[kbatku]

A week or so ago I got an email from Petzl touting their new headlamp. The email got me interested, and so I clicked "Buy now", which brought up a page that had four links so I could buy it from one of their approved merchants. So, out of curiosity I clicked on REI to see how much these things cost. $54.95 at REI. Kinda steep I thought, so I clicked on Moosejaw's link - and they had it for $43.00. Wow I thought, so I clicked Backcountry and they had it for $41.00. I clicked the last link, Karst Sports, but it didn't work. Huh, I thought, REI sure is steep - $14 over the lowest priced seller. I told the story to a few people and just kind of chocked it up as another reason to avoid REI. Fast forward to tonight when I got the urge to actually purchase the thing, so I went back to the old email and checked the links again, looking for that low price. Backcountry was now, magically, $54.95. Moosejaw was ...wait for it...$54.95. OK, I get it. REI got embarrased by their high prices comparative to the other distributors and leaned on Petzl, who leaned on Backcountry and Moosejaw to raise their prices. But REALLY??? The cat was out of the bag, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed. It's sleazy, and maybe it was Petzle who got pissed that Backcountry and Mossejaw were selling their headlamp so cheap, but I bet it was REI who got pissed about this glaring example of their overpricing. So what did I do? Went on Ebay, and got the same lamp for $39.00 with free shipping. All's well that ends well, but REALLY???

[Hulksmash]

Backcountry and Moosejaw probably just raised there prices when they figured they could make an extra 14 dollars just like REI.

[Ranger Smith]

Its probably the cookies on your computer. The more you click on the item, the price goes up. Noticed that on more and more things. Always visit incognito.

[meandering Wa]

interesting idea I have hear of that when shopping for travel tickets. never have seen it laid out so plainly as here I never remember to use my incognito tab

[Slide Alder Slayer]

Maybe it was just Backcountry and Moosejaw who realized that they were leaving money on the table. Do you really believe REI and Petzl conspired and forced other companies to raise prices on a product you were shopping for?

[touron]

As we quickly approach the longest day of the year, it would seem they should be lowering prices, not raising them!

[n16ht5]

you want this headlamp (SR05): XML headlamp I was coming down pilchuck one night and caught up to some people with it, I heard them say, "is that a jet landing behind us?"

[Bernardo]

[SusanHikes]

Another possibility is that Petzl requires resellers to sign MAP (minimum advertized pricing) agreements in order to distribute their goods. Perhaps the first two resellers you mentioned slipped up and didn't follow their agreements with Petzl initially and then course corrected. A quick Google search of "Petzl MAP pricing" suggests Petzl does indeed do this as some websites acknowledge they can't post anything lower than Petzl's MAP pricing but tell you to call/email for actual price suggesting they actually sell for less.

[kbatku]

[kbatku]

Hah!! Knew it... Online stores change prices based on how people shop

[Chico]

Dang you are persistent! Between June and today you've been scouring the internet for proof, haven't you? Thanks for bringing this to my attention since I truly was not aware of it before. But from now on I'll be more careful shopping on line. Time to go into stealth mode.