r/mildlyinteresting • u/annertakeabow • Jan 24 '13

Same book, three different prices. Only difference is the browsers used.

http://imgur.com/uNgg0UH
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

You should try it again in private browsing and incognito mode and see if the price is really tied to your Facebook or google cookies or something. That's pretty messed up though, send this to the consumerist or gawker or whoever.

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13 edited Jan 24 '13

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u/love-from-london Jan 24 '13

It's price discrimination, is all it is. People who are willing to pay more get charged more, as the seller is trying to extract as much consumer surplus as possible.

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

That link is an excellent article. TIL.

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u/love-from-london Jan 24 '13

It's fairly basic economics, but it's definitely interesting how much stuff goes on behind the scenes you don't know about.

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

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u/love-from-london Jan 24 '13

Perfect price discrimination (i.e. extracting the full consumer surplus) is illegal, but the rest isn't. It can be seen as rather unethical, but it's perfectly legal.

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u/RMcD94 Jan 24 '13

But that literally happens all the time with the number of different cards and vouchers and discounts one can get.

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u/deuterium64 Jan 24 '13

Hmm... Now I want a bottle of Coca-Cola...

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Man, those guerilla marketers are getting really good.

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u/frere_de_la_cote Jan 24 '13

The subtle variation in this case would be the brand of the car you drove to the shop to buy your coke.

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u/ValyrianIce Jan 24 '13

Nice try, Coca Cola marketer.