Amazon Heads Up

In general, Amazon offers some good deals.

But there is a "however" documented by recent observations that deserves elaboration:

  1. The price Amazon offered on one tool was more than 40% higher than that obtainable at a local big box during the height of the Xmas season. Sure, you have to shop around but the discrepancy was whopping if you preconceive Amazon as reliably competitive.

  1. Amazon sent me an email offering deals on certain tools it modeled would be of interest. One tool was already in my shopping cart. Separately checking the cart showed the tool pegged at a figure lower than their email offer.

  2. Deciding to read all of the reviews on an item, I opened a new page just for that purpose. After moving through a succession of new windows--and seventy some reviews or so--I noticed the price on the last review page for the merchandise was now measurably higher than that featured on the original item-description page still open. Reloading the original item-description page did not make that price leap to the higher figure on the last review page.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Reply to
Edward Hennessey
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I also recently received an email from them warning me that they will be terminating all Illinois Amazon affiliates.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus29524

"Ignoramus29524" wrote in message news:B6udnTbseuco97rQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

I:

I affiliates in other states are not being terminated, you have to wonder what new Illinois' law they disagree with and, if it isn't obvious, why.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Reply to
Edward Hennessey

Why? Some kind of pissing match about income reporting?

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Illinois wants Amazon to pay sales tax for items sold to IL residents.

So they are passing a law that says that any web retailer that has affiliates in IL, has "physical presence" or something like that, and is obligated to pay. So, amazon said, it will just terminate all Illinois affiliates.

Since I do not make any money from anazon affiliate program, I do not personally care too much.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus29524

Illinois isn't the only state that is attempting to collect taxes from Amazon.

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Reply to
Max

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Reply to
Max

...[Note on Amazon web pricing elided for brevity]...

Amazon has turned into mostly nothing but a front for a zillion different e-tailers instead of actually being something themselves.

Owing to that, I've pretty much given them the brush-off in preference to a direct online distributor link that I can tell who it is upfront.

--

Reply to
dpb

I've bought quite a few tools from Amazon, and often they've had the lowest price as well as free shipping. *But* you need to do your homework, as sometimes you can find better deals elsewhere at a given moment. I also dislike their use of "list" prices which are so ridiculously high that their claimed discount is meaningless. Their prices really do go up and down too, leave a few items in your shopping cart for awhile and note how the prices change over the weeks and months.

Reply to
DGDevin

You mean you have to pay attention when you buy something online?

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

They already pay sales tax in Washington state.

Reply to
CW

I suspect they are doing that deliberately to grab your attention and maybe get you to order the stuff.

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

And New York, unfortunately. Newegg is resisting, so far.

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

RE: Subject

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your friend.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Thanks to DGD for the comment. If you go to camelcamelcamel.com, you can plug in an Amazon URL and chart price movement among 3 classes of resellers, Amazon included. Price alerts can also be dispatched to you if you register on the site, AFAIK. Any report on the site would be worthwhile.

The correlations in price development among retailer groups are interesting. As to price upswings, on the big A , part of that may involve a calculation by Amazon that if they jump a price notches higher a formulaic number of times, a person who has placed it in their cart--along with other waiting "wannabuys"--may be triggered to buy at some point on the apprehension that the bill for a desired product is spiraling beyond reach.

Acsquisition and operating costs and competition are other obvious drivers in this flux but what some may say is shifty manipulation or gaming by Amazon is not apart from the picture.

Hey, Sphero, for some reason your name is tolling the bell of association with one John Woodgate, either correctly or no. If rightly, do you know what became of him?

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Reply to
Edward Hennessey

More Spehro than Sphero.. now that I've lost ~50lb... ;-)

True enough. John Woodgate (a Brit)... well, I suspect he got fed up with all the US political BS on s.e.d. (not to mention rudeness and low signal to noise ratio) and left some years ago. He's quite active on one electronic simulation group that I subscribe to (posted within the last 30 minutes- about 9:35 pm London time).

Here's John's website if you should wish to contact him- he is very knowledgeable on matters of pro audio standards and such, and I think Spanish translation.

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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

that conversion to the less-unique lookalike with some frequency.

Congratulations putting some of the ponderous pounds behind you. You'll live longer; that's often the preference.

John and I are well-acquainted. If you get a chance to inform him of my inquiry, he may find the fond sentiment tolerable.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Reply to
Edward Hennessey

Maybe, retailers sometimes play games with prices for such reasons. But it could also be because they noticed a competitor cut their price and so Amazon is going to beat them by five bucks, or because they bought a trailer-load and got a deal, or the wholesaler raised the price....

Reply to
DGDevin

Illinois just announced they were moving to collect sales tax on internet purchases.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled a state cannot do so unless the company they are attacking has some sort of physical presence in the state (Quill v. North Dakota). Amazon is terminating affiliates in order to disconnect from any possible physical presence.

If Amazon allowed its affiliates to remain part of the Amazon family, Amazon would be obliged to collect the Illinois sales tax and forward it to the state.

In addition to the internet business, the Democrat-controlled state legislature intends:

  • To raise the state income tax by 75% for the next four years, and
  • Add .00 / pack tax on cigarettes.
Reply to
HeyBub

Yep. As Abraham Lincoln once said: "The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine." (Hat Tip to Clayton Cramer)

Reply to
HeyBub

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