Dynamic Pricing On Amazon
Last week, I came across an interesting Stan Getz album on amazon UK and put it in my shopping basket – subsequently “saved for later” at £27.99. I didn’t buy the record because it was too expensive. By Monday the price had increased to £29.9x. Yesterday it was £32.xx and today it is a spectacular £50.13. As the website assures me that there are only 2 copies left in stock, and has done so since last week, I have to presume that I am the only customer mulling over buying this product. I presume that the pricing algorithm that sees a “surge” in interest in this particularly unpopular (ranks greater than 76,000th most popular jazz album) – is coming from me and that because of my intense interest (or lack of) they have doubled the price, and Christmas is coming – I must be willing to pay twice the price of last week to put it under the tree for myself (or wait 2 weeks and buy one of the two copies or and original pressing from discogs for € 20). I am curious, though: if something is sitting in my basket for 8 to 10 days, surely they should be giving me a nudge by dropping the price a little to make me bite. At the moment, it looks like I am competing with myself for the product (that I can stream for free on Deezer)!
Vinyl records are very expensive on Amazon UK – so much so that Paul, who runs superdeluxeedition.com, lists the prices of desirable new releases, and the UK price, despite very low VAT rates in the UK, are always among the highest. I find myself increasingly ordering from Germany, despite having to pay for postage (not being able to use my prime account there).
Anyway, I am long associated with the dynamic pricing model. Amazon’s is nicely explained here. In the meantime, two weeks before Christmas, I am taking my purchases off line, as better value is likely to be had in-store (and that might keep the shop open through the next holiday season).
audioexchange 
It is 49.49 today
I was able to snap up good prices on amazon france and uk for some of the tone poets BN series. Whenever the price is coming from dodax I buy directly from their local website (co.uk or fr) which is even cheaper, although you do not have the service granted by amazon. If you are a chrome user you can keep titles under monitoring by installing an add on called keepa. It will send you an email when the item goes below the threshold price you’ve set. With one click you can monitor all of the european amazon store prices . Got Sam Rivers ‘Contours’ and Shorter’s ‘Etc’ for 23 and 28€ shipped. It . has changed my life for the better!
Wow that sounds great – I usually buy from Amazon.de as they are significantly less expensive than the UK and I don’t have the problem of currency fluctuation. I ended up buying that record, eventually, from Amazon UK, when the price went back to normal. I will check out dodax. What are the shipping prices like?
On amazon it varies to 3 to 6 €/£ according to the amazon local you’re buying from. On their website shipping is included, though some items may be pricier than Amazon. It’s case by case. I got the Hancock and gordon’s at 13,99£ each, shipped. Well, in theory, as I haven’t received it them yet. I also managed to get Zappa’s Live in New York triple vinyl at 22€. I do not know if their return policy is any good, let’s just say I am taking my chances. I live in Croatia in a town where there is not much to shop for. I asked the only shop whether they would be carrying the Tone Poet and they said “it’s going to cost me the equivalent of 28€ each, I do not think so”. Internet is my best option, unluckily.
Everywhere I go in Europe or the USA – I visit record shops – big, small, Best Buys, FNACs, Media Markts etc. They all have the same stuff. If I look for audiophile vinyl, they offer to order it in (useless if you’re a tourist). I was in a large FNAC in Paris in the autumn and, to my horror, they were selling off thousands of new pressings (mostly Bck to Black stuff) for €10, which gives you a good idea of the profit margin on the one hand, and the quality of the product, on the other. There was no Jazz. With the exception of new Blue Notes (the Charles Lloyd material is great) and ECMs (all of which I already have) – all of the jazz was copyright free generics.
I enjoy listening to records, but any sensible person would just sign up for Qobuz Sublime+ and stream high resolution digital through Roon; it would save me a fortune – but then is being a music fan about acquiring desirable product or listening to it, or both?
Good question. Guess that to be a music fan you do not necessarily need to own the product. I started in the early 90s with tapes and some LPs. Then I bite into CDs, ditching tapes and only kept a few LPs for sentimental reasons. Then I went into downloading (napster and all of that). I was meanwhile attending concerts playing gigs with my cover band etc.Then I felt the need to dive again into music and put up an entry level system and started listened to my music again and while rebuilding my collection. Well I have to say that although buying records today is way more expensive than it ever was in the 90s all the available information I makes me a more knowledgeable and informed buyer and enable me to focus on quality over quantity. I wouldn’t have the time anyway to listen as much as when I was a teenager. What I am trying to say is that no matter all of the steps I went through, I would never hesitate to consider myself a music fan for every second of this whole 25 year span. Regardless of purchases I was always interested in music. As you say any sensible person would stream… and that would not make them more or less music fan. Owning the product that’s another bug IMHO 🙂