Amazon Price Watch Hack

[bhornberger]

Found this today when I was researching purchases over the past 30 days at Amazon. Looks interesting

http://www.frozenwarrior.com/~pricewatch/

From the site:

"This website is designed to check Amazon.com prices daily. If the price of your items drop, then you will receive a single message detailing the new price. If the price drops within 30 days of purchasing an item, you can request a refund for the difference. The e-mail you will receive when the price drops, has a link to the support pagewhere you can request your refund. This service is also very helpful if you wish to purchase an item, and you are willing to wait for a much better price."

-Brent

[Stormbringer]

The site is run by BBret, a contributor to BT3Central. From what I remember, it was his goal two years ago to provide those that are tool addicts a way of keeping up on the latest Amazon deals.

One of the best features of the site is the ability to put in a products ASIN number which will tell you if the price history of the item (so your not fooled when Amazon puts something on a "weekend sale" only to have marked it up considerably the week before). This creates a larger "percent off" reduction getting some people to impulse buy.

Very good site and I would suggest to the addicts that don't know of it, to bookmark it as a favorite.

Greg

[jhart]

Looks like a useful tool. Thanks Brent.

[tsbrewers]

I have been using it for quite a while. It seems kinda hit and miss for me anyway. many times by the time you get the email that a price has dropped, the price has already gone back up. Plus many times I just don't get the email?

I have found I use his website more for browsing than for the email notifications. I go through it and find which tools have dropped, which are at an all-time low, etc.

Brew

[Ed62]

Thanks for the link. It looks very useful.

Ed

[DaveW]

A really useful javascript snippet that BBret provides on his site:

 javascript: window.location.href='http://www.frozenwarrior.com/~pricewatch/item_price_history.php?aurl='+escape (this.location.href);

You can drag that link on the top of his site to your favorites/bookmarks toolbar. Then, when you're on Amazon looking at an item, you can just click that javascript link, and it'll bring up the pricewatch page for that item.

[agent511]

DaveW: You brought something up about the javascript link that sounds very useful, but I personally have no idea how to implement it. Can you do a step-by-step as to what, where etc. to to with that javascript line (which I couldn't find on his website, but I could highlight and copy yours) to make it function?

[sacherjj]

Just go to this site

Click and drag the "Amazon Price History" link (near the top of the page) up to your bookmarks menu item, and into your bookmarks.

Then select this bookmark when you are on an Amazon page that has an item you want checked.

[agent511]

I have IE7, and I don't know if that is the problem, or if it is me, but I still am lost on this. I go to the page Sacherji says, click on that link, it brings up a page that says:

"Sorry: Could Not Parse The Supplied URL, Does Not Contain A Valid ASIN/ISBN. The ASIN/ISBN field is a ten character field that uniquely identifies a product at Amazon.com. It is composed of upper case letters and numbers."

And there is nothing to drag to the favorites section. I added that page as a favorites addition , (AMazon Price Watch Search). I go to am amazon tool page, then click on that favorite, and it goes to the exact same AMazon watch page identified above.

I am usually pretty advanced with this type of stuff, so I am quite baffled to be having these problems.

[Stormbringer]

I have IE7, and I don't know if that is the problem, or if it is me, but I still am lost on this. I go to the page Sacherji says, click on that link, it brings up a page that says:

"Sorry: Could Not Parse The Supplied URL, Does Not Contain A Valid ASIN/ISBN. The ASIN/ISBN field is a ten character field that uniquely identifies a product at Amazon.com. It is composed of upper case letters and numbers."

And there is nothing to drag to the favorites section. I added that page as a favorites addition , (AMazon Price Watch Search). I go to am amazon tool page, then click on that favorite, and it goes to the exact same AMazon watch page identified above.

I am usually pretty advanced with this type of stuff, so I am quite baffled to be having these problems.

Agent511,

I blew it the first time I tried to add it too.
Right click the link "Amazon Price History" (at the top in blue)
A menu should open. One of the options should be "Add to favorites"
Done.

I originally did the same thing you did and added the pricewatch page to favorites instead of the price history link. Kept taking me back to the pricewatch page. Duh. Works like a charm now.

Greg

[sacherjj]

The problem with following my instructions was that you were clicking on the link and releasing, rather than clicking and holding, then dragging the link up to the menu. The right-click solution is easier. I only tested this on IE6 and Firefox 2, but I assume they didn't take the drag functionality away from IE7. I haven't worried about updating IE, since I've been using Firefox for years anyway.

[agent511]

While I appreciate getting the idea for doing this from the previous posters, I have to give the "two thumbs up" award to Stormbringer, who understood what specific step was required (and which was not at all intuitive) to make this happen. It works great and this is an excellent tool for pricing purposes. Sacherjj, I don't know if it is because of differences with IE7, but I tried holding and dragging, and it does not seem to be 'dragable'

[sacherjj]

On IE6 is gives a circle with a line through it while dragging, until you get up to the Favorites menu. Holding the drag over that menu with open it, then you drag it down to the location you want. This keeps from having to "file" it in the right place later.

[tribalwind]

nifty,
i see the discussions are linked to bt3

[Andrew Benedetto]

Thanks I was not adding it correctly. I never had a link do that type of search. I am so mad at Amazon right now I doubt I will buy from them anytime in the foreseeable future.(Unisaw order problem)