UPDATE 12/16/15: this promotion finally expired 🙂
UPDATE (12/14/15 AM): we have the bookstore coupon wars! B&N has a new coupon promotion and so Amazon extended the deadline for their coupon to match the B&N promotion – or vice versa. To cut a long story short, this promotion now ends on Wednesday 12/16/15 at 3am ET…
+ coupon BNGIFT25 at Barnes and Noble (new coupon code)
+ coupon 25OFFBOOK at Amazon’s website (same as before; can’t use it again if you used it earlier in the week since it’s the same coupon code)
+ this is 25% off any single book (including photography books) with maximum savings of $10 (eg any books priced over $40 get a flat $10 off discount)
+ strategically this promotion is ideal for books that rarely get discounted
+ the usual free shipping terms apply at B&N ($25+ order or Annual Membership) and Amazon (Prime or $35+ order)
‘Twas the night before this deal debuted, and Amazon popped me an offer to buy Scott Kelby’s “How Do I Do That in Lightroom?” for $19.95. Unfortunately, I didn’t bite. After seeing the 25-percent-off deal announced the next morning, I hightailed it back to Amazon to see if I could get that book for $15 or thereabouts. Lo and behold, the book now cost $28.95 (if memory serves me). So, this 25-percent-off promo left me $1.76 short of Amazon’s tempting late-night offer.
This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this kind of now-you-see-it, now-you don’t bargain baiting at Amazon. Nearly always, it’s during a late-night visit. For $1.76 I could say what the heck. But there’s something about having the best deal whisked in front of me, only to quickly see it replaced with a less worthwhile deal that rubs me the wrong way.
Yeah, things that are not under MAP price control can be at the mercy of their computer algorithms and/or price matching. I was following one of the 64GB Samsung microSD cards and almost every time I refreshed the page it was a different price. I also recall noticing lower prices late at night for items I was researching, I guess with not as many people shopping, their computers are trying to entice shoppers with lower prices.