Amazon Prime Pricing fluctuations?

ChattanoogaPhil

ChattanoogaPhil

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Anyone notice how quickly price changes occur at Amazon? I have.

It's usually a couple percent or so but this time I noticed a huge change. I was running low on cleaning media for the tumbler (reloading stuff) so I went to Amazon and found a 15 pound bag of Frankford corn cob for $14.99 which sounded about right so I clicked the buy button. Next week I see the price is now $21.60. That's over 40%. :eek:



 
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I don't use Amazon very often so I may be completely off on this but it looks like they are from two different sellers

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
Both marked sold by Amazon. But shipping may have something to do with it. As a Prime member you get 2 day shipping so I wonder if there are certain days of the week that are more/less costly to ship so adjust price accordingly?
 
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Yep. Ordered a watch this AM. Price has been fluctuating. But also, source has been changing. At least once the product was obviously gray market (warranty by secondary seller, not mfg). This AM had the lowest price in two weeks, was sourced by Amazon, and had mfg warranty, so I pulled the bang switch.
 
Amazon now uses so many "other sellers", you have to watch very close who is actually the seller. For Prime customers, it may mean the cost of shipping or more. I purchased a battery for a laptop, and it came from China directly to me.
 
A few days ago I put 2 different items into my shopping cart on Amazon. I was debating on how many of each I wanted (gifts for friends), so I went to bed. Got up the next day and went back to the site to finalize the order...both items had gone up by over 30%!

I instantly emptied my shopping cart, did a Yahoo search, and found everything elsewhere...for less than Amazon's original price! I should mention that I am NOT an Amazon Prime member.

Last year, I did ALL my Christmas shopping on Amazon. I took advantage of their free trial membership to Prime, and quit after the New Year. So far this year, I've purchased nothing through Amazon, finding better deals on everything I wanted in other places, and I'm nearly done shopping. So...it appears I'll be going from buying everything last year on Amazon...to buying nothing this year!

Tim
 
Over the last year or two I have found that MOST OF THE TIME I can get better pricing on most items from other vendors other than Amazon. Always check ebay before hitting Buy Now Button because now ebay has a LOT of regular merchants that have brick & mortar stores just selling their wares on ebay as well to supplement business they have lost to the internet. Always check their feedback and ratings before purchasing.

Amazon charges freight unless you spend over $35 (or pay to become a Prime member) and they always charge tax now. 99% of the time the vendors on ebay do NOT. I RARELY purchase from Amazon anymore and I do buy many items per week on the internet!
 
Kanewpadle said:
Sold and shipped by Amazon but the supplier Frankford Arsenal sets the price.

I would be curious to see if the price goes down after the holidays.
Click to expand...

Yup... shipped and sold by Amazon.

It was $14.99 when I ordered it last week.
$21.60 when I looked at it yesterday afternoon.
This morning it's $19.99.

 
Most large E-tailers use an automated demand pricing scheme. When a product gets a lot of views and/or sales, the price will automatically go up. Social Media can cause price hikes. When someone posts; "Hey, I got this great widget at Brand-X for cheap", it causes a lot of traffic to the Brand-X store for the product. The software sees a higher demand for the widget and automatically starts adjusting the price. This has been occurring for years. I first noticed it at Newegg about five years ago when I was buying parts to assemble a PC. Prices would change from one day to the next as people on a PC Forum would suggest a particular item. And if the product was on sale, it would suspiciously be "sold-out" at the sale price and suddenly re-appear after the sale at the regular or higher price. In all fairness, some sites will give you a warning when the item goes on sale such as "Only 20 at this price" or some similar wording or indication.

It's the old business rule of supply and demand.
 
It's demand pricing. I bought a TV there on Monday this week. I'd been watching it since early October. Pricing went from upper $800's down to mid $700's to a low of high $500's on black Friday. I waffled on Black Friday and it went up to the high $700's by Saturday. A week later it's in the upper $600's and Monday it hit low $600's so I bought it. Today it is in the mid $700's. Go figure.

If the item you want is something you've researched, and you know you specifically want that exact item, and you have been keeping up on prices, and you can wait to get it a while, you can save some pretty decent cash. In the end I save about $225 off the base price, paid no taxes, and got free shipping, have Amazon to complain to and accept returns (as opposed to Fast Eddie's internet electronics shop). Not bad, but it took some patience.
 
Start a watch list and put the item on it. Amazon will notify when the pricing is changed up or down and you can buy when you see the best offer. Shipping has a lot to do with their pricing and right now everything seems to be going up for the holidays. I have not seen 2 day shipping on the last 4 items I ordered even though I indicated that in the order. Might be they are out of stock even though it says it is in stock.

Pete99004
 
Amazon is in the enviable position of now commanding over 32% share of the online sale market. That in an economics term is approaching that of an oligopoly. When that happens the firm's managers automatically start raising their markup percentage until they see market resistance and their resulting sales share starts a decline. ...........

And Arik mentions a significant fact about Amazon. They offer up the same exact item as being sold by multiple vendors, Amazon being only a broker and getting a small % of the sales price for doing so. .....
 
Had to replace a 32" flat screen TV earlier this year....... Consumer's Reports mentioned its 'top rated 39/40" Smart TV from 2015 (Samsung) might still be available.........and still a very good option vs 2016 models

was $599 (2015)......Amazon had 5 left for $320..... had it in two days no shipping. (Prime)

Some of the "other sellers" seem to be selling out "old stock" as often they only have a few left in stock often in limited sizes....... but good deals it what they have works for you.........


Amazon Prime has saved me money .......... and a whoooooole heck of a lot of time!!!!!!
 
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Don't get me started on browsers!

A yahoo search for "samsung 32 inch smart tv" yields first
bestbuy, samsung, walmart, walmart, amazon, costco, . . . .

Why them first? Are they paying Yahoo for top billing?

For years I have begged for a browser that gives me what I asked for, not what the browser wants me to have.
 
Amazon, gotta love 'em!

I got an email from them telling me new price on watch. Down 3 bucks from last week - when I actually bought it. From them.

Idiots.
 
Amazon has really been ticking me off in recent months. First, they change their free shipping from $25 to $35 and now $50. Their price fluctuations are absurd. In the past it seemed like their prices were more stable. I used to like Amazon, but now I don't use it unless I have to. MI started charging sales tax on places like Amazon, so it's even less desirable to use.
 
I keep items I might need or want in the future, in my wish list. In the notes, I type in the current price. Sometimes there are significant price drops, and sometimes it increases. Sometimes it becomes an "add on item" with a much lower price.

They are always quick to annotate a price drop, but never mention the increases, lol.
 
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