Hah! Got my new Nomad
Hah! Got my new Nomad Zen yesterday. Still haven't tried it out due to the overwhelming cascade of busy-work I had to do yesterday, but it looks cool, it feels cool in my hand, and I'm very excited about it. I can't wait to burn my CD's to WMA now.
I thought I'd pass along a little bit o' experience for you, though. I'd read recently that amazon.com likes to play with its prices. For example, if you go one day to buy a certain DVD, it might be $24.99. But if you go later that day, it might be $21.99. The prices fluctuate, based on what seems to be a number of factors, depending on what time of day you go, and, oddly, what browser you might be using (the prices amazon gives in Netscape can be several dollars off from the ones it gives to Explorer, even at the same time, from the same computer). The best guess, I read, was that this was some sort of ongoing marketing experiment to try to find the optimal level of pricing, to maximize profit.
Such was the case with my Zen jukebox thingy. The first time I went: $349.99, with a $50 rebate. Two days later, $299.99, no rebate, and thus, really no net change. Not a big deal yet. But then I went back on Thursday of last week, and the price is $267.99. Well, I snatched it up. I had a $20 gift certificate -- and they didn't charge tax or shipping -- so the grand total was $247.99. This was huge. Since I'm selling the old iPod to sort of "trade up" to this guy, I may end up turning a profit -- which is beyond what I was expecting.
But then I went back later that afternoon: the price was $299.99. So it paid to take advantage. So every now and then, the sometimes obsessive price-checking and comparing that I do pays off. This time, to the tune of about $33, which is nice, because every little bit counts.
Posted by Matt at May 2, 2003 12:23 PM
