Amazon Pre-order Price Guarantee - Why?

[Petrushka]

I've just taken delivery of the Beecham Mono box released last Friday. I pre-ordered it a couple of days beforehand even though the price of £199 was obviously way over the top but I gambled on the price falling on release day, whereupon Amazon's Pre-order Price Guarantee would kick in. In the event the release day price fell by £58, considerably below anywhere else I've seen it.

My question is: why do Amazon deter potential buyers with an obviously inflated price only to have to refund those who took advantage of the price guarantee? In other words, why not advertise it for the eventual price in the first place?

Am I missing something?

[teamsaint]

From a supplier point of view I'm not really sure, Pet. But I suppose it means they get more preorders than they would if they didn't offer the guarantee, and preorders are highly valued these days. They also potentially make some sales at higher margin if the competition doesn't force a price drop before release/publication day., although not in your case it seems. And those preorders are also useful for Amazon in optimising their own ordering. It is expensive to buy and then return unwanted stock, and Amazon's gross margins aren't necessarily as good as you might think.
Amazon algorithms aren't always easy to work out either . Their new title book ordering went haywire last year, and we had to restrict them to realistic numbers, as they risked clearing us out of all available stock of certain titles.

Talking of preorders, keen book buyers might keep an eye out for some regular 25% off preorder campaigns that Waterstones are offering now. They seem to be running them for about 4 days every few months.