Why does Amazon.com prices flunctuate so wildly?

[geepondy]

Anybody else notice this? Their prices for many items tend to jump all around. Example, last month I bought a Panasonic ES81095 electric shaver there for $129.99. Now I see the price has jumped up to $149.99. The price has remained the same at an alternative competitor that I compared with at the time of purchase. Likewise I was keeping track of a digital photo frame thruout the fall and instead of the price going down, it went up, twice so that when Best Buy put it on sale, it was actually then cheaper then at Amazon.

Just wondered if anybody had any insight on how they set their prices. By the way the above mentioned shaver has been far and away the best one I ever used and I have used many models from Norelco and Braun.

 

[prof]

You have to watch the source. Amazon sells some things directly, but also processes orders for other vendors. The price from different vendors does vary widely--I recently noticed an item listed by two vendors--one at twice the price of the other. If you watch closely, the page will always say something like "sold and shipped by...".

In other words, it may not be Amazon's prices that vary, but the prices of the different companies that sell through Amazon.

 

[axolotls]

IF you buy something direct from Amazon and they lower it within say 30 days, they -will- give you a refund on the difference.

 

[ttran97]

IF you buy something direct from Amazon and they lower it within say 30 days, they -will- give you a refund on the difference.

Yes, I did that with a GPS that I bought...got $100 back! But that money has since gone towards feeding this flashaholism.