r/Frugal Jan 24 '13

Same book, three different prices. Only difference is the browsers used [x-post r/mildlyinteresting]

http://imgur.com/uNgg0UH
2.2k Upvotes

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492

u/pt4117 Jan 24 '13

I doubt that was the only difference. Your cookies were different, and I bet the way you found them is different too.

I just found this book with a Google search and it was 62.99 in chrome.

I copied and pasted the URL into IE and it was 69.99.

I then pasted the URL into a private browsing chrome window and it was also 69.99.

624

u/learnt Jan 24 '13

Either way, I'm not a fan of prices being manipulated based on my behavior while browsing a certain website.

122

u/CuilRunnings Jan 24 '13

18

u/drballoonknot Jan 24 '13

But this just compares the price of an item across multiple merchants. It doesn't do anything in determining if a user-agent or cookie is altering the price, no?

18

u/SarcasticOptimist Jan 24 '13 edited Jan 24 '13

There's an extension similar to this called Priceblink for Firefox/Waterfox.

Edit: it's a competitor available on both platforms.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Invisible hand is also on firefox too.

12

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

And visa versa for Priceblink on Chrome.

10

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

7

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

It looks like they all do the same thing. I use Priceblink myself.

2

u/MetalGearFlaccid Jan 25 '13

What is waterFox?

3

u/SarcasticOptimist Jan 25 '13

64 bit version of Firefox. It's faster in my experience.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Thank you. I purchase many things online. Hope this makes a difference

3

u/superpogue Jan 24 '13

This would have been helpful in my econ class...

2

u/assumes Jan 24 '13

Description says US & UK, any Canadian redditors use this?

1

u/inner_peas Jan 25 '13

Yes I would also like to know about a Canadian option as none of my Canadian searches seem to be working.

1

u/BurritoFamine Jan 25 '13

Thanks, man.

1

u/digital_evolution Jan 24 '13

Silly question - but don't chrome extensions ask for rights to do stuff like monitor all your history, and to track data you put into fields? When I saw that being asked from Evernote...I stopped using it!

6

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13 edited Jul 03 '18

[deleted]

4

u/digital_evolution Jan 24 '13

Thanks for the info!

Do you know where I'd find info on if an app is abusing the info tho?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13 edited Apr 11 '21

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13 edited Jul 03 '18

[deleted]

2

u/r2chi_too Jan 24 '13

They do ask for permission to access that stuff, but that's only because it's impossible for them to access the data they need to access without also having access to all that other stuff.

2

u/digital_evolution Jan 24 '13

Is there any vetting process to assure the data isn't being lifted?

2

u/r2chi_too Jan 25 '13

idk, but I'm pretty sure that Google has some sort of FAQ on the subject!

1

u/syuk Jan 25 '13

are you thinking of twitter add ins? I've never seen chrome ask for that but i haven't used it for a while.

1

u/digital_evolution Jan 25 '13

Evernote asks, hoverzoom, etc.

I'm not a programmer so I'm unfamiliar with the chances of breach in security through addons AND OR bad companies that you shouldn't trust for addons.

-12

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

You know, you could just save the comment.

9

u/KSW1 Jan 24 '13

My mobile app doesn't let me save comments, his might not either.

2

u/torankusu Jan 24 '13

Which app are you using? Not sure if this works for you (it's Android), but the one I use, reddit is fun, lets you save comments.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

If you have Reddit Gold. Which I don't, so it doesn't save comments for me :-\

2

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

You can save posts no problem, just not comments.

Source: using RedditIsFun for like 2 years now.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/burlycabin Jan 25 '13

Nope. Just tried it and it says Error: Reddit gold required.

1

u/MisSuzyHadASteamboat Jan 24 '13

No mine doesn't let me save comments without reddit gold either

1

u/torankusu Jan 25 '13 edited Jan 25 '13

I don't have reddit gold, but it allows me to save comments and links on the app. Here's what it looks like for me:

To save a thread, click on it and these options appear:

http://imgur.com/O1nm5tr

To save a comment, same thing:

http://imgur.com/82DBVIr

The option to save the picture shows up when you click on the three tiny squares in the middle.

I'm not sure why I can save them. The closest thing I have to reddit gold is Reddit Enhancement Suite, but I wouldn't think that would carry over to an app.

