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TEKTON 15 piece wrench sets......$13 for both sets?

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Ign

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FlushingDIYer said:
On the Amazon front:
http://www.businessinsider.com/brutal-conditions-in-amazons-warehouses-2013-8

Sears is a publicly traded company. But the community aspect of their business is one that many folks (including them) took for granted. You remember that thread a while back about the Sears stories? We sure won't ever have "Amazon" stories, other than getting that great deal, getting bamboozled, or having an AMAZING chat with an overseas rep.

I know my neighborhood Sears will probably be replaced by a Harbor Freight... and life will chug along. But Sears was cool stuff. (I know, I know, I know... I'm not trying to turn this into another Sears thread!) I remember as a kid all the ads, I remember walking through the aisles with my dad or my son looking at tools. We aren't going to have that anymore. At the very least, walking into Sears as a kid taught me that tools weren't disposable. But Harbor Freight's model, it's very much like that of all the other industries that have taught us to consume and throw away and buy another...

All of that means something.

Amazon? They've always been different. But yeah, I get it. I think it all comes down to intent:

- did I know I was exploiting a fraudulent listing?

But, really, how can we as folks who visit the website really know if it's fraudulent? Especially since many of us have gotten amazing deals on websites like Amazon?
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Honestly given Sears' decline in quality over the last 20 years and HF's noticeable increase in quality over the same time, I'd HAPPILY take a HF over a Hometown or corporate Sears any day. I'd dance a jig out front the day the Sears closes their doors and the day HF opens.
 
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pescados666

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General Geoff said:
I operate a small business, and if I lose money on a sale because of a mistaken price, I take the hit. That's my problem, not the customer's.
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I've done that on my ebay sales a few times. Most notably in my memory was when I updated all my listing to be free shipping with 1 day handling, but had forgot I had an item listed as $0.99 buy it now + $19.01 shipping. That turned into a lot better deal when it was $0.99 free s/h...
 
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BIG BACCHUS

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pescados666 said:
I'm not sure if the rest of amazon is different, or who even enters their prices, but I do know there are a ton of stories about the bad conditions in the fulfillment warehouses.

https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+warehouse+worker+conditions
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I worked at the UPS Worldport hub for a while. Amazon is no different and actually pays another $4 on the hour. The conditions are not "harsh" they're warehouse conditions. It's hot in the Summer and Cold in the Winter. The "tons" of stories are from people my age who have no history of hard labor.
 
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Ign

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BIG BACCHUS said:
I worked at the UPS Worldport hub for a while. Amazon is no different and actually pays another $4 on the hour. The conditions are not "harsh" they're warehouse conditions. It's hot in the Summer and Cold in the Winter. The "tons" of stories are from people my age who have no history of hard labor.
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This was definitely my impression from listening to the lengthy testimonial/interview from the former female worker on NPR. She claimed at the time she was early thirties and fit, and still never met her numbers, meaning she never picked enough items per hour. The expectations of Amazon seemed to be her biggest complaint.

But then she said there were people much older who had been there much longer who met their numbers fine. I had to wonder how it might be that a 30-something "fit" person wasn't doing well when by her own admission people much older than her were.

That said, she never directly bad-mouthed Amazon, she just seemed to indicate it was tiring work. But being on your feet all day is tiring work no matter what you're doing.

As they say....stay in school, kids!
 
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jl4c

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Loscaldazar said:
Odd, because when I make a pricing mistake, I **** it up and take it.
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You are also practicing the golden rule. Good for you.


To all:
Note that I never said anything about clearance items, etc. All I ever espoused was keeping two things in mind which, if practiced, would keep one from being separated from his money by a charlatan:

1. TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch)
2. The Golden Rule

How you choose to live them is up to you.
 
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Ign

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FlushingDIYer said:
They weren't shut down yet???? That's unbelievable.
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The same thing happened on the Magic Heat I ordered; scammer Hannahs17 got shut down and a new seller (I forget) popped up selling it at the EXACT same price with exact same shipping charge. Well below typical market value so that's become a red flag, too. Used to be below market on Amazon was just a good deal/closeout/liquidation, now it's likely a scam.
 
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FlushingDIYer

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Ign said:
The same thing happened on the Magic Heat I ordered; scammer Hannahs17 got shut down and a new seller (I forget) popped up selling it at the EXACT same price with exact same shipping charge. Well below typical market value so that's become a red flag, too. Used to be below market on Amazon was just a good deal/closeout/liquidation, now it's likely a scam.
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Wow, Amazon really needs to get their junk together.

