Even if we ignore dynamic pricing I think the argument would hold. I got downvoted to hell on Reddit once for saying that if Steam is prompting you to spend $5 a piece to fill up a library full of...
Even if we ignore dynamic pricing I think the argument would hold. I got downvoted to hell on Reddit once for saying that if Steam is prompting you to spend $5 a piece to fill up a library full of games you never play then it hasn’t actually saved you any money! You may technically have an entitlement to a game that you got for $35 less than retail, but if you never actually play it then you forked over $5 for something that provided $0 in value to you!
Prime deals are the same way. Over the long run you’re better off just paying full retail price for things you know you will get use out of when you actually need them. It doesn’t do you any good to theoretically save a bunch on stuff you don’t actually need. If anything it adds long terms costs in storage and maintenance and just psychological stress to keep your life tidy. If it happens to be on sale when you need it then go for it, but generally speaking if it’s worth having it’s probably worth paying full price.
A number of years ago I recognized this pattern (buying really cheap Steam games and never playing them) that I instituted a rule for myself: I can never buy a Steam game unless I am going to play...
A number of years ago I recognized this pattern (buying really cheap Steam games and never playing them) that I instituted a rule for myself: I can never buy a Steam game unless I am going to play it right NOW. This also applies to pre-orders. Several years later, I have no regrets. Every game that I've bought since doing this I've gotten at least a few hours of entertainment out of, well worth the $1 - $20 of most of them. A few of them like Monster Hunter and Clair Obscura were more expensive but I also got way way more hours of entertainment out of them.
I generally apply this to a lot of physical purchasing as well, though it becomes a lot more difficult when trying to deal with shipping logistics and trying to time things for gifts, crafting complex projects, and house DIY things. All of which require varying degrees of advance purchasing and planning, which I'm generally kind of terrible at.
It’s almost funny how much people are resisting dynamic pricing in grocery stores but still shop online where they are constantly adjusting prices. It’s probably been a decade ago when I first saw...
It’s almost funny how much people are resisting dynamic pricing in grocery stores but still shop online where they are constantly adjusting prices. It’s probably been a decade ago when I first saw someone posting advice to check a price tracker to see when the price on Amazon was low, due to their constant changes.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with them; I want stable pricing myself. But it’s something they already lost because practically every major online platform is doing dynamic pricing. Rideshare companies have surge pricing, and online pricing is often different from the store for multiple reasons even when the products are coming from the store. The only way to stop dynamic pricing is legislation, and the odds are that the apocalypse will probably happen before that.
At least in my opinion, seeing dynamic pricing on milk and eggs is monstrously worse than seeing it used for random shit on Amazon. But, you can buy groceries on Amazon, so that isn't even black...
At least in my opinion, seeing dynamic pricing on milk and eggs is monstrously worse than seeing it used for random shit on Amazon. But, you can buy groceries on Amazon, so that isn't even black and white.
Rideshare is the one scenario dynamic pricing makes sense to me. Assuming it's based on supply and demand, which is usually skewed heavily at night (people going to/from bars, etc.), and not based...
Rideshare is the one scenario dynamic pricing makes sense to me. Assuming it's based on supply and demand, which is usually skewed heavily at night (people going to/from bars, etc.), and not based on the person requesting the ride (inferred financial status from tracking online activity, etc), I am fine with it. I would hope the majority of the increase goes to the drivers though.
I've also heard driving people at night can be a terrible experience. If someone is too drunk and throws up in your car, guess who is responsible for cleaning it up and making sure you get the smell and/or stains out otherwise your next customers will be pissed at the state of your vehicle? That risk is worth a higher charge, especially because something like that could put your car out of commission for the rest of the night.
Idk, I think dynamic pricing is good, especially for things like rideshare. I would definitely not want legislation to ban it. I think that would cause a lot of harm in terms of supply mismatching.
Idk, I think dynamic pricing is good, especially for things like rideshare. I would definitely not want legislation to ban it. I think that would cause a lot of harm in terms of supply mismatching.
I noticed years ago that the only really good deals seemed to be Amazon products like Kindles and Alexa devices, it was obvious on any list of good deals. I did see mention of specific discounts...
I noticed years ago that the only really good deals seemed to be Amazon products like Kindles and Alexa devices, it was obvious on any list of good deals. I did see mention of specific discounts this year on kitchen stuff from a YouTube channel I follow, but the savings were mostly pretty low.
It's a loss leader sale in which they raise the prices of other goods.
In this evaluation it wasn't clear to me whether "listed as percent discount" meant labeled as a prime day deal or just the normal x% off some some possibly made up "normal price" that they...
In this evaluation it wasn't clear to me whether "listed as percent discount" meant labeled as a prime day deal or just the normal x% off some some possibly made up "normal price" that they usually have. So for example, the toy truck went up in price while being listed with a 9% discount. Was the truck labeled as a prime day deal, and what percent off was it labeled as originally when it was $14.99? It's also not clear how the overall savings was calculated. If it was just based on total difference before and during the sale, those items that went up in price while not being listed as on sale probably killed the average savings. I'm not saying that Amazon doesn't engage in some misleading discount labeling, but this isn't proof of it. I hope I didn't miss any details from reading the archived version.
