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Algorithms Misfire: Amazon Lists Book for $24M

Computer-controlled pricing goes a wee bit out of control

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 26, 2011 2:25 PM CDT

(Newser) – Had you scooped up a copy of The Making of a Fly on Amazon last week, you would have made author Peter A. Lawrence a very happy—and rich—man. It listed for nearly $24 million, thanks to a robot pricing war gone wrong, reports CNN. Blogger Michael Eisen first spotted the miscue, realizing that two competing sellers had set up algorithms to automatically adjust their prices against the other.

It's a common practice on e-commerce sites: Humans don't control price changes, computers do. "What's fascinating about all this is both the seemingly endless possibilities for both chaos and mischief," writes Eisen. "It seems impossible that we stumbled onto the only example of this kind of upward pricing spiral." Things have settled down: As of this afternoon, a new copy of the fly book will set you back a mere $977.

Old-fashioned books are sold by newfangled algorithms. (Shutterstock)

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 4 comments

HetSchip333

Apr 28, 2011 8:14 PM CDT

I've seen this before, though of course not this high. But I have seen used books in fair condition listed for like $150, where new ones cost like $14.00. The first thing that came to my mind was that they were autographed, or something, but I looked, and nope, never even a first edition. They could really do this intentionally to price fix, and then just blame the robot when they get caught. Though I doubt that was the case here, who knows.

Datazz

Apr 26, 2011 2:43 PM CDT

i'll take Fahrenheit 451 for 911$ please, and Of Mice and Men for 20million.

njgreen

Apr 26, 2011 2:35 PM CDT

Wouldn't "competing sellers" cause the price to go down, not up?

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Algorithms Misfire: Amazon Lists Book for $24M

Computer-controlled pricing goes a wee bit out of control

OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

algorithms • Amazon • book sale

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