On Mon, 16 Jan 2017 12:06:58 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/14/2017 3:29 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:36:10 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/13/2017 12:37 PM, Leon wrote:

It just seemed that Jack was comparing different prices on Amazon for
the same thing and apparently not noticing that a low price, that does
not include shipping, was more expensive than the Prime item which
included shipping.

No, that's not what I was doing, and in fact bitched about item prices
being higher when bought thru prime. If an item cost $5 plus $5
shipping and $9 with free shipping under prime, then, how much free
shipping are you getting? Someone is lying, both can't be right. I'm
absolutely certain Amazon used to do that, not sure if they still do,
but they did, and I bet they still do.

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While Prime is
expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled away quickly if
you need items quickly and actually pay extra for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

My kids have Prime, I sometimes buy through them if the item warrants
it. Mostly I just add stuff to my wish list and when it gets high enough
for free shipping, I buy it. Everything they sell doesn't qualify for
free shipping, and everything doesn't qualify for prime, so due
diligence is required. I've been screwed more than once when I paid
stupid prices for shipping that I thought was included with the free
stuff.

Another nasty habit I noticed is sometimes an online search will find
the item on Amazon at a low price. If you go off the page and do a
search directly on Amazon for the exact same item, it comes up with a
different price and you can't get back to the original price. They
obviously have a number of pricing schemes to get into your pocket.
Another reason Amazon loses trust from me. They are a shaky out fit and
if you are price conscious (cheap, like me) due diligence is a must.

You finally caught on. It's up to YOU - not Amazon, or anyone else,
what you pay. Either you do your homework and find a price you can
live with - and then live with it - or you keep looking and don't buy.

I always knew this. About time you caught on that it is up the the
retailer to make me happy and gain my trust if they want to continue
doing business with me. If a retailer gets over on me one to many
times, I will no longer go to him for my needs. I've lost a ton of
trust in Amazon over the years, I still go there, but ALWAYS look around
to other places before buying from them.

"free shipping" is a PLOY. It is not crooked. There is no such thing
as a "free lunch". Prime pricing is "shipping included" pricing. It
is "convenience" pricing and "convenience" shopping.. It does not
implement "combined shipping" and the economies that go with that.

You say that, but, $28 for a set of Sony headphones plus shipping at
Amazon vs $14 and free shipping from Walmart is not a ploy, it was a
fact. Amazon added to their "BAD SIDE" ledger on that one, and there
seem to be more and more as time goes on. If you followed the post here
on Forever wood glides, the price difference was pretty silly, $56 vs
$19 for 20 at the tool shop. Unless the tool shop charges $38 for
shipping, Amazon is out to lunch again.

The only "free shipping" that really does appear to be free is buying
stuff from China or other far east countries on Ebay where you buy
something for less than it would cost you to send an empty envelope.
In those cases, the chinese government is subsidizing the foreign
trade by ssubsidizing the shipping..

Pretty much nothing is manufactured in the US any more, so the above
applies to most everything, right?

I still can't figure out how I can buy something like an arduino
micro, fully assembled, for less than the price of the processor chip
- and have it shipped from China (for something like $3, believe it or
not - try sending a letter to China for under $3 postage from the USA
or Canada - - -)

While Chinese government subsidies may be a factor, the big factor is
labor and taxes. Trump wants to fix the tax thing by lowering business
tax from 35% to 15% which is more like China. What's he going to do
about wages? Nothing, can't be done, so it will have to be tariffs,
which means my $14 Sony headphone will cost $100 which means minimum
wage will need to go to $35/hr, which means... well, looks grim to me.
At least it's a lot easier adding zero's to a computer screen than
wheeling around paper in a wheelbarrow to buy something.
Please see my last posting.\ And as far as Walmart pricing, you
should really try being a supplier to Walmart sometime - you'll find
out what being SCREWED really feals like!!!