Price difference??

[Barry McFadden]

Can anyone explain to me the massive price difference between Amazon.ca and Amazon.com? Since I live in Canada and LOTS of items on Amazon.com won't ship to Canada I usually look on Amazon.ca for the same product. Time and time again I find it no problem but the price is absurd compared to the same item on Amazon.com. You would think that since it is coming from Canada it would be less. Here's an example of Transtint dyes....
Here's the price on Amazon .com https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=transtint+dye

and here's the same item on Amazon.ca https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=transtint+dye

I'm looking at about 4 or 5 times the price for the same item....certainly isn't exchange rate and shipping is not in it yet. I've seen this on many items and cannot understand why there is such a crazy difference..... anybody have and thoughts???

[Doug Garson]

Insane pricing on some items is not that uncommon on Amazon. One explanation I have heard is that Amazon uses an algorithm to adjust prices based on what is selling and what is not. Maybe Amazon.ca sold a lot of dye so the price went up and Amazon.com wasn't selling much so the price went down.

[Chris Damm]

I find that some of the 3rd party sellers have outrageous prices for their products.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I'm looking at about 4 or 5 times the price for the same item....certainly isn't exchange rate and shipping is not in it yet. I've seen this on many items and cannot understand why there is such a crazy difference..... anybody have and thoughts???

Mabye there is general confusion on Amazon about those particular products.

I notice the product details for this version of the dye: https://www.amazon.com/TransTint-Dyes-Amber/dp/B0037M6JGW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1531167980&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=transtint+dye&psc=1 state its volume is 2 liters, but its weight is only 0.32 oz.

[Barry McFadden]

Mabye there is general confusion on Amazon about those particular products.

I notice the product details for this version of the dye: https://www.amazon.com/TransTint-Dyes-Amber/dp/B0037M6JGW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1531167980&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=transtint+dye&psc=1 state its volume is 2 liters, but its weight is only 0.32 oz.

Both items are 2 fluid ounces but can be diluted with water or alcohol to make 2 liters....

[Lee Schierer]

I'm looking at about 4 or 5 times the price for the same item....certainly isn't exchange rate and shipping is not in it yet. I've seen this on many items and cannot understand why there is such a crazy difference..... anybody have and thoughts???


It is likely that the item isn't being supplied by someone in Canada, but is actually being shipped from the U.S. through a broker. You would have to check and see who the supplier "Giving Stone" is and where they are located.

[Wade Lippman]

I find that some of the 3rd party sellers have outrageous prices for their products.

I thing that is probably it. I have seen some sellers asking several times market on items.

OTOH I have bought climbing gear in Canada for a third of the cost in the US; but had to pick it up in Canada because the store had agreed not to ship the brand to the US. Don't think that's the issue here though.

[Barry McFadden]

It is likely that the item isn't being supplied by someone in Canada, but is actually being shipped from the U.S. through a broker. You would have to check and see who the supplier "Giving Stone" is and where they are located.

I get what you're saying but if that is the case then the same item from both websites are shipping from the US but one is 4X the price... that's what I don't get....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

They are being sold by different suppliers. Furniture Supply is selling the first/cheaper bottle. "Giving Stone" and other suppliers are supplying the other more expensive bottles.

I agree that price differences shouldn't be that great but retailers can charge what ever price the market will bear. If it's too high, you might have it in stock a long while.

[Simon MacGowen]

Maybe Amazon.ca sold a lot of dye so the price went up and Amazon.com wasn't selling much so the price went down.

That is entirely not true!

If .ca had sold more dye than .com, the prices would have gone down for a Canadian buyer. That is simple economics.

May be when more warehouses are built in Canada for them to keep more US stocks there, the inflated costs of some products would dip.

Woodcraft and Rockler's have similar skewed pricing strategy for some of their products for Canadian customers.

Simon

[Brian Elfert]

That is entirely not true!
If .ca had sold more dye than .com, the prices would have gone down for a Canadian buyer. That is simple economics.


