then doesn't buy it.
(Not necessarily on Amazon. )

She claims to get reminders to buy that product, and often at a lower price.

I just tried this on something I thought was too expensive. I'm getting reminders, but so far at the same price.

JP

This does happen sometimes, but it can take weeks or months, so I'm not sure that putting it in the cart actually affects anything.

 

[jollystomper]

Interesting. More often than not, the opposite has happened to me. Perhaps because I tend to first put items in my wish list when I am still in the "exploratory" phase of a potential purchase.Sometimes within 1-2 weeks I'll get notified that something in my wish list has dropped in price.

I do agree, though, that Amazon has become more useful for convenience than price.

 

[HI Bill]

Interesting. More often than not, the opposite has happened to me. Perhaps because I tend to first put items in my wish list when I am still in the "exploratory" phase of a potential purchase.Sometimes within 1-2 weeks I'll get notified that something in my wish list has dropped in price.

I do agree, though, that Amazon has become more useful for convenience than price.

+1. Most of my wish list items do decrease in price (as do most (?) of the Amazon products over time. I'm not sure there's a correlation between the placement in the wish list and the price drop.

 

[ImThinkin2019]

This seems to be an issue in the opposite direction - the Amazon price seems low. Going through the promotional link on Adam Rugosa's vid on baking powder, you get a price of $199.


Going direct to Amazon gives a price of $99.99 as long as the search includes misspelling noise to noice.


Reading the reviews below this item one guy says he bought them for $49.99. Based on this it looks like Kove is market testing the price.

My apologies for not posting hyperlinks but the URLs were very long and I need to practice shortening them.

 

[Chuckanut]

Example: I just ordered a new Tile tracking device to replace one that wore out. The best price from the manufacture was a good 20% cheaper than ordering from Amazon even with having to pay the manufacturer shipping.

Oh, I note that these Tile devices always seem to have an extra month or two of power remaining in them, so I replace them every 14 months instead of yearly. LBYM is hard habit to break.

 

[CRLLS]

I saw the same price increase deal on eBay this week. I purchased an item for a decent price (I thought). When I went to check a day or two later, it was 5$ more. I wonder if the dropship sellers on eBay do not always change their prices when the wholesaler increases them. Then when the item sells, they find out they lost money on the sale and increase their new listing BIN price accordingly.

 

[skipro33]

You can check an item's price history by entering the URL for the item on this website;
https://camelcamelcamel.com/

Here's an example using dog food I purchase regularly;
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0009YWKUU

I routinely do this just to see if the current price is also the most recent cheapest price. I also have discovered that putting an item in my saved list will result in a discounted price the next day or two.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Amazon uses automated repricers to be the lowest price. If their bots find that everyone else is selling for 62.95, there's no need to sell for $50. But if Walmart lowers to $50, they will go to 49.99. When walmart sells out and goes back to 63, Amazon goes back up with them.

Amazon Seller here.

Aerides lists one of the reasons that prices can fluctuate. However, there are usually multiple Amazon sellers of the same product that have price wars on Amazon on a daily basis.

The way it works is someone lists a product on Amazon, let's say a garlic press. The listing is created and Amazon assigns an internal stock number to it, called an ASIN. Once this garlic press has been listed under this ASIN, if other sellers have the identical garlic press to sell they may not create a new listing, instead, they must piggyback on the original listing.

Next time you look at a product page on Amazon notice the small area in the far right column that says, "New and Used" or "Other Sellers". If you click on this you can see all the other sellers on Amazon that are selling the same item. These other sellers have differing prices.

Most people are unaware of this secondary listing of sellers. They simply see the buy box in the upper right hand corner of the page with the "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons and click on one of them.

If you look closely underneath the "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons you will see who the buyer really is. Most times it will say Ships From: Amazon; Sold By: Amazon, but not always.

The battle between Amazon Sellers is to capture the Buy Box, that box on the product listing page that has the "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" button. You don't want to be a seller on that secondary page, you want to be listed in the Buy Box. Sellers compete for the Buy Box (primarily) by having the lowest price. Thus, some sellers will cut their price, gain the Buy Box, make some sales, and then another seller will price the item lower and they will win the Buy Box.

This is the main reason why you see variations in prices on the same item on Amazon on a day-to-day basis.

 

[BeachOrCity]

There is a tool available to use called camelcamelcamel shows you the price history of an item. Just put the URL in. No need to sign up
http://camelcamelcamel.com

Here is the history for a lasko fan like the one you bought:
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B000RL3UJA

 

[Amethyst]

Prices on Amazon often change for items I'm watching. I just accept it, annoying as it is.

I suspect there are algorithms that raise prices when items are selling quickly, and lower the price when sales slow.

EDIT: Aerides's post seems to confirm this.

Ordered Lasko, 42" Tower fan. $ 53.12. Shipped/Sold by Amazon. On Sunday.
It arrived next day, Monday. Liked what I saw, so immediately ordered another one.

Now the price is $ 62.72. One day later. This has happened so many times.

Whenever, I look at items, shopping around for best deal, with in a couple of
days, items I look at the price jumps on Amazon site.

Anyone else experience this with Amazon? (I did order the 2nd fan).

 

[CaptTom]

...My apologies for not posting hyperlinks but the URLs were very long and I need to practice shortening them.

Any time you need to post or send an Amazon link, copy just the part before (and not including) the "/ref..."

As for pricing, it can go the other way too. I just bought two items for $75 each, and liked them. Went back to buy more and they were $69.

I also DON'T log on before browsing on Amazon. My browser is set to delete cookies on close, so they have no search history for the algorithm to use to bump up prices.

Then, when I'm ready to buy, I copy the link (up to but not including the "/ref"), close the browser (deleting cookies) and then re-launch and log on to Amazon. Paste the link to the product I want, double-check the price, seller or shipper is correct, add to cart and buy.

I've never seen a price change between search and buy using this method.

 

[ImThinkin2019]

Any time you need to post or send an Amazon link, copy just the part before (and not including) the "/ref..."

As for pricing, it can go the other way too. I just bought two items for $75 each, and liked them. Went back to buy more and they were $69.

I also DON'T log on before browsing on Amazon. My browser is set to delete cookies on close, so they have no search history for the algorithm to use to bump up prices.

Then, when I'm ready to buy, I copy the link (up to but not including the "/ref"), close the browser (deleting cookies) and then re-launch and log on to Amazon. Paste the link to the product I want, double-check the price, seller or shipper is correct, add to cart and buy.

I've never seen a price change between search and buy using this method.

Thank you Captain. I will practice this.