Have any of your noticed this?:
I decided on a test. I added a bunch of books, most of them newly published, most of them obscure, to my shopping baskets with both Amazon and its British affiliate, Amazon.co.uk.
On Dec. 15, I checked my shopping baskets. Nine of the U.S. books had increased in price; three had decreased. At the British branch, nine had increased and none had decreased.
The increases were modest — often about 5%, sometimes less. But, as with "The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook," they were perplexing. Why would the journals of novelist John Fowles, published two months ago to widespread apathy, increase by $1.05? [read more]
Apparently Amazon's response to this is "prices change." Uh huh. I don't often put books in the basket and then leave them there, but the few times I've done it I have noticed that the price often changes, usually upwards by a small amount. It never occurred to me that this was a direct response to me putting the book in the basket, but now I wonder. I think I will start noting the price when I put something on my wish list as well. If this is really what they do I'll have to consider taking my wishlist offline or at least offshore.
If anyone wants to experiment with this, please report back!
