Amazon price shenanigans

carlos

So I bought this today after much research on this type of guitars and all the options. 
Ortega doesn't sell a lot on Amazon so I found it surprising they even used it as a sales channel instead of their distributors.
Anyway, the shenanigans were because this guitar as at less than half RRP to start with, but then, as soon as I added it to my cart, it started going down £15 (about 5%) every day. I added it to cart instead of wish list at over £300 and bought it at £268. This morning it was at £275 and then by lunchtime it was £268.
Is this a thing or just a coincidence? I can imagine Amazon giving further discounts for items that have been in a cart for a while to push a buyer over the edge.

p.s.: I'm over the moon with my purchase

Whitecat

I don't think Amazon use an "abandoned-cart" strategy but their pricing is absolutely dynamic and their algorithm takes into account stock levels, popularity and competitor prices.

I bought a pile of Evidence cables for around £20 each a couple years back... they just kept dropping and dropping. The moment after I finished checking out they were back up to £70+ apiece.

Jack_

A lot of Amazon pricing is based on metrics and statistics, it's common place now for many items.

carlos

This was the last one they had of this model, so I was wondering if the seller was adjusting the price on the go to clear stock? Or if it was done automatically somehow. For a while I was playing chicken to see how low it'd go but at that price for a new solid woods instrument with 8 strings and amplification, it couldn't be beat.

Moe_Zambeek

I have stuff in my cart for months and it goes up and down all the time. Recently over the  6 weeks or so it’s been in my cart, a Levi’s jacket has gone from 83-62 in a series of increments over 10 days, the same pattern repeating 3 times. 

Conversely I’ve also had a pressure washer in there for ages and it hasn’t budged since the end of Jan.

Whitecat

carlos said:

This was the last one they had of this model, so I was wondering if the seller was adjusting the price on the go to clear stock? Or if it was done automatically somehow. For a while I was playing chicken to see how low it'd go but at that price for a new solid woods instrument with 8 strings and amplification, it couldn't be beat.

If it was sold by Amazon, it was a computer deciding that they no longer wanted it on hand, almost certainly.

If it was sold by a third party, yeah, may have been a human deciding to put it on clearance... or still a computer...

Glad you scooped a bargain. It happens if you're patient and lucky.

If you REALLY wanna deep-dive this game, start using https://camelcamelcamel.com - it tracks price changes and sends you alerts when they fall below a threshold you specify... it also tells you how likely a product is to go as low as you hope...

Jalapeno

I get discounts (not a lot) on pre-ordered books sometimes.

Sesh

I spotted they were shifting Frank Zappa's 3cd Läther for £5 so I put it in my basket, and forgot to complete the order. Next time I looked it was £20, but I managed to still get it for £5. Which was nice. All the CDs I want I put on a wishlist and when imI buying I go for the discounted ones.

Bigsby

I dread to think what will happen if Amazon becomes the first place to look for guitars. Years ago it was the first choice for books, and always the cheapest. Now they have such a big market share, it's no longer the case. I tend to buy quite a few work-related books (so not best sellers!), and for about five years Amazon has never once been the cheapest, in fact, it has always been either the most expensive, or the equal most expensive. FWIW, the cheapest is usually Booksetc, with Abe typically next, then Wordery, then Amazon. Yes, the prices are set by algorithms, but that's not the whole picture. 

I've had the same experience with things like printers, (Tesco Direct were much cheaper than Amazon, or anyone else I could find, but their prices don't appear if you're using Google to shop). I suspect that once Amazon are confident of their dominance in a market, their price competitiveness reduces. Would be a shame if that happened after we'd lost most of the local guitar dealers.

carlos

Bigsby said:

 I suspect that once Amazon are confident of their dominance in a market, their price competitiveness reduces. Would be a shame if that happened after we'd lost most of the local guitar dealers.

I did email Hobgoblin and a few other classical shops but nobody had an 8 string for weeks on end.

Branshen

Abit off-topic but how will you tune an 8-string nylon acoustic guitar?

NelsonP

Bigsby said:

I dread to think what will happen if Amazon becomes the first place to look for guitars. Years ago it was the first choice for books, and always the cheapest. Now they have such a big market share, it's no longer the case. I tend to buy quite a few work-related books (so not best sellers!), and for about five years Amazon has never once been the cheapest, in fact, it has always been either the most expensive, or the equal most expensive. FWIW, the cheapest is usually Booksetc, with Abe typically next, then Wordery, then Amazon. Yes, the prices are set by algorithms, but that's not the whole picture. 

I've had the same experience with things like printers, (Tesco Direct were much cheaper than Amazon, or anyone else I could find, but their prices don't appear if you're using Google to shop). I suspect that once Amazon are confident of their dominance in a market, their price competitiveness reduces. Would be a shame if that happened after we'd lost most of the local guitar dealers.

I'm starting to think that the end game envisaged by Amazon and Google is not the happy, consumer friendly image that they would have you believe. Amazon's strategy is clearly to become the default place to buy things. Once they have that position there is a strong chance they will abuse it. The barriers to entry for potential competitors are high.

It's been said elsewhere on this forum but the government need to look at this. Why not just whack a tax on all internet sales? That would help to restore the balance. It might even send a few more people in the direction of their local book shop or guitar shop which would keep the money in the local economy.

carlos

Branshen said:

Abit off-topic but how will you tune an 8-string nylon acoustic guitar?

In a guitar with normal scale like this it would be regular eadgbe for top 6 then the 2 bass strings can be any variation you need depending on repertoire. Not tuned in 4ths, as the 8th will get floppy at low B. For example cdeadgbe or bceadgbe. 
In a fan fret 8 string going from 24 to 27 inch scale you can try a top A on top and another A on bottom so aeadgbea. Commonly called Brahms tuning. 

Mickeyji

Amazon's algorithms also scope out whether you're logged in on a Mac or a Windows based PC and you may wind up paying more if you use a Mac. Someone in the know told me this is perfectly legal.

Whitecat

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ftc-said-to-be-reviewing-amazons-deceptive-pricing/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i

WezV

NelsonP said:

  
Why not just whack a tax on all internet sales? That would help to restore the balance. It might even send a few more people in the direction of their local book shop or guitar shop which would keep the money in the local economy.

99% of the stuff I buy online is stuff I would never have been able to buy locally, at least not at any point in my lifetime.  

Can I claim a rebate on your tax every time I order an item online that is not available locally? 

Although I must confess, I did order a compressor online the other week, direct from the manufacturers website.  Its only when it arrived I realised it was a local company.   I don't think either of us lost out on that though.

AlexC

According to your link that guitar is now £550...

NelsonP

WezV said:

NelsonP said:

  
Why not just whack a tax on all internet sales? That would help to restore the balance. It might even send a few more people in the direction of their local book shop or guitar shop which would keep the money in the local economy.

99% of the stuff I buy online is stuff I would never have been able to buy locally, at least not at any point in my lifetime.  

Can I claim a rebate on your tax every time I order an item online that is not available locally? 

Although I must confess, I did order a compressor online the other week, direct from the manufacturers website.  Its only when it arrived I realised it was a local company.   I don't think either of us lost out on that though.

Unfortunately it sounds like you'd be one of the unlucky ones that has to pay a little more than your fair share to make the world a better place.

No tax systems are 100% fair.

carlos

AlexC said:

According to your link that guitar is now £550...

Yes, that's the street price for one of these. Still have had no news of mine being shipped either.