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Amazon Price Changes

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(@jim-frame)
Posts: 7277
Topic starter
 

I just learned something that may be common knowledge to many, but I was surprised enough to find it worth sharing.

I've been thinking about buying a document scanner for a long time now in order to reduce the number of physical file cabinets I need to maintain, but as an accomplished procrastinator I've managed to hold back on the idea. However, during an idle moment in a local restaurant today I browsed to Amazon.com to see if the Fujitsu scanner I have in mind is still available. Indeed, it was still there, bundled with software at a Prime price of $419.99. A few hours later I was at my desk intending to make the purchase, but was surprised to see the price now stood at $469.99. I pulled out my phone and looked at the web page that was still loaded in its browser, and sure enough it said $419.99.

I did a quick search and found out that Amazon changes prices during the day based on what competitors are charging and times of day when people are more likely to buy. The article I read tracked the price of a particular router during a 24-hour period and found that Amazon changed the price 8 times during that period, with a range of $185 to $200.

I guess I need to sharpen my shopping skills a bit more...

 
Posted : October 3, 2015 4:58 pm
(@dave-karoly)
Posts: 12001
 

Amazon sent me an email today saying they shipped a stainless steel stovetop Moka pot I ordered almost a year ago.

 
Posted : October 3, 2015 5:01 pm
(@a-harris)
Posts: 8761
 

I have noticed that total cost is based upon shipping costs and some searches will show the same item from different sources with different prices.

Click on new and a page that lists all the sources and prices will open.

😉

 
Posted : October 3, 2015 8:53 pm
(@john1minor2)
Posts: 699
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Jim Frame, post: 339121, member: 10 wrote: I just learned something that may be common knowledge to many, but I was surprised enough to find it worth sharing.

I've been thinking about buying a document scanner for a long time now in order to reduce the number of physical file cabinets I need to maintain, but as an accomplished procrastinator I've managed to hold back on the idea. However, during an idle moment in a local restaurant today I browsed to Amazon.com to see if the Fujitsu scanner I have in mind is still available. Indeed, it was still there, bundled with software at a Prime price of $419.99. A few hours later I was at my desk intending to make the purchase, but was surprised to see the price now stood at $469.99. I pulled out my phone and looked at the web page that was still loaded in its browser, and sure enough it said $419.99.

I did a quick search and found out that Amazon changes prices during the day based on what competitors are charging and times of day when people are more likely to buy. The article I read tracked the price of a particular router during a 24-hour period and found that Amazon changed the price 8 times during that period, with a range of $185 to $200.

I guess I need to sharpen my shopping skills a bit more...

I told my wife your tale of woe and she wasn't surprised at all.

 
Posted : October 3, 2015 9:03 pm
(@squowse)
Posts: 1004
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Jim Frame, post: 339121, member: 10 wrote: I just learned something that may be common knowledge to many, but I was surprised enough to find it worth sharing.

I've been thinking about buying a document scanner for a long time now in order to reduce the number of physical file cabinets I need to maintain, but as an accomplished procrastinator I've managed to hold back on the idea. However, during an idle moment in a local restaurant today I browsed to Amazon.com to see if the Fujitsu scanner I have in mind is still available. Indeed, it was still there, bundled with software at a Prime price of $419.99. A few hours later I was at my desk intending to make the purchase, but was surprised to see the price now stood at $469.99. I pulled out my phone and looked at the web page that was still loaded in its browser, and sure enough it said $419.99.

I did a quick search and found out that Amazon changes prices during the day based on what competitors are charging and times of day when people are more likely to buy. The article I read tracked the price of a particular router during a 24-hour period and found that Amazon changed the price 8 times during that period, with a range of $185 to $200.

I guess I need to sharpen my shopping skills a bit more...

Flubit (or similar service) might be useful for you.

 
Posted : October 4, 2015 1:56 am
 John
(@john)
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I think I heard about that a month or two ago. Depending on how many times one views a product, time of day, etc.

One suggestion I heard was to comparison shop using different browsers since cookies are used to track us. My memory is telling me airlines have been doing this as well while we shop for the lowest price.

 
Posted : October 4, 2015 5:35 am
(@deleted-user)
Posts: 8349
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Yes, I notice something similar happened to me. It was a good deal then all of a sudden there was a price mark up of 15-20%.
It may be combination of what you posted or what John says or some algo that tracks your views compared to product availability with supplies on hand etc.
That being said, I am satisfied with Amazon for their services but one needs to look around more.

