[Hzwwwc2]

 
One year ago when I decided to buy my first headphone, I put some candidates in my wishlist and kept an eye on the price for a month. Then I discovered that the headphones at Amazon are changing prices very frequently.
 
This post is just to help those who wants to buy headphones and to give them an idea of the average price. You don't want to order a Sennheiser HD 555 at $142 and find out next day it is $89(as was in my case)
 
(The reason I like to buy from Amazon is that Amazon is always authorized dealer, and I don't need to pay tax or shipping.)
 

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[Eee Pee]

I got my 595 for less than you got your 555.  Sorry!  
 
I discovered the Amazon pricing trick not too long ago, and I'm glad I did.  Camelcamelcamel.com was my savior and showed me how Amazon works.  You absolutely have to wait until they hit the low price again or you're out money for no reason other than a lack of patience.  
 
Price cruises along at a higher amount, then they lower it, and a lot of people probably buy right then.  Then the price goes back up and if you didn't buy at the lower price, you say to yourself, "Darn I should have got it when it was lower."  So then a week or two later they do the same thing, and this time they got ya.  You buy it.  But wait even a little while longer and the price goes down even lower, if only for a day or two.  Happens all the time.  For some reason I still look at the prices of items I've bought from Amazon... I gotta stop doing that.
 
Someone commented on that silly theory of mine that they are probably price matching the 3rd party or their suppliers' prices, but I don't know, why not trick people into buying stuff if it's that easy?

 

[Hzwwwc2]

I know, I have the same habit. I add a note to everything I bought at amazon and will check them every now and then. That's when I found out the price changes very often.

 

[goohsm]

how do you get those graph? which button do you click on a product page?

 

[hoplite84]

those graphs are great.. im off to find out how to do it.

 

[uli2000]

Quote:

how do you get those graph? which button do you click on a product page?

Its a plugin call The Tracktor.  I've used it with Firefox and Chrome, don't know about other browsers.

 

[chachokat]

It looks like the add-on "the tracktor" for firefox (also available for chrome/safari).
 
oops, uli2000 beat me to it

 

[obobskivich]

You can grab those graphs from the website camelcamelcamel.com as well. The prices on Grados are unrealistic; Grado headphones have fixed MAPs and will only sell at SRP except for the used market. I've never seen them go on sale, even when they're doing model trade-outs.
 
Best I can figure on Amazon's prices has to do with availability and their MI abilities. The Denon headphones universally sky-rocketed recently, but seem to be coming back down. Other parts seem to be dancing around, the ones with the wildest flucations are usually also not mentioned as frequently on Head-Fi or other sources (you think those are dramatic, look up the Beyerdynamic T70 (this has bounced between around $399 and around $630), Audio-Technica ATH-W5000 (between $600 and $1100 and back again a few times) or W1000X, stuff like that). 
 
Overall, their prices seem to go in seasonal waves - the best times to shop are before and after the major holiday season (so from September through early November, and around now); the worst times seem to be the major holiday season and early summer. I may be mistaken, or this may not apply to all items, it's just the trend I've seen. 
 
The upside is that Amazon only seems to do this nonsense with some items, other items (like music and DVD purchases) are more stable. 
 
 
 
 

 

[vyyye]

I have no words

 

[Radio_head]

Quote:

You can grab those graphs from the website camelcamelcamel.com as well. The prices on Grados are unrealistic; Grado headphones have fixed MAPs and will only sell at SRP except for the used market. I've never seen them go on sale, even when they're doing model trade-outs.

 
That is why the green lines are constant on the Grados, with only the yellow (used) fluctuating.

 

[obobskivich]

Try this one:

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I have no words

 

 

[vyyye]

 
 
 


Quote:

Try this one:



 

Well, holy crap. Will make good use of this camel site in the future.
 

 

[Mad Max]

Thanks for the informative thread.