4 ms·
> You can find most these items for normal prices on amazon too so this seems a bit like making a story where there may not be one. My understanding is that th
by nordsieck 6y ago
> You can find most these items for normal prices on amazon too so this seems a bit like making a story where there may not be one.
My understanding is that there are generally 2 reasons for "outrageous" prices (in normal times).
1. Some vendors specialize in being the seller of last resort. They price their products high and wait out the market until they're the only game in town. This definitely happens with books, although I'd hope that with the advent of ebooks, this will be less viable.
2. Algorithmic pricing gone wrong. Sometimes multiple companies will set their prices on each other's current prices, resulting in gradual price drift.
- ajross 6y agoFamously, the million dollar book feedback loop: http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358 http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
- onemoresoop 6y agoIt’s amazing that this guy was able to deconstruct this shenanigan. I’ve seen it too on amazon mktplace and was like what? Then forgot about it.
- Alupis 6y ago3. Sellers don't want to deactivate a listing or set their account in "Vacation Mode", so they price it so high nobody sane would buy it. (deactivating listings has an impact on future search visibility and other metrics)
- gowld 6y agoThat sounds more like Amazon bullying sellers than sellers exploiting buyers.
- anewdirection 6y ago4. Money Laundering/proxy buying of drugs. This has happened with everything from bottles of tide, to ingame items in online games, it was no suprise it made it to amazon.
- walshemj 6y agoOr a way to launder money the example of a collectable usb cable.