It’s hard to keep up with Amazon. This morning, Tyler Cowen checked out the prices for an 8GB memory card: $24.45 but out of stock if you want Amazon’s frustration-free packaging, and $17.45 for the regular, frustrating version.
Right now, as I visit, the frustration-free version is still out of stock, but the Frustrating Card has fallen even further, to just $12.61.
It should be mentioned at this point that the Frustrating Card isn’t shipped by Amazon itself, but rather by ChiTek, at a cost of $4.50.
My prediction: if and when Amazon gets the card back in stock, the price will be substantially lower than $24.45. But this is also an interesting example of Amazon gaining from brand stickiness, after being on the losing side with respect to iTunes.