Amazon silliness

[Paul Johnstone]

Remember a couple weeks ago when Amazon had the "A" version of the DJ-20 8" jointer for about 900, and the "X5" version was approximately 1450 after rebate..

Today, the "A" version is now about 1900, and has no rebate. :confused: The X5 is still 1450 after rebate.

[Ted Miller]

I swear I think they draw straws to find a price then work on giving us all heart attacks by messin with the numbers throughtout the day. I bet they have a retired wood worker behind the number changing and laughing at us daily...

[Matt Lentzner]

It makes sense to me. By constantly shifting the prices they encourage people to visit often. The more time you spend at Amazon the more money you will spend there (in general).

Also, people who have more money than time and are too busy to keep track of it all end up paying the higher price. It's market segmentation - marketing 101.

Matt

[Matt Day]

You could also shop around for a Shop Fox W1741 (DJ-20 clone). I finally got time to get mine set up and cutting on Monday, and that 3HP motor doesn't flinch at anything.

Good luck with Amazon though. It seems you have to be an impulse shopper to get the deals sometimes. A good trick I picked up here is too put the items you're thinking about getting at some point in your cart, then every time you're on Amazon it will tell you if the price has changed.

I'm currently waiting on them for my 50-760 for said jointer.

[Paul Johnstone]

It makes sense to me. By constantly shifting the prices they encourage people to visit often. The more time you spend at Amazon the more money you will spend there (in general).

Also, people who have more money than time and are too busy to keep track of it all end up paying the higher price. It's market segmentation - marketing 101.

Matt

Sure, I see how that works, in general. But there's a lot of bottom feeders that only bounce when the price is very low. For example, those glue line rip blades from Freud that were very low a couple weeks ago. They were likely a "loss leader". I sure that after Amazon paid it's people to process, pack and ship those blades, that they lost money.

I've been following Amazon a little bit. It seems they are able to raise revenues by aggressive pricing, but their margins continually suffer. Really, they've trained me to only buy when they are running an insane promotion.

If I have to have it "now", I buy locally or somewhere else online because Amazon has screwed me a couple times by taking 3-4 months to deliver something. If it's an insane deal, I'm willing to wait and put up with them.

But the above example makes no sense. Unless you don't know that the X5 exists, why in the world would you pay more for the "A" model? My guess is that anyone willing to shell out about a grand for a jointer knows about the X5 line, but maybe they lure a few people that don't pay attention.

[Paul Johnstone]

You could also shop around for a Shop Fox W1741 (DJ-20 clone). I finally got time to get mine set up and cutting on Monday, and that 3HP motor doesn't flinch at anything.
.

I'm sure the Shop Fox is a fine machine. I almost bought it. I ended up going with the DJ-20, because if I got the shop fox, I would've ended up paying the 150 to deliver to my house.. I just couldn't do that deal where it's 700 delivered to a terminal. It would be impossible logistically (for me).

Thus, it came down to 850 for the shop fox to my house or about 1100 for the delta to my house. I may have been stupid, but I felt more comfortable paying a little more for the Delta. If it was the wrong decision, that's ok.. I've wasted more than $250 on useless accessories and junk from Harbor Freight. But I realize that isn't the right call for everyone. It seems like both are fine machines.

[Philip DiPaolo]

...there's a lot of bottom feeders that only bounce when the price is very low...

wow, so now we're "bottom feeders" if we find a great deal at amazon and jump on it? now that's pretty silly!

i have a rotating list of items i need or want for the shop, put them in my cart, and check it when i can -- which takes about a minute. then i buy when the deal is the best, unless i really need it immediately.

why should i pay more if i have a system that works?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,

wow, so now we're "bottom feeders" if we find a great deal at amazon and jump on it? now that's pretty silly!

I tend to think of myself as a "perigee predator". :D

Loss leader items, credit card "pay backs" & such have become staples for me & the wife in today's high priced market.

[Paul Johnstone]

wow, so now we're "bottom feeders" if we find a great deal at amazon and jump on it? now that's pretty silly!


It was just a joke.. I'm a "bottom feeder" too. Nothing wrong with it.

But IMO, not many people threw a lot of extra stuff in their card when those Freud blades went on sale.

I just bought something at the 20% off sale. They made you wade through a lot of accessories that weren't on sale.. Was annoying, but I didn't buy anything not on sale.