Do Amazon Sellers think you're an Idiot???

It never fails to amaze me how 'stoopid' people must be sometimes! PT Barnum had it right when he said..."There's a sucker born every minute!"

Have you ever noticed when buying something from Amazon how there will be sellers selling the same item for 4x-5x the correct cost??? It's like it's a "stoopid" test! I guess they must think if people are stupid enough to click the "Buy Now", then they'll gladly take their money. I guess if it was that simple I could just laugh at it, but it isn't that simple.

I wonder how many people accidentally click on these items without carefully looking at the price? That, or think they're buying multiple units when the seller is only selling a single unit. I think that's what's really going on here. And, that's wrong, and it's predatory. You know, I could understand some minor price variations based on location, etc., but wild crazy hundreds of percent variations in pricing? That's not understandable, it's predatory.

I went out to Amazon to stock up on a BBQ sauce we use frequently. The first thing I did was to check bulk pricing...just for reference. I wasn't going to buy commercial restaurant sizes, but the price would give me a reference point. In my situation, I saw pricing for 5 gallon buckets at $0.10/fl. oz. Okay, so now back to looking at the sizing I wanted. I found prices ranging from $0.18/fl oz (understandable) all the way to $0.95/fl oz (outrageous!). The unit size I was looking at was 18 oz, and I was looking to buy (12) units. So, that meant I was seeing a unit cost of $3.24 all the way to $17.10...for the same damn thing!!! I couldn't show my face in public if I was selling something for a 500+% profit, I'd be too embarrassed! Yet there are sellers on Amazon who do this all the time...for just about every product too.

I've read some crazy studies recently where they found people will intentionally pay outrageous prices for a product out of some kind of guilt complex. They know they're getting ripped off, but they will actually seek out the highest unit price for an item and buy that one. Okay, they've got issues and probably need professional psychiatric help, but why does Amazon allow sellers to prey on these people?

It doesn't matter what product you look up on Amazon, you can see examples of this. Look up pencils, look up socks, look up about anything and you will see the same damn thing.

Do Amazon sellers think you're an idiot????

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I was at jo-ann fabrics last weekend with my wife.
Just wandering around while she was on a mission I came across some steel wool.
Two pieces of steel wool in a little package was $6.
You can buy a 8 pack at any hardware store for $3.

So yes, Amazon and every other store thinks we're stupid cuz I think there are a lot of stupid people out there proving them correct.

If I had to guess i'd say it's the Chinese sellers infiltrating and doing most of this. I've seen this on ebay a lot.

Buyer beware.
I had a co-worker that bought a pair of Oakley sunglasses for $90.00 on Amazon. He was happy to get such a deal.

When they came to his house, they were sized for a kid. He was expecting adult size.

Often when an item is priced on Amazon for a ridiculous price it's for a specific reason.

Amazon's rules force retailers ( many of whom are actually small businesses ) to completely delete the item from Amazon if they go out of stock for some predetermined period of time, though I don't offhand know what it specifically is.

Going out of stock for protracted periods happens to smaller sellers fairly often and for a variety of reasons.

IE should a smaller retailer run out of stock knowing that it will be awhile before they receive more of the stock it's easier to just change the price to a ridiculously high price to keep the item listed while also being sure that no serious customers will try and order the out of stock item.

I find it hard to feel bad for people who don't even bother to do the bare minimum of research to find a good price. I don't generally notice that there are people selling the same item for 10x as much because I go straight for the lowest price with the cheapest shipping (usually free shipping).

What I have noticed is that sometimes you can buy the same item used (supposedly barely used and almost new) and the price will be half as much as the cheapest new price but they will jack up the shipping so the used item is exactly the same price as the new one. Making it pointless to buy used.

I did notice anything that's food is usually more expensive on Amazon than it is to just go to the store and buy it. Maybe it's different if you have Prime (seems like everything on Amazon is tweaked to cater to Prime members) but I don't use Amazon often enough to justify paying for Prime when I'm not using Amazon.

I don't buy food on Amazon.

We've got too much sympathy for stupid people sometimes.

a reply to: Hefficide

Interesting!! I had not heard of this.

I guess this would explain some of it.

a reply to: BrianFlanders

We have Prime, and it's kind of rigged too. Almost every item which qualifies for Prime can be found cheaper, and the difference in price is usually the shipping costs. It's really not as good a deal as it used to be.

The biggest selling point for Prime is its simplicity. Plus, it eliminates all the shady shipping gotcha's (which are another pet peeve of mine).

I have the opposite problem when selling stuff. You put a descrition in with price AND location yet foold be aking for price and location. I always say see the ad. Remember the addage that 10% carry the 90% and you cant go wrong.

Have you ever noticed when buying something from Amazon how there will be sellers selling the same item for 4x-5x the correct cost??? It's like it's a "stoopid" test!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Or maybe some kind of money laundering. Say A person was in charge
of purchasing for some gov"t agency or corp. They set up a deal to buy
from their cousin who sells for outrageous prices on some site. The high
price gets the seller a nice profit , and he kicks back some of the money
to the buyer's personal pocket. Just a thought...............

a reply to: RavenSpeaks

Interesting concept I never considered...money laundering. Heck, you wouldn't even have to ship the unit.

