Silliness is not restricted to EBay

[kuririn]

Was looking for rocketry related books on Amazon, found this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385030762/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Lowest price, $7.99 used
Highest priced, $3053.01 ( but it's new! )

When I clicked on the customer review link, I saw a familiar name.

I might forego buying new and go used in this case! Laters.

 

[dr wogz]

yeah, I'm kinda giving up on Amazon. I find they're turning into 'EBAY' with 3rd & 4th party sellers.. And that their 'free shipping over $35' is being reduced to only a few sellers..

Of course, Wal-Mart is also doing the same, allowing 3rd party selling on their site. (I wanted to order some motors, so I could pick them up en route to my launch site (in the US) and they only deliver, no store pick up.. so I was outta luck..)

 

[Zeus-cat]

Was looking for rocketry related books on Amazon, found this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385030762/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Lowest price, $7.99 used
Highest priced, $3053.01 ( but it's new! )

When I clicked on the customer review link, I saw a familiar name.

I might forego buying new and go used in this case! Laters.

And shipping is a reasonable $3.99

 

[jlabrasca]

3053.01 is a weird number. Made me think it might be an algorithmic bidding war

https://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358

except that it isn't. So it is some other kind of algorithmic artifact.

Sort of funny thing, the first item listed when I clicked through to the seller's storefront



300,000+ distinct items for sale is suspicious. That's a lot of stock to keep on hand.

 

[Larry Curcio]

I actually have this one (Picked it up at a book sale for $0.25)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0870334336/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Was looking for rocketry related books on Amazon, found this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385030762/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Lowest price, $7.99 used
Highest priced, $3053.01 ( but it's new! )

When I clicked on the customer review link, I saw a familiar name.

I might forego buying new and go used in this case! Laters.

I've read about this; there are a lot of very suspicious transactions on Amazon. Books (some them just gibberish) for ridiculous prices with 1 or 3 sales.

They think its money laundering.

 

[cwbullet]

That is a bunch of crap. That book is not worth 3K.

 

[seth_cooper]

I've read about this; there are a lot of very suspicious transactions on Amazon. Books (some them just gibberish) for ridiculous prices with 1 or 3 sales.

They think its money laundering.

I be a terrible criminal. I could never think of a scheme like that. It's brilliant.

 

[jlabrasca]

That is a bunch of crap. That book is not worth 3K.

<smile>

I've read about this; there are a lot of very suspicious transactions on Amazon. Books (some them just gibberish) for ridiculous prices with 1 or 3 sales.

They think its money laundering.

"They" are probably right. "They" know what's really going on around here. <smile>

The story to which you might be referring was about self-published books on CreateSpace.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/02/money-laundering-via-author-impersonation-on-amazon/

This weirdly high price for real items might be a different thing. There is an interesting, if somewhat aged, thread about this here

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/why-do-some-sellers-charge-impossibly-high-prices/274968/4

EDIT: Here is how we test this. Right now the weirdly high price is exactly 133 times the price of the next highest price on the page. One of us will buy the one listed at $22.94. If the price drops to $2515.03 we will know that somebody fat-fingered the price multiplier on the pricing bot.

If not, we will know that it was a manual pricing error, or a place-holder price for an item not in inventory, or drop-ship driver, or a money laundering scheme.

 

[K'Tesh]

That is a bunch of crap. That book is not worth 3K.

Don't knock it... That book cost me thousands of dollars. (over $500 last month alone)

It was my introduction to model rocketry.

Besides, I have a copy of it right here with me (within 24 inches). I'd let it go for only $2K USD (and I'll ship it for free)!