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Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
By:Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks
Date: 12/23/2014, 1:10 pm
In Response To: Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book (Gero Verheyen)

Some people are asking over $1,000 for a copy of Mark Starr's book.

No people are involved, algorithms are asking the $1,000. https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/1298-algorithmic_book_pricing_and_its_implications.html

Basically a web spider goes out and looks at the listed price for book ISBN XXXXXXXXXX and the algorithm sets the price which will make it the second least expensive (i.e. a bit more than the cheapest available). If you are selling something you probably don't want to be the cheapest because that leaves money on the table.

Then the cheapest fires up the same spider and runs the same price adjustment adding a few cents to the competitions price.

Both sellers are running the program continuously and quite soon the price goes through the roof.

It also happens that no seller wants to be the most expensive, so the same program make check to make them the second most expensive. Running this in a continuous loop can magically drive the price through the floor. It is possible to find super cheap versions of rare items as well.

Obviously there are problems with the algorithm, but it is used anyway.

Messages In This Thread

Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 12/23/2014, 4:12 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Brian Nystrom -- 12/23/2014, 7:40 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Gero Verheyen -- 12/23/2014, 8:40 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 12/23/2014, 1:10 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
dave koslow -- 12/23/2014, 3:03 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Jeff Horton -- 12/23/2014, 6:37 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Marc Upchurch -- 12/23/2014, 9:05 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
george jung -- 12/23/2014, 10:12 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Marc Upchurch -- 12/23/2014, 10:33 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Brian Nystrom -- 12/24/2014, 7:55 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Marc Upchurch -- 12/24/2014, 8:32 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Steve Chambers -- 12/26/2014, 9:17 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Marc Upchurch -- 12/26/2014, 11:03 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 12/27/2014, 8:10 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 12/24/2014, 12:56 am
Robert Morris' book sale
Jay Babina -- 12/23/2014, 9:53 am
Re: Robert Morris' book sale
Bill Hamm -- 12/23/2014, 10:25 am
Re: Robert Morris' book sale
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 12/23/2014, 11:38 am
Book sold 24.95 *NM*
Jay Babina -- 12/23/2014, 4:09 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
John -- 12/26/2014, 9:03 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Marc Upchurch -- 12/26/2014, 10:47 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
John -- 12/26/2014, 1:00 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Marc Upchurch -- 12/26/2014, 1:59 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Etienne Muller -- 12/26/2014, 4:30 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 12/27/2014, 8:19 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Etienne Muller -- 12/27/2014, 8:55 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 12/28/2014, 12:14 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Brian Nystrom -- 1/1/2015, 12:02 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 1/1/2015, 7:22 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 1/1/2015, 8:41 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Robert Morris' book
Bill Hamm -- 12/27/2014, 8:14 am