Things are not that simple with Amazon. Amazon is known to deeply discount items when it is the last one or two they have in stock. The price goes back to normal after they are out of inventory.

I bought a $100 air filter for my motorhome for about $25. Brand new in the box. Others have often reported the same type of thing.

[Doug Garson]

That is entirely not true!

If .ca had sold more dye than .com, the prices would have gone down for a Canadian buyer. That is simple economics.

May be when more warehouses are built in Canada for them to keep more US stocks there, the inflated costs of some products would dip.

Woodcraft and Rockler's have similar skewed pricing strategy for some of their products for Canadian customers.

Simon
I agree normally prices go down when volume goes up, the rule of economies of scale. But I was told on a past thread about Amazon's pricing algorithm which tries to maximize profit by boosting prices on popular items and dropping prices on slow selling items. When you think about it, it makes sense. If no one is buying a product you put it on sale to boost sales, nobody puts an item on sale if they can't keep it on the shelf because it's always selling out. So why not boost the price when sales are high and take advantage? Economies of scale are more applicable to the manufacturing side than the selling side.

[Grant Wilkinson]

As a Canadian, Barry, I feel your pain.

The bottom line is that Amazon does this because it can.

Leaving out the costs of transborder shipping of goods and the involvement of third party sellers, Canadians are still badly served by Amazon. There are several distribution centers in Canada now, and they are building a new one here in Ottawa, to open next year. Even when the goods I order are shipped from one of these Canadian distribution centers, there are frequently crazy price differences between .com and .ca.

One "excuse" put forward by some online retailers is that the costs to do business in Canada are much, much higher than in the US. Our taxes are much higher, our minimum wage is much higher, our overall labour costs are much higher. Somebody has to pay for all these higher costs and it sure as hell is not going to be the Amazons of this world.

It's not just a .ca/.com thing either. Others have reported buying from the .de for example. Frequently, they say that you can order woodworking stuff from the German site and have it delivered to Canada for cheaper than you buy it on the .ca site.

[Simon MacGowen]

Economies of scale are more applicable to the manufacturing side than the selling side.

The law of demand says an increase in demand will cause an increase in the equilibrium price and quantity of a good, which is not the same as what you are suggesting. You are suggesting .ca sells more than .com and hence the price is higher on the .ca site. You are looking at two platforms and making a relationship between their sales prices. Where is proof that such relationship exists at all? If I saw the same product asking for the same price on both sites, could I suggest that the product had the same demand from both American and Canadian consumers? Of course, not.

As I pointed out, you often see cheaper prices on an American platform, not because its overseas site is selling more (it certainly would have helped reduce the trade deficits if it were!), but sometimes because of higher costs of selling/attending to those transactions/allowance for currency fluctuations.

Simon

[Barry McFadden]

It's not just a .ca/.com thing either. Others have reported buying from the .de for example. Frequently, they say that you can order woodworking stuff from the German site and have it delivered to Canada for cheaper than you buy it on the .ca site.

Just for interest sake I looked up the same item on Amazon.de.... WOW.... price ranges from 60 euros to 133 euros..!!!!

[Bill Dufour]

Canada shipping is 2x the cost of US post office. So if you are amazon prime with free shipping(do thy do that in Canada) they have to charger more to cover the "free" shipping.
Here is a crazy seller on ebay. A machine vise costs $ 165 which should be more like $100 but for shipping they want $500! delivered it should be about $200 total. He is a store so he should no more about shipping. It can be fitted into a flat rate box. He will have to charge a bit to make a plywood box. but adding $450 or so for boxing?
Bil lD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wilton-6-Milling-Machine-Vise-With-Swivel-Base-USA/271844879711?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

[Ken Combs]

I can tell you from actual retail experience that either can be true, high sales = hi price or low sales = hi price. But it depends on the product and competition. We had an antique / collectibles business for 30 years. When demand is high, available volume is low and minimum competition, price will rise. With low demand, the price will fall no matter the availability.

Antique/rare cars are another example. Low volume and yet high prices.



Lots of permutation of the demand/supply/price/volume, no one size fits all. IOW, price will be as high as the customer will willingly pay.

