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I concur.

I was disappointed in the propublica article since they usually do very good work.

Amazon always shows the option to see other sellers and even prompts you when there is a lower price that might not have prime shipping.

Most of the time I pay the more expensive price for the following reasons:

1) It is sold by amazon. I know I don't have to worry about the possible issues dealing with third party sellers. 2) The product arrives faster. As a prime member, most items are shipped 2 day. If I look at the other options they are usually 1 week or more out. 3) I trust amazon. This one is the irrational reason due to the fact I could probably save money by looking at a meta shopping engine or ebay. I have a long history as a prime member and trust their pricing and their customer service.

I do think you hit upon something with batching of orders. We rarely buy one off items and typically put things in our cart for an order a couple of times a month. Even then, Amazon offers full transparency. When you revisit your cart, Amazon shows you the price changes and offers to show you lower prices without prime.

> The first listing is indeed from Amazon.com as the seller. It has the cheapest price at $5.97 with "FREE Shipping" if you have Prime. So I assume that without Prime, there is a cost for shipping.

Worth noting that Amazon has been regulated (in the UK) over their adverts and use of the term "free shipping".

https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2016/8/Amazon-E...

> The first listing is indeed from Amazon.com as the seller. It has the cheapest price at $5.97 with "FREE Shipping" if you have Prime. So I assume that without Prime, there is a cost for shipping.

When I'm not logged in, it shows it has free Prime shipping. When I do log in to my account without Prime, it shows it has free shipping with an order of $49 or more. The only way I can find to see the shipping cost is to add it to my cart and proceed to checkout, which makes it a bit difficult to comparison shop.

> Assuming that that free shipping, unlike Prime, is unconditional, it is worth pointing out that TheHardwareCityCo offers a shipping date from "October 3-12". I'm assuming that you also don't get the return guarantees that you do from Amazon.com.

Amazon also seems to overstate these shipping dates to make Prime shipping look better. Almost every time I have ordered something via a 3rd party like that, it arrives before the earliest date Amazon says it could.

>Amazon also seems to overstate these shipping dates to make Prime shipping look better. Almost every time I have ordered something via a 3rd party like that, it arrives before the earliest date Amazon says it could.

They do that for themselves as well. Their shipping estimates for super saver shipping is always exaggerated, with packages arriving in 2-3 business days rather than 5-7 estimate

Also worth noting, is new third parties are not allowed to give lower time estimates until they achieve a certain rating.

I would add that if you buy so many items, worth so much in dollars, on Amazon, with Amazon as the seller, as separate commands (not getting automatic free shipping), and you don't have Prime then clearly you're not interested in the best deal.