SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic

Posted: Apr 26 2011 08:43 am

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/04/25/amazon.price.algorithm/index.html?hpt=P1&iref=NS1

The book "The Making of a Fly" was listed on Amazon for the very low price of $23 Million dollars.

Two booksellers were automatically adjusting their prices against each other, which triggered off a war between the two automatic algorithms, driving the price up as such.

And yes it had "plus $3.99 shipping"

On Monday afternoon, the new book was listed at $976.98, and they think the price is escalating again. (as shown in the picture)

Posted: Apr 26 2011 09:41 am

and it made the CNN news feed? ha thats funny

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

username wrote:

and it made the CNN news feed? ha thats funny

A $70 text book selling for more than 23M is awesome. It belongs on CNN because it shows how tech systems can be flawed.

Posted: Apr 26 2011 10:33 am

My question is, why didn't the price go DOWN? Wouldn't one assume that if one company is selling it for x, selling it for x -.50 c would make it easier to get out of inventory?

Posted: Apr 26 2011 11:05 am

aeonic wrote:

My question is, why didn't the price go DOWN? Wouldn't one assume that if one company is selling it for x, selling it for x -.50 c would make it easier to get out of inventory?

From what I was reading, Basiclly the one company would post it for lets say $10.00. Amazon saw this, and said "we're more reputable, we can sell it for $10.50" The company now says "Amazon is selling it for $10.50, we can sell it for $10.25" Which lead Amazon to say "They're selling it for $10.25 we can sell it for $10.75"

So on and so on.

Posted: Apr 26 2011 11:12 am

Atma wrote:

aeonic wrote:

My question is, why didn't the price go DOWN? Wouldn't one assume that if one company is selling it for x, selling it for x -.50 c would make it easier to get out of inventory?

From what I was reading, Basiclly the one company would post it for lets say $10.00. Amazon saw this, and said "we're more reputable, we can sell it for $10.50" The company now says "Amazon is selling it for $10.50, we can sell it for $10.25" Which lead Amazon to say "They're selling it for $10.25 we can sell it for $10.75"

So on and so on.

Just another reason why the state of business (utter disarray) is normative in the US now. *shakes head*

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 26 2011 02:17 pm

Because it's a textbook. You can charge whatever you like for them. It's highway robbery.

The real shame? You can only sell it back for $2.34