What gives?
I’ve been in the market for a decent, clicky keyboard for ages. Not the super cheap ones that feel like pudding, but a crisp old fashioned IBM-like. So I did an Amazon search and had it list them in price order, from high to low.
What’n the heck is this? The whole first page was keyboards >£1,000. I’ve seen this phenomenon on Amazon before (and, to a lesser extent, Ebay). So I axed @grok.
Number one is automatic price setting software. They’re set to raise or lower prices compared to their competitors. If two of these programs compete against each other and nobody’s paying attention – particularly if their other competitors are out of stock – stupid things can happen. Apparently, a text book was inflated to $23 million this way once.
AI coming to kill us all. Again.
Second is placeholders. If a vendor runs out of something but wants to keep the listing just in case it comes back in stock, they don’t delete it. They put a stupid price tag on it. I think I’d kind of figured this one out for myself, though they more usually slap a SOLD OUT on it.
Third is genuinely effing expensive niche products. Keyboards lovingly hand-machined from titanium, one key at a time. Welllll…maybe.
No, I didn’t buy one.
September 15, 2026 — 6:32 pm
Comments: 11