I like books. I own quite a few. At least seven! Hard to believe, I know. And in addition to my physical, paper and paste library, I have an ever growing digital library on my Kindle.
I should also mention that I’m frugal. For example, that Kindle I mentioned? It’s not actually a physical device, but a free app downloaded onto my iPad. (To be fair, does anyone own an actual Kindle anymore? Do they post on MySpace about all the great books they’ve read?) So while I’m always looking for things to add to my library, I will not spend great amounts of money to do so.
Amazon makes it easy, though. Every day, I check my Kindle ‘Wish List,” and I sort the list by price, from lowest to highest. Generally, the books range in price from about $8 - $14, but there are frequent markdowns. Whenever a book on the list drops below $5, I go ahead and snatch it up. Every couple of weeks, I get a book for, like, $1.99.
Lately, though, I’ve noticed something strange. The same book shows up at the top of the list as the lowest-priced book of the day. That’s not unusual: Once a book hits its low price of, say, $7.99, it will stay there for a while, and unless and until something drops below it, it will remain at the same position. In this case, though, the price of the book has been changing every day, but very slightly, and within the range of $6.22 - $6.87. And while I admit to feeling a certain temptation on the day the book hit $6.66, I am sticking to my sub $5 principles.
I can’t help but think, though, that Amazon has tumbled to my strategy, and they’re engaged in a psychological probe, trying to tweak the price ever so slightly to see when I might take the plunge. Seeing the algorithm in action as it tries to suss out the exact level of my stinginess is unnerving.
Look, Bezos, I’ll make a deal with you: Drop some juicy “Apprentice” outtakes on the internet, and I’ll spring for the extra buck.
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