

Amazon Spain is selling a magnifying glass for more than 13 Million Euros - macuenca
http://www.amazon.es/dp/B00006JDKQ/

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The_Sponge
It's likely due to two (or more) automated pricing scripts duking it out.
Here's how it works:

Seller 1 is a well respected seller. They've got thousands upon thousands of
good reviews. As a result, they never price themselves the cheapest, but maybe
pretty close to that. Their script finds the cheapest price, makes sure that
it's above their cost, and then prices it at 15% above the cheapest.

Seller 2 is not as entrenched in the market. They try to undercut their
competitors. They have good reviews, but not as many reviews over all. So,
price is their main weapon. Their script seeks out well reviewed sellers and
prices at 5% below their competitor.

Both scripts update every 15 minutes or so. You can see where this is going if
both scripts don't have an upper bound. Each script is designed to make the
most profit, and not be the lowest by too far. For example, if pencils
suddenly had a shortage, you'd want your prices to automatically raise to
match the perceived demand. You wouldn't want to be the sucker who sells all
his pencils at a tiny profit while everyone else gets far more money.

Or, you know, it could just be a data input error. :p

