07:54 – I’m still at work on the forensics book. I’m a bit behind my intended schedule, but I’m catching up fast.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
10 Comments and discussion on "Tuesday, 24 April 2012"
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07:54 – I’m still at work on the forensics book. I’m a bit behind my intended schedule, but I’m catching up fast.
Comments are closed.
Happened again. I was shopping for a microphone, the workhorse Shure SM58 vocal/speech mic. Checked on Amazon first — $99. Checked several other sites, including Guitar Center, Sweetwater, BSW, B&H, and some others — all $99. Price fixing? Guess not, because I had decided that Amazon represented the least hassle, so I went back there. Whoa! Price increased to $109. Less than 20 minutes had elapsed. No question they are messing with me. This is the second time such a price increase has occurred while I was shopping elsewhere to compare prices. And it ain’t a small increase in my book.
Since I am going to buy 3, I will just see my trusty contact over at Guitar Center, who will give me the $99 and discount me some dollars for the multiple unit purchase, making up for the fact I have to pay sales tax at Guitar Center. Screw you, Amazon!
Since Amazon sells stuff itself and acts as a portal for others, I’m wondering if this has happened because the lower priced vendor sold out of the item, and Amazon offers the product at the lowest price available when Chuck returns 20 minutes later.
Maybe, but Amazon definitely plays games with pricing. It’s a good idea to check Amazon with a different browser or at least after logging out and clearing your Amazon cookies. I’ve often seen one price for an item on Amazon when I was logged in and a different price when I visited anonymously. Sometimes, the logged-in price is lower, but often it’s higher.
It was an Amazon item, not one sold by another vendor, and there were none of those notices, like ‘order soon; only 2 in stock’. So, I just checked again, and the price is down from $109 to $104. I am not going to play that cat and mouse game with them. Makes me leery of buying anything from Amazon. Guitar Center, here I come.
My “Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture” has shipped.
Hey kidz, guess when the Beach Boys first toured the US?
Fifty years ago. How young does that make you feel? Their fiftieth anniversary tour kicks off tonight in Tuscon and continues all summer long, ending up in Europe in August.
http://www.thebeachboys.com/tour/
There will be a new single in May, and a new album in June. Pretty aggressive schedule for a bunch of retirees.
Workplace warning! This is obscene.
You couldn’t find this many fat, um…unpretty people in Germany if you canvassed the whole country. Walmart US has the corner on them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrDIQ-K8mg#
If you want to play cat and mouse games with Amazon’s pricing but with you being in the role of the cat, there’s:
http://camelcamelcamel.com/
In the case of the Shure SM58, it shows the price as having been a constant $99. That might mean that their checker didn’t happen to check during a brief price rise. But Amazon does have several listings for that microphone, one of which comes with a cable for an additional $10.
Thanks so much, Chuck. We owe U bigtime, mister.
Got wood?
Not me.
Not anymore.
Oak hath turned to wet Charmin.
Permanently.
On my browser, the plain old SM58 is still showing at $104. Guess that means they are giving me a different price than Norman. A couple variants of the SM58 are $99, but I want the plain old real thing—no on/off switch, no low-cut filter, etc.
Speaking of the SM58 it’s over there on the right of this video: 5 people playing one guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M
The SM58’s twin with the larger diaphragm, the SM7B, is in the middle. Not sure what that is on the left. It doesn’t have a visible shielded cable, so I assume it is a condenser mic of some kind. That means there is easily $700 of microphones there in that shot.
These kids are talented.