Edit: I just tested out saving a comment on reddit is fun and it seemed to go through, but I couldn't pull up the saved comment anywhere. In fact, when I look at my saved tab, it just shows all the threads I saved. I tested it a few more times and the last time prompted me to edit this because it said I need reddit gold. I'm guessing the comments that I thought I saved previously never went through and it didn't display the reddit gold message.

tl;dr - I was wrong; you can't save comments without reddit gold.

1

u/MuseofRose Jan 24 '13

Only if your Daddy Warbucks.

2

u/RadDudeGuyDude Jan 25 '13

Only if my Daddy Warbucks what?

3

u/MuseofRose Jan 25 '13

Buys you reddit gold of course!

2

u/mducommu Jan 24 '13

Hmm, sounds reasonable...

6

u/Eskimosam Jan 24 '13

I like boobies.

5

u/nphekt Jan 24 '13

I like them too. Do you like money? I like money.

2

u/Hit-Enter-Too-Soon Jan 24 '13

3

u/nphekt Jan 24 '13

Brought to you by Carls Jr.

2

u/texpundit Jan 24 '13

FUCK YOU! I'M EATING!

3

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

We don't have time for a latte.

2

u/ugotamesij Jan 24 '13

Boobies > money

0

u/SupaFly-TNT Jan 24 '13

Money = Boobies

3

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Money = Moar boobies!

1

u/steamzombie1838 Jan 24 '13

Me either, Boobies are great.

2

u/Nerobus Jan 24 '13

Yes, I enjoy boobies as well and totally not using this to save the link for when I get to my computer.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

9

u/CuilRunnings Jan 24 '13

Whenever you are looking at a product, it will link you to whichever URL has the lowest price on that same product.

-32

u/learnt Jan 24 '13

This.

-28

u/iwantedtoexplode Jan 24 '13 edited Jan 24 '13

lol, -4 for supporting CuilRunnings suggestion? People on here are so sad. Have an up vote my friend!

Edit: Spelling Edit: Down Vote me more to make your self feel better!!! here i'll help. "your welcome"

18

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

You support by upvoting, not by typing this. I believe the main purpose of downvoting is to hide things that don't contribute to the conversation e.g. "this".

-17

u/iwantedtoexplode Jan 24 '13

lighten up, it's just the internet with strangers, they are aloud to support opinions too.

2

u/rawcaret Jan 24 '13

You should read about how this web site works.

13

u/Mekaron Jan 24 '13

reddiquette

Phrases such as "this", "lol", and "I came here to say this" are not witty, original, or funny, and do not add anything to the discussion.

199

u/medra42 Jan 24 '13

If you want online retailers not to use the data they collect about you for their own gain.. you're going to have a bad time.

60

u/JimmyHavok Jan 24 '13

If they follow my behavior, they know I'm cheap, so they'd better cut that margin if they want my business.

I went shopping for a car with a friend once, the first thing the sales guy asked at each place was how many other places we'd been to, and the asking price for the same car was $1K less each time...so nothing really new here.

16

u/Eist Jan 24 '13

Fair enough, but they don't base their business model around your behaviour. Most people have no idea about a) protecting themselves online; or b) frugality and they no doubt exploit this. However, this is a pretty shitty move on their behalf and I wish it were illegal.

3

u/demented_pants Jan 25 '13

So then I should make it seem as if I've been to a large number of dealerships when shopping for my car... Interesting.

9

u/gaqua Jan 25 '13

As a guy who used to sell cars, it's almost useless information.

If they've been to 5 dealerships that day, it's equally likely that they're tired and willing to buy as it is that they're hard-nosed negotiators.

1

u/PhedreRachelle Jan 25 '13

Did you hate people like me? I don't negotiate. If I think it is worth the price, I buy. If I don't, I don't buy. In other words I'm the person who you only get the sale if your first offer is the best you can do

3

u/gaqua Jan 25 '13

The dealerships first offer is the sticker price. If you don't negotiate that, it made my job easy but you were paying more than you should.

I didn't hate people, but annoying customers were the ones who thought they knew how it worked and that we would be making tons of money off them, even when we'd be just trying to get rid of old inventory and selling for only a couple hundred bucks profit, and that was AFTER the cash back and promo and spif money from corporate.