[Brian Elfert]

Canada shipping is 2x the cost of US post office. So if you are amazon prime with free shipping(do thy do that in Canada) they have to charger more to cover the "free" shipping.
Here is a crazy seller on ebay. A machine vise costs $ 165 which should be more like $100 but for shipping they want $500! delivered it should be about $200 total. He is a store so he should no more about shipping. It can be fitted into a flat rate box. He will have to charge a bit to make a plywood box. but adding $450 or so for boxing?
Bil lD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wilton-6-Milling-Machine-Vise-With-Swivel-Base-USA/271844879711?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

That seller wants $258 shipping to ship it from Illinois to Minnesota too which seems sky high to me.

[Simon MacGowen]

That seller wants $258 shipping to ship it from Illinois to Minnesota too which seems sky high to me.

In comparison, so many eBay orders are shipped FREE (by ship) from China to North America, even when the order values are $10 or much less!!!

Simon

[Van Huskey]

In comparison, so many eBay orders are shipped FREE (by ship) from China to North America, even when the order values are $10 or much less!!!

Simon


I bought a pack of o-rings in a plastic organizer for 2.49 shipped from China via e-packet. For me to ship it to you (I think you are in the US) via USPS at the discounted online rate it would have cost me $2.62 postage, albeit faster. For me to ship it to a person in China it would have cost about $14. The Universal Postal Treaty and the USPS's e-packet contract make this possible. The e-packet contact may look stupid on its face for the USPS but it actually reduces their losses over the Universal Postal Treaty.

[Doug Garson]

The law of demand says an increase in demand will cause an increase in the equilibrium price and quantity of a good, which is not the same as what you are suggesting. Simon
Did you read my post? I said I was told in a previous thread that Amazon has a pricing algorithm that increases prices on products that are selling well and reduces prices on those that are not. Sounds a lot like your statement above.

[Rod Sheridan]

I was looking for a Coleman camping stove, the Amazon.ca price was higher than local retail, weird.

Last year I wanted to buy a $10 motorcycle themed coffee mug. Shipping to Canada was just under $80.

I had it shipped to my work location in Virginia for under $10. It was a vendor that didn't want to sell to Canadians, as the USPS has shipped me many things to Canada for reasonable rates..........Rod.

[Simon MacGowen]

Did you read my post? I said I was told in a previous thread that Amazon has a pricing algorithm that increases prices on products that are selling well and reduces prices on those that are not. Sounds a lot like your statement above.

Suffice to say that I don't think we are nowhere on the same wavelength on this.

Simon

[Edwin Santos]

Hi,

Here is a Canadian supplier of metal complex tinting dyes for wood. The prices look to be very competitive:

http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Concentrates-C12.aspx

I see they are located in Saskatchewan, so there will probably be a shipping charge to Ontario, but all in, it should be much less than what you are seeing on amazon.ca. I hope this helps you.
Edwin

[Carlos Alvarez]

I have an assigned rep at Amazon, so I emailed her this question just out of curiosity. Here's what she said...


There are many variables, from shipment cost to get them there, to the taxes and tariffs we pay. They have very high taxes relative to the US also. Some products even cost us more to sell there because of vendor agreements and market protections.

I've re-shipped quite a few high dollar things to friends in other countries to bypass their tax or market protection schemes.

[Simon MacGowen]

Suffice to say that I don't think we are on the same wavelength on this.

Simon

[matteo furbacchione]

Can anyone explain to me the massive price difference between Amazon.ca and Amazon.com? Since I live in Canada and LOTS of items on Amazon.com won't ship to Canada I usually look on Amazon.ca for the same product. Time and time again I find it no problem but the price is absurd compared to the same item on Amazon.com. You would think that since it is coming from Canada it would be less. Here's an example of Transtint dyes....
Here's the price on Amazon .com https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=transtint+dye

and here's the same item on Amazon.ca https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=transtint+dye

I'm looking at about 4 or 5 times the price for the same item....certainly isn't exchange rate and shipping is not in it yet. I've seen this on many items and cannot understand why there is such a crazy difference..... anybody have and thoughts???