Anyway, I did find that some items I was watching became cheaper, and some didn't. I bought the ones that became cheaper and will continue to monitor the others for future discounts. It seems to me that some kind of deceptive discount labeling has been a thing in most online or brick&mortar stores for as long as I can remember, so as long as one just pays attention to the actual price paid, they should be fine.
This is a pretty useless article. It talks about a bunch of items no one was claiming was on sale. It doesn't distinguish between items sold by Amazon versus those sold by third party sellers who...
This is a pretty useless article.
It talks about a bunch of items no one was claiming was on sale.
It doesn't distinguish between items sold by Amazon versus those sold by third party sellers who set their own pricing.
And while it acknowledges that inflation and tariffs might play a role this is hand-waved away in service of publishing something anyway.
Even if we ignore dynamic pricing I think the argument would hold. I got downvoted to hell on Reddit once for saying that if Steam is prompting you to spend $5 a piece to fill up a library full of games you never play then it hasn’t actually saved you any money! You may technically have an entitlement to a game that you got for $35 less than retail, but if you never actually play it then you forked over $5 for something that provided $0 in value to you!
Prime deals are the same way. Over the long run you’re better off just paying full retail price for things you know you will get use out of when you actually need them. It doesn’t do you any good to theoretically save a bunch on stuff you don’t actually need. If anything it adds long terms costs in storage and maintenance and just psychological stress to keep your life tidy. If it happens to be on sale when you need it then go for it, but generally speaking if it’s worth having it’s probably worth paying full price.
A number of years ago I recognized this pattern (buying really cheap Steam games and never playing them) that I instituted a rule for myself: I can never buy a Steam game unless I am going to play it right NOW. This also applies to pre-orders. Several years later, I have no regrets. Every game that I've bought since doing this I've gotten at least a few hours of entertainment out of, well worth the $1 - $20 of most of them. A few of them like Monster Hunter and Clair Obscura were more expensive but I also got way way more hours of entertainment out of them.
I generally apply this to a lot of physical purchasing as well, though it becomes a lot more difficult when trying to deal with shipping logistics and trying to time things for gifts, crafting complex projects, and house DIY things. All of which require varying degrees of advance purchasing and planning, which I'm generally kind of terrible at.
It’s almost funny how much people are resisting dynamic pricing in grocery stores but still shop online where they are constantly adjusting prices. It’s probably been a decade ago when I first saw someone posting advice to check a price tracker to see when the price on Amazon was low, due to their constant changes.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with them; I want stable pricing myself. But it’s something they already lost because practically every major online platform is doing dynamic pricing. Rideshare companies have surge pricing, and online pricing is often different from the store for multiple reasons even when the products are coming from the store. The only way to stop dynamic pricing is legislation, and the odds are that the apocalypse will probably happen before that.
At least in my opinion, seeing dynamic pricing on milk and eggs is monstrously worse than seeing it used for random shit on Amazon. But, you can buy groceries on Amazon, so that isn't even black and white.
Rideshare is the one scenario dynamic pricing makes sense to me. Assuming it's based on supply and demand, which is usually skewed heavily at night (people going to/from bars, etc.), and not based on the person requesting the ride (inferred financial status from tracking online activity, etc), I am fine with it. I would hope the majority of the increase goes to the drivers though.
I've also heard driving people at night can be a terrible experience. If someone is too drunk and throws up in your car, guess who is responsible for cleaning it up and making sure you get the smell and/or stains out otherwise your next customers will be pissed at the state of your vehicle? That risk is worth a higher charge, especially because something like that could put your car out of commission for the rest of the night.
Yep, you’re not exaggerating! I remember using camelcamelcamel to track prices for computer parts on newegg when building a pc back in 2010.
Idk, I think dynamic pricing is good, especially for things like rideshare. I would definitely not want legislation to ban it. I think that would cause a lot of harm in terms of supply mismatching.
Anyone have an archive link? :)
This is an archive link.
Hey thanks!
I noticed years ago that the only really good deals seemed to be Amazon products like Kindles and Alexa devices, it was obvious on any list of good deals. I did see mention of specific discounts this year on kitchen stuff from a YouTube channel I follow, but the savings were mostly pretty low.
It's a loss leader sale in which they raise the prices of other goods.
In this evaluation it wasn't clear to me whether "listed as percent discount" meant labeled as a prime day deal or just the normal x% off some some possibly made up "normal price" that they usually have. So for example, the toy truck went up in price while being listed with a 9% discount. Was the truck labeled as a prime day deal, and what percent off was it labeled as originally when it was $14.99? It's also not clear how the overall savings was calculated. If it was just based on total difference before and during the sale, those items that went up in price while not being listed as on sale probably killed the average savings. I'm not saying that Amazon doesn't engage in some misleading discount labeling, but this isn't proof of it. I hope I didn't miss any details from reading the archived version.
Anyway, I did find that some items I was watching became cheaper, and some didn't. I bought the ones that became cheaper and will continue to monitor the others for future discounts. It seems to me that some kind of deceptive discount labeling has been a thing in most online or brick&mortar stores for as long as I can remember, so as long as one just pays attention to the actual price paid, they should be fine.
This is a pretty useless article.
It talks about a bunch of items no one was claiming was on sale.
It doesn't distinguish between items sold by Amazon versus those sold by third party sellers who set their own pricing.
And while it acknowledges that inflation and tariffs might play a role this is hand-waved away in service of publishing something anyway.