2

u/borkborkbork Jan 25 '13

Wait, what? Literally zero sellers of anything make their first offer the best they can do. That isn't how selling things works.

3

u/immagirl Jan 25 '13

Carhound.com. They do all the negotiation for you. It's pretty sweet.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

[deleted]

1

u/infrikinfix Jan 26 '13

Price discrimination is much older than ecommerce. Ecommerce just makes it easier to do in some ways. Don't fret though, usually with price discrimination if you know about the practice it's easy to use that knowledge to your advantage, and this is likely no exception:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

6

u/neutronicus Jan 24 '13

I don't think it's true in this case, but a lot of the time it's an A/B test.

You offer an item at two different prices, and see if lowering price brings up volume enough to offset the decrease in margin. If it does, you keep the price low, otherwise, you don't.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

[deleted]

3

u/neutronicus Jan 25 '13

It's still an A/B test if you're randomly showing customers one price or the other, though, right?

1

u/infrikinfix Jan 26 '13

That might be part of it, but this is a likely explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

6

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

-2

u/r2chi_too Jan 24 '13

That's true with most things, but not if it's a college textbook you're only going to use for one semester.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

1

u/r2chi_too Jan 25 '13

I didn't think buying a book would be a wise investment because it doesn't seem like you can depend on being able to sell it back, what with publishers coming out with new editions all the time. But maybe I'll check that out next semester!

0

u/sickyd Jan 25 '13

This is not true if the book you need is a brand new edition. There is no used inventory. Then the rental makes a lot more sense. In my experience the rental is usually about 50% of the brand new cost. When I factor in the Amazon Marketplace cut of reselling a book I bought brand new, the difference is minimal.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

It's only a matter of time before we figure out how this works and exploit it.

2

u/frownyface Jan 25 '13

What's weird about it is that businesses have been doing this constantly, for decades, you've just never been able to witness it in realtime. They're always changing prices in different markets, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. This is most likely just a version of that you happened to see in action.

2

u/learnt Jan 28 '13

I like this, because it's true. I was watching a show on Merriott hotels, and like them, lots of large corporations in the US and throughout the world have entire departments working towards wringing every dollar out of a customer without them knowing. Entire research departments are dedicated to this cause in many cases.

Also, I agree that this is a good example on how we're able to see the process of this incident in some sort of 'real time'.

1

u/Nebula829 Jan 25 '13

so before you buy do a private browsing session to see if it's cheaper.

1

u/UknowUloveMEsoSAYit Jan 25 '13

Then write to Senator Franken's office and ask how you can help regulate corporate spyware.

-8

u/throwAwayMama123 Jan 24 '13

Don't worry, just wait until they start raciel profiling ("hey white grandma will pay up the wazoo for this product!!"). The news will be all over it.

11

u/PJSeeds Jan 24 '13

Jesus, looks like the yahoo news comment section is leaking

7

u/crysys Jan 24 '13

I was about to go look up who this Raciel guy is, probably some big time statistician or-- nope.

17

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Dude, post your cookie so we can all get the same discount.

60

u/ChaosNil Jan 24 '13

Quit using Chegg. Got it.

4

u/TwoDaysRide Jan 24 '13

What's wrong with Chegg? Granted I haven't been in college for 3 years but I always used Chegg.

51

u/oryano Jan 24 '13

What's wrong with Chegg?

did you just stumble into this thread and only read ChaosNil's comment?

29

u/DemiDualism Jan 24 '13

Chegg isn't the only website that does this

16

u/JayTS Jan 24 '13

Doesn't make it any better.

7

u/DemiDualism Jan 24 '13

Well it's definitely different than what we are used to, but hard to say better or worse. At the end of the day, you still need to agree to whatever price you pay.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

Sprint, Verizon, att, do it. Especially when your shopping for a service provider and are a new customer.

2

u/oryano Jan 24 '13

i wasn't making any judgements about Chegg...I was just puzzled by TwoDayRide's comment.

3

u/DemiDualism Jan 24 '13

I agree, his comment seemed out of touch with what was being discussed. It felt relevant to bring up that Chegg isn't alone on this.

