故事是酱紫滴，2011年4月8号，一哥们想在Amazon.com上买一本研究苍蝇的发育生物学的经典书《The Making of a Fly: The Genetics of Animal Design》，但却发现Amazon上有两家的报价高得吓人。profnath报价为$1,730,045.91，bordeebook为$2,198,177.95。

针对这样一个明显异常的现象，这哥们进行了跟踪研究，发现这两家都是在用程序自动调价。不过两家的竞争策略完全相反，profnath的策略是以低价取胜，价格总是别人的99.83%。而bordeebook则是凭借自己125k+，93%好评的rating，价格总是别人的127.059%。 原文在这里

故事在18号达到高潮，价格飙到了千万美元等级。不过在19号号就回到了100美刀级别，而bordeebook的价格依然是profnath的1.27059倍。

故事本身到此告一段落，但难得动了更新的念头，得多牢骚牢骚才行。

技术，小的应用叫工具，大的应用叫系统。特点是能在短时间内完成本需大量人力和时间才能完成、甚至靠人力无法完成的任务，节省了时间和人力成本。上面的故事就是很好的例子，通过技术快速的对市场变化做出响应。

印象中，早在去年还是前年，也有可能是更早些时候，京东和新蛋中国相继开始以图片的形式来显示价格。到现在还是。遗憾的是，恐怕暂时还没有既能让用户毫不费力的就能看到价格，而又不会被程序把图片还原成文本（OCR）的方法。何苦呢。。。逛过这么多国外的B2C网站，好像还没见过哪家是用图片显示价格的。是我少见多怪，还是又遭遇中国特色了？或者可以理解为不同市场阶段的竞争需要以及由此孕育的商业文明。

跑到该书的页面看了一下，现在7个卖家，4家报价158美刀左右（从上截图看，之前也就40左右，真是JS），1家9.8k，一家10k，一家11k。其中9.8k那哥们很有意思，直接注明 Human generated price.

更有意思的，是该书评论区，摘录一些过来：

这条被评为最有用的好评 What a steal!, April 25, 2011

I was fortunate enough to buy this at the bargain price of $19,087,354 there must have been a sale because the next day it was listed at $23M. I was very pleased to find upon arrival that the book contained very useful information, however to be honest I was expecting a few more pictures for the price paid. I highly recommend this to all my associates, I have many acquaintances with children in only the best private schools who will be buying several copies. If the price has you worried, ask yourself the American question: “can you really put a price on good education?”

有人回复这条review说，I can’t believe I sold my copy for only 120k! I knew I should held onto it a little longer.

最有用的差评 I had serious troubles with this book, April 26, 2011

As a Wall Street investment banker, I typically enjoy only the finest things in life. Nice cars, nice houses, and nice cigars. And speaking of cigars, I only light them with the most expensive currency available. Lately, I have run low on my collection of old $1,000 bills, so I was excited to see a book for $23 million on Amazon. I decided to place an order for the book (super saver shipping, of course), and received my copy of “The Making of a Fly: The Genetics of Animal Design.” At nearly 230 pages in length, each sheet of paper in the book is worth $200,000. I cracked the book open and ripped a page out. My troubles began at this stage. After prepping my Gran Habano Corojo, I lit the page. It burned much faster than American currency. I scrambled to get my cigar lit, but the page burned so fast I had no choice but to drop it. And I dropped it on my polar bearskin rug. Unfortunately, The rug caught on fire quickly and I had to scramble out and onto the deck. Oh yes, I should mention that I was on my 140 foot yacht at the time. I called my servants at once to put out the fire, but the gold plated fire extinguishers I kept aboard were unfortunately being replated at the time. We had to board the lifeboat (a 30 foot ski-boat) and leave the yacht. It was painful watching my yacht burn, but the greatest tragedy is that the remainder of the book also burned. I tried to obtain another copy of the book, but alas, it had gone down in price.

评论中有人提到，23m并不是最贵的，Amazon曾经有过9亿美刀的书卖 Not bad if you can’t afford a real present, April 26, 2011

I was considering this book until I came across others which are today considered much more valuable:

1.Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman (Nov 30, 0002)

(122 customer reviews)
Formats Buy new New from Used from
Hardcover

$600,000,000.00

2.
Hero For Our Time – An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years (Jan 1, 1984)
Formats Buy new New from Used from
Unknown Binding

$600,000,000.00

3.
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley (1928)
Formats Buy new New from Used from
Hardcover

$900,000,000.00

4.
Lana, The Lady, The Legend, The Truth by Lana Turner (1991)

(11 customer reviews)
Formats Buy new New from Used from Collectible from
Paperback

$900,000,000.00

Hardcover

$12.35

5.
The Doctrines and Discpline by SOUTHE METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE (1886)
Formats Buy new New from Used from
Unknown Binding

$99,000,000.00

I just hope they don’t already have a copy. That’s always so embarrassing.

随便找其中一本看了一下，里面的评论也有恶搞的：

I am an avid desert-goer and everyone knows that a desert lacks in the area of water. I figured that this book would be able to tell me the locations of the streams in the desert so that I might fill my canteen. I was going to purchase three of these (one for me, my brother, and my bff) however with the $600,000,000.00 price tag I was only able to purchase two copies, with the economy being pretty bad right now. Come to find out this book has NOTHING to do with streams in a desert! Now I have $1.2 billion worth of paper weights.

想看更多的自己Google一下吧，嘿嘿

Have fun~!

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