You think Amazon Canada has absurd pricing... Have a look at Amazon australia if you want to see gouging at it's finest. They're not that smart here to use algorithms, they simply brute force triple or quadruple price markups on the consumer and geoblock this island from the rest of the world. Apple, Micrcosoft, Adobe and a few others were ordered to testify at a senate investigation on price gouging in australia, and they all said the same thing. Paraphrased: We charge australians such high prices because we can. And if that weren't enough, take you stock standard vertas low angle block plane and add at least $100 to the price and that's what we pay if we go to a local store.

[Carlos Alvarez]

There's nothing wrong with charging what the market will bear. That's how economies work. But your paraphrase of some companies' answers on pricing differences is not quite what they said. They did note many things that increase their costs to get a product to a consumer there. I recently sent a MacBook to a friend in Sweden, where it's 50% more expensive. Nearly the entire difference is accounted for by taxes. So of course, by having me send it to him, he was a tax evader and cheating his fellow citizens. Apple doesn't care.

Also "gouging" means a specific thing, and not just having high prices on non-essential goods. It's impossible for Apple or Veritas to price gouge.

[matteo furbacchione]

"There's nothing wrong with charging what the market will bear"

Spoken like someone that has never lived in a region the globe where being ripped off is the norm...

"But your paraphrase of some companies' answers on pricing differences is not quite what they said."

You should read up on it first, of course I'm paraphrasing! The actual answer would fill 500 pages... The long and short of it was: They were asked to testify on why they charge so much to australians by comparison to most other western nations... They said (paraphrasing) it was because the cost of doing business in australia was so high... So the senate committee said: Come, tell us all about it - under oath of course... They said: (paraphrasing) oh no, we can't do that, we'd be giving away trade secrets... So the senate committee said: we insist... Adobe, microsoft, apple et al said: (paraphrasing) thanks for the invite but we respectfully decline as it might give our competitors an advantage... So the sentate committee said: no, you miss understand our invitation, we're ordering you to testify. If you decline, you'll be held in contempt... So when they all fronted the committee they all said the same thing: (paraphrasing) we charge australians that much because we can. So either they all colluded and came up with essentially the same statement or the notion that australia is an expensive place to do business was total bs - probably both. They were exploiting the isolation of the country and employing opportunistic gouging, and reinforcing it with geoblocking. No other way to say it... You live in the US so you haven't experienced blatantly being ripped off like I have here, it is a stench to everyone that lives here's nose. Finally! people here are starting to wake up to it and are expressing their dissatisfaction for it.

Apple's Itunes is gouging australians - no question. I never said Lee Valley was. But if you have the misfortune of living here and can order a plane direct from Lee Valley and get it here much cheaper and faster! than buying it from the store 80km away that is gouging. I concede, pressure is being exerted and the gouging is being reduced... 10 years ago I could easily save 40% by buying direct from LV as opposed to the local national chain, now it's more like 15%. I've challenged the CEO of that chain directly to explain why his stores charge so much and he ran away (and no it wasn't a rant or done with malice, it was very thought out and articulate conversation). So clearly, the reasons for the high prices are not something he feels the public wouldn't like - i.e. opportunistic gouging. The CEO here is doing exactly what I guy I worked for in Canada was doing 35 years ago. He would sit down with the LV catalogue and set prices based upon what he estimated it would cost to have it shipped, at that time from Ottawa, and price the tools slightly above that. Not on a honest markup that would reflect actual costs + profit - in other words opportunistic gouging. If that's how you want to do business then you shouldn't be surprised when people let you know that you suck.

Type in google "define price gouging". Most likely for you, where you live, that's far less of an issue. Now come and live in australia and you'll get a good understanding of what price gouging looks and feels like.

[Carlos Alvarez]

You can't gouge someone on a non-essential product or service. Everyone can live without iTunes. Vote with your wallet. It's not possible to gouge you for the latest Katy Perry song--you don't need it, and can get it elsewhere.