Just an oddity, Amazon vs. Home Depot.

[micky]

Just an oddity.

Amazon sells this valve handle from Danco, used below sinks and next to toilets for $6.00

HomeDepot sells the original handle, by BrassCraft, for $2.00

And the BrassCraft version is bigger than the Danco version, and the handle is hard to turn anyhow, and often on frozen valves, so the bigger handle is better. And the BrassCraft version includes a screw.

3 times as much and not as good in two ways.

[hubops]

$ 16.80 + tax + shipping on amazon Canada :

.. wonder what it costs at my local hardware store ? .. where the whole valve costs $ 7.. John T.

[micky]

That's incredible. It's making my head spin.

If you didn't include the link, I wouldn't believe it.

These are Canadian dollars? I think so and if so it's about 13, but it's still incredible.

Well, I checked HomeDepot. It suggests that my local store is Niagara Falls. I guess that really is the closest Canadadian store. (Their computer is pretty clever.)

ERROR HERE. It doesn't have the handle itself. It's in the picture but sort of like a phantom. In the US, they sell the kit wihout the handle. And when I look up handles at Home depot Ca. ... Well they include 3 more parts, the stem, with a washer I think, the nut, and a little washer -- that's all you need to rebuild it -- and it's $4 and they have 15 in stock.

They also seel a whole valve without the handle: This is how we can get rich. I'll buy the handles here for $2 and send them to you and you can sell them for $10, still undercutting the compteition.

[Clare Snyder]

And that is a surprise??? How?

I buy things I can't buy locally from Amazon and consider the higher price the cost of convenience. Particularly "third party" amazon sellers who have to make money after paying Amazon's fees or markup.

O just bought 2 sockets from a supplier through Amazon because the actual supplier does not have a good e-comerce site and it's a 2 1/2 hour round trip. Price was decent but likely $5 more than what it would cost at their parts bench

[Scott Lurndal]

Amazon shows it as $3.27 to me.

Stuff on amazon is often more than in the store. Look at

The same item is less than $5 at Target stores.

Note in this case the seller is "Price Point Leader", whom I suspect goes out to the local target pays $5, ships for $5 for a $5 profit.

[micky]

Today the price has dropped to $3.27

I know that Amazon changes prices all the time, but this is 45% less.

Also I see they have two similar links that go to the same place. B00EA080QM is the same in each.

And there was a short while a few days ago when it said $3 and change but when it went to the shopping cart, it was 5 and change. I think that was a fluke. Maybe it changed prices a second before I clicked Buy, but the page didn't reload. I don't know which, but they either reload when the price changes or they give you the price that is displayed if it's lower. I don't know which but with millions of customers, some must buy one second after the price changes. How does Amazon handle that? It's a data processing issue. It's going to be a common one, because even a store that rarely changes prices does so once in a while. maybe if I majored in IS, they would have said how to avoid it.

[micky]

These were the two links I referred to in the previous paragrapha.

which is $3.27 but was 5.92 a few days ago.

It appears to be exactly the same as

which is and was 3.27

I see that the first which had been more expensive is sr=1_6 but the cheaper one is sr=1_7 Except 1_7 has disappeared and that link now goes to 1_6

[micky]

I priced a lot of things when Amazon got started and they were consistently cheaper, but of course that's a loss leader to gain customers. Now they have plenty customers and they can mess with us.

And it's like new rentacar and motel companies start out cheap and go up to market price for estabilished companies later. Dollar rentacar probably started out cheap.

Now it's 6 at target, 16 at Amazon. Yes, we could do that too, like with sending valve handles to Canada. But if we do soap within the USA, we won't have to pay the customs duty on valve handles.

[Jim Joyce]

I don't obsess over an item that only costs a few dollars, but if it's something that costs multiple hundreds I drop the entire Amazon URL into the search box at

to see the price history. If I'm not in a hurry to buy, I'll use ccc's price alert facility to let me know when the price has dropped below my target price.

[Marilyn Manson]

Track your Amazon prices at the following site. Set alerts so that you get an email when a price changes. Set your own alert criteria.

It's not perfect. Your handle has an outdated price right now, but the soap price is ~ accurate. I've used for items I'm in no hurry to buy/may never buy but would if the price was right.

Your handle:

The soap:

[micky]

cool.

The price history graph is the best part, ranging from $11 to $3. Amazing.

Crude oil doesn't go up and down that much.

I may invest in valve handle futures.