

WTF, Amazon. What The (Price) Fix? - will_lam
http://www.jonlim.ca/2012/06/wtf-amazon/

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mikecane
He did not bother to note that one is a Macmillan edition, one is Transworld
(a UK publisher). The Macmillan one is now $9.99, Transworld is $9.49. I can't
account for his higher price, unless Macmillan lowered it, since Macmillan as
publisher sets the price, not Amazon.

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JonLim
Hi there, OP here.

You are right, I did not notice that they were different publishers. However,
I would just like to point out that the prices you are seeing are still not
the one I am seeing.

One of the commenters on my blog (and one on Reddit) mentioned that they were
$0.50 apart now, and that is not the case for myself, as I still see a $3.13
difference in prices!

The Tor Books version is far and away better on the eyes due to the font, but
from what I can tell, they are the exact same book.

~~~
monochromatic
Font is a ridiculous differentiator anyway. Can you not change that on your
Kindle? I mean... the book itself is just text.

~~~
JonLim
Funny enough I just tested it out - it seems to be using a different _type_ of
serif font, or it's just smaller.

Either way, I can adjust it (and I'm kinda dumb to not have noticed it before)
so there goes the differentiation I guess?

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Isofarro
There seems to be two issues here being conflated as one (judging by the
follow-up/updates):

1.) Two different items - because the same item is being offered by two
different sellers. The $9 is Amazon's main one, the $12 is Macmillan's own
specified price (note the "Sold by Macmillan" in that entry).

2.) Prices on the same item (identified by ASIN) do change at Amazon: sellers
can change their prices, even to ridiculous lengths such as this from last
year: <http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358> . In the retail part of
Amazon, Kindle books are treated in much the same way as physical items, so
the same flexibility of pricing is offered. Physical goods have cost of
holding stock and 90-day-invoicing cycles, hence pricing seem to fluctuate
based on that 90 day window and items still on hand at payment day. Kindle
ebooks, less so, but there's still A/B testing to consider.

Online, especially for non-physical items are tending to have fluctuating
prices, trying to find the ideal price to maximise profits.

One of my friends recommends <http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/> for price
watching items on Amazon. I tend to keep an eye on the Lego-focused variant
over at <http://brickset.com/buy/uk/amazon/> \-- price watching is proving to
be an interesting cottage-industry.

Clearing cookies / incognito mode triggers re-selecting a different bucket -
that's why you are seeing different pricing. So, if you want, clear cookies
over and over, find the lowest price, and buy right there and then.

Interestingly, the counter-intuitive strategy of increasing price can
sometimes actually reap more sales. So having the lowest price isn't always
the most optimal strategy.

I've had worse price differentials with British Airways. Go directly to the
site for a flight and I get one price. Go to Expedia pick the same flight, get
redirected straight through to the same page as before and the exact flight is
£200 cheaper.

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JonLim
> Online, especially for non-physical items are tending to have fluctuating
> prices, trying to find the ideal price to maximise profits.

Unfortunately, yep.

Like you, if I ever buy anything online such as a flight, I will check every
possible site and pick the lowest, clearing my cookies all along the way to
ensure that they aren't messing around with it.

I really wish they didn't do that! I'd love to see a study on this behaviour's
effect on sales though.

