Earl Grey

Right. But weren't you suggesting that Prime members got offered a higher price than non-Prime members at the same time, when you said "they also charge PRIME members more for items"? If searches are done "at different times" then I agree the price may be different, but I'm not sure what that proves.

If Amazon say "Hey, Prime gets you free shipping", accept payment for that deal, and then deliberately build the extra into the base price of the item shown only to Prime members, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The only thing that comes back in my searches on this topic is the issue I already mentioned above (Prime members sometimes see the item from a higher-base-price seller who is Prime eligible, because the total cost - including shipping - works out lower). But most Prime members already know that; there's an optional 'Prime Eligible Only' filter in Amazon's search, and the 'X new from...' link immediately below the default price lets you see whenever it happens.

By the way, I think this is a little misleading:

Amazon wants sales to go through Amazon.com, for sure, but Amazon opens their whole platform to small (and some not-so-small) independent sellers. You can even store your stock in Amazon warehouses, and thereby take advantage of Amazon's fast, reliable fulfillment and return services. Many people have been able to start and run profitable small business because of the access Amazon provides. Of course, all these services come at a price, but it hardly fits the picture you're trying to paint.

I agree with you that it shouldn't be seen as some cuddly entity - Amazon is a big corp, and its goals are (long-term) shareholder value, like any big corp.

Earl Grey

The Repricer Express incident was a disaster for some small sellers. Apparently their ToS protect them from liability, although not sure whether that would hold up in court if tested.

Jinglebob71

Never had that problem with Amazon. Buy bike stuff ever week from them

mconlonx

Want cheap parts? Get a job at a bike shop. Oh wait, that would be a pay cut from your day job or interfere with your free time? Tough luck, pay retail or Amazon pricing. Waah.

Darth Lefty 

You might be right! The package arrived and contained only one left shifter (SB-R09A, not a Centos) and no derailleurs. It's being returned, there was no option to replace.

Darth Lefty 

Oh! Also, the lonely shifter came in a bag. There was no box. For your reference, the bag containing shifter and full length cable altogether weighed 232 grams. This is pretty good, yesno? Can anyone make a direct comparison? There are weights listed for competitors' parts but not what the weight includes, or if lefts weigh more or less than rights.

CliffordK

Sometimes a deal is just too good to be true.
I was wondering if they were giving you MTB pricing or something.

And with this being sold direct by Amazon, you don't have a lot of choices.

Is Amazon one of those companies where it is hard to get a real person to talk to you?

ksisler

It is called dynamic pricing as well as a hundred other names. Almost everyone does it; on-line stores, brick and mortar stores, cell phone companies, grocery stores, stock market, ticket sales, etc. Can also generate fake shortages by withholding availability, then leaking out a few at very high prices to create panic, etc. Been going on for at least 25 years. Now days, a lot of it is entirely computer driven (you can rent the software or use freeware stuff or write your own or have a service provider do it all for you at a set fee with incentives) as no one has the people to diddle around with prices. manually Nothing generally illegal about it. If you see something you want and the price is ok to you, then buy it.

mstateglfr 

This is accurate- except for all the times it isn't.

Sales change the sticker price in a shop. Holiday sales. End of season sales. End of year sales. Discontinued model sales.

CliffordK

My niece was asking about a kid's encyclopedia set...
4¢ on Amazon, plus $3.99 for shipping.

On E-Bay one gets a nice description of the product with photos (hopefully not stock photos).

On Amazon, there was no way to tell if it had one volume or all the volumes of the set.

I fear, like with the OP, the under-priced versions may only be a single volume, or are otherwise incomplete. I hate to contact the sellers before the sale, just in case one might snag the complete set for less than would otherwise cost to ship it.

RandomTroll

Amazon quoted me $194. I don't shop there. I've always found cheaper parts at bicycle-parts places.

My favorite used to be eBikeStop.com , but their stock has dropped to almost-nothing: they may be going out of business.

Niagara Cycle often has cheap prices. They don't have the group but they have Microshift parts; you may want to look at them. They've sent me the wrong parts a couple of times (including a 27 rim when I ordered a 700 - didn't notice until I tried to mount a tire *after* building the wheel - my bad, but what a hassle) so I stopped dealing with them, but they handle returns fairly.

