Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
I'm confused to see that the online Prusament store shows white PLA out-of-stock for $28.50 per reel; however, the official Prusa storefront on Amazon, the same material is shown to be available (14 units) at a price of $68.99--more than double the direct price. Why is this? Is Amazon doing this to try to drive me to the Amazon-brand at $22.21 per reel? Or, does Prusa set this price? And this is the official Prusa store on Amazon, why is it showing available stock but the Prusa web site is not?
Prusament Store Web Site:
https://www.prusa3d.com/product/prusament-pla-vanilla-white-1kg/
Amazon Prusament Store:
https://www.amazon.com/Prusament-Vanilla-Filament-Diameter-Tolerance/dp/B07MWS9YFC?ref_=ast_sto_dp
Best Answer by languer:
@todd-decker
You can contact both Prusa directly about this, and also Amazon. It is great that you let the community know to raise the awareness; but you can also reach the two main players directly. When it comes to Amazon I always look directly at the "Sold by" field and then the "Ships from"; the Amazon "store" has been flaky from the get-go; they don't police it much unless people (or a company) complain.
RE: Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
If you look further into the Amazon page you can see why.
RE: Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
I've seen a few gougers like this on Amazon and Ebay.
Not only for Prusa filament, Raspberry Pi boards are the commonly-gouged items lately at several times list price.
RE: Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
So, if this isn't a real Prusa store on Amazon, Prusa needs to pursue them for representing themselves as such:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Prusament/page/59218CF5-EC5A-4159-B9F6-459D4C7907BA?ref_=ast_bln
RE: Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
@todd-decker
You can contact both Prusa directly about this, and also Amazon. It is great that you let the community know to raise the awareness; but you can also reach the two main players directly. When it comes to Amazon I always look directly at the "Sold by" field and then the "Ships from"; the Amazon "store" has been flaky from the get-go; they don't police it much unless people (or a company) complain.
RE: Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
@todd-decker
You can contact whoever you like , however the seller is not hiding behind the Prusa name, they listed the store as the Prusament store and that is what they sell, they have listed their name as the seller. in this case "Sold by Red Urchin" they have broken no rules, and its up to you if you want to pay that price or not, most likely the seller has a supply in the states and can get you the material within a couple of days, it's currently the 21st of February and they are telling me they can have it here by the 24th, if i had to have this to complete a project and I ran short I might decide to pay that price. it's up to you, is it gouging? my opinion yes, are my hands tied and i have no choice? that's up to you and your circumstances. I'm not in support of the sellers pricing but no laws have been broken, it's supply and demand. I would also say that in my business and I know none of you know what I do, not getting the material if I needed it when I needed it would cost me many many times the cost of the gouged price. the seller on amazon probably knows this, and it won't hurt them to not makes sale at these prices.
It sucks, but that's the world today.
Regards
Swiss_Cheese
The Filament Whisperer
RE:
Besides the Amazon 3rd party sellers looking to take advantage of other people who either don't care and have money to throw away or those unfortunate to know better. even Amazon themselves are doing it.. i've seen them selling the MK3S+ for $200-300 more than the normal price.
PRUSA doesn't have the resources to create enough filament so they can have stock available at Amazon warehouses and other sites in the USA. it looks like they can barely can keep up with their own inventory.. no idea why they haven't expanded the filament manufacturing process, even if it means getting someone else to make it according to their specifications.. i mean, Apple doesn't make their own phones in-house.
the price gouging is also not just limited to 3D printing. i can't even get a Raspberry Pi 4 for anywhere near the normal price. those that have them are inflating the price by more than double.
unfortunately for these sellers, they don't get any business from me 😉
i don't mind paying a bit more for something, but it's laughable at the prices some people are gouging.
RE: Prusament Pricing and Availability - Company Store vs Amazon
So the question remains,
Where to get prusament without $20 shipping fees? No US distributers? Alternates we have found that work just as well ( I see a few other +-0.02 out there)