This is quite strange. If you go to the product directly, it's £200...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004S9OT92
...but if you go via this link, it's £180...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004S9OT9...dealouk-aw1-21

The link came from here...
http://www.idealo.co.uk/compare/2940...hds-600rs.html
...which popped up as an advert on the place shifting enthusiasts forum.

Naive as I am, I didn't know Amazon reduced prices through targeted adverts, while showing a higher price if you navigate to the product directly. Makes me wonder if I've missed any other bargains by going straight to Amazon!

Cheers,
David.

If you look really closely at the two Amazon pages you will see that the cheaper one is sold by Amazon, the more expensive one is sold by Amazon on behalf of "3wisemonkeys ltd". Amazon often sell both their own product and the same product on behalf of others. It's the same with "play.com" as well.

Oh, now that's weird...

I got the more expensive link simply by clicking the "email to a friend" link on the cheaper page!

Even stranger, when I followed the email link before, it went to XS trading, selling it at £200 (I know because I still had the same page open when I read your message), but as you say, that same "permanent" link now goes to 3wisemonkeysltd at £205!!!!

You learn something every day.

Cheers,
David.

The cheaper one you have to wait 1-2 months for. Who wants to wait that long?

I have noticed this is a growing trend on amazon lately.

Even stranger, if you search Amazon for the HDS600 from the front page, the first result is the 3wisemonkeys one, and you can only see the cheaper Amazon sale by clicking on the "8 new from £179.99" link.

Do traders pay Amazon to prioritise their own listing above Amazon's own?!

Cheers,
David.

Ah, Mr stud, you are right. That makes some sense of the situation - thanks. I should read more carefully!

Cheers,
David.

I was watching Amazon before Christmas to get my sister the Sammy box. It was £169 a few times but the deal would go away and it would go back up to £199. Eventually some open box returns turned up on 29/12 for £156 delivered from Amazon themselves so she got that. And she is even happier now that I have sold her two Sky boxes, two Sky cards and Sky router for £60. I think the thing to do with Amazon is look very carefully at where it is coming from and always try and check out Amazon themselves. One other thing is that no search engine picked up the open box deals.

Try clearing your cookies each time before going to the Amazon home page and don't buy if you think the price is too high. The daily variations of some products are significant. I saved quite a sum on a Garmin GPS watch a few months ago. Currently it is nearly double what I paid for it!

Strangely all of the links given in post 1 now go straight to
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EchoStar-HDS...6476517&sr=1-1
and states


In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.

I've seen a lot of Amazon weirdness like this. A while back I was after a cheap bicycle maintenance stand. I browsed at work and found one for £34.99, but I when I got home to place the order (I didn't have my cc with me at work) the price had gone up to £81.99 -- Amazon as the supplier. I've also seen wild price changes in DVD pricing in the space of 30 minutes or so for the same DVDs, and also on a Panasonic Freesat record that I was interested in -- a £50 change up, down then up again in the space of three days. I have no idea what Amazon is up to, but double-checking prices and suppliers is key.


Clem

Before Christmas the Echostar was £180 in the Amazon market and £250 on Amazon. The market had a 1-2 month delivery and the Amazon price was too high for me to justify an impulse purchase (I cancelled Sky and am gutted that I can't use Sky Plus without a subscription...). However now it's down to £180 on Amazon and I can get delivery tomorrow I plumped for one last night.

Kev

I had noticed the same thing with Amazon before. It seems that you have to be patient and not jump in at the first offer. In general terms they do offer goods cheaper than other retailers if bought from them direct. I had not thought about the tip of clearing tracking cookies before going to their site. I'll try it next time and see what happens.