Darth Lefty 

Refund received from Amazon as soon as my package went into the UPS system. At least that part is painless.

Darth Lefty 

In 2015?

CliffordK

Apparently some kids still read.

Plus, my brother holds tight reins on the computer.

I haven't spent a lot of time on the Simple Wikipedia, but I will say that a lot of the internet reference material isn't made for young kids, although perhaps it is a good skill to learn to glean the important stuff from web searches.

Kimmo

Totally OT, but anyway...
If it was me, I'd get a normal DA freehub body, and ditch that orphan 7800 hub for a WH-R550 hub (same flanges)... that hub is cold forged and has a sweet finish; any remaining snazz DA has over that grade is in the freehub body and axle hardware.

(The 7800 was where Shimano tried copying the silly floating design with the inboard DS axle bearing that Campy and others use, while at the same time using aluminium with taller splines, greatly restricting cassette selection. The next DA hub went back to the better design, with the outboard axle bearing, on the cassette body as a stressed member. AFAIK the 7800 hub is Shimano's only such excursion.)

revcp 

THe Vittorias are $10.98, great deal indeed, but US shipping is $65.90. How did you get $16 shipping?

Velocivixen

Another forum member private messaged me about this. I tried several times as if I'm going to put item in my cart and every time I get $16.46 shipping. He tried several times and finally used a different browser and it worked. Did you make sure to click on the American flag at top then choose dollars? (I presume you did). Shipping is not a lot. $16.46 to the U.S. for two seperate boxes each with a tire (boxes taped together).

revcp 

Some code that I'm not cracking. $65.90 shipping in Chrome and MSIE. I've tried it by filling in the popup as USD and US and discarding that and clicking the Am flag top right to do the same. $65.90 every time.

Velocivixen

Is there a different browser you could use? I use Safari either on my iPad or IMac. Computer. I'll try Firefox & see if that makes a difference. Maybe you could call them. I've ordered two sets of those tires - once when they were marked down to $20 apiece, then a week later at the $13 apiece.

revcp 

Very bizarre. I tried firefox as well. Same thing. I just don't have the secret handshake down.

I even tried going through Planet X USA. Same. I did email them early this morning after first running into the issue, so I'll just wait and see what answer I receive. Thanks for trying to help.

LesterOfPuppets

Maybe they just don't like middle America?

Using Chrome, I clicked on USD, shipping to US. Added 2 tyres, clicked on check out, and it says $5.98 via Royal Mail.

Velocivixen

I just opened Firefox on my iMac & added a random tire into the checkout cart and it said "$5.98" shipping to US (didn't even put my address - just US dollars & USA). Hmmmm. Strange. Good Luck. Doesn't look like the Vittoria Voyager Hyper tires are left. I've had them on my Cross Check and really like them.

LesterOfPuppets

I did pick folding tires, are you picking wirebead tires, revcp? That may make a difference.

I'm sad cuz I added a handlebar and BAM, $65.90 shipping via DHL

revcp 

Very bizarre. I was choosing the 38mm because it was $10, whereass the 35mm was $13. Either the 38mm is wire or their web engine is screwed up (I suspect the latter, because I saw in numerous reviews that people where choosing 700c on some tires and receiving 26"), because it kept coming up as $65.90 to ship. Out of desperation I decided to pay $3/tire more and selected the 35mm. $5.98 shipping. So instead of paying $6 more I saved $4 off the $16 shipping velovixen referenced. Anyway, short story is that I now have two great tires on order for a grand total of $33.42.

As an addendum, a month or so ago I ordered a bottom bracket from them. I received two in two separate packages a day apart. I was charged for only one. I think they need to retrain their web monkeys.

RandomTroll

I've window-shopped on Amazon. A few times I have found something there then found the same item from the same vendor on eBay for less. The latest item was shipped by Amazon even though I bought it on eBay. I know they warehouse and fulfill for others. None of these items were bicycle parts, but I don't usually find what I'm looking for in bike parts on Amazon or eBay.