How many of you realize that prices fluctuate on Amazon.com — sometimes wildly and in a very short period of time?
I think some people are under the impression Amazon is automatically the cheapest place to buy most items.
That’s not true.
Amazon can be a good place to shop, both for price and convenience, but it’s not always the cheapest.
This week I had an email exchange with a reader who was not pleased about an item in my 2016 holiday gift guide. It seems the price of the Brightech Scorpion portable jump starter, which I had listed at $59.99, had jumped by $20 on Amazon.
I assured the reader the price indeed was $59.99 when I wrote my gift guide and must have increased after we put the section to bed.
I was wondering if he would believe me, but then I remembered that there’s a website that tracks the prices of most items on Amazon called Camelcamelcamel.com.
I had previously used the site to set up a price drop alert for a few items I had on my wishlist.
If you find an item on Amazon and you want to track its price, you copy the item’s URL and paste it into Camelcamelcamel.com to set up a price drop alert.
If your item drops to your desired price, you get an email notification.
Part of setting up the alert is a graph showing you the price history of your item.
It seems the price of the Brightech Scorpion had been $59.99 since April, but it increased to $69.99 and then $79.99 in mid-November.
I also noted that of the three colors for the Scorpion, two were $10 cheaper. There’s no difference other than the color of the plastic case.
The price history graph was the most interesting part of the whole process.
You can see when the price goes up or down so you can set a realistic price alert.
If you have some time before you need to buy, you can save good money by sitting back and waiting.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jim Rossman writes for The Dallas Morning News. He may be reached at jrossman@dallasnews.com.
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