As an example, suppose that I set up an application where I can specify the product(s) that I want to buy along with the maximum that i want to pay. The application watches prices on amazon and when the price falls below a certain amount, it sends me a text and adds it to my cart. I can do everything except add the item to my cart, as the ' add to cart' doesn't take me to any item specific URL. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

9/7/2009 1:01:26 PM

playing the price arbitrage game, eh?

[Edited on September 7, 2009 at 1:07 PM. Reason : use firefox livehttpheaders extension to see what the add to cart button is doing]

9/7/2009 1:05:45 PM

<form method="post" id="handleBuy" name="handleBuy" action="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/handle-buy-box/ref=dp_start-bbf_1_glance" style="margin: 0pt;">

<input type="hidden" id="session-id" name="session-id" value="sessionid" />
<input type="hidden" id="ASIN" name="ASIN" value="B001EWEXNI" />

<input type="hidden" id="isMerchantExclusive" name="isMerchantExclusive" value="0" />
<input type="hidden" id="merchantID" name="merchantID" value="ATVPDKIKX0DER" />
<input type="hidden" id="nodeID" name="nodeID" value="172282" />
<input type="hidden" id="offerListingID" name="offerListingID" value="YqTOyv6XReZKd3XO5WPcYD54FgAPlgEFzvslORo7WEfVYjUPbZVDqjZKQpNwe9MA6gerT3IODF2APluT0hgusgLYFpNiQjq%2B" />
<input type="hidden" id="sellingCustomerID" name="sellingCustomerID" value="A2R2RITDJNW1Q6" />
<input type="hidden" id="sourceCustomerOrgListID" name="sourceCustomerOrgListID" value="" />
<input type="hidden" id="sourceCustomerOrgListItemID" name="sourceCustomerOrgListItemID" value="" />
<input type="hidden" id="qid" name="qid" value="" />
<input type="hidden" id="sr" name="sr" value="" />
<input type="hidden" id="storeID" name="storeID" value="electronics" />
<input type="hidden" id="tagActionCode" name="tagActionCode" value="" />
<input type="hidden" id="viewID" name="viewID" value="glance" />
<input type="image" title="" alt="Add to Shopping Cart" border="0" class="dpSprite s_bbAdd2Cart " id="" value="" name="submit.add-to-cart" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V42752373_.gif" />
<select name="quantity" id="quantity"><option value="1" selected>1</option><option value="2">2</option><option value="3">3</option><option value="4">4</option><option value="5">5</option></select></div><input type="hidden" name="maap_bb_qty_limit" value="5" />

9/7/2009 1:08:59 PM

Thanks for the input. BTW, do you guys know if this is against amazon TOS? I guess I can just look that up...

9/7/2009 1:12:16 PM

i'd imagine that it is

9/7/2009 1:13:45 PM

I don't see why it would be. This would only get more customers buying things from their site. It's not like they lose money, they evaluate every price they set.

9/8/2009 2:51:40 AM

you don't see any of their targeted product placement

or upselling ("suggestions")

or anything else they use to sell you more crap

9/8/2009 3:05:06 AM

Are you looking to use this for personal use, or, as a business idea? It looks like Amazon offers an API which will do this for business purposes and restricted by licensing agreements.

9/8/2009 7:04:01 AM

amazon already has something similar to this where you automatically re-order certain consumables at an interval that you set, as long as the price doesn't go above your maximum

okay, it's not really all that similar

9/8/2009 7:58:29 AM

Quote :

"you don't see any of their targeted product placement or upselling ("suggestions") or anything else they use to sell you more crap"

You are still selling more than they would have sold in the first place. I'm sure any respectable business owner with some concept of price discrimination would rather see 1 sale of X at price 0.9*Px than 0 sales at Px but hey I can spam you with a lot of other Y's and Z's at Py and Pz too! This is retail, they're probably making a profit at the 0.4P mark on everything.

9/8/2009 9:09:54 AM

Well, in similar spirit:

9/8/2009 9:29:40 AM

I think the API only gives you the price data, I don't think it has any capabilities to purchase the products, and especially not from the market sellers.

I think EVAN is right though, they wouldn't want this, because then they can't sell you any of their other crap.

9/8/2009 10:51:03 AM