Seems like kind of a long shot though, because the buyer would still have to convert the cash into a credit card though. You can't pay cash on Amazon.

The expensive adds make the cheaper products look cheaper and people will buy on impulse because they think they are getting a bargain.
Impulse shopping
Bit like bulk buy pricing

I have seen rebadged cheap products sell dearer than the original brand because people don’t know the origins

Marketing, Barnham was right

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It is more naivety than stupidity. Many people are not wised up to online buying so they are taken advantage of. I do not think they are to blame. Many older people are just not clued up on online buying and are confused by digital purchasing.

There is a simple formula to make sure we do not pay over the odds. All it requires is simple research and comparison.

It is a case of search and compare. I always check Ebay, Amazon and independent sellers. I buy many music related items for my studio and find the most competitive price. I often keep an eye on prices weeks before I make the purchase. Usually Google searches on the shopping tab reveal the cheapest prices. There is a big "but" though. Sometimes the cheapest prices are from the least trustworthy sellers with the worst reviews. It is a matter of weighing up the trustworthiness of the seller and the price they are offering the buyer. If a seller is the cheapest, but has some bad reviews I will not use them. I will pay a little more so I am assured of good customer service as well as a good price.

Impulse buying my friend. It's a billion dollars+ in any industry. Some people get more satisfaction knowing they paid more for something because they think its better. We know better. But they don't care. Some people will pay more for the convenience of not having to go to the hardware store.

Even if these people take up 10% of the US population that still 30+ million that don't "Shop around"

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Not stoopid.....at least not all the time.

Sometimes it's convenience.....and okay some of those times it's laziness, too
Like the fact I would have to go to many actual stores to find pants that are long enough for me....and that actually fit....I probably haven't bought jeans in a store for 20 years.
Or makeup in a certain color. Or a certain SD for my phone. Or a certain plastic/glass storage container for food. Or a portable pump and Home Depot is out of stock.

Brick and mortar stores cannot have the kind of inventory we have become accustomed to, and sometimes we end up paying a premium to get what we want!!



ETA
Gotta say I love Prime.....for the reasons above....and now many items are delivered the NEXT day!!!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Well let me see. You save all your empty bottles, then buy at the bulk price, fill your empty bottles and freeze till wanted.

Just ordered a MAF sensor for our explorer from Amazon. The symptoms say MAF but no trouble codes, that year Ford does not actually have a trouble code for MAF. So, ninety eight bucks here at our local parts stores vs twenty one bucks on Amazon, but needed to buy the power mirror switch that is bad to get over twenty five bucks to get free shipping, that was fourteen bucks. I did not buy the cheapest MAF sensor, I bought the third up because I know the brand and it is an ok brand. I will pay more for a brand name I know to be reliable. Now, the explorer is a 2000, the cheaper sensors might only last a few years but could last a long time , the auto parts store I usually go to has a good brand, but that is a big difference in price. There is also a two year warrantee at the auto store, none on Amazon. I used to be able to clean the sensor and it worked better, but now, no luck, when warm it is hard starting.

I feel guilty for not buying it locally, but 22 bucks vs over a 100 bucks when you consider tax...that is a big difference, especially when I am in the process of elimination stage. If it is not the sensor it could be a corroded connection somewhere in the wiring harness connectors.

my personal favorite example of this is people changing the price of a product.


Example:
You spend half the day one saturday doing your research on which motor oil is the best fit for the various engines you maintain for the property.
Then you go through and make a list of consumables (oil filters) for each one.
THEN you go and you find the best price for that oil and order yourself up a dozen gallons of the stuff, plus two filters for every piece of equipment.
A day well spent, right?

then, a few months later you notice you're running low on oil and have used three of your filters- time to top off. Jump on amazon and just find your last order, then order more of the exact same thing that you already spend the time and effort to shop for, right?
Wrong!
Half the time they still have the same product listed but the price has doubled (gotta check- it's easy to forget what something cost months ago)- and the other half of the time they do some super sneaky # like swapping out the product for something similar but not quite the same.
Say hello to my top-up order of four gallons of "synthetic blend" motor oil- Yuck! Same name and almost identical packaging as the full synthetic, sold for the same price at easily twice the profit.

Next time I'm just buying a 55 gallon drum of the right stuff the first time. It's like $9 a gallon that way instead of 25+...

a reply to: rickymouse

Sorry to go off topic...but no trouble codes???? You took it to autozone for a free check?

I bought my log splitter from Tractor supply, it is a china model. It's electric and cost 180 bucks including tax. On Amazon it runs about the same price, but it was on sale at Tractor supply. Now, I looked at American made ones, guess what, they are Chinese ones with a little different guard on them. The part numbers of replacement parts are available on line so I cross checked all the parts, they all had the exact same numbers. So made in America model, out of California, was two hundred bucks more, over double the price. I was a registered Air tool dealer for a while, I could have put made in America on my tools, all I would have had to do is attach one part to the air tool myself and call it American made. So, people make a real lot of money off of people's not knowing things. Most times a local small hardware store does not try to deceive their customers, but those places are disappering, big chain stores are taking over, and employees do not know the whole story.

Deception is the rule of the land these days, it has always been out there, but lately it's use has ballooned and people cannot comprehend that let the buyer beware protects deceivers.