Imagine this: You go to a bookstore, browse, choose a couple of volumes. But you don’t want to carry the books around. So you ask the clerk to hold the tomes until Saturday, when you’ll come back to buy them.
When you return, the bookseller hands you the items but advises you that he’s raised the prices. “I knew you were hot to buy them,” the clerk says, “so I figured I could make a few extra bucks.”
That’s what it feels like online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. has been doing to me . . . read more of this article from David Streitfeld, LA Times Staff Writer.
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Jan 10th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
You know, I started noticing the same thing. During Christmas, I noticed the DVDs for the TV show Firefly were $19.99. My wife picked them up at an even cheaper price, although I don’t know what it was, since she won’t tell me (Christmas rules). I checked today and the series had jumped to $24.97. Sure, so $5 won’t break the bank, but it adds up if you’re buying more than one item. (And isn’t it annoying that at $24.97 the item is just *slightly* below Super Saver Shipping cost? Amazon, please — Just charge me the extra $.04, will you? Please?)
I guess prices at Amazon are like stocks. You have to watch them closely to grab them at what you believe to be the lowest point, hoping they don’t actually go up. If they go up and you didn’t get the item, you feel like a greedy jackass for waiting. If you got it and then the price dropped, then somehow Amazon wins, and your new item is now permanently stained with the mark of “paid too much”.
jb says: I don’t think I can fight this. I mean, I’m glad I know about it. I don’t use Amazon anyway.
Jan 10th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Thanks for this note. I’ve been noticing this in my Amazon cart as well. I’ve been considering switching to Powell’s anyway, or some other independent bookseller, especially in linking books from my site. This might be the push to get me to do it.
jb says: Ain’t choice great?