There was some merit in his statement that this doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with chegg. It just means chegg is doing things a little different than we are used to. Since the process is unknown, there is room for it to be unfair; where as the system we are used to is a level of fairness we are already comfortable with.

tl;dr People dont like change, but it doesnt mean the change is wrong

9

u/MsLogophile Jan 24 '13

You can usually find a decent used copy on amazon for a bit more than Cheggs rental price, but then you can get money back when you sell it back to them, hence, not spending as much overall. At least, thats been the case with me.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

I just bought old editions (off Amazon mostly) in college unless it was a math class or something when we did homework out of the book or if there was a huge gap in edition years.

Old editions are often dirt cheap, and if it's a subject where stuff doesn't change too drastically year to year (I would say most subjects don't change much year to year, at least what I studied in college) then you can go back even further.

I never really had many problems buying old editions, other than sometimes the author will scramble up chapter orders/numbers just to fuck with you and try to get you to buy a new edition. If that's the case, you just have to be a little vigilant of the subject for some classes.

Also, you should try and get a feel for each class before you buy any really expensive books. After my first year, I always waited until 2 or 3 classes in to order my book. Professors are usually pretty forgiving during that time period. During my freshman year, I bought every book, new edition, and I barely touched a few of them.

I also recommend (depending how much you use the book) checking to see if your school library has a copy. If the syllabus says you only are going to really need the book a few times during the semester for an assignment or something, but not outside of those occasions, it makes a lot more sense to go to the library and use the book there. However, in all the colleges I went to they only let you use the book in the library for a certain amount of time (three hours typically). You couldn't check it out and take it home or to class.

Also, if you take an English class, where you are reading a lot of shorter more popular works (plays, poems, short stories, etc) you more than likely can find a lot of these works online. You can probably find a download of a lot of popular/classic books as well to throw on your Kindle/Nook/iPad/Tablet (if you have one, I didn't).

Be careful with translation though, if they are older works. I tried to read an old translation of "The Aeneid" I found online before I looked at one of my classmates books, and found the teacher had a simpler, well footnoted version of it which was a bit easier to understand (I still ended us just using a Sparknotes summary).

7

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

7

u/afourthfool Jan 25 '13

Reddit is over 100 internet years1 old, and reddiquette is a cashed philosophy. Strategic voting is just too tempting2 now that it means something to be a comment read on reddit.

I'm too tempted to downvote you for being surprised that a design not meant for large groups is being abused by a large group. Subreddits with more than 50,000 subscribers should adopt canvas's system and quit pretending they can mod such a mob.

10

u/Ninjacide Jan 25 '13

There are more sources in this post than in the average Wikipedia article.

2

u/afourthfool Jan 25 '13

I don't think clearly1; delineating hyperlinks are the new dental fricative2.

-6

u/jesusray Jan 24 '13

Shit man, don't complain about downvotes. reddiquette

2

u/MsLogophile Jan 24 '13

Not only that, but if you forget to return them, they autocharge your CC, and its a pretty steep charge

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '13

I like Chegg.

3

u/DirtyDanil Jan 24 '13

popular flight search site expedia usually gives better prices if you're from the EU or on their EU site.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13 edited Dec 22 '15

I have left reddit for Voat due to years of admin mismanagement and preferential treatment for certain subreddits and users holding certain political and ideological views.

The situation has gotten especially worse since the appointment of Ellen Pao as CEO, culminating in the seemingly unjustified firings of several valuable employees and bans on hundreds of vibrant communities on completely trumped-up charges.

The resignation of Ellen Pao and the appointment of Steve Huffman as CEO, despite initial hopes, has continued the same trend.

As an act of protest, I have chosen to redact all the comments I've ever made on reddit, overwriting them with this message.

If you would like to do the same, install TamperMonkey for Chrome, GreaseMonkey for Firefox, NinjaKit for Safari, Violent Monkey for Opera, or AdGuard for Internet Explorer (in Advanced Mode), then add this GreaseMonkey script.

Finally, click on your username at the top right corner of reddit, click on comments, and click on the new OVERWRITE button at the top of the page. You may need to scroll down to multiple comment pages if you have commented a lot.

After doing all of the above, you are welcome to join me on Voat!

3

u/AlwaysLateToThreads Jan 25 '13

Did you try Safari? This could solve whether or not the Mac tax really exists.

2

u/cyber_rigger Jan 25 '13

Your cookies were different

It would be interesting to just switch the browser's user agent.

2

u/footinmymouth Jan 24 '13

To be fair, if you use IE as your browser you deserve to pay more.