Background and Changes
First, it is useful to explain exactly what Amazon is changing. We communicate to Amazon through something called an "application programmer interface" or API.
An API is basically an agreed upon method that computers can use to talk to each other. At the end of August, Amazon is shutting down the primary API
we use to download price and sales rank data from Amazon. As a replacement, they have written a brand new, seller specific API.
There are a few key differences between the new API and the old API. To start with, here are the things that will be staying the same:
All of these pieces of information are still accessible:
- Sales rank
- Lowest Used price
- Lowest New price
- Lowest Collectible price
- Additional competitive prices based on "buckets" See Below
- Total number of offers
- List price
Some things that will be changing:
- We will no longer have access to who the offer belongs to, including Amazon's price
- We will no longer have access to "featured merchant" only pricing
And a few things are being added:
- The shipping price as well as the listed price!
- trade-in price (not yet supported)
Amazon Offer "Bucketing"
One of the new things Amazon has implemented with the data is a concept they are calling "offer bucketing." Basically, they take the lowest 20 offers and sort them into different "buckets"
based on the various offer attributes. These include: offer condition, seller rating, FBA vs. non-FBA and a few other items. Here is the specific description from Amazon:
To better understand this, it is useful to look at an example.
Here is a book called "A 21st Century Ethical Toolbox." You can view the item on Amazon here. Please keep in mind, at the time of this writing the data was from August 16, 2012. The live data on this website will change and be different from what is displayed below.
As of this writing there were the following offers:
| Used Prices |
| Condition |
Price |
Seller Feedback |
Seller Rating |
Is FBA? |
|
Used, Good
|
$37.28
|
37,961
|
91%
|
No
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$37.28
|
9,887
|
94%
|
No
|
|
Used, Good
|
$37.29
|
16,936
|
98%
|
No
|
|
Used, Very Good
|
$37.30
|
117,117
|
96%
|
No
|
|
Used, Very Good
|
$37.31
|
198,003
|
94%
|
No
|
|
Used, Good
|
$38.32
|
363,333
|
91%
|
No
|
|
Used, Good
|
$39.00
|
96,914
|
91%
|
No
|
|
Used, Good
|
$39.03
|
259
|
89%
|
No
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$43.16
|
1,401,370
|
94%
|
Yes
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$43.38
|
23,087
|
97%
|
Yes
|
|
Used, Good
|
$40.00
|
12,674
|
91%
|
No
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$41.32
|
48,783
|
94%
|
No
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
41.33
|
2,001
|
94%
|
No
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$41.33
|
33,094
|
93%
|
No
|
|
Used, Good
|
$43.35
|
34,113
|
92%
|
No
|
|
Used, Good
|
$43.50
|
Just Launched
|
--
|
No
|
|
Used, Very Good
|
$43.87
|
101,445
|
88%
|
No
|
|
Used, Very Good
|
$43.99
|
246
|
100%
|
No
|
|
Used, Like New
|
$45.00
|
1
|
100%
|
No
|
|
Used, Like New
|
$45.00
|
2
|
50%
|
No
|
|
| New Prices |
| New |
Price |
Seller Feedback |
Seller Rating |
Is FBA |
|
New
|
$54.55
|
Amazon
|
91%
|
Yes
|
|
New
|
$52.61
|
363,358
|
91%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$52.62
|
2,990
|
98%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$53.00
|
38
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$53.25
|
201,761
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$55.11
|
9764
|
91%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$56.60
|
146
|
96%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$56.95
|
276,192
|
91%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$61.23
|
188,419
|
89%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$66.52
|
2074
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$68.00
|
33,931
|
99%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$68.00
|
240,294
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$69.41
|
27
|
100%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$71.78
|
505,103
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$73.84
|
271,750
|
97%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$73.93
|
41,106
|
96%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$77.94
|
386,726
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$78.17
|
228,889
|
95%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$79.04
|
4,017
|
93%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$79.22
|
2,206
|
99%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$80.08
|
5,937
|
96%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$80.08
|
5,937
|
96%
|
No
|
|
New
|
$80.08
|
5,937
|
96%
|
No
|
|
From here, Amazon groups these into various "buckets" and returns to us the lowest priced offers in that that bucket. The buckets for this looks like the following:
| Buckets |
| Condition |
Price |
Seller Feedback |
Seller Rating |
is FBA? |
Offers in Bucket |
|
Used, Good
|
$37.28
|
-
|
90-94%
|
No
|
8
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$37.28
|
-
|
90-94%
|
No
|
1
|
|
Used, Good
|
$37.28
|
-
|
98-100%
|
No
|
1
|
|
Used, Very Good
|
$37.30
|
-
|
95-97%
|
No
|
1
|
|
Used, Very Good
|
$37.31
|
-
|
90-94%
|
No
|
2
|
|
New
|
$52.61
|
-
|
90-94%
|
No
|
4
|
|
New
|
$52.62
|
-
|
98-100%
|
No
|
4
|
|
New
|
$53.00
|
-
|
95-97%
|
No
|
9
|
|
New
|
$61.23
|
-
|
80-89%
|
No
|
1
|
|
New
|
$71.78
|
-
|
95-97%
|
No
|
1
|
|
Used, Good
|
$43.16
|
-
|
90-94%
|
Yes
|
3
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$43.16
|
-
|
90-94%
|
Yes
|
2
|
|
Used, Acceptable
|
$43.38
|
-
|
95-97%
|
Yes
|
1
|
|
New
|
$54.55
|
-
|
98-100%
|
Yes
|
1
|
As you can see, there are a few offers now missing from the results due to the bucketing. In most cases, however, we have seen that there is enough variety in offers to get a pretty good feel
for the value of the item.
|
|