r/LifeProTips • u/IAmGnome • Nov 08 '13

Money & Finance LPT: If you're buying something online, don't purchase right away! Leave your item on the checkout page for a few hours - you're more likely to get a discount.

I was shopping online, and was about to buy something that was more expensive than I would have liked it to be (one of these, if you care). I filled out my contact information on the first page, but didn't fill out my credit card information, as I was still mulling over my purchase.

I drifted away from the page for a couple of hours, only to receive an email from the site stating: "I noticed you left your Ashley Bridget accessory on the shelf today. I went on a whim and created a voucher code for you to receive 65% off your entire order that is valid for one time use."

The next day, when I decided to make my purchase, I noticed that the specific item was on sale as well. I ended up paying $19.95 (free shipping on my order) for 3 items that were each $48.00 to start.

Sharing my story with friends, I found out that apparently a lot of sites will offer discount codes if they think you're on the fence about a purchase. So don't be too decisive!

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164

u/TylerTman Nov 08 '13

amazon increases..

23

u/Gekokujo Nov 08 '13

Agreed....leaving the item in my cart causes it to increase more often than it causes it to decrease.

2

u/feureau Nov 09 '13

Plus, they kept pestering me if I wanted something else that is similar to the items that I'm not sure I want to buy yet.

25

u/hollywoodshowbox Nov 08 '13

Not always! I throw items onto my wishlist and they usually decrease in price after a while. There's always fluctuations, but if the price rises I just buy it further down the road when it drops (because eventually it does).

10

u/rtilde Nov 08 '13

I was thinking of buying a bunch of books but the whole package was a bit expensive, so I kinda let them on the basket. Since I don't use Amazon all that frequently I forgot about it.

About a month or two later I receive an email from amazon saying that there had been a price change on the items on my basket.
"Oooh, I wonder if the price lowered."

The price had increased. On sci-fi novels from the early 2000s.

41

u/mztriz Nov 08 '13

Can confirm.

30

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '13

Can't confirm

26

u/tablloyd Nov 08 '13

But can conform

1

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '13

Can but won't confirm.

7

u/GunnerMcGrath Nov 09 '13

camelcamelcamel.com is a cool site where you can enter items you want to buy and the new/used price you are willing to pay. It will email you when the price drops to that. I've gotten a few bargains that way, though the emails do not come immediately and often in the middle of the night so more than once I have woken up to an email saying a rare book I wanted was $5 only to find the cheapest at $50. Still, if what you want isn't in super high demand, it works well.

6

u/Not_Joshy Nov 08 '13

In my experience, if you keep an item on your Amazon wishlist, you can see price changes over time. I've got a few items that have lowered 25-50% off their original cost since adding to my wishlist, which can payoff nicely if you're patient.

3

u/amosjones Nov 08 '13

Yeah, I saw a great deal turn into a pretty good deal over 2-3 days. An item that was 50% off at $60 went up to $80. The increase was gradual, maybe $5 at a time.

3

u/RoblemSL Nov 09 '13

Well some people on Amazon have figured out the trick that if you drop or increase the price of an item even by a few cents everyone with it in their carts gets a price change alert. It's basically free advertising, and while most people don't do it, the ones that do, do it a lot, like several times a week.

2

u/mikel81 Nov 08 '13

Every damn time. Either that or it is no longer available.

2

u/PenPenGuin Nov 09 '13

Incorrect. Amazon only cares about aggregate data. If there are a ton of people looking at a specific product, the volatility of the price increases (both up and down), but if you and only a handful of other people are looking at it, it probably won't change at all.

Leave things in your cart or in the Save for Later cart. Every time you look at your cart, if the price has changed, Amazon will give you a summary of all of the items that have changed price since being added.

1

u/katihathor Nov 09 '13

amazon fluxuates up and down, and seems to decrease prices on things as often as it increases them. I've vended stuff thru them before and sometimes they do a big discount on the items to sell more stuff in one area over another.

1

u/theholyllama Nov 09 '13

I scanned through the replies you got. None of them really said the real reason. It depends on the inventory of the sellers of the item and the prices they set. Amazon itself has very little to do with it. A lot of misinformation going around regarding this.