February 2, 2007 | Quick Tips

I just received the following from Mary:

I know you do a lot of Amazon-ing… do you know how to see how long an item is on sale?

I figured this might be an item of general interest, so here goes:

There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to Amazon’s pricing scheme. I have seen items fluctuate in price several times in a day, and I’ve seen something on huge markdown last for a month. If something is on sale at a price that works for you, buy it and refer back to this post to find out how to make sure you know if the price changes in the next 30 days.

And here’s a cheat: If the price isn’t low enough for you, yet, enter it into the RefundPlease site anyway, and you’ll receive an alert when the price drops (and then, rather than requesting a refund, you can go buy it).

3 Responses to “Amazon pricing”

1. 1 Melanie Marie Says:
   February 2nd, 2007 at 7:27 pm

   OOOHHH, you are so smart! I love that idea!

2. 2 Susie J Says:
   February 3rd, 2007 at 9:56 am

   That’s amazing. I heard that if Amazon knows you buy a lot of something — like parenting books — they will give you higher prices than they give everyone else. So, everybody has different prices. So, I always check other sites first before I buy. Thanks for the tip.

3. 3 Elizabeth S. Says:
   February 3rd, 2007 at 5:22 pm

   Susie, I never knew that. Yipes! Makes me consider deleting my purchase/product rating history at Amazon…
   Btw, Mir, that was a GREAT tip!!!