Newbury bargain thread (and bargains in general)

[colinmce]

Also 1.99 on Mulligan Meets Monk, Gerry Mulligan Quartets In Concert (JATP) and Gerry's Telarc recordings.

[Stefan Wood]

Ada More, Barry Harris' Luminescence, Ahmed Abdul Malik, Lucy Reed as well.

Edited March 9, 2010 by Stefan Wood

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I've been waiting over three weeks for a Movie Mars order, with no shipping notice or anything (even though my card was charged upon purchase). I sent an e-mail inquiry today but have yet to hear anything back.

Gotta love that outfit! Why do I want to pay Amazon $16 for a new copy of the Sonny Clark Quartets when I can get a used one from MM for $53?

[kh1958]

Willis Jackson, Legends of Acid Jazz--$3.49

Red Holloway, Legends of Acid Jazz--$1.99

[Ron S]

I've been waiting over three weeks for a Movie Mars order, with no shipping notice or anything (even though my card was charged upon purchase). I sent an e-mail inquiry today but have yet to hear anything back.

Gotta love that outfit! Why do I want to pay Amazon $16 for a new copy of the Sonny Clark Quartets when I can get a used one from MM for $53?

Espescially when MM also has it brand-new for $13.83.

I'll bet that the $53.17 price for a "used--like new" copy is a glitch in their pricing software. It's 1 cent below the highest-price "used--like new," and generally they (and several of the others) try to be the cheapest by 1 cent. I also think that MM doesn't really sell used, but merely lists as "used--like new" (notice that they're always "sealed") to pick up customers who only look at used to find the cheapest copy.

You guys should realize by now that these companies are basically storefronts dealing in hundreds of thousands of titles from a host of suppliers, and managing it all through automated systems. It ain't like there's some guy sitting there personally examining each CD and setting the price. If you accept them for what they are and grab good deals when you can, while understanding that there will be occasional glitches, you'll generally be satisfied. But if you're expecting the personalized customer service and attention to detail of a Mosaic or a Hiroshi Tanno, for example, you'll be sorely disappointed.

[AllenLowe]

well I, for one, am sorely disappointed.

I mean, look at Toyota. Look at Enron. Look at the Bush administration. Best personal service I ever had.

[mikelz777]

As of this posting,they're selling Bill Evans' 9-CD Complete Fantasy Recordings for $49.99. Not a bad deal and definitely well worth it.

Complete Fantasy Recordings - Amazon marketplace

Edited March 11, 2010 by mikelz777

[Big Wheel]

I've been waiting over three weeks for a Movie Mars order, with no shipping notice or anything (even though my card was charged upon purchase). I sent an e-mail inquiry today but have yet to hear anything back.

Gotta love that outfit! Why do I want to pay Amazon $16 for a new copy of the Sonny Clark Quartets when I can get a used one from MM for $53?

Espescially when MM also has it brand-new for $13.83.

I'll bet that the $53.17 price for a "used--like new" copy is a glitch in their pricing software. It's 1 cent below the highest-price "used--like new," and generally they (and several of the others) try to be the cheapest by 1 cent.

This is why I'd like to learn more about the systems that Amazon sellers use to interact with Amazon. My hunch in this case is that Moviemars undercut what was (at the time they posted the item) the only other used seller, but then probably simply didn't update its price once other sellers entered the marketplace offering the item for much less. From an economic perspective this seems like an inefficiency that hurts everybody (except newer/nimbler sellers) in the aggregate, so I'm curious whether Amazon is making things harder than they have to be for sellers or whether some sellers just have suboptimal systems interacting with Amazon's APIs.

[riverrat]

I think there are a couple of different main business models being used by big Amazon Marketplace sellers:

1. Use some type of HTML script that automatically detects when another seller undercuts the price on one of their offerings, and also automatically updates their price to be $.01 below that. I am pretty sure this is being used because in some cases, you can drop your price to be the lowest, then check back in an hour and the other seller has done the same to be lower than you, over and over again. It has to be some kind of automatic function, not sure how it works exactly though.

