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As always, use something like camelcamelcamel to do price history comparisons for you before buying anything on Prime Day or Cyber Monday (or any other time for

As always, use something like camelcamelcamel to do price history comparisons for you before buying anything on Prime Day or Cyber Monday (or any other time for that matter).

wiradikusuma 8y ago
Shameless plug, but relevant: My startup is a price tracker for ecommerce in SE Asia, particularly Malaysia, and we did a write-up about this "great sale": https://sarahshopper.com/my/what-to-expect-on-singles-day-11-11-from-mycybersale/ https://sarahshopper.com/my/what-to-expect-on-singles-day-11... (TL;DR: just like you said, use a price tracker)
Marsymars 8y ago
Depending on jurisdiction, raising the regular price to create the appearance of a sale price isn't legal. e.g. from Canada's Competition Act: > They prohibit the making, or the permitting of the making, of any materially false or misleading representation, to the public, as to the ordinary selling price of a product, in any form whatever. http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/00522.html#sec01 http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/00...
- saosebastiao 8y ago
  I lack creativity here, but to me that sounds about as enforceable as banning breathing. I'm curious how they would go about enforcing this.
  - Marsymars 8y ago
    Well, the enforcement mechanisms are codified by law. They extracted a million-dollar penalty and concessions to how prices are displayed from Amazon just last year: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/amazon-competition-bureau-pricing-1.3931132 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/amazon-competition-bureau-p...
- westmeal 8y ago
  Hey in the land of the free it's completely A-OK :) This has been done for a while and it's extremely effective.
  - freditup 8y ago
    This is not completely accurate, the FTC has rules against deceptive pricing practices [1]. I'm not sure how often these rules are enforced and what the penalties are though. They specifically give an example where raising a price before a sale is not allowed: > The following is an example of a price comparison based on a fictitious former price. John Doe is a retailer of Brand X fountain pens, which cost him $5 each. His usual markup is 50 percent over cost; that is, his regular retail price is $7.50. In order subsequently to offer an unusual “bargain”, Doe begins offering Brand X at $10 per pen. He realizes that he will be able to sell no, or very few, pens at this inflated price. But he doesn't care, for he maintains that price for only a few days. Then he “cuts” the price to its usual level—$7.50—and advertises: “Terrific Bargain: X Pens, Were $10, Now Only $7.50!” This is obviously a false claim. The advertised “bargain” is not genuine. [1]: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=f8c45f090a32596673aef12b405c46f6&node=se16.1.233_11 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=f8c45f090a32596673...
    - westmeal 8y ago
      That's pretty interesting I had no idea. Thanks
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- delecti 8y ago
  I suspect Amazon gets around that by typically having most items "on sale". If an item's MSRP is $100, maybe Amazon normally sells it for $50 and shows it as being "50% off", despite that being the normal price. Then it goes "on sale" on Prime Day for $40, they change that to "60% off". Realistically it's 20% off, not 60% off, but I suspect they'd be clear of regulation against raising the price prior to a sale.
joveian 8y ago
Those things are not as accurate as they seem since sellers can apparently opt out of allowing their price to show on the api used (or possibly Amazon does it automatically). It should work for this kind of thing with prices above normal, but I've seen multiple instances (out of not that many times I've looked) where deeper sales are not reflected in the price trackers (and not shown as missing data either).

As always, use something like camelcamelcamel to do price history comparisons for you before buying anything on Prime Day or Cyber Monday (or any other time for that matter).

wiradikusuma 8y ago

Shameless plug, but relevant: My startup is a price tracker for ecommerce in SE Asia, particularly Malaysia, and we did a write-up about this "great sale": https://sarahshopper.com/my/what-to-expect-on-singles-day-11-11-from-mycybersale/ https://sarahshopper.com/my/what-to-expect-on-singles-day-11... (TL;DR: just like you said, use a price tracker)

Marsymars 8y ago

Depending on jurisdiction, raising the regular price to create the appearance of a sale price isn't legal. e.g. from Canada's Competition Act: > They prohibit the making, or the permitting of the making, of any materially false or misleading representation, to the public, as to the ordinary selling price of a product, in any form whatever. http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/00522.html#sec01 http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/00...

saosebastiao 8y ago
I lack creativity here, but to me that sounds about as enforceable as banning breathing. I'm curious how they would go about enforcing this.
- Marsymars 8y ago
  Well, the enforcement mechanisms are codified by law. They extracted a million-dollar penalty and concessions to how prices are displayed from Amazon just last year: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/amazon-competition-bureau-pricing-1.3931132 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/amazon-competition-bureau-p...
westmeal 8y ago
Hey in the land of the free it's completely A-OK :) This has been done for a while and it's extremely effective.
- freditup 8y ago
  This is not completely accurate, the FTC has rules against deceptive pricing practices [1]. I'm not sure how often these rules are enforced and what the penalties are though. They specifically give an example where raising a price before a sale is not allowed: > The following is an example of a price comparison based on a fictitious former price. John Doe is a retailer of Brand X fountain pens, which cost him $5 each. His usual markup is 50 percent over cost; that is, his regular retail price is $7.50. In order subsequently to offer an unusual “bargain”, Doe begins offering Brand X at $10 per pen. He realizes that he will be able to sell no, or very few, pens at this inflated price. But he doesn't care, for he maintains that price for only a few days. Then he “cuts” the price to its usual level—$7.50—and advertises: “Terrific Bargain: X Pens, Were $10, Now Only $7.50!” This is obviously a false claim. The advertised “bargain” is not genuine. [1]: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=f8c45f090a32596673aef12b405c46f6&node=se16.1.233_11 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=f8c45f090a32596673...
  - westmeal 8y ago
    That's pretty interesting I had no idea. Thanks
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delecti 8y ago
I suspect Amazon gets around that by typically having most items "on sale". If an item's MSRP is $100, maybe Amazon normally sells it for $50 and shows it as being "50% off", despite that being the normal price. Then it goes "on sale" on Prime Day for $40, they change that to "60% off". Realistically it's 20% off, not 60% off, but I suspect they'd be clear of regulation against raising the price prior to a sale.

joveian 8y ago

Those things are not as accurate as they seem since sellers can apparently opt out of allowing their price to show on the api used (or possibly Amazon does it automatically). It should work for this kind of thing with prices above normal, but I've seen multiple instances (out of not that many times I've looked) where deeper sales are not reflected in the price trackers (and not shown as missing data either).