 
Posted : October 4, 2015 6:58 am
(@jules-j)
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We looked at the Fujitsu scanner because the lawyer my wife works with got one. It's cool enough. But the software is funky. Wife went the Epson WorkForce DS-510 scanner. Said it's scans to pdf where the Fujitsu dosen't. And something about putting the scans into the folder of choice, and being able to name them correctly.

 
Posted : October 4, 2015 11:24 am
(@jim-frame)
Posts: 7277
Topic starter
 

Jules J., post: 339177, member: 444 wrote: Said it's scans to pdf where the Fujitsu dosen't.

From the Fujitsu manual:

Many of the reviews of the Fujitsu I've read laud the ease with which it creates PDFs.

 
Posted : October 4, 2015 12:13 pm
(@j-t-strickland)
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I've got a Brother MFC-J6920DW that I got from Costco for about $200 on sale. It does 11x17 color plots, copies, scans, and faxes and connects wirelessly to my office network. It scans to pdf in whatever folder I specify. I'm not sure about how versatile it is for filenames, I just take the default.
However, you may need something bigger than a ledger size scanner. I'm not familiar with the Fujitsu.

 
Posted : October 5, 2015 3:26 am
(@jim-frame)
Posts: 7277
Topic starter
 

J. T. Strickland, post: 339226, member: 246 wrote: However, you may need something bigger than a ledger size scanner.

I don't need ledger size, what I'm most interested in is scan speed. I have 4 file cabinets chock full of paper, and I'd like to reduce that down to 1 or maybe 2, with as little manual intervention as possible. That requires a speedy document feeder. The Fujitsu iX500 and the Epson D-560 appear to be best suited for that task in the $500 scanner class.

 
Posted : October 5, 2015 5:33 am
(@bill93)
Posts: 9834
 

John, post: 339156, member: 791 wrote: One suggestion I heard was to comparison shop using different browsers since cookies are used to track us.

You can defeat this by clearing your browser's cookies. If you clear all, you will lose any logins and stuff you might want web sites to know like ebay watchlists, so I occasionally spend the time to selectively delete those that I don't recognize as being useful to ME as opposed to THEM.
For FIrefox it is Tools / Options / Privacy / Remove Individual Cookies

 
Posted : October 6, 2015 7:43 am
(@bill93)
Posts: 9834
 

I just remembered - an easier way is probably to do all your shopping by opening a private window in the browser (Firefox: File / New Private Window). When you close that window, the history you created in it, including cookies, is supposed to be gone. Then when you go to a shopping site, you are a new user. The private window will have access to your regular history including prior shopping, but won't add to it.

 
Posted : October 6, 2015 7:54 am
(@mark-silver)
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Jim Frame, post: 339248, member: 10 wrote: I don't need ledger size, what I'm most interested in is scan speed. I have 4 file cabinets chock full of paper, and I'd like to reduce that down to 1 or maybe 2, with as little manual intervention as possible. That requires a speedy document feeder. The Fujitsu iX500 and the Epson D-560 appear to be best suited for that task in the $500 scanner class.

Jim, we have a Brother ADS-2000 that has been perfect. It will make PDF's directly onto a thumbdrive, but if you want them searchable you need to have it connected to a (fast) computer. The best thing about it is is the document feeder has never missed a page or jammed. I don't know anything about these things, or comparables, but this one works just fine.

 
Posted : October 6, 2015 8:33 am
(@azweig)
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We have a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500. We purchased it for the same reason you are looking to do. I couldn't be happier with the purchase. We hired a temp to come in and do nothing but scan boxes and boxes of documents and create a spreadsheet of the scans. We have a scanner on our copy machine, but I wanted the temp to be able to sit at a desk and not have to get up each time to scan something. The software looks a clunky at first, but is easy to use once you scan a few things. The speed is amazing, it never jammed, we had a few issues with the wireless, so we just plugged it into the computer directly.

 
Posted : October 7, 2015 2:57 am
(@david-livingstone)
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I've found you can almost always find a price on line that is equal or better than Amazon. I've also found that if you are a Prime member on Amazon, the free shipping you often get makes Amazon cheaper.

 
Posted : October 7, 2015 10:44 am
 John
(@john)
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David Livingstone, post: 339616, member: 431 wrote: I've found you can almost always find a price on line that is equal or better than Amazon. I've also found that if you are a Prime member on Amazon, the free shipping you often get makes Amazon cheaper.

On many items, if one can "do without" for a couple extra days, free shipping is often available on orders over $35. (I don't have prime though perhaps I should consider it)

 
Posted : October 7, 2015 12:04 pm