Amazon seller price fixing/matching?

[vestcoat]

Has anyone else noticed fishy price coordination among Amazon sellers? I can't speak for video games as I don't buy many these days, but prices for old Dungeons and Dragons books swing wildly. Multiple third-party sellers will continually hike their prices and then suddenly drop to undercut a lower offer from a small seller.

Exhibit A: I recently listed a book for $30 that all of the big-name HPB outlets and Goodwills were selling for $45. Within hours of my listing, four other sellers dropped their prices to $28-29. The next day I lowered my price to $27. Again, four others followed suit, undercutting me by $0.50-1.50.

Exhibit B: I've had a book in my Wish List for a while. For years, it's been a $20 book on Ebay/Amazon/Half/etc. Two months ago, used prices on Amazon inexplicably shot up to $38-40. The sellers and product descriptions didn't change, indicating none of the inventory sold. Then, this week, an relatively small RPG seller called Troll and Toad that lists on both Ebay and Amazon posted a copy for $20. The other Amazon sellers immediately slashed their prices to match. WTF? There's no way huge sellers with feedback in the millions could track all of their individual listings and compare prices; there must be automated software at work. f*ck you, HPB.

[esteban]

Has anyone else noticed fishy price coordination among Amazon sellers? I can't speak for video games as I don't buy many these days, but prices for old Dungeons and Dragons books swing wildly. Multiple third-party sellers will continually hike their prices and then suddenly drop to undercut a lower offer from a small seller.

Exhibit A: I recently listed a book for $30 that all of the big-name HPB outlets and Goodwills were selling for $45. Within hours of my listing, four other sellers dropped their prices to $28-29. The next day I lowered my price to $27. Again, four others followed suit, undercutting me by $0.50-1.50.

Exhibit B: I've had a book in my Wish List for a while. For years, it's been a $20 book on Ebay/Amazon/Half/etc. Two months ago, used prices on Amazon inexplicably shot up to $38-40. The sellers and product descriptions didn't change, indicating none of the inventory sold. Then, this week, an relatively small RPG seller called Troll and Toad that lists on both Ebay and Amazon posted a copy for $20. The other Amazon sellers immediately slashed their prices to match. WTF? There's no way huge sellers with feedback in the millions could track all of their individual listings and compare prices; there must be automated software at work. f*ck you, HPB.

Absolutely automated. Folks have observed this behavior in the pricing of products across all categories.

It's particularly amusing when a new seller accidentally inputs a ridiculously high price and the pricebots follow suit, jacking up their own prices.

In fact, you should do it, just to see if they follow. Any reasonably written algorithm would account for extremes (lowball, exorbitant), so you might have to play with the price a little to find out what the "ceiling" is...

 

[vestcoat]

Hmmm...

Good way to buy stuff: 1) make fake listing of desired item, 2) wait for bots to lower their prices, 3) buy, 4) cancel fake listing.

Of course, someone might purchase said fake listing during the two-hour window. In which case, just tell them "sorry, it's 'out of stock.'" Because that's what sellers do these days.

[nodtveidt]

Good way to buy stuff: 1) make fake listing of desired item, 2) wait for bots to lower their prices, 3) buy, 4) cancel fake listing.

^^^ this... is f*cking brilliant.

[vestcoat]

Yeah, risky, but might work once or twice before Amazon catches on.