What's with Amazon's huge price jumps?

skyrocketing prices, price jumps, amazon

[Beverly]

I just happened to notice on a couple of items that I bought for Christmas...I bought 3 series of Everybody Loves Raymond that I paid approx. $58 just about a weeks ago. It's now going for approx. $99! i paid $59.99 for Boston Legal series 1-3...it's now going for $84.99. Unfriggingbelievable.

[ibQuixote]

I put a kids sleeping bag into my shopping cart, and three days later when I went to buy it, the price had gone from $27 to $58. Same story with a couple of other products. I dont know what gives, but maybe its kind of like how they price airline tickets - they increase the price depending on the number of seats left.

I think its pretty outrageous for Amazon to do this right before Christmas. Naturally, I wont ever be shopping there anymore. There are certainly a lot of other shopping choices out there.

[Beverly]

Wow...you topped me...that's more than double! I think it's really pitiful.

[jomaxx]

The Raymonds list for $45 and cost $33, for 27% off the list price. That seems pretty good to me, given that I can alternatively drive over to my local retailer in exchange for 0% off.

In fact I've got about a dozen items saved in my cart, none has gone up since the last time I logged in (one has gone down), and every item is between 10% and 35% off. Not exactly an "I'll never shop there again" situation for me.

[coachm]

I just happened to notice on a couple of items that I bought for Christmas...I bought 3 series of Everybody Loves Raymond that I paid approx. $58 just about a weeks ago. It's now going for approx. $99!

U.S. dollar crash.

Explanation below. I can't quite believe my eyes but if you go to amazon.ca and check the price on Raymond series 3, you'll find it's listed at 44.78 Canadian!

Companies have been holding the line on price increases for a long time in the U.S. taking some pretty big hits. My guess is that prices for many products are going to go up a LOT in the U.S.

A lot of Americans don't seem to have caught on about their relatively valueless dollar, which is pretty shocking. So, just in case, at its peak value (about four years ago) it was worth about 1.54 Canadian Dollars. At it's recent low about a month or two ago it had dropped to 0.93 cents (thats street exchange rates).

Anything involving foreign material and labor is going to cost a lot more. Look to your economy and your government!

PS. Amazon price increase means more commission bucks per sale.

[jomaxx]

No, 3 seasons of ELR costs $99 ($33 a season), not season 3. See my previous post. Despite the dollar parity, this set is still way cheaper on amazon.com.

[coachm]

No, 3 seasons of ELR costs $99 ($33 a season), not season 3. See my previous post. Despite the dollar parity, this set is still way cheaper on amazon.com.

You're right. But it's actually irrelevant to the point, since it still is such that any product that involves ANY kind of off-shore labor, parts or involvement has gone up in price for the U.S. And, that companies need to recoup that, or stop eating the lost revenues.

I don't know whether DVD's fall into this category. Might be, might not be, but that may not even matter, since companies can price higher on some lines than others.

[HarryM]

I have seen large price hikes on DVD sets, but I have also seen large price drops. My assumption (for DVDs) is that it is not Amazon who are changing the price, but the distributors, the high price being the normal RRP and the low price a special offer discount. The low price often seems to coincide with a prominent display in the major high-street retailers, but after sales have maxed out the price goes back to normal, and the set is often only available via Amazon or by special order in the high street.

[Skeptic]

The price of milk and eggs has doubled here, so logically Amazon would be raising prices too eventually.