Have you ever noticed how the price for toys on Amazon can change by the minute? This article will talk you through some tips on how to save money by taking advantage of this in these credit crunch times – the basics are plan ahead and monitor trends.

 

Amazon Marketplace

Save MoneyAmazon Marketplace enables you to buy new items from third-party sellers from the same page on which they sell the item new. In some cases these Marketplace sellers offer lower prices than Amazon themselves. However, often Amazon are out of stock of particular toys so they rely on their partners to fulfil any orders. The merchants that have stock at any one time change quickly but Amazon always show the merchant with the lowest price (including delivery) on the main page with a “More Buying Choices” box on the right-hand side. With rapidly changing available merchants comes similarly rapidly changing prices. With a bit of planning and daily monitoring you will know when a lower than average price comes along and you are well positioned to buy then and achieve some money saving.

Photo by annia316.

My Experiment

I have an interest in Ben 10 toys and just over a month ago I decided to record how the Amazon Marketplace price of the popular Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix changed on a daily basis. Although this experiment only recorded the price once a day rather than every price change that happened during the day, the results below show the general trend in changing prices.

Results

Over the 35 days of my experiment the price ranged from £13.94 to £19.14 – a saving of £5.20 had I bought on the lowest priced day.

The average price was £16.52. 13 days were over average and 22 days were under average.

Tips On Saving Money By Using Amazon Marketplace’s Changing Prices To Your Advantage

  1. Plan ahead – If you know you need to buy a specific toy for a birthday or other occasion, the key is to plan ahead. You need time to monitor the trend in prices. You cannot use this technique the day before you need to buy.
  2. Monitor the price – Ideally start monitoring the Amazon Marketplace price about a month before you need to buy. Two weeks is really the minimum. Stop by the Amazon website daily to check on the price.
  3. Record your results – Note down the price on a daily basis.  You could just use a scrap of paper but I have created a little Excel spreadsheet that makes this exercise very easy. Download my “Amazon Marketplace – When Should I Purchase?” tool here.
  4. Watch the trends – When you are about half way towards your “buy” date you should have a fair bit of data. You then need to calculate the average price of the toy so far and each day from then on. My Excel tool does this for you.
  5. Consider your purchase – If the price on the following day is below the average you should consider buying the toy. My Excel tool makes recommendations for you. Depending on your risk appetite you may want to get closer to your “buy” date to see if the price falls further. Remember though that the price might go up and stay high.
  6. Buy – Choose your day and buy your toy.

Remember, unless you are extremely lucky, you are not likely to choose to buy on the lowest priced day. However this technique should at least give you some comfort that you are more than likely buying at a below average price.

Good luck. I’d love to hear if you save a few pounds using this method. Please leave me a comment.


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