Stupid question? Maybe I'm overlooking the obvious, but...

[markw]

.. When I look at an item on Amazon and I go into the listings of various vendors. I see quite a variance in prices, shipping charges, and ratings.

Sometimes the differences are quite significant, even before shipping costs are factored in.

I gotta wonder how some of those that come in on the expensive side can manage to stay in business. Could it be that some of their other offerings undercut the competition by a similar amount so that it all evens out?

Any ideas?

 

[j_garcia]

I'll say it is shops that put it up at their "normal" price and don't compare their price to other places for a while so they don't even realize their price is that much higher. They likely have better deals on other items, so worse deals on some, making it even out. And then they put the item you are interested in on sale at some point when they want to get rid of them.

 

[its phillip]

I don't know. Some vendors must be listing some huge price mistakes because they will be 5-10 times the price of the next highest priced offering.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Amazon will usually pick the vendor with cheapest price, but then the cheapest will ran out of stock, they move to more expensive provider of the item...
Since I assume listing the item on amazon is free(or very cheap) having more expensive listing makes sense if you don't mind waiting