Am I the only one that is getting really hacked off with Amazon's pricing gimmick where they won't tell you the price on certain items until you put them in your cart? What a bunch of crap that is. For some reason just about everything that I might be interested in buying today seems to fall into that category - Having to then delete all the items from my cart is a PITA. Whatever happened to pure and simple browsing? Arrgh.

Sorry, I had to rant.

I don't understand why they even bother doing that. Are there people that add the item to the cart to see the price then just buy it because it's too much trouble to remove the item ?

The likely reason they do that is 'minimum advertised price' (MAP). This webpage explains the concept. Being in manufacturing, I see this annoyance all the time. It's a pain in the ass to call a company to get a price on something in their catalog, but that usually means they are selling below what they're allowed to advertise it for.

From the linked NEC page...

NEC has put these policies in place to protect you, the consumer, from dealers who have no knowledge of the products, provide no support and in some cases misrepresent the product availability and history.

This is such a farce. MAP policies don't exist to protect the consumer, they exist to support quasi-legal price fixing. The record companies were a little too heavy-handed with their MAP policies which lead to that oh-so-publicized lawsuit where we all signed up to receive our cut of the actual and punitive damages (which I am quite sure I'll never see anyway.) MAP in most cases is blatantly anticompetitive and if we had an FTC with some balls, the whole practce would be illegal.

Yeah. MAP blows.

Are there people that add the item to the cart to see the price then just buy it because it's too much trouble to remove the item ?

Sadly, I think that just may be the case. I tend to scour the internet for a while when looking for a deal on something. But there's got to be a ton of people who think "WOW! They can't even SHOW the price! Better snap this up before the price goes up!"

I've heard that Shimano USA fishing reels are sold at a minimum set price. ie a Shimano Curado Reel is rarely sold for less than $119.99, never under $99.99, but sometimes a combo rod and reel deal can be had. If a retailer sells below the minimum price Shimano mandates, Shimano will quit supplying them at wholesale prices to that retailer. Is this an example of MAP? Is it legal? It sucks either way...

Shimano bike parts are like that in the UK - you have to get grey OEM imports (bagged with instructions but not boxed) to get them cheaper than RRP.

Oakley are possibly the worst - have you ever seen anything by them discounted? I *do* like their stuff though - I haven't really found any sunglasses more comfortable and their lifetime warranty and accidental damage service is supposed to be excellent.

Gareth

Worse (or better) than that is Burton snowboards. Quite possibly the most popular snowboard manufacturer, they refuse to sell their boards online or in discount sporting goods stores. The reasoning is that you need proper direction to buy a board that fits you the best. It also helps them control prices. I've just recently seen their apparel online the past few years, but no current-year hardgoods to be found online. It is kinda nice that if you buy a board, you know that you will get the best (and only) price from your local snowboard shop with no need to shop around. I bet it's helped a few local board shops stay in business.