2. Other sellers seem to put up listings at ridiculously high prices, apparently hoping to occasionally catch buyers who check during some window when no other sellers have lower priced offerings of the same title. e.g. seller "anybook". I don't see any other way to explain the insane prices by some such sellers.

Then there are the myriad of small potatoes sellers like me, who just put stuff up, try to beat the current lowest price, and then sporadically check back to revise my prices to be competitive and otherwise just wait...

[Big Wheel]

I think there are a couple of different main business models being used by big Amazon Marketplace sellers:

1. Use some type of HTML script that automatically detects when another seller undercuts the price on one of their offerings, and also automatically updates their price to be $.01 below that. I am pretty sure this is being used because in some cases, you can drop your price to be the lowest, then check back in an hour and the other seller has done the same to be lower than you, over and over again. It has to be some kind of automatic function, not sure how it works exactly though.

2. Other sellers seem to put up listings at ridiculously high prices, apparently hoping to occasionally catch buyers who check during some window when no other sellers have lower priced offerings of the same title. e.g. seller "anybook". I don't see any other way to explain the insane prices by some such sellers.

Then there are the myriad of small potatoes sellers like me, who just put stuff up, try to beat the current lowest price, and then sporadically check back to revise my prices to be competitive and otherwise just wait...

Interesting...see http://mws.amazon.com/ , which has links to all the APIs that I think Marketplace sellers are using. I leafed through the documentation a bit but haven't yet turned up the specific report type that would allow a seller to do huge bulk downloads of all his competitors' prices.

[Ron S]

Newbury also currently has Bill Evans' 8-disc "Consecration" box set for $49.99:

http://www.amazon.co...8&condition=new

Edited March 11, 2010 by Ron S

[jlhoots]

Newbury also currently has Bill Evans' 8-disc "Consecration" box set for $49.99:

http://www.amazon.co...8&condition=new

Bill Evans Complete Fantasy also at $49.99. I ordered it.

[Van Basten II]

This thread is starting to cost me a lot of money and visits to the post office.

[ghost of miles]

If not mentioned already, Charles McPherson: McPherson's Mood $1.99

[Free For All]

This thread is going to bankrupt me in increments of $5.00.

[Chuck Nessa]

What else you gonna do with the bucks. That's what I tell Ann.

[JSngry]

When she's in the room?

Hey, five bucks a pop coupled with One-Click... Amazon & Newbury got it figured out.

[bertrand]

I have a Bobby Timmons Easy Does It on the way. $10 including shipping, but I didn't know where else to find it.

Bertrand.

[Chuck Nessa]

Big mistake.

[bertrand]

I'm sure someone else has a different opinion.

Bertrand.

[David Ayers]

No. I think we all agree it's a mistake.

[bertrand]

Listened to a couple of tracks - other than the weird stereo balance, sounds good so far. Nothing unexpected of course, but it brightened up a crummy day. If there were a lot more Bobby Timmons' in this world and a lot less Rush Limbaughs, the world would be a better place.

Bertrand.

[connoisseur series500]

Newbury also currently has Bill Evans' 8-disc "Consecration" box set for $49.99:

http://www.amazon.co...8&condition=new

Bill Evans Complete Fantasy also at $49.99. I ordered it.

I just picked this one up as well. I think there are fewer of these around than the Complete Fantasy. I had to select between one of these box sets, and decided to go with Consecration. Can't afford both! Plus I think the Fantasy box went for $29.99 from the same seller some months back.

[Ron S]

Plus I think the Fantasy box went for $29.99 from the same seller some months back.

Well THAT sure would have been nice to know.

[mikelz777]

Amazon had one of those very short-lived mis-listing deals on the Fantasy set (and others if I recall correctly) back in October. I got the Fantasy set new and sealed directly from Amazon for $26.95 delivered.