This is a battle of bots and algorithms:

- the programs in charge of monitoring suspicious activity (Amazon's) are losing to the programs (Moldovian, Russian, Vietnamese, etc....)out to scam the American consumer...

I bet you Amazon is using dated software analytics, only shutting down suspicious activity that comes from the same email address and/or the same IP address. That stuff is so 2002. One thing that we all need to be aware of is just how commonplace bots are nowadays.

At some point all this fraud is going to raise the prices of Amazon wares and leave us begging for Sears pricing. Oh wait, Sears won't be there anymore. :sad:
 
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pescados666

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FlushingDIYer said:
They weren't shut down yet???? That's unbelievable.
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I suspect Amazon just doesn't care until someone complains, because up until that point, amazon is making money I guess.

I don't see 1 reason whatsoever to allow a new seller to list 200 pages of items at the same prices as the last scammer. Ebay made me start with like 30 items and I couldn't get any money from it handed to me for like 30 days after the item was marked as delivered.

For this reason, when forced to choose between buying an item from ebay and buying from amazon, ebay wins every time.
 
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M6erfan

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This is why, when buy on amazon, its Amazon Prime or fulfillment by Amazon only....
 
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nickjj

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ecotec

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jl4c said:
You are also practicing the golden rule. Good for you.


To all:
Note that I never said anything about clearance items, etc. All I ever espoused was keeping two things in mind which, if practiced, would keep one from being separated from his money by a charlatan:

1. TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch)
2. The Golden Rule

How you choose to live them is up to you.
Click to expand...

You sound like you are fun at parties...
 
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bpjr

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Ign said:
Your exact example just happened. HD was selling the Milwaukee 46" upper chests at $50. Retail is $300. Does clearance factor into your golden rule? They were doing this nationwide, there were pics of people buying 8 or more at once all over the country.

I just bought three $25 levels at TSC for $4.40 ea.

I regularly order stuff from Amazon where I don't know how they make any money if it's from them & shipped Prime (2 day). And speaking of third party sellers I just ordered a 3-pack of Park bike patch kits for $6, free shipping (although not Prime).

I could fill the screen with examples, how 'bout the huge Proto ratcheting wrenches Northern was selling for $15 which retailed for a couple hundred EACH?


How do you know when a price is clearance vs a mistake?

Incidentally, there are no mistakes in the Amazon auto-bot pricing, they know full-well what their algorithm is doing and they just don't care. The item will sit at that price until sales are stimulated and then the price shoots back up.

If you know a retailer is losing $ on a clearance item (very common in retail to just make it go away), do you still not buy it?

Amazon doesn't have a designation, label or moniker for clearance. You never know why something is priced the way it is.
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I used to manage a retail shop for a company that had 340 stores. We had our own branding on some items...which were outsourced to China. So a pocket knife cost us less than $1 ea in bulk for all 340 stores. Our list price was $24.95...and on sale for $19.99...then "closed out price" was "too good to be true" at $4.95. We had dozens of products like this. So anyone thinking they know if a deal is too good to be true may be missing a normal closeout or whatever. The line between too good to be true and reality is getting fuzzier by the day. I didn't think twice about the Tekton set being too good to be true. In reality most people don't have a way to know a "too good to be true" from a "get it sold now with less margin".
 
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M6erfan

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bpjr said:
I used to manage a retail shop for a company that had 340 stores. We had our own branding on some items...which were outsourced to China. So a pocket knife cost us less than $1 ea in bulk for all 340 stores. Our list price was $24.95...and on sale for $19.99...then "closed out price" was "too good to be true" at $4.95. We had dozens of products like this. So anyone thinking they know if a deal is too good to be true may be missing a normal closeout or whatever. The line between too good to be true and reality is getting fuzzier by the day. I didn't think twice about the Tekton set being too good to be true. In reality most people don't have a way to know a "too good to be true" from a "get it sold now with less margin".
Click to expand...

Well, this wasn't purchased at a well known retail chain in the US. It was an overseas 3 party seller on Amazon...It's not the price, but the whole seller profile. Screamed TGTBT
 
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T45

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bpjr said:
I didn't think twice about the Tekton set being too good to be true. In reality most people don't have a way to know a "too good to be true" from a "get it sold now with less margin".
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Thread = Buy a wrench set for the cost of shipping an empty Box... :lol::lol::lol:

It is a deal we all dream of tho...which is why we are all primed for the scam.
 
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BDT/NWMN

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Anyone know where I can get a good buy on a 42" or larger gong with mounting stand and a large, leather covered club to strike it with?


This thread has been a hoot; rates at least five strikes